Small town

New Release! Training the K-9 Companion {Giveaway!}

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Meadow background, book cover Training the K-9 Companion by Jill Kemerer, text "New Release & Giveaway, Petticoats & Pistols"

The third book in my Wyoming Legacies series is in stores now! TRAINING THE K-9 COMPANION follows Cade Moulten, a rancher opening a high-end horse-boarding operation, and Mackenzie Howard, the new veterinarian in town, as they train little Tulip to be a therapy dog for his grandmother. This Love Inspired book takes place during the summer in fictional Jewel River, Wyoming.

I enjoyed learning how rural vets utilize mobile trailers to treat cattle and horses on ranches. I also love writing books with dogs in them. Talk about a win-win! Mackenzie’s trying to convince local ranchers to trust her with their cattle, but she’s terrified she’ll make a mistake and lose an animal. And Cade needs high-paying clients to offset the reduced rates he plans on charging the locals to board horses at his new stables. On top of that, Cade’s mother insists on training a therapy dog to comfort his beloved grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s. Poor Cade never knows what to expect when he visits Nana.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are terrible diseases. My father suffered from Parkinson’s and dementia, and I spent a lot of time at the nursing home with him before he passed away. I’m blessed with a supportive family who loves Jesus, and this story reflects it.

Don’t worry–the book isn’t all gloom and sadness! Cade’s mom is an unrelenting matchmaker. Add the warm, rowdy members of the Jewel River Legacy Club, and you won’t want to put the book down.

 

Book cover Training the K-9 Companion by Jill Kemerer. Mountain background, Pomeranian in meadow with daisies

Man’s best friend…
Could be the key to a second chance.

When rancher Cade Moulten decides to get a therapy dog for his ailing grandmother, he doesn’t expect a fluffy Pomeranian—or a pretty veterinarian trainer. But Cade will do anything to prove he’s a changed man, even train the small K-9 alongside Mackenzie Howard. Soon the weekly sessions with Mackenzie have Cade wishing for more. But will he risk revealing his shameful past for a chance at acceptance?

 

Purchase Training the K-9 Companion

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Read an excerpt!

As usual, the restlessness snuck up on him, and, too late, Cade Moulten realized his mistake. Offering to help his mother train a therapy dog was just another attempt to atone for his past.

He couldn’t back out now. He wouldn’t if he could. Cade had other reasons—good ones—for being here.

“It’s not much to look at, is it?” His mother, Christy Moulten, sat in the passenger seat of his truck and stared at the small industrial building with faded gray aluminum siding. Next to it, a matching structure roughly three times its size shared the parking lot. The early June sunshine began to fade as the day wound down.

Cade cut the engine, and his mom bent to pick up her purse. A few months shy of turning sixty-four, his mother hadn’t slowed a bit. Her stylish blond bob, subtle makeup and smile lines gave her the appearance of someone who enjoyed life, but she also had a stubborn streak wider than a country mile.

At thirty-five, he’d mellowed to the point of not minding driving her around town whenever her driver’s license was suspended—and that was often—nor did he mind living with her in the big house on the ranch. Kept her out of trouble.

Maybe they kept each other out of trouble.

He pocketed his keys. “What’s it supposed to look like? It’s a vet clinic, not a spa, Ma.”

Cade had personally taken a loss on this property by selling it to the new veterinarian and her father for pennies on the dollar. Anything to convince a vet to take a chance on moving to Jewel River. When Dr. Bill Banks, the only veterinarian within two hours of here, retired last fall, it had affected every rancher and pet owner in this swath of Wyoming.

Jewel River needed a veterinarian ASAP.

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Want to read more? Purchase Training the K-9 Companion!

You can find Training the K-9 Companion in Walmart and all stores that carry Love Inspired books!

To celebrate, I’m giving away one copy of  Training the K-9 Companion (US winner will receive a signed paperback, International winner will receive an ebook, void where prohibited by law.). Simply leave a comment below, and I’ll select a winner via random number generator. Giveaway ends on July 3, 2024 at noon EST, and winner will be announced in the comments of this post and in a separate post!

Do you love books with dogs and cowboys? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you for celebrating my new release with me!

Remember the Milkman?

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I wonder how many consumers order groceries through an App and either have them delivered or drove to pick them up. I haven’t seen any statistics but I know a lot of busy people do this. It’s become very common. Before the 21st Century though, markets had some limited home delivery but the milkman was a staple.

