I hadn’t planned to blog on this, but when Amazon posted these brand spanking new covers for my e-books yesterday I had to share. I’m a proud mama showing off her babies. LOL!
Sometimes a little make-over is a good thing and can bring new life to something. I’m hoping this is the case.
My sister Jan who blogged at P&P a month or so ago put me in contact with an awesome cover designer by the name of Donna Osborn Clark. This woman is so talented. Her website is called Creations by Donna. She’s just amazing. These were her first cowboy covers and I couldn’t be happier with the final product.
For those who haven’t read these here is a little about each:
REDEMPTION is the story of two people who are desperately trying to find a way to reclaim a piece of their soul after they escape horrifying events. Brodie Yates is known as Shenandoah and a rebel spy during the war. Now he’s being hunted down so he can be tried for his crimes. Laurel James was kidnapped and held captive in a brothel, forced to do unspeakable things. She only wants to feel clean again. They come together in Redemption, Texas that sits on the banks of Big Cypress Bayou. But can they learn to trust in themselves and each other?
KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS finds Duel McClain in a saloon where he sits down at a poker table and ends up with a baby girl when he has the winning hand. On his way back to his farm in the Hill Country, a woman stumbles into the light of his campfire. Jessie Foltry is hungry and afraid and running for her life. The last thing she expected to find was a cowboy and a baby. Duel persuades her to come along and help him care for the child. But can they patch up their broken lives and become a family? And is it too much to ask for love along the way?
THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING opens with Glory Day shooting Luke McClain in the leg while they’re both trying to capture a terrorizing outlaw. Glory needs the reward in order to save her family’s farm and Luke needs the capture to help him get his job back with the Texas Rangers. While recovering in Glory’s home, Luke sees her desperate plight and vows to help her all he can before he hits the trail again. But Glory sees his “help” as meddling and tells him so. She just wishes this cowboy who keeps calling would find someone else to save. But when her eyesight suddenly begins to fail, she’s grateful to have his arms around her. Maybe having him near isn’t such a bad thing. But the real question is…can the meddlesome cowboy be tamed?
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So…..what do you think of the new covers? Let me know and you’ll have a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.
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You can find out more about these books on my website: LindaBroday.com
In 2007 I was one of the original Fillies here at Petticoats and Pistols when we kicked off the site and made plans for the future. I’m proud of what Wildflower Junction has accomplished and the impact it’s had on fans of western romance. I have made wonderful friends here among the other authors, and I’ve gained faithful readers as well. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my association with each one of you.
As writers, everything we do is a balancing act while we juggle writing, promotion, social media, family, friends, health and everyday life. At P&P there is every bit as much going on behind the scenes as what is visible here, what with scheduling and guests and holiday events and drawings. It’s one busy place, I can assure you. You have probably guessed by now what I’m leading up to. I’m not calling it a farewell by any means. I’m searching out some new directions in my life and career and making changes in where and how I can stretch my time. I will still be a devoted fan of P&P. These Fillies are my sweetest friends. You dear readers are what it’s all about. I will still be writing books and I’ve been assured there will be a guest spot open for me whenever I want to come calling.
For nostalgia’s sake I thought it would be fun to link to a few of my favorite posts today.
Happy Independence Day! In 1776 the United States declared its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Here it’s a federal holiday celebrated with fireworks, parades, picnics and BBQs. In my home state the community of Seward, Nebraska has held a celebration on the same town square since 1868. In 1979 Seward was designated “America’s Official Fourth of July City-Small Town USA” by resolution of Congress. Seward has also been proclaimed Nebraska’s Official Fourth of July City. Seward is a town of 6,000 but swells to 40,000+ during the July 4 celebrations.
I’ve written about Independence Day celebrations, parades and speeches in a few of my stories over the years. It’s usually a family day and a day to appreciate time away from the day job. My husband’s been busy repainting all of our lawn furniture, buying new cushions, planting flowers and getting the back yard ready. We’ll be grilling hamburgers and hotdogs and will enjoy them with slow cooked baked beans and corn on the cob. Now that’s a traditional meal.
This year I’m also celebrating the 4th by offering my newly revised, edited and published for Kindle book, Rain Shadow for free.
My friend Deborah Hale and I share anniversaries this month and we also love American set stories of adventure and romance.
So settle back with a good book and enjoy a few hours of relaxation before the rest of summer gets underway.
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Wed to the Enemy! The War left Caddie Marsh a widow with only a rundown plantation, her children and Southern pride to sustain her. She would do anything to salvage Sabbath Hollow for the sake of her son and daughter, even wed one of the Yankees against whom she’s so bitter. The fact that Manning Forbes bears a disturbing resemblance to her late husband only makes matters worse. It would be easier if her new husband’s integrity and kindness didn’t stir up feelings he claims not to want from her…
Sworn to Protect… Manning Forbes has his own reasons for wanting to protect and provide for the Marsh family. Reasons he is desperate to keep from Caddie. If his beautiful, inquisitive bride discovers his true identity, Manning fears he would lose the family who has captured his heavily-guarded heart!
Raised by the Lakota Sioux and having traveled with the Wild West Show for many years, Rain Shadow is unprepared for a forced stay at the home of Anton Neubauer while her son recuperates. He is a rock, a man who has lived on and farmed the same several hundred acres since he was young.
Anton needs a mother for his son, but he needs someone domestic and ladylike, not the Smith & Wesson toting female who sets up her teepee in his front yard and whose target practice wakes him at the crack of dawn. But fate, two little boys and two old men conspire to keep them together, and it’s too late to deny their passion once love is part of the equation.
I’m so glad to stop by here, prop up my red cowboy boots and visit with the fillies about Billion Dollar Cowboy, the debut book in my new series, Cowboys & Brides.
Someone asked me recently how I came to write about four very rich cowboys and that started me thinking about why I came to write about four sassy ladies who lassoed those cowboys.
It all started with the cowboys, Colton (Billion Dollar Cowboy), Lucas (The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby), Greg (The Cowboy’s Mail Order Bride) and Mason (How to Marry a Cowboy). They popped into my mind and at first I told them that I couldn’t write about rich cowboys because I didn’t know or understand the ways of the rich folks in this world.
But they insisted and we negotiated the terms. I’d turn the air conditioning down low (look at that sexy cowboy on the front of the book, fillies!) and write their stories but I got to pick the leading ladies and they had to stick around and tell me exactly how the story went.
We shook on it and Colton pulled up a chair around since I was writing about him first.
Four very sassy ladies had been talking to me for a while about writing their stories and I brought them front and center and we had a long conversation. Not a one of them were interested in a rich cowboy, no matter how sexy, smooth talkin’ or good at two-steppin’ they were. But I could see some real possibilities so I introduced Colton to Laura Baker, and oh, my but the sparks flew from day one. Both of them were wary as two old tom cats on the back yard fence. Neither trusted the other as far as they could throw a ton of bricks. And we were off on a real ride tellin’ the story that come out of putting them together.
Laura had grown up on a ranch without much in the way of affection from her great-aunt who had taken Laura and her sister, Janet, in to keep them out of the system. She liked ranching but had no intentions of making it her life’s work and it damn sure wasn’t her dream. However, Janet had an addiction to gambling. She’d gotten in way over her head with the last betting spree and she was back to begging Laura to get her out of trouble. The only way Laura can manage to help her sister is to work for their distant cousin, Andy, at some rich cowboy’s ranch in Ambrose, Texas, wherever to hell that is.
She wasn’t any too happy with me there at the first. She didn’t trust Colton and he couldn’t believe any woman on the face of the great green earth wouldn’t give two hoots if he was rich or not. Things didn’t get much better when poor old Colton found himself drugged after a night in a local honky tonk. It was only by the quick thinking of the ranch foreman that he awoke in his bed the next morning and not with a wedding ring on his finger after those two women had put something in his drink.
Laura is determined not to stay one minute more than it takes to earn the money to keep Janet from being maimed or killed by loan shark. She sure isn’t interested in playing along with the ruse that she was Colton’s girlfriend, especially when it turned into an engagement complete with a diamond half the size of a hockey rink. But since it involved enough money to get Janet out of gambling debt she went along with the crazy idea. And since his grandmother, the ranch foreman and even the sixteen year old foster child, Roxie, has set the wheels in motion with their tricks, there doesn’t seem to be much choice in the matter. Before long, they trusted each other to the point of waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me how to write the next scene.
And that’s when I knew I’d made the right decision in putting Laura on that particular ranch and not Natalie, or Rachel or even Emily who were waiting in the wings to see what would happen when Billion Dollar Cowboy was all finished. After Laura’s experiences I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t all light a shuck and hide the mesquite trees but when I started The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby, Natalie was right there ready to take on the job.
What do you think it would take to make a cowboy with more than a billion dollars trust a woman? What would it take for a woman to believe a rich cowboy who could have anyone or anything that he wanted?
BILLION DOLLAR COWBOY BY CAROLYN BROWN – IN STORES JUNE 2013
Colton Nelson was 28 when he won the Texas Lottery and went from ranch hand to ranch owner overnight. When people started lining up wanting some of his millions, he hired a friend, Andy Joe, to handle his affairs and find him a bride and buy her, no matter what the cost.
Laura Baker and her sister, Emily, had been raised in foster homes. Though she was the younger of the two, Laura was always bailing Emily out of trouble. So when Andy Joe slid into her booth at a diner one night and made a proposition to Laura, it seemed the perfect solution…until Laura met Colton and realized she didn’t give a damn about his money and that her love was not for sale.
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Carolyn Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than 60 books published. Born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma, Carolyn and her husband now make their home in the town of Davis, Oklahoma. Carolyn’s first women’s fiction novel, The Blue Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee is now available, and you can look for her next cowboy romance, Cowboy Seeks Bride in August 2013! For more information, please visit: www.carolynlbrown.com.
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:
My current release is called Western Duets-Volume One in the novella are two historical western romances. One, the longest, has the subject of shanghaiing. This is a subject that has always intrigued me since watching episodes of Bonanza and the Big Valley that had characters being Shanghaied.
I thought it was only done on the Barbary Coast. Until I started doing my research and discovered the most notorious shanghai city was in my own state.
Portland, Oregon was the longest running and most notorious for shanghaiing than anywhere else on the West Coast.
The unsuspecting farm boy, logger, or out-of-towner who was lured to the dock by the saloons, gambling dens, and bawdy houses could wake up indentured to a ship headed to China (where the name shanghaied came from) or ports around the world.
Crimps were men who owned boarding houses that would give sailors a place to eat and sleep when they ran out of money and were waiting for a job. Some men planned to go back on ships, while others had dreams better paying, less harmful work. While staying at the boarding houses they ran up tabs. The crimp (the Dutch word krimp means a holding tank or pen for live fish), would use this tab against them. When a captain of ship came around he would pay the crimp the man’s tab and extra to put the man on his ship. The man had to work to pay the tab he now owed the captain. Once he worked to pay off what the captain paid for him then he would online pokies draw wages at the lowest pay scale. It would be quite likely, the captain would pay them much less than they were owed. Since many of the men who ended up as sailors had little learning and couldn’t keep track of what they owed or was owed them.
Many captains would find a crimp and pay them for ten men. If the crimp didn”t have ten men in his house, he would go out and either get able-bodied males drunk and passed out or knock them out in alleys and haul them to the ships and dump them.
A crimp could receive a bonus of $30 – $90 for supplying strong men to the ships. This was called “blood money”. In some instances blood money could go as high as $120. When the price was this high the boarding house operators would work together to “gather sailors.”
Shanghaiing had the crimps prowling the streets looking for strangers to knock out and dress up as sailors and dump on ships for money. Many were naive young men who were befriended then drugged. The prostitutes even got in on shanghaiing. They pulled in young, strong men to their “crib” and while “servicing” the man would knock them out with chloroform.
Shanghaiing had lessened in San Francisco by the mid 1890″s but picked up in Portland at that time. There were even international incidents with the governments of France and Great Britain.
Western Duets- Volume One
Western Duets is a novella with two historical western romance short stories.
Shanghaied Heart
Tossed together in the underbelly of a ship, strangers Finn Callaghan and Prudence Hawthorne must learn to trust one another in order to escape, but their freedom may be short lived once Finn discovers Prudence”s brother wants her dead.
Last Stand for Love
U.S. Marshal Chas Brown agreed to be Sarah”s proxy husband in order for her to keep her dead husband”s ranch. Little did Chas know, he’d lose his heart in the process.
One lucky commenter will receive an ebook copy of Western Duets.
Award winning author Paty Jager is a member of national and local writing organizations. She not only writes the western lifestyle she lives it. With sixteen novels and several short stories published, she continues to have characters cavorting in her head.
Birthday Bash! Today through June 30th the first book of my spirit trilogy, Spirit of the Mountain, a paranormal historical romance set among the Wallowa band of Nez Perce is available in ebook for $.99. It”s my birthday gift to readers. Enjoy!
Rosie Carson sat in the circle of chairs gathered for the Young People’s Society of the New Testament Church of San Antonio. She loved the Lord and she loved the Bible, even though she found it a little confusing at times. But if she heard more people read the exciting stories with such droning voices, she’d fall asleep.
By the time Rosie caught up with the teacher in the second chapter of Acts, he was droning on about “tongues of fire” resting on the disciples. She screwed her mouth, trying to imagine a tongue made out of fire. Where did it rest on the head? Did it come out of their mouths?
There was a mention of the Holy Ghost . . . Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. She’d like to hear more about that. The teacher continued read as if he was reciting multiplication tables. His voice didn’t convey any of the excitement Rosie felt when she read the accounts of the early Christians.
Some of the witnesses said, “These men are full of new wine.” A picture formed in her mind of church members so excited about the Lord that they were accused of being drunk. She giggled at the image of people with fire sprouting out of their mouths, like circus entertainers, talking in languages half the congregation didn’t understand, staggering about the stage, hollering “praise Jesus!” She laughed out loud.
The leader stared at her, directing the attention of everyone in the group to her unfortunate outburst. “Miss Carson, would you care to tell us what you find so very amusing?
Rosie gulped. Didn’t these people realize how blessed they were, that they had they read the Bible so often that it rolled over them like wagon wheels, running through the same ruts?
“I’d like to hear what Rosie thinks about the day the church was born.” Macy Braum, a pleasant contrast to her stuffed shirt of a brother, gave Rosie the courage to speak.
“It’s the place where it says people were mocking the disciples and all, saying they were drunk. Here God was doing something amazing and wonderful and all they saw was drunks.”
“Yeah, Braxton, maybe we should hold the next service at the saloon down the street.” A young man Rosie didn’t recognize said.
Laughter followed, although Rosie didn’t think it was such a bad idea. Didn’t Jesus eat with publicans and sinners and even ladies of the night? They were the people who knew they needed a Savior, not people who had grown up without ever wondering where their next meal was coming from.
“At least they took a risk in sharing their faith.” A deep voice from the back of the room said.
Turning, Rosie registered his blond good looks while feeling a bone-deep fear of the authority shouting from every inch of his frame.
Award-winning author and speaker Darlene Franklin lives in Oklahoma near her son’s family.
Darlene loves music, needlework, reading, and reality TV. She has published several titles with Barbour Publishing, including her two latest releases, A Bride’s Rogue in Roma, Texas, and Merry Christmas, With Love, in Postmark: Christmas. She has also written two books in the Texas Trails series with RiverNorth Fiction, Lone Star Trail and A Ranger’s Trail. She’s a member of Oklahoma City Christian Fiction Writers.
I was writing a ranch wedding scene in the 3rd. book in the Big D Dad – The Daltons series the other day and decided to do a little research on the history of bolo ties. I found some interesting material on the Internet. The matter of where and when they first appeared seems to be a subject of debate, though all agree the ties in one form or another have been around for quite a while.
It appears that part of the confusion about the ties’ origins stems from the different varieties that have been popular through the years. A few things most agree on are that the ties are worn beneath the shirt collar outside the shirt. The bolo slide may be made of stone, metal, or plastic and can be in different shapes. A thin strip of leather or other fabric which is frequently braided has tips on both ends to allow it be strung through the slide.
Some people have dated the bolo ties back to the 1860’s. Others date its beginning to the 1900’s. One report is that the tie was created by Silversmith Victor Cedarstaff. It is said he slipped his hatband around his neck to keep from losing it while riding his horse on a windy day. Someone commented that he was wearing a nice tie which inspired him to create the bolo tie.
Bolo ties are especially popular in western states. Arizona named the bolo tie the official state neckwear in 1971. In 2007, both New Mexico and Texas named it their official state tie. (Who knew states had official ties?)
One of the most interesting bits of pop culture concerning the bolo was that John Travolta wore one in Urban Cowboy. I do think I remember that.
On another note I want to remind you that Trumped Up Charges, book 1 in the Big D Dads – The Daltons series will be available on June 1.
WHEN A MOTHER’ LOVE MEETS A FATHER’S INSTINCT
Ex Marine Adam Dalton once dreamed of a life with Hadley O’Sullivan, but war and a near-fatal injury cost him dearly. Now he returns to Dallas to discover the unthinkable—Hadley is the prime suspect in the disappearance of their twin baby girls…the daughters he never knew he had.
Beyond Hadley’s terror of having her children kidnapped is the shock of seeing Adam. Yes, she had kept him from his daughters, but now, when he insists they work together as a united front, she knows she is still in love with him. Despite their past, finding their children is their only hope of finally becoming a family—if time doesn’t run out first.
Growing up in Idaho, the history of Lewis and Clark and the opening of the west to settlers was a large part of the history I learned as a child. As part of the Pacific Northwest, the land that became our state was wild and unsettled. A perfect place to put down roots, raise a family, and build a homestead. Unfortunately, the land that easterners thought of as uninhabited, the Nez Perce Indian tribe called home.
Definitely a disaster waiting to happen.
One story out of the history books that always stuck with me was about Henry and Eliza Spaulding, the first white settlers in what’s now the state of Idaho. Now, there’s some debate on that claim, and I’ve found a couple mentions of a fur trading business set up as early as 1805
so I don’t know if that part of the story is true. But the Presbyterian missionary couple was one of the first waves of westward expansion to inhabit Idaho. Henry and his wife built a homestead in a beautiful area now known as Lewiston. Nestled in the middle of the state, even now, the area is more rural than the capital Boise, which lies south of the area. The current residents depend on forestry, agriculture and mining for jobs and commerce.
In 1836, Rev. Henry and Eliza Spaulding travelled across the country with their friends, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. But when the Whitman’s decided to set up a mission in nearby Walla, Walla Washington, Henry and Eliza pushed on farther into the wilderness into what is now Idaho and the Clearwater River site. The couple stopped at a site near Lapwai Creek and Eliza wrote about the clear springs and natural beauty of the spot. After building at one site, which was little more than a swamp, they moved a few years later to the mouth of the creek and the pair settled there in 1838.
The couple started teaching and preaching to the Nez Perce Indians who lived in the area. Before they left in 1844, they’d built a school, printing house, and additional living quarters for some of the Nez Perce who helped run the mission. Henry felled trees and built a log home for his lovely bride.
In 1844, fearing for their lives, they abandon their mission and school. Word had just arrived that their friends, the Whitman’s, were massacred in their home in Walla, Walla, in an Indian uprising. Thirty years later, the Nez Perce were headed to a reservation, and the west had been changed forever.
As a child, the idea of starting over, in a land where you didn’t know anyone, seemed inconceivable. I wondered about the woman who taught the children to read as she tried to make a life in the wilderness. Why had she agreed to leave her home in the east for an uncertain future? Had she been excited about the possibilities, or frightened at the dangers?
As an adult, I’ve taken a different route, moving east from Idaho to the edge of Illinois, where Lewis and Clark started their journey. And I find myself in Eliza’s shoes, trying to navigate my way through a land where things are different than home. People are different. But Eliza taught me one important lesson as I studied her life so many years ago. You make your place in the world. And you decide if you’re happy or not.
Today, I’m giving away another Idaho story for your e-reader to one lucky commenter. The Bull Rider’s Brother is set in a fictional little mountain town nestled on the road between Boise and the Spaulding site.
Shawnee, Idaho is known for two things. Amazing salmon fishing and the first local rodeo of the summer. For four friends, growing up in Shawnee, meant one thing, making plans to get out. Five years later, that wish has been granted for all but one. What happens when they all get together again changes five lives.
When James Sullivan visits his hometown’s rodeo weekend and learns that his high school sweetheart had his child – six years ago – Lizzie Hudson’s world is thrown into turmoil. In THE BULL RIDER”S BROTHER, James struggles with family and Lizzie questions the risk of love.
Click on the cover to purchase on Amazon.
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Lynn Cahoon is a contemporary romance author with a love of hot, sexy men, real and imagined. Her
alpha heroes range from rogue witch hunters to modern cowboys. And her heroines all have one thing in common, their strong need for independence. Or at least that’s what they think they want. She blogs at her website, A Fairy Tale Life.
I have a thing for cookbooks. And especially church cookbooks. And especially especially old ones. Those church ladies have always been able to cook, haven”t they? I also have a thing for interesting tidbits of American history and enjoy learning how things were done and imagining the people. In the 80s I participated in putting together a church cookbook, and I bought enough copies so that my daughter”s could all have one once they were married. The recipes have become such family favorites that they are staples at gatherings and even weekday meals. One of my daughters wore hers completely put until it fell apart.
Years ago a friend from a writer’s listserv sent me a copy of a cookbook her grandmother had given her. Little did she know that all these years and books later, I would still be gleaning helpful tidbits from a booklet titled COOK BOOK compiled by THE LADIES of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Eureka Kansas, 1896.
making scones
From this little gem, I have used names, recipes and tips, and created businesses for the fictional towns in my stories. Cookbooks are pieces of history, especially those put together by the women of those early towns and cities. The advertisers who paid for space and thereby funded the ladies’ project were a diverse group. Leedy’s Dry Goods and Clothing House for example boasts the lowest prices guaranteed and quality unexcelled. Their tag line: Good cooking is most appetizing on neat linens. We have them.
Chas. A. Leedy sold dry goods, boots and shoes, fancy goods, clothing, and men’s furnishing goods. I have no idea what a men’s furnishing good was, but I am confident Mr. Leedy sold only quality in that line.
Interesting that listed among the directors of the First National Bank was none other than C.A. Leedy. Seems men’s furnishings were making him a tidy profit.
H. C. Hendrick called himself a dealer in pure drugs—my how the times have changed. No one admits to being a drug dealer nowadays. H.C. sold medicines, chemicals, oils, varnishes, glass, putty, fine brushes (my husband swears a little putty and a fine brush can conceal anything; he must have descended from the Kendricks). They also sold a full and complete line of fancy toilet articles, fine stationary, choice perfumes, books, dye stuffs and all other articles usually kept in a first class Drug Store. Prescriptions were accurately compounded.
Then there was H.C. Zilley, dealer in hardware, stoves and tinware who sold agricultural implements and wagons, with sidelines of furniture and undertaking. Why not get into the undertaking business? He already had the shovel and wagon.
Lewis’ Art Studio did photography in all its branches; proofs are shown and all work guaranteed. VIEWING A SPECIALTY. I don’t know what that means either, I’m just telling you how their ad reads. YOUR PATRONAGE SOLICITED. Those printers liked their capitals, and they had all kinds of fancy fonts. This place was opposite the courthouse, FYI.
Now, Frank B. Gregg, he sold Fire,…Lightning and Tornado… Insurance – and he liked effusive punctuation. Okay, this was Kansas, so that tornado insurance probably came in handy. Suppose Aunty Em took out a policy with Frank?
A.Frazer’s Transfer and Bus Line: Meets all Trains, All Calls Carefully Attended
Your guess is as good as mine here.
Miss Nellie Smith was pianist, teacher of piano and organ and a pupil of Rudolf King, Kansas City. Her terms were moderate.
W.W. Morris was another dealer in pure drugs and medicines. Also advertised were paints, oils, varnishes school andmiscellaneous books, stationary, window shades, wall paper, musical merchandise, jewelry, fancy and toilet articles. “We manufacture the following specialties and guarantee them to be the BEST articles for the purposes recommended: Calla Cream, Castole,
Excelsior Compound.” They were located NO. 23 OPERA BLOCK.
The church ladies who contributed to this publication had wonderful names like Madella Smith, Eva Downard, Katie Addison, Olive Sample, Hattie Kelley, Lydia Thrall, Cornelia Newman, Mabel Mueller, Lulu Kendrick and Lizzie Bell.
A big percent of the recipes contain lard, and many of them, like biscuits and Boston brown bread, ginger cake and ginger snapsare items we could whip up in our kitchens today, with the exact ingredients and directions. Others—not so much. Like suet as an ingredient. I’ve only fed suet to the birds. And what is black mustard? It’d required to make cucumber catsup.
Another example:
Scrapple: Scrape and clean well a pig’s head as directed in pig’s head cheese, put on to boil in plenty of water, cook 4 or 5 hours, until the bones will slip readily from the meat :::are you shuddering yet?::: take out, remove meat, skim off the grease from the liquor in pot and return the chopped meat to it, season highly with salt and pepper and a little powdered sage if liked, and add corn meal till of the consistency of soft mush; cook slowly 1 hour or more, pour in pans and set in a cool place. This is nice sliced and fried for breakfast in winter and will answer in the place of meat on many occasions.
As you can see the Methodist Episcopal Church Ladies have given me plenty of material for my stories. Little did they know so long ago that their contributions and ads would
be research and fodder for imagination.
WHAT”S NEW?
My newest venture is indie publishing, and I”ve just released three of my earliest books for Kindle and Nook. It was interesting to read over the stories I wrote so long ago, and it was great to have an opportunity to tweak things and bring them more up to date.
If you have a Kindle or Nook, you can start reading any or all of them within minutes by clicking on one of these links. If you”ve already read them or plan to, I would appreciate all reviews.
In this tale of hope and love, too-tall spinster Thea Coulson wants to be a mother to a child who arrives in Nebraska on an orphan train. When Booker Hayes shows up to take his niece, a marriage of convenience suits them both. Thea’s dreams are filled with the tall, dark army major, but she guards her heart. Booker’s first taste of home and hearth has him longing for more, but first he must win the hearts of both of the females in his life.
Joshua McBride returns from the war a changed man, ready to put down roots and plant his feet in the community. Prim and uptight Miss Adelaide Stapleton, leader of the Dorcas Society, doesn’t believe he’s changed—people are never what they seem. But she has plenty of secrets of her own—among them the inescapable fact that Joshua sets her heart to pounding and makes her long for his disturbing kisses. How long can she keep her own past hidden—and resist temptation?
Raised within the confines of a strict religious community, Lydia Beker longs for a simple touch, dreams of seeing more of the world. When handsome farmer, Jakob Neubauer and his family visit the bakery where she works, she is fascinated, but Outsiders are forbidden to her. Jakob is attracted to Lydia, as well, and she makes the difficult decision to leave everything she knows behind to marry him. He offers love and passion, but will she ever fit into his world?
I hadn’t planned to blog on this, but when Amazon posted these brand spanking new covers for my e-books yesterday I had to share. I’m a proud mama showing off her babies. LOL!
My sister Jan who blogged at P&P a month or so ago put me in contact with an awesome cover designer by the name of Donna Osborn Clark. This woman is so talented. Her website is called Creations by Donna. She’s just amazing. These were her first cowboy covers and I couldn’t be happier with the final product.
THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING opens with Glory Day shooting Luke McClain in the leg while they’re both trying to capture a terrorizing outