Wolves have always played a fascinating roll in western novels. There is a mystique about the animals that stems as much from misinformation as information. This week I visited the St. Francis Wolf Sanctuary in Montgomery, Texas. It is less than a twenty minute drive from my house, but I felt as if I were a world away.
We parked at the end of a country road and then walked up a gravel path to the place where the mostly rescued animals were held. While caged, they were being tended by a host of volunteers who were also petting and playing with the animals as one would a familiar pet. My fourteen-year-old grandson was with me and he was quickly as intrigued by the animals as I.
The first woman we met was Reverend Jean LeFevre, the founder and the heart behind the sanctuary. As she told us a little about herself and the animals, we could feel her love for them. She has truly led a fascinating life. One of the things she didn’t tell us but which I read on the website explained a lot about her knowledge and respect for the wolves.
“My first hands-on experience with a wolf was White Tornado, in 1976. She was a white wolf living with Grandmother Twylah Nitsch of the Seneca -Wolf Clan- Iroquois Nation, my friend, and a mentor who has blessed my life. White Tornado was an amazing animal, full of energy and love. She showed me the gentleness of her kind and the love and spiritual learning that they can give to us. I have always been fascinated with the Indian lore of the Wolf and their mysticism and feel myself privileged to be able to experience it first hand.”
While we were at the site, two volunteer handlers who obviously loved the wolfdogs (a mix of wolf and dog) had us sit still while they led the wolf dogs past us so that they could get used to our smell. Then we were allowed to pet the wolves that seemed to love the attention. It was easy to tell from the feel of the coats which ones were predominantly wolf. Their hair was sticky, almost scratchy.
The mission of the sanctuary as stated on their website is: “Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary (SFWS) is dedicated to the care of rescued, non-releasable wolves and wolfdogs. We do not breed, buy, sell, or trade them. They have often been rescued from dire circumstances. Many have suffered much at the hands of humans; others were simply discarded by their caretakers. We believe they deserve a stable home for the rest of their natural lives, with an abundance of loving and compassionate care.”
They also help educate the public and try to dispel the myths about wolves. To learn more about the sanctuary, visit their website at http://wolvesofsaintfrancis.org/
And don’t forget that Trumped Up Charges is on the shelves now. When a mother’s love meets a father’s instinct. Read an excerpt at:
1) Please share a little about your plot and how your hero and heroine first meet.
Luvena’s parents lost their wealth under questionable circumstances, making Luvena, a young woman with a beautiful singing voice, unwelcome in the fashionable circles she grew up in. She survives losing her parents, one after the other. But then her sister and brother-in-law die in an accident, leaving her the guardian for her young nephew and two nieces. She has no way to support them, other than marriage, and her prospects are not great in Boston where the scandal is still known. So she answers an ad in a mail order catalog.
Clay’s luck has changed. He won an old hurdy-gurdy house in a poker game in the gold boom town of Grand Coeur. But now that he is a changed man, thanks to his friendship with a local minister, he wants to turn the old theater into something grand––an opera house. He needs a wife to work beside him. But no kids. The country is crawling with widows and kids since the Civil War, and he knows from bitter experience that he’s not meant to be a father.
Thanks to the meddling by the Hitching Post editor, Luvena doesn’t know Clay specifically said, “No children,” and Clay doesn’t know the woman whose travel expenses he’s paid is arriving broke and with three kids in tow. Clay has sunk all of his money into the remodeling of the opera house, so he can’t send her and the children back to Boston. They’ll just have to make do until he comes up with the cash.
2) What makes your hero and heroine all wrong for each other? What makes them completely right for each other?
They are all wrong for each other because of the children. Luvena is devoted to her sister’s children, but Clay is packing a load of guilt from the past that has him convinced he should never be a father.
They are completely right for each other because both love God and want to do His will––if they can only discover what that is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Best-selling novelist Robin Lee Hatcher (author of 70 books) is known for her heartwarming and emotionally charged stories of faith, courage, and love. She discovered her vocation after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. Winner of the Christy, the RITA, the Carol, the Inspirational Reader’s Choice, and many other awards, Robin is also a recipient of the prestigious RWA Lifetime Achievement Award.
1) Please share a little about your plot and how your hero and heroine first meet.
Megan is a hard working little Irish woman who has raised five little brothers and now finally has a chance to make a life for herself. She answers a mail order bride advertisement and is delighted when a handsome prosperous rancher writes back and then meets with her. They are married the day after they meet. On their way home to his ranch she discovered that a page of his letter to her was missing, the page that tells her he has less than a year to live and he’s searching for a wife to care for his sons after his death.
Megan is shocked and she’s also very skeptical. True David has been sick but he looks like he’s still got a lot of life in him. She’s not interested in accepting his death, that smacks of playing God. If David thinks he’s going to die, she’s got new for him. Not while she’s caring for him. She sets out to drag her hopeless husband back into the world of the living with all the faith, and common sense of a plucky Irish working girl.
2) What makes your hero and heroine all wrong for each other? What makes them completely right for each other?
David is a wealthy man who marries Megan for the most practical of reasons. He wants a mother for his children. Megan doesn’t kid herself that a marriage arranged through a mail order bride catalog is based on love but practical girl though she is, she still had dreams of love…someday. Pessimistic David and determined Megan are no kind of match at all. But perky little Megan fills all the empty places in David’s heart and the terrible losses she had at a young age with her mother and father’s deaths, give her all the skills she needs now to hold David on this side of the Pearly Gates with her bare hands.
1800s mail-order bride catalogs facilitated many happy marriages. Here are the stories of four couples who owe their wedded bliss to creative editing by The Hitching Post publisher.
“And Then Came Spring“–Margaret Brownley When mail order bride Mary-Jo Parker arrives in town she receives the shock of her life; not only is her fiancé dead, he left behind an eight-year-old son he neglected to mention. But the biggest challenge of all is the boy’s way-too-handsome uncle.
“An Ever-After Summer“–Debra Clopton
Widower Matt McConnell wrote his ad with no room for misunderstanding–Bible believers need not apply. But then Bible-thumping Ellie shows up on his doorstep. Matt’s so desperate for her help that he accepts.
“Autumn’s Angel“–Robin Lee Hatcher
Luvena Abbott’s privileged childhood didn’t prepare her for the hardship she now faces as an adult, especially when it comes to being the guardian of her nieces and nephew. Marriage seems the only answer to her dilemma. Clay Birch hopes to change the hurdy-gurdy house he won in a poker game into the finest opera house in the Northwest, but he’ll need help to do it. Could this unlikely couple actually be the perfect match?
“Winter Wedding Bells“–Mary Connealy
David Laramie is looking for a woman to care for his children. In exchange he’ll make her financially comfortable for life. But no woman wants to marry a dying man. Then Megan responds to his ad. It seems his “edited” letter contained no mention of him dying.
Good morning. It’s me, Renee Ryan, taking a break from yet another deadline. I have a giveaway, more on that below. In the meantime, I left my heroine in the kitchen. She’s attempting to make bread in that dang new oven of hers. What she doesn’t know yet, and what I only just discovered as I researched for this blog, is that until a baker became used to the new cooking gadget in the ranch house (AKA the oven), her attempts at baking bread often went astray. First attempts were often described in personal diaries as well-done bricks and were nearly impossible to cut with a knife.
Today, my heroine is attempting to make Sylvester Graham Bread. In the mid-1800s, Sylvester Graham advocated the use of whole grain in baked goods. His reasoning was that the whole berry contained nutrients, so why sift it out? His product was called “graham flour” and was only sought out by those rare few seeking healthy foods. Fashion dictated “pure” white flour, even though most couldn’t afford it.
Although similar to whole wheat flour, it’s not completely the same. Graham flour is still available in health food stores. The special milling of this modern-day version is more true to the Old West, and produces a denser loaf of bread. So, if you want to try this recipe and wish to stay authentic to the Old West, you might want to hop over to the health food store and purchase a sack of graham flour.
Here’s my favorite recipe for Sylvester Graham Bread from the Old West Baking Book by Lon Walters.
Sponge: 2 cups warm water
¼ cup molasses
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups graham flour
Bread: 1 teaspoon salt
3 cups graham flour
Mix sponge ingredients. Stir well, place in a nonmetal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside until mix is bubbling, about 8-12 hours.
To make bread, add salt and flour to the fermenting sponge. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until elastic, or until the dough bounces back when poked. Let rise in a warm spot until double in bulk. Punch down dough. Knead lightly a few times more to get the remaining gas out. Divide the dough in half ad form into round loaves. Place on a well-greased cookie sheet and let rise again until double in bulk. Slash the top gently with a very sharp knife. Place in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until loaves are brown and sound hollow when “thunked” with your finger.
Wow, that’s a lot of work, right? Can you imagine going through all that and then having to start over because your first attempt was a well-done brick? Anybody willing to try out this recipe? I might, when my book is done. Or maybe I’ll drive across town to my favorite bakery. Seems way easier.
Leave a comment and I’ll put you in a drawing for a copy of my July release, THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION
My July book is a story about the ties that bind people together—ties of blood, ties of family, and ties of love. At the center is adorable, eleven-month-old Zac, whose dying mother sacrificed all to bring him into the world and give her barren stepsister, Grace, one chance to raise a child.
Peruvian billionaire playboy, Emilio Santana, sees his own chance in little Zac—the chance to continue his late brother’s bloodline and relieve himself of the responsibility to marry and provide a family heir. The battle over Zac brings Grace to Peru, and a new love in an exotic setting. But things are not always what they seem—and if you think you’ve read this story before, prepare yourself for some surprises.
A few years ago I spent some time in Peru, right where this story takes place. The setting is rich in beauty, history and culture—perfect for a heartfelt love story. I hope you’ll enjoy this one. Here’s an excerpt for you.
Emilio ended the kiss, savoring the way their moist lips clung as they parted. He hadn’t planned to kiss her. But it had happened and, for the moment at least, he wasn’t sorry. Grace Chandler’s luscious curves fit his body as if they’d been molded for that very purpose. Her sweetness flowed through him like hot caramel syrup through ice cream.
So much for his resolve to treat her like a sister. That wasn’t going to happen. He knew himself too well to question his instincts. But right now he needed to get her back to the house. She was badly scared, maybe even injured. Seduction would have to wait.
With a twinge of regret, he eased her to arms’ length. Her cheeks were flushed, her mouth damp and a little swollen. It was all he could do to keep from snatching her close once more and taking up where they’d left off.
“Are you all right, Grace?” Given the way she looked, it was a needless question.
For a moment she regarded him with lust-glazed eyes. Then a transformation came over her. Straightening her spine and squaring her shoulders she impaled him with a glare that would have done justice to Sister Benedicta, who’d whacked his knuckles in her arithmetic class.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “But what just happened was a mistake, Emilio.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I had the impression you enjoyed it as much as I did.”
Her look darkened. “I came here to decide what was best for Zac and for me. The last thing I need is having my judgment clouded by a Latin Romeo who’d hit on any female old enough to drive. As far as you and I are concerned, nothing happened here. Understood?”
“Understood.” The barb had stung more than he cared to admit. But long experience had taught Emilio when to advance and when to retreat. This was retreat time. But the conquest was far from over.
Grace Chandler was going to eat her words.
THE SANTANA HEIR is available for pre-order on Amazon. But one reader who posts today will get an advance copy to read. If you’re an international winner, you’ll receive a PDF file. Good luck and thanks in advance for your comments
The most common question I’m asked about my writing is: Where do you get your ideas? My most common answer is: I don’t know. Ideas are always lurking, waiting to be unearthed, fleshed out, discarded or explored deeper. There’s usually a trigger, a “what if” and then, boom, the idea starts to flow. Sometimes slowly, but sometimes the story unfolds in my mind like quicksand.
I know, I know. That’s really not a good enough answer. So, I’m going to make myself dig deeper here and tell you where the original ideas came from for each of my Charity House novels. Why those books, specifically? Because my next release, THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION, marks the sixth book in the series. The seventh book, FINALLY A BRIDE, will hit the shelves in November of this year. It’s a good time to take a moment and look back over the series to see how I got here. There isn’t room to go into too much detail, so bear with me as I try to give you a quick overview.
CHARITY HOUSE REDEMPTION: Although published as Book Five in the series, this story actually came first, or as I like to say: Where it all began. In this particular case, I can remember the precise moment when the idea for Charity House came to me.
I was at a writer’s conference back in 1999, still unpublished and waiting for my big break. I didn’t know what I was going to write next, but I knew I wanted it to be special. For our luncheon entertainment the conference committee brought in a group called The Shady Ladies who reenacted life in the Old West. When the ladies came around to the concept of birth control for prostitutes, or rather lack thereof, I sat up a little taller. I knew I had my idea. You see, Charity House is what was called a baby farm in the Old West, dedicated to the care and feeding of the unwanted children of prostitutes. The heroine of CHARITY HOUSE REDEMPTION is the daughter of a prostitute who wanted to get out of the brothel where her mother worked. She brought the other children with her and, thus, Charity House was born.
THE MARSHAL TAKES A BRIDE is officially Book One in the series. The hero is a U.S. Marshal and brother-in-law to the hero in CHARITY HOUSE REDEMPTION. The heroine was a former orphan at Charity House and is now the new schoolteacher. From the moment they met, they started circling one another. But the heroine had been assaulted by one of her mother’s clients and wary of men. The hero, a widower, was too bent on avenging his wife’s death to be interested in love again. Thanks to a wounded five-year-old little girl who both loved dearly, they managed to get past their differences and form a family together.
HANNAH’S BEAU is Book Two in the series. This story came about because I wasn’t quite through with Charity House, even though I’d originally planned to end the series after THE MARSHAL TAKES A BRIDE. The hero of this book is a rebel preacher with a heart for the lost. He showed up in only one scene prior to this book. Since then, he’s dedicated his life to ministering to prostitutes, gamblers and other reprobates in the Old West. The heroine is a famous stage actress shunned by the good-Christian-folk because of her profession. Since the hero is from a family of famous stage actors he understands the heroine on a level most people don’t. As a result of their happily-ever-after, Charity House now has a full-time pastor and loosely connected church.
LOVING BELLA is Book Three in the series. The hero in this book is the only doctor in town who will treat the children at Charity House and their mothers in the brothel. He was a secondary character in all of the previous books and I really felt he needed his own happily-ever-after. It really wasn’t any more complicated than that. His heroine is a famous opera singer and the sister of the hero from HANNAH’S BEAU. Her arrival in town comes at a perfect time for the hero, yet produces lots of complications for him as well.
THE LAWMAN CLAIMS HIS BRIDE is Book Four and explores another hero and heroine’s love story, both of whom showed up in all the previous books. Logan Mitchell started out as the deputy U.S. marshal for the hero in THE MARSHAL TAKES A BRIDE. When he first met his heroine she was an orphan at Charity House. The two have been kept apart by age, other people and life circumstances for five years. It’s their time for love at last.
THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION is Book Six in the series and the newest of the stories. It focuses on Logan’s brother, Hunter. I’ve always wanted to explore why some of us choose to embrace the good inside us, while others can’t seem to avoid the bad. Thanks to a restlessness he could never shake, Hunter hasn’t lived a good or a very righteous life. He left home young, willingly took the wrong path as soon as he was gone, and made bad decision upon bad decision. Can a man like that be redeemed? I wanted to find out, and so THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION was born.
And…there’s lots more to all the stories, but no room to continue. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered in a drawing for copy of THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION. I’m giving away three copies of this book. As a bonus, I’m going to give away a full set of all six books to one grand prize winner.
We have a winner for Karen Kay’s book, SOARING EAGLE’S EMBRACE, and that winner is Patricia B. Congratulations Patricia.
Please email me separately at karenkay(dot)author(at)earthlink(dot)net, and we’ll figure out which form of the book you’d like or if you have that book, what other book you’d like.
My thanks to all those who came to the blog and left a comment!