The milkman emerged in the 1700s and continued into the mid-1900s as advancements in technology made it impossible for that system to continue. With the advent of cars families didn’t need to have groceries and milk brought to them.

The first milk was delivered to homes in horse-drawn wagons with the milk in large metal barrels. The milkman would ladle fresh milk into bottles, jugs, or whatever container was left outside. But, this wasn’t very sanitary. The milk was often contaminated by insects or debris that fell into it. Slowly things changed and glass containers were a definite improvement.

Compliments of Free Photos @FoxPhotos

The milkman really came into his own in the 19th Century. He’d drive up to a home in his horse-drawn wagon and deliver milk in glass bottles and either leave the milk on the doorstep or hand directly to the house’s occupant. Then ice boxes became a thing. Often it was arranged for the milkman to let himself into the home and place the milk into an “ice box.” Those were made of wood and lined with zinc or tin with large blocks of ice place in a compartment at the bottom. Can you imagine a delivery man coming into your home when you weren’t there? That would make me feel weird yet it was common place.

Image by Pixabay and photographer Ruslan Sikunov 11647343

You’ve all probably heard people say that one child or another was the product of a milkman. I do wonder about the statistics on that. My grandmother always accused my mom of having “relations” with the milkman because she never believed my father could bear children. You see, my dad contracted rheumatic fever as a child and doctors had told her he was impotent. Surprise, surprise. He and Mama had five. And no milkman.

Anyway, all that led up to modern refrigeration and the milkman died out. But delivery service didn’t. Grocery deliveries are common place as well as pickup.

I just wanted to give you a little history on that. I’ve wanted to write a book featuring a milkman. I can think of all kinds of funny situations. Maybe another time.

Are you old enough to remember a milkman? If not, I’m guessing you heard your family talk about that.

Right now, I have LOVE’S FIRST LIGHT coming out July 1st. It’s a story of a woman who’s lost everything including her home and is forced to rely on a stranger for survival. Slowly she begins to set her world upright again. It’s a long way up from the bottom and impossible without faith.

If you like an ARC in exchange for a review, CLICK HERE. But only if you plan to review. Otherwise, the book releases July 1st. I’ll have several to give away next month on my blog.

Here’s the blurb:

After suffering a devastating accident, Rachel Malloy wakens with a stranger. He bears no resemblance to her perception of God, nor does he have a halo so she must not be dead. Regardless, after taking her entire family and leaving her, she and God are not exactly on speaking terms.

Rancher Heath Lassiter has prayed fervently and long for a wife. Is she the one? The appearance of a rare white dove shortly afterward seems to be a sign.

Despite Heath’s unwavering faith and kindness, Rachel refuses to marry him. Dark secrets haunt, secrets that blacken her name, making marriage to anyone impossible. Though disappointed, Heath rebuilds her burned-out home. There, her world again shifts with the discovery of a newborn near her family’s graves and a white dove perching nearby.
Love grows as Heath becomes a constant in her life. Yet Rachel lives in fear of losing this baby. When the infant becomes very ill, she desperately promises God she’ll return to her forsaken faith if He’ll heal the child. But first light brings uncertainty. Will the dove return as a symbol of divine mercy, or will Rachel’s fragile faith be shattered once more?

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.

10 years of Cowboys & Christmas

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Tomorrow is a big day for me.

It’s the 10th annual Cowboys & Christmas Celebration on Facebook – a party that gives me an excuse to have a day of fun with my author and reader friends while raising funds and awareness for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund.

Ten years.

When I hosted the first party, I never imagined it would turn into an annual event. But it has, and I’m so glad!

It all started with a trip Captain Cavedweller and I took to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

We were at the airport, waiting to catch our flight home, and I noticed there were a lot of other rodeo attendees waiting to go home as well. The airport was a sea of cowboy hats!

As we sat there, I started thinking about how fun it would be for a rodeo cowboy to meet an uptight business executive at the airport and fall in love.

By the time we landed, The Christmas Cowboy, the first book in the Rodeo Romance series, was already taking shape.

After I began writing the story, though, I wanted to know how much care an injured rodeo cowboy would receive right there at the rodeo arena before they sent him to the hospital.

In the story, the hero is a saddle bronc rider named Tate who sustains an injury at a rodeo. In an attempt to get my facts straight for the story, I reached out to the Justin Sportsmedicine Team®. Through mobile medical centers, they provide care at more than 125 PRCA rodeos annually. Their responses to my questions were extremely helpful and I was so impressed with them, I wanted to do a little something in return.

That’s when I learned about the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund.

Most rodeo athletes aren’t able to get insurance because it isn’t a matter of “if” they get hurt but “when.” Because of that, when they sustain injuries that leave them unable to compete (and earn money) for an extended time, it can leave them in a financially challenging situation.

That’s where the JCCF comes in. They give a hand up to those athletes, helping them cover their bills so they can focus on healing.  The other wonderful thing about the JCCF is that 100 percent of all donations go into the fund.

In 2013, I launched a campaign to donate a portion of my book sales to the JCCF during the month of December and held the first party to help spread the word.

In 2015, I added the month of November to my promotion, giving two months to raise funds for JCCF. Then I extended the promotion period for my Read a Book, Help a Cowboy campaign to October 1!

So from October 1 through December 24, ten percent of the net proceeds from all my book sales (eBook, paperback, hardback, and audio all count!) will be donated to the JCCF.

I hope to see you at the party tomorrow! The fun begins at 10 a.m. (Pacific Time: 11 a.m. MT, Noon CT, 1 p.m. ET). Join the party by clicking the button below. It will be a day full of connecting with some of your favorite authors, games, giveaways, and more!

And if Facebook parties aren’t your thing, you can still support the Read A Book, Help A Cowboy campaign through every book you purchase between now and Christmas Eve.

In fact, I have a brand new book coming November 30 in the Rodeo Romance series!

Will an innocent offer of help lead two obstinate hearts along the road to love?

Truitt Lucas is the guy who brings laughter wherever he goes and refuses to take life too seriously. Beneath his carefree exterior, though, he yearns for more adventure and excitement than he’ll find working on the family ranch alongside his cousin and grandmother. When the opportunity arises to assist a trick rider, Truitt eagerly lends a hand. However, he soon finds himself drawn to the perplexing woman who barely tolerates him.

Jolee Judson is living her dream as a trick rider on the rodeo circuit, using her lifelong passion for horses and gymnastics to wow the crowds. But when her partner unexpectedly abandons her, Jolee is just desperate enough to accept a good-natured cowboy’s offer to help. Fascinated and infuriated by Truitt and his shenanigans, Jolee struggles against her growing feelings for him. Falling for Truitt could spell disaster for her future and derail everything she’s worked for.

Can the two of them find common ground where trust is earned and love becomes a cherished gift?

A sweet holiday novel full of the magic of Christmas, Tricking Christmas brims with small-town humor, heartwarming moments, and wholesome romance..

If you were hosting a holiday party,

and could invite anyone,

who would you like to attend?
Post your answer for a chance to win a digital copy of the first three books in the Rodeo Romance series!

A New Book, A New Lesson

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I’m excited for Aiming for His Heart to be released on June 30th. Writing this book, the tenth story in our Pink Pistol Sisterhood series, challenged me in many ways. First, at 40,000 words, it’s the shortest story I’ve written. I hear those who know me well laughing because you know I can’t say hello in less than fifty words. 🙂  In my first writing classes, the instructor asked if I was taking her class on writing tighter. To my I hadn’t decided answer, she responded that I needed to. Despite hard work on that, I struggled 60,000 word Harlequin novels within the overage allowance.

I also had less time to write this story. When I start a book, I count on two things happening. I’ll start in the wrong place, either too far into the story or too far . I’ll take wrong turns. Sure enough. Both happened with Aiming for His Heart. In fact, the wrong turns were so disastrous I pretty much started over once. Maybe twice. While I was proud of writing in the shorter time frame, as a tortoise writing (unlike many of my amazing rabbit speed writing filly sisters), doing so took its toll.

However, the main challenge came from my heroine, Jade. Boy did she and I get into a battle of wills. Okay. I hear you laughing again. Yes, I know I can be stubborn, too. ? Our trouble started during brainstorming. My story ideas almost always start with the hero. In fact, only one hasn’t. But in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series the heroine receives the pink-handled pistol which plays a key part in the story. This meant the story needed to begin with Jade. Until I learned her backstory, her personality, and what she wanted, I couldn’t move forward. And blast the woman, she wouldn’t let me into her head.

I knew Jade’s mother died when Jade was ten. From then until she went attended college, Jade spent summers and school vacations with her maternal aunt in Oklahoma. There Jade found the love and acceptance she often didn’t receive from her workaholic, distant father and his new family. Jade revealed her past to me, but after that, she shut down. All she revealed was she was returning to Oklahoma to settle her aunt’s estate.

Anyone who’s taken on that task knows how emotionally and physically exhausting it is. Despite putting Jade in stressful situations, she remained distant, almost emotionless. Thankfully, while talking to my dear friend and critique partner, Nancy Haddock, I realized Jade acted that way because she didn’t want to feel anything. She didn’t want to let anyone in. I finally had my key to her character. Jade feared if she felt anything, especially grief, she’d fall apart and never recover. She viewed her emotions as the enemy because when she lost control of them, chaos and disaster followed.

Being a sinister author, I had to break her. But as often happens in my stories, in busting through my character’s defenses and forcing them to face their issues, I make a discovery of my own. I learned I had been at war with my emotions lately. Because I had been feeling too much for lack of better words, I didn’t want to feel anything and had shut down in some ways, too. Forcing Jade to deal with her emotions forced me to grow and deal with mine, too. I guess, not only do I write what I know, sometimes I write about what I need to learn.

GIVEAWAY:  To be entered in my random drawing for cactus tote leave a comment about a challenge that made you grow and what you learned or what new skill you acquired.

 

Tess Thompson Visits the Corral

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Hello to all the Western Romance fans! I’m delighted to be with you today. I’ll be giving away two paperbacks of my bestselling historical romance, The School Mistress of Emerson Pass. See how to enter at the end of my post.

I recently finished writing my Emerson Pass Series. I’ve been working on the books for over two years, so you can imagine that saying goodbye was a bittersweet. On the one hand, I was thrilled to have completed a 14 book series. I always feel a sense of accomplishment and relief when they’re done. On the other hand, the Barnes family felt like old friends and saying goodbye was hard. It’s a strange thing, this writing fiction. Characters I made up out of my head feel as if they’re real when I know they’re not. Readers tell me they feel the same way about the books they really enjoy. As a reader, I’m that way too. Book friends can sustain us during hard times! They never let us down.

 

 

Emerson Pass, set in 1910, is about a young school teacher who takes a job in a little mountain town out west. Once she arrives, she meets a widower and his five children and they all fall in love. Yay. The entire Barnes family and my heroine, Quinn Cooper, came to me in dream. I’m a woman of faith and fully believe that God whispered their stories in my ear while I was sleeping. I woke up to an image of Quinn getting off on a train in the middle of a snowstorm. In addition, my hero, Alexander and all five of his children were all so clear in my mind that I knew what they looked like and their personalities before I even opened my eyes that morning. However, I was in the middle of writing Cliffside Bay so I had to be satisfied with jotting the details in my journal so that I wouldn’t forget. I didn’t start writing The School Mistress until two years later! I went back to my notes and it was all in there, like the characters had been waiting for me to share them with the world. So, I did. I’ve enjoyed writing all my characters but these ones are special. If you haven’t met them, I hope you’ll give the series a try. They’re all in Kindle Unlimited and available in paperback.

Giveaway:  When was the last time you read a series or book that you loved so much you hated for it to end? Let me know in the comments below and you’ll be entered in the random drawing to be one of two winners of a paperback copy of The School Mistress.

Happy reading and thanks so much for joining me today!

Tess Thompson is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of clean and wholesome Contemporary and Historical Romantic Women’s Fiction with nearly 50 published titles. Her stories feature family sagas, romance, a little mystery, and a lot of heart.

To follow Tess on:

BookBub click here
Facebook click here
Goodreads click here
Pinterest click here
Instagram click here

To buy The School Mistress click here

 

 

 

A Sneak Peek!

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My current project is a fish-out-water story, my favorite type to write. I do so love putting my characters in uncomfortable situations. I realized this with my first book Big City Cowboy when I forced my hero Rory to model in NYC. In the book I’m currently writing, my heroine, Jade works as a Senior Account Manager for a NYC designer. When her aunt leaves her a house in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, she travels there to supervising renovations for its sale. Of course, my hero is a cowboy. Dalton’s forced to take contractor jobs to earn money to keep his ranch afloat.

Another reason I’m enjoying this project is get to show off my DIY/renovation skills. (Yup, I love power tools and own tile, miter, and table saws, a cool nail gun, and various sanders.) I’ve retiled floors, removed wallpaper and popcorn ceilings, then retextured them, and retiled a shower. (FYI, renovating your house is a better workout than you get at any gym!)

After I hammered 🙂 out my characters and their backstory, I thought about the house’s floor plan to determine what renovations Jade would do. Despite knowing all we can discover on the internet, silly me, I tried to sketch a floor plan of my grandparents’ farmhouse. I almost drove myself crazy before turning to the internet where I discovered floor plans from houses built in the early 1900s from Sears and Roebuck.

 

New farmhouse my aunt built when my grandparents’ house had to be torn down.

Starting in 1910 homes were built wired for electricity, except for ones in poor rural areas. They didn’t get electricity until the 1920s. They also had indoor plumbing. This meant houses had one bathroom with a toilet, sink, bathtub (or shower), and a kitchen sink. Because of the growing popularity of automobiles, home also started having a detached garage built. The last new feature of the era were built-in closets to replace wardrobes.

I choose this floor plan.

 

I’ve selected option #2 or Jade’s house. It’s still hard to believe this house could be built for less than $3,000. I chose it for a couple reasons. One, the square style reminded me of my grandparents’ house and the happy times I spent there. Secondly, this design had a bathroom upstairs. Because this novel is shorter than ones I’ve written recently, I wanted to keep the renovations simple and didn’t want to add a plumber character. Because of this, I’m also saying the aunt already added a downstairs half-bath.

I needed another photo and thought we could use a picture of a good looking cowboy.

Before you think I’m writing a DIY renovation book and calling it a novel, my plan is to use the renovation to create trouble for Jade and Dalton. As anyone who’s renovated a house knows, it’s stressful and messy. Ordering supplies online, supply chain issues, and weather problems can create havoc with a timeline. And with Jade wanting to get in, get the job done, and get out of Oklahoma ASAP, this will drive her crazy. Further, there’s opportunities for Dalton to tell Jade about the perils of ordering online and the value of using local suppliers, only to be told Jade’s the boss and she’s made her decision. But of course, he’ll show this city girl a thing or two and she’ll give him a run or his money. Oh, how I love putting two strong-willed, intelligent, stubborn characters together!

So, now you’ve got the inside scoop on my latest project. More to come later on Jade and Dalton…

Giveaway—To be entered in today’s giveaway for the Thanksgiving dish towel and signed copy of Colorado Rescue, leave a comment on what renovations you would do to the house in my story if you wanted to sell it.

A Big Welcome To Guest Chris Martin!

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We have guest author Chris Martin with us today and I know everyone will offer their usual warm welcome. And check out the post for info on a giveaway you won’t want to miss.

Hello everyone and Happy High School Homecoming Season!

Yes, High School Homecoming Season has begun and I recently did a little research on its origins and traditions. The whole dressing, dating and dancing routine has changed over the years, yet some traditions remain core.

Where did this tradition start?

The first high school homecoming was an adaptation of the college or university homecoming. Four different colleges claim to have started the tradition: Baylor of Waco, Tx; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne; University of Missouri at Columbus ; and Southwestern University at Georgetown, Tx.  The first homecoming celebration occurred in 1909, 1910, or 1911 according to which school you give the credit to.

About four years later, the tradition was picked up by high schools.  However, unlike the original university homecomings honoring alumni, high school homecomings generally are celebrations of team spirit for current students, particularly the graduating class.

Most high school homecomings include a football game and a dance. And where I’m from, the game schedule is carefully assigned so that the homecoming team plays a weaker team. This doesn’t guarantee a win for the homecoming team, but it certainly helps the odds. I have no idea what happens with the weakest team in the league!

Many schools have a homecoming court, although this tradition has started to wane in a few areas. Rules for choosing the homecoming royalty vary greatly by school. In the school my daughter graduated from, every Senior girl was made official Homecoming Queen and was escorted onto the football field at halftime for presentation. (They won their game.)

Homecoming dance formality varies from school to school, with some now as causal as T-shirts and jeans, while others are still into formal wear.  Part of the traditional dress is the homecoming corsage, typically made from a mum.

Homecoming corsages vary, too, in size and scope. Texas claims they invented the traditional mum corsages, but Missouri also claims that honor.  Evidence, though, strongly points to this being a Texas tradition that then spread to Oklahoma and Louisiana.

The homecoming mum corsage became popular in the 1950s and 1960s.  The corsage started off simply enough. A flower with a bit of ribbon to wear pin to a dress and wear at the football game and then the dance. Mums cost about $3 back then.

Now, the traditional mums are silk as well as fresh. Some of these corsages are so huge and heavy, they require thick ribbons to drape them around the wearers neck and can cover the wearer’s whole torso. Pounds and pounds of ribbons and trinkets make the most elaborate corsages heavy, rattling decorations that can cost thousands of dollars!

Despite the pomp, or lack thereof, one thing remains the same about all high school homecomings. They lend excitement and the chance to make memories that students will remember long after graduation day.

In my new second chance romance A Cowboy To Love Again, Sagebrush High School Vice Principal Gina Middleton Maisie has her own personal homecoming and it doesn’t go quite as she’d hoped.

PS Sagebrush Highs School Mustangs are one of those football teams that everyone wants to play for their homecoming game.

A COWBOY TO LOVE AGAIN

Gina took her heart to San Francisco, leaving Zach Rivers behind. After high school graduation, she accepted the first scholarship she could wrangle and headed to university, hoping Zach would follow her.

He would have if he could have. But family troubles kept him at River Ranch as he struggled to save the family legacy.

After a disastrous marriage and divorce, Gina is back in Sagebrush as the high school’s vice principal.

When Zach finds himself in the vice principal’s office, will he pass on this second chance at love, or will he make the grade this time before it’s too late?

 

You can Preorder HERE

What about you? Are there any Homecoming traditions or memories you’d like to share? Or was it not something you paid much attention to? I’ll randomly pick from all the comments posted here and give away two large print paperbacks of my new release, A Cowboy To Love Again, one for the winner and one for the winner to give to a friend or donate to a library. Good luck!

 

 

I’m excited about my new pen name and my new sweet, clean cowboy romance series, Sagebrush. The series kicks off with A Cowboy to Love Again up for preorder and will release Sept 16th anywhere you buy books. Many thanks to Winnie Griggs who let me post in her spot this month to help me celebrate my launch!

 

All four books in this series are now available for Preorder

Follows on Amazon and Bookbub are greatly appreciated!  And to learn more about me and my books, visit my Website

Chris Martin
Just Kisses and Heartstring Tugs

 

 

 

Bachelors & Babies 99¢ Sale Comin’ Up! ~ Pam Crooks

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Howdy!  I’m stepping in for Winnie Griggs today since she’s having Internet issues and couldn’t get a blog done.

But it’s actually a great day to share with y’all a new sale coming up, and it just so happens both Winnie and I have a book in this series.

 

I would say TRACE has been my bestselling book ever.  There’s just something about a bachelor and a baby and all the different scenarios that can happen when we pull a man out of his comfort zone, isn’t there?  Every book in the series has the same premise – a baby unexpectedly shows up in our hero’s life and turns his world upside down.

Of course, he always needs a woman’s help, and you can bet there will be a little falling in love happenin’ when he does.

 

Trace McQuade has lost everything–his ranch, his brother, the woman he wanted to marry. When his quest for justice fails, he leaves Texas to head north, but he never expects an outlaw’s baby along the way.

Morgana Goldwater needs to be needed. After she endured a terrible tragedy, she lives in a narrow, protected world. When Trace needs help caring for the baby girl, she is quick to take them both into her heart and into her life.

But their troubles return, and Trace and Morgana must face their past to keep loving the little girl–and each other–in their future.

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Here’s Winnie’s book, SAWYER:

Sawyer Flynn vows to see that the man who murdered his brother pays for his crimes, but becoming the sole caretaker of an orphaned infant sidetracks him from the mission. Sawyer can’t do it all—run his mercantile, care for the baby, and find justice for his brother. He needs help. But not from Emma Jean Gilley.

When her father flees town after killing a man, Emma Jean is left alone to care for her kid brother, but her father’s crime has made her a pariah and no one will give her a job. Learning of Sawyer’s need, Emma Jean makes her case to step in as nanny.

Sawyer is outraged by Emma Jean’s offer, but he’s also desperate and he reluctantly agrees to a temporary trial. Working together brings understanding, and maybe something more. But just when things heat up between Sawyer and Emma Jean, the specter of her father’s crimes threatens to drive them apart forever.

#kindleunlimited

Every book in the series will be reduced to 99¢ starting this Friday through Sunday, Father’s Day!  Three days isn’t very long, so you’ll have to hurry to take advantage of our sale! 

To see every book in our series, click the Bachelors & Babies Series Link on Amazon

Would you say you pay full price for most of your book purchases?  Or a sale price for most of your book purchases?

Are you willing to pay full price for your favorite author’s books as soon as it comes out?  Does price matter?  Or are you a bargain hunter?  Do you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited?

Musical Inspiration

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Today I’m giving you an insight on how music occasionally influences my writing. But it’s not how you might expect. I don’t write with music on because if I like a song, then I start singing along. Then my train of thought is shattered. Like now. I’m sitting in Starbucks writing and “Defy Gravity” from the musical Wicked has come on. Excuse me while I sing under my breath…

Okay, I’m back. However, occasionally songs play a big part in my stories. In To Marry A Texas Cowboy, George Strait’s “Here For A Good Time” became my hero’s theme song. Despite knowing Zane’s backstory and him almost taking over a couple books in the series, when I started his story, I couldn’t grasp him. He put up a good front, even from me. But when I heard “Here For A Good Time” Zane’s personality and fears fell into place.

Zane had a rough past. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read To Marry A Texas Cowboy, but Zane’s dad was a piece of work and his mom wasn’t a winner either. To cope or survive really, he lived in the moment. Everything was about having a good time. That drove his actions and his life.

Here For A Good Time

Source: Musixmatch  Songwriters: Bubba Straight / Dillon Dean / George H Strait

I’m not gonna lay around
And whine and moan for somebody that done me wrong
Don’t think for a minute
That I’m gonna sit around and sing some old sad song
I believe it’s half-full not a half-empty glass
Every day I wake up knowing it could be my last

I ain’t here for a long time
I’m here for a good time
So bring on the sunshine, to hell with the red wine
Pour me some moonshine
When I’m gone, put it in stone “He left nothing behind”
I ain’t here for a long time
I’m here for a good time

Folks are always dreaming about what they like to do
But I like to do just what I like
I’ll take the chance, dance the dance
It might be wrong but then again it might be right
There’s no way of knowing what tomorrow brings
Life’s too short to waste it, I say bring on anything

I ain’t here for a long time
I’m here for a good time
So bring on the sunshine, to hell with the red wine
Pour me some moonshine
When I’m gone, put it in stone “He left nothing behind”
I ain’t here for a long time
I’m here for a good time
I ain’t here for a long time
I’m here for a good time

 

And speaking of Wicked, when attending that musical, the solution to the same problem with my heroine, Maggie in Bet On A Cowboy hit me. When Elphaba sang “I’m Not That Girl” I instantly knew everything about Maggie. I even whispered, “she’s Elphaba” right there in my Broadway seat.

Maggie believed love wasn’t in her future. She was just too plain, too average in every way to attract a man’s notice. As the director of a Bachelor type reality show, she’s surrounded by beautiful, outgoing, extraordinary women and is constantly reminded she doesn’t measure up. The mindset Elphaba shows in “I’m Not That Girl” guided Maggie’s actions and interactions in life.

 

I’m Not That Girl

Source: Musixmatch  Songwriters: Schwartz Stephen Laurence / Sandford Steve

Hands touch, eyes meet
Sudden silence, sudden heat
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
But I’m not that girl

Don’t dream too far
Don’t lose sight of who you are
Don’t remember that rush of joy
He could be that boy
I’m not that girl

Every so often we long to steal
To the land of what-might-have-been
But that doesn’t soften the ache we feel
When reality sets back in

Blithe smile, lithe limb
She who’s winsome, she wins him
Gold hair with a gentle curl
That’s the girl he chose
And Heaven knows
I’m not that girl

Don’t wish, don’t start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn’t born for the rose and the pearl
There’s a girl I know
He loves her so
I’m not that girl

I shouldn’t be surprised songs have helped me grasp my characters and their relationships. Songs have always spoken to me and helped me make sense out of life. Why shouldn’t they do the same with my writing?

To be entered in today’s random giveaway for the car coasters, air freshener, and signed copy of Family Ties leave a comment on what song has or could serve as a theme for you?