Ranching

The Women Who Ran the Range and a Giveaway!

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Howdy, y’all! Heather Blanton here. I’ve got a new box set out this week from my Burning Dress Ranch series. The Burning Dress is a ranch run by women for women. Some would think that’s a tall tale. A woman can’t run a ranch.

If you think that, you’ve never met Kittie Wilkins, Margaret Borland, or Ellen Watson, to name a few ranching pioneers.

From the late 1880s and into the 20th Century, Kittie Wilkins was quite literally the Horse Queen of Idaho. At one point she had a herd of over 10,000 fine animals. And fine was the name of her game. Kittie’s horses were spectacular.

 

Her father was a horse trader. She picked up the skill from him and ran with it. She had an uncanny eye for horse flesh, a strong work ethic, a quick mind, and–probably most importantly–the respect of her ranch hands. Kittie is credited with negotiating the largest horse trade in US history. In one deal, she sold 8000 horses to England for use in the Boer War. She was also a darling of the press because of her business acumen and feminine ways.

 

In 1873, Margaret Borland owned a good-sized spread in Texas, but cattle in Texas weren’t worth much. About $8 a head. Up the road in Kansas, though, beef was bringing $23 a head! Margaret, not being a dummy, defied convention and organized her own cattle drive. What’s more, she also served as the trail boss! But she arrived at this situation more out of necessity than desire.

Widowed three times, she had to step up repeatedly if she wanted to keep her ranch running and her children fed. Each tragic death solidified in her the fortitude to fight on, as well as offered the opportunity for her to learn the cattle business. Surviving these trials by fire, Margaret became the only female rancher to run a cattle drive up the Chisholm trail.

And then there’s Ellen Watson, a young woman who took advantage of the Wyoming Homestead Act and procured 160 acres for herself in 1887. With Jim Averell, most likely her secret husband, she filed for squatter’s rights on land adjacent to his and continued expanding her herd. Jim ran a restaurant and general store, but Ellen tended to the ranch with the help of a few reliable hands.

Ellen was becoming a successful rancher when she ran afoul of neighboring cattle baron Albert Bothwell. Bothwell coveted Ellen’s land and eventually, his greed led to her death. Ellen and Jim were lynched by Bothwell in July of 1889. To protect the wealthy cattlemen involved in the murders, the press dubbed Ellen “Cattle Kate” and declared her a cattle thief and prostitute.

They might have taken her ranch, her life, and her reputation, but they didn’t take away her accomplishments as a fine rancher.

Women like these inspired Burning Dress Ranch. Everything the women do in my stories, from wrangling cattle to shoeing horses to bending iron on an anvil is real, true history. Just like my historical heroes, my fictional heroines come away with a new vocation, a bright future, and their happily ever after!

So, what do you think? Are women every bit the rancher a man can be? Maybe with different expectations and parameters? Is the idea believable?

 

The Burning Dress Ranch Box Set of all five books is available now, but for your chance to win it, leave a comment and tell me what you think about these feisty, determined women.

I’m giving my box set away to 5 lucky commenters!

You can find the box set on Amazon

Jodi Thomas Celebrating Two Books!

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Netflix started the shooting for Ransom Canyon in February, and I can’t help feeling it’s come full circle. When I first thought of writing this series, I had only planned on doing six books about ranches around a small canyon. Ransom Canyon is a few miles from Lubbock, Texas, and I used to drive around there when I was in college at Texas Tech. I always thought it was a beautiful place, and I wanted to write a story about ranch life around there.

I knew I wanted to write six books, but I wanted to keep one storyline of four kids, from the time they were fifteen to when they were twenty-three, threading through the series. So, when Random House formally offered me the contract for my Ransom Canyon series, buying only two books, I turned it down. I have never turned that much money down in my life. And I was thinking, “Oh man, I could use that money.”  But I still said no.

Afterward, I called Gail Fortune, my agent, and told her I had turned down the contract. And she said, “Harlequin has been waiting to talk to you.” So, I left the office, and I went for a walk in the mall. About an hour later, Harlequin called me, a conference call with the editor in chief, an editor, and their publicist; they wanted six books and two short stories. So, I went to work on Ransom Canyon.

I knew I was taking a risk with this series because I was writing a very Western series, even though it is contemporary. It was a risk because Westerns are not as popular as other genres. But I had to write it.

To begin this series, I turned the little room out back of our house that we call the bunk house into Ransom Canyon. HQN gave me six months to put the proposals together. And during that time, I built Ransom Canyon’s world and wrote the short story “Winter’s Camp.” I did a lot of research to make the series just right, and it’s very dear to my heart. I love it because it is so character rich!

The first book of this series is called Ransom Canyon. It set up all the stories in the books to come. My main character is Staten; he is a successful rancher, an honest man, a strong man, and totally broken because he has lost both his wife and his son. He turns to his life-long friend Quinn because they both need someone. I loved writing their story, and I can’t wait to see it come to life on the screen. I always dreamed of having one of my books become a movie or TV show, and it has been so exciting to watch.

I look back on when I first started this series, and I’m so glad I wrote the story I wanted. I’ve loved this journey, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. But before we all climb into the saddle this fall to watch the TV show Ransom Canyon, travel back with me to Someday Valley and read my new book The Wild Lavender Bookshop, coming out April 23!

For a chance to win this new book, tell me who you’re most looking forward to seeing brought to life on the screen.

Meet Mandi Blake, and Hear Her Amazing Journey!

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Hi! I’m Mandi Blake, and I’ve been invited to be a guest author on the blog today.

A little about me…

I write Christian cowboy and small town romance. I live in Alabama where I grew up on a cattle farm. If I’m not reading or writing, I love to travel with my family and explore new places all over the world.

I started writing about six years ago, and I published my first book five years ago. Time is flying on this amazing journey, and I am excited to see what new and wonderful surprises are coming next.

I started off writing small-town romance set in Georgia. It was close to home, and I’m a small town girl through and through.

But once that series was over, I decided to shake things up a bit and write a cowboy series set in Wyoming.

Don’t ask me why. I have no idea why I chose Wyoming. I’d never been there, and I had no plans to go there. Sounds like a challenge, but I was ready to research and see what I could learn. I knew a little about raising cattle. I’d been around it my whole life. I wouldn’t trade growing up on a farm for anything because I had the best childhood.

I wanted that love of the land and hard work to shine through in my stories. The weather isn’t always cooperative in Wyoming, so I assumed an already difficult job had to be ten times harder in the harsh climate.

That was the beginning of the Blackwater Ranch series. Each book followed one of the tough-as-nails Harding brothers, and the last book was about their cousin who also lived on the ranch.

The Blackwater Ranch series was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. I grew so much writing those books. I loved right along with the characters and readers. I met so many people who just happened to pick up the books and like them. Readers became some of my dearest friends.

When the series was over, I wasn’t ready to let go of Blackwater. I immediately started a spin-off series about a dude ranch in the same town, and Wolf Creek Ranch took everything that Blackwater Ranch did for me and quadrupled it. These contemporary Western romances were the stories of my heart, and as they say, the rest is history.

When the Wolf Creek Ranch series came to an end, guess who still wasn’t ready to leave this fictional town of Blackwater. Me!

Through the last twelve books set in this little town, I’d introduced tons of side characters, so I decided to make my next series, the Love in Blackwater series, about some of them.

Since these new books are still so close to the ranches, I get to include my older characters in the newer books!

Y’all, I’m having too much fun.

Have you ever gotten so drawn into a book that you think about the characters when it’s over? My aunt, who is an avid reader, always told me she would envision what the characters might be doing once their story was over.

I get to show readers pieces of the ongoing lives of the characters they’ve known and loved. They sometimes play a big part in other stories, and their “lives” continue long after “The End.”

The first book in the Blackwater Ranch series is Remembering the Cowboy. Noah and Camille’s love story started it all, but even after their happily ever after, we got to see Camille fighting for justice in a courtroom in Better Together, the fourth book in the Wolf Creek Ranch series. We get to see how she juggles a family and a successful career all while being a rock for her friends when they need a hand.

One of my favorite scenes in the book I’m writing now is a wedding where all of the people in town are gathered together. Some of the Hardings have kids! Their fictional lives are being lived in new stories, and I’m so excited for these possibilities.

As something special for you, I’ve put the Blackwater Ranch series on sale. For April 5-6 only, you can get both of the three ebook box sets for this series for 99 cents each (in the US and UK only). You can read the whole series for two dollars or borrow them and read for free in Kindle Unlimited.

I also have a giveaway!

In the comments, tell me about the first book you read that sparked your love of all things Western. One winner will receive a signed paperback copy of the first book in my Blackwater Ranch series, Remembering the Cowboy. I’ll also throw in a matching bookmark and some other little goodies. A winner will be chosen on Sunday, April 7th. This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Thank you so much for having me on the blog today. I hope to “meet” you again sometime.

A “Snip” About Horse Markings

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I was watching an old movie the other night – okay, it was Hang “Em High with Clint Eastwood – and I noticed the truly handsome horse he was riding (bet you thought I was going to say handsome leading man). This particular sorrel horse had a nice white blaze and four matching white stockings. I once knew a cowboy who referred to horses with this particular set of markings as “having a lot of chrome.”

There are entire books on horse markings, and I could go on and on. But I thought it would be fun to just take a look at some common white markings, which can occur with many breeds and color variations, but are often found on sorrels.

On the face and head:

Blaze – stripe down the center of the face (can be narrow to wide).

Bald face – very wide blaze extending past the eyes.

Star – star or circular-shaped marking between or above the eyes.

Diamond – diamond-shaped marking between or above the eyes.

Heart – heart-shaped marking between or above the eyes.

Snip – marking on the muzzle between the nostrils.

Combinations – a mix of the above

 

   

 

On the legs and feet:

Stockings -white that extends to bottom of the knee or hock or higher. Can have one, two, three or four.

Socks – white that doesn’t extend as high as a stocking.

Pastern – white that extends above the hoof but stops below the fetlock.

Coronet – white just above the hoof.

Combinations – a mix of any of the above.

 

 

I love that many horses are named after their markings – like Blaze (there’s a well-known children’s book series about Billy and his horse Blaze), Socks, Star, and Baldy. I once owned a sorrel horse with a nice blaze and three matching stockings and named him Tiger because the blaze resembled a tiger’s arm and paw – well, if you used your imagination.

So, what might you name a horse with a unique white marking?

Something to be Thankful For

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I’m part of a Black Friday in October Sale!

Friday October 21-through-28

I put my book, Thankful for the Cowboy on sale a few days early so you can get a copy for 99 cents right now.

I also realized I’d never made this novella into a print book. So if anyone prefers print, go grab a copy, it’s on sale, too, the lowest price Kindle would allow.

 

Tom MacKinnon rides up driving a wagon with a second wagon trailing him. He and his sister builds windmills.

They’ll ask for very little money and, in exchange Lauren Drummond, newly widowed mother of four nearly grown sons, will help them learn to survive in the Sandhills of Nebraska. What to grow, what to hunt, how to build a sod house.

Tom’s windmills will save her ranch during a terrible drought.

Lauren needs three windmills before the oncoming winter freezes her few remaining, extremely shallow, ponds, or her growing herd of cattle is going to die of thirst.

She eagerly agrees to teach him the ways of the Sandhills. She’s not ready to think of another man. But Tom changes her mind. His little sister and one of her sons find love together before Tom and Lauren do.

Click to buy on Amazon

My Latest Release is Out!

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It’s an exciting week for me – the release of my first Love Inspired Suspense – WILDFIRE THREAT was the 24th. Whoo, hoo! I loved every moment of writing this book, and I realized why when I recently gave an interview. So many things about Wildfire Threat are very personal and special for me, and not just because it’s my first Love Inspired Suspense.

I’ve been writing for Harlequin a long time. I admit it, I sometimes don’t have to work as hard as other authors to land a new contract. My editor knows me and can depend on me to deliver a book in good shape and on time. But when this opportunity came around, I had to work hard for it and go up against a lot of other authors. There was no golden ticket or cutting to the head of the line. When I got the call, I felt really good. My hard work paid off.

Purchase Wildfire Threat

As you can guess from the title, the story is about a wildfire. In this case, it’s headed straight for the fictional Arizona small town of Happenstance. For many, many years, we owned a small vacation home in Young, Arizona, a place that’s considered the most remote town in the state. One year, a wildfire came close enough we could watch it from our front porch. That inspired the book that became my first Harlequin sale about a Hotshot. About ten years ago, the Young fire came “this” close to destroying the town. Yes, it was the inspiration for Wildfire Threat.

My son, an avid outdoor enthusiast, helped me brainstorm the book. We had several long sessions where we tossed ideas back and forth. Okay, I tossed ideas out there, and he told me why they wouldn’t work. He is the source for much of my information about herding cattle and driving trucks and ATV through the burning wilderness.

Lastly, the heroine’s grandfather suffers from dementia. My own sweet mother, who I lost last year, suffered greatly from this terrible disease. It did my heart good to write about the love and devotion my heroine has for her grandfather, the tender, kind and respectful way my hero treats the older man, and how the family copes — which isn’t always easily. Writing the grandfather allowed me to honor my mother in a small but meaningful way.

To celebrate the release, I’m having a giveaway — one of my coffee mugs, a Starbucks gift card, some author bling and couple of previous books. To enter, you just have to make a comment. That’s all.

For anyone interested joining my newsletter, you can email me at: cathymcdavid@yahoo.com It’s not necessary for entering this giveaway. Just if you’d like to keep up on the latest news about me.

Thank you for letting me share my good news with you and tell you about my newest book.

Hugs,

Cathy McDavid

Finding Some Interesting Ranch Brands

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So, I’ve been mulling over this new story idea (I’m always thinking of the next book while I’m writing the current one). It takes place on a fictional small hobby ranch converted into a retirement home. I’ve decided to call the retirement home Rocking Chair Ranch. Cute, right? My first step was to come up with a logo for the retirement home that resembles a brand. This is solely to cement the place in my head and give it the kind of personality I want. I played around and this is what I came up with. I like it.

Then, I did a Google search to see if there are any real retirement homes called Rocking Chair Ranch. No, but there are two large cattle ranches. There’s also a peach farm with the same name. I don’t think this is going to be problem, so I’m keeping my little fictional brand.

 Well, if you’ve been reading my blogs here for any length of time, you know already that this took me down a strange rabbit hole. Out of curiosity, and because I’m a romance writer, I decided to see if there were any brands with hearts. I mean, if I had a ranch, I’d want a heart in my name. I found a couple cute ones and some okay ones and one I…ew. You’ll have to form your own opinion.

The upside down Js make me think of cane, not Js. The flying heart is okay. Don’t really like the hanging heart.

I’d say the double heart is my favorite. The broken heart looks like it’s medical for some reason. I think they could have done better.

Okay. This one. Yes, it is what you think it is. I suppose they were trying to be funny. For me, the joke didn’t land. Maybe others will find it hysterical.

Truthfully, I could have spent an entire day looking at brands. There are websites where you can design your own brand which you can then take to your state’s appropriate agency and register. Did I visit that website? Um, maybe. What do you think of this one? What would your brand look like?

 

Joined by a Fence

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It’s a fact that communication on a large ranch was one of the biggest problems. At times it was crucial to get some way to relay information to the cowboys on the range as quickly as possible. Or for them to notify headquarters in the event of a medical emergency or wildfire. Before the late 1800s, it was done by sending a fast rider out.

I found an interesting article in my Texas Electric Co-op magazine about this and have to share.

One of the largest ranches in the world was the massive XIT in the Texas Panhandle at over three million acres, all fenced. That’s hard to fathom. The powers that be there heard about a way of attaching a very basic form of telephone onto the barbed wire fences and letting the wire carry the transmission. Though the quality was horrible, it sure proved to be a blessing. And all at no charge. They didn’t have to pay the phone service anything and they could even connect neighboring ranches with each other.

Later, when the phone company began to provide rural service, they took that idea and used existing power lines instead of stringing new.

I have a new release on March 29th—A Man of Legend. It takes place in 1908 in the middle of an industrialization boom and although the patriarch Stoker Legend wouldn’t allow telephones or automobiles on the Lone Star Ranch, they were widely available.

There’s a crucial scene near the end of the book where Crockett Legend needs to get word quickly to his grandfather of the trouble and bemoans the lack of telephone access. It all works out and Crockett had to hitch a ride in an acquaintance’s new automobile to arrive in time to help save the day.

Here’s a short excerpt from that scene:

Crockett glanced up into John’s laughing eyes. The only person the man would do a favor like this for was Farrel Mahone. His gut twisted, and he broke out in a cold sweat. Suddenly, it all made sense. John was supposed to get Crockett off the ranch. He froze.

Farrel was going to make good on his promise to kill either Paisley or Hilda or both.

Or maybe he intended to abduct Tye. Maybe all three. 

Crockett stood so fast, he knocked his chair over. He had to get to a telegraph. He hurried out and collided with a woman in the hall. “Pardon me, ma’am. This is life and death.”

Cursing the fact that Stoker had yet to install a telephone at headquarters, Crockett rushed down the street and sent a message to the Lone Star.

“I’ll wait for a reply,” he told the operator. Ten minutes passed. Crockett paced, praying for a miracle. Then the machine began to tap while the man scribbled it down.

“Here you go.” The operator handed the paper to him.

Too late. Boy has disappeared, and women riding to get him back.

A moment later, Crockett fired off another, asking about his dad. The return message said he and Stoker had gone to Medicine Springs to pick up a shipment.

He sagged. Too late. He read the first message again. What women? Paisley and Hilda? Where were the men? Had they all left the ranch? He thrust a hand through his hair. He had to get home.

“Isn’t there a noon train to Medicine Springs?” he asked the operator.

“Not today.”

“Thank you.” Crockett‘s thoughts whirled. He couldn’t wait that long. He was eighty miles away. If he bought a horse and rode it hard, he still wouldn’t make it by dark. He’d have to wait on the train. That would get him to Medicine Springs by eight, then forty-five minutes to the ranch.

That was it. All the air went out of him. Whatever was going on, the women were on their own. He dropped into the nearest seat and put his head in his hands.

* * * *

I put a talking parrot named Casanova in this book that provides a lot of comical relief. He is quite taken with Paisley Mahone and fancies himself her boyfriend. And since Paisley becomes a nurse on the ranch, there are heartwarming scenes with her patients. Crockett watches all with love in his heart for this special woman.

Click HERE for more information and a longer excerpt.

This is the first series I’ve written set in the 1900s. What is your favorite time period to read? Do modern conveniences bother you? I’m giving away a copy of A Man of Legend (print or ebook) to three people who comment.

This book concludes the Lone Star Legends. I have another exciting project that’s completely different that I’ll talk more about in the coming days so stay tuned.

What Makes a Cowboy and a Giveaway!

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We’re so happy to have USA Today Bestselling author Paula Altenburg with us. She has a giveaway so scroll down. 

Thank you to Petticoats & Pistols for having me here!

Cowboys are made, not born.

But being a cowboy takes a certain type of personality, and those are the heroes I love to write.
Even though I write contemporary western romance, I do a significant amount of historical research, because real people are a product of their histories and their cultures. That’s one reason why you see so many successful marriages among childhood sweethearts. It’s also why no one will ever know you as well as your siblings do—they shared the same upbringing and understand where you come from. I say this from experience. (Not the childhood sweetheart part, though. My husband is Dutch. I will say that the majority of our disagreements over the years can be directly attributed to language nuances and having been raised in very different cultures.) This is a segue into European colonization, by the way.



The Irish in particular formed a strong presence in the American Old West. You can read a fascinating article on them here. Irish surnames show up all over the present-day west. In fact, two authors I use as writing resources have Irish names—Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) and David McCumber (The Cowboy Way). McMurtry is Texan and McCumber is from Montana.

Grand, Montana was set up in my first series, The McGregor Brothers of Montana, as an Irish community. Grand’s fictional founders were two enterprising young Irish brothers (and ancestors of the contemporary McGregors) who made their money off selling liquor to soldiers. I’ve loosely based my Grand on real-life Miles City, Montana, which sits where the Tongue River flows into the Yellowstone River. I love the opportunities doing this offers me as a writer. If I need a setting detail, I can dip into the Miles City website and let my imagination run wild. The Miles City Chamber of Commerce is another great resource.


But setting Grand up as a fictional town means I get to make it my own. I read Lonesome Dove to get a feel for the landscape and what cowboys were like in the latter part of the 19th century. I read The Cowboy Way because I wanted to see how ranching has evolved. While ranch practices have changed with the times, cowboys, as it turns out, have not evolved in the least.
                                            

Sheriff Dan McKillop is definitely a product of his history and his environment. He’s
hardworking, he loves women (maybe a little too much) and he’s uncomfortable with money. When he and two friends inherit the Endeavour Ranch and billions of dollars, the only positive he sees is the opportunity to give back to his community. It takes a lot to knock him off his stride, but firefighter Jazz O’Reilly manages to do exactly that.
The Montana Sheriff is the first book in the Grand, Montana series.

Buy now

Four books will release this year with two more arriving in 2023.



Also in 2023, USA Today bestselling author Roxanne Snopek will be joining me with a series of her own. It’s tentatively titled The Lost Malones and familiar faces will appear.

And now, as a thank you to Petticoats & Pistols for having me here, I’m going to give away three electronic copies of another Grand, Montana book (and my USA Today bestseller!), The Rancher Takes a Family. You can check it out on my website.

All you have to do to qualify to win a copy is answer the following question and drop it in the comments below. “If you could live in any story world, what world would it be, and why?”
I’ll be stopping by throughout the day to chat and answer any questions.

Follow Paula at:

Sheep Ranching in South Dakota

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Kari Trumbo logo

I’m back in my writing comfort zone!

It seems like whenever I take a break and write about somewhere else, I long to go back. So, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

In this new series, The Belle Fourche Chronicles, The Johlman and Douglas families are feuding over a lush valley about an hour outside of town. Both feel they have claim to it and both families try to rout out the other.

In book one, we meet the Johlmans, and specifically, the second son Gideon. I really enjoyed writing him because he has all the tendencies of a second born son. He listens and is attentive, is good at following his father’s orders and he knows he’s not going to inherit, but works hard.

But that’s not the main thing I learned while writing this story. I got back to my roots in more ways than one.

I learned about sheep. You see, the Johlmans live on a sheep ranch while the Douglas family raise cattle. The valley they both want would provide exceptional pasture land. The Johlmans own it for now, but we’ll see how long they can keep their hold.

quote from To a Brighter TomorrowWhen I was very young, about age 5, my family raised sheep. Writing this book reminded me of so many things I experienced as a young girl.

I remember bringing lambs into the house and bottle feeding them. They would make so much noise! I remember “lamb boxes” with blankets where those lambs would be kept for a few days until they were strong enough to go back outside.

Most of my research didn’t end up in the book, however, because a romance just doesn’t need to know what goes in on a barn, generally speaking. But I do love having an excuse to broaden my knowledge.

I learned, and was surprised to know, that sheep used to be one of the largest income producers in South Dakota, only surpassed by cattle (as far as livestock). Cattle is still king in the area.

Another thing I learned that was fascinating about sheep ranching is that it was remarkably similar to cattle ranching. They used dogs for both herding and protection and the ranchers often rode out on horseback to check on sheep or do other chores. This was unexpected, I never equated raising sheep with needing a wrangler, but I found that to be a misconception.

This image from the Maas Museum shows what a set of sheers looked like prior to more advanced methods

I’ll leave you with one last bit of information. The tools used for sheering sheep then were obviously much different from what they are now. Prior to electric sheers, they used a model that looked similar to a sewing scissors only wider and certainly more sinister. I hate to think how closely and how quickly they would have to shave a sheep with these. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it!

To a Brighter Tomorrow is the first book in the Brothers of Belle Fourche series and releases on February 25th! It’s on a special discount preorder price right now, you can grab it HERE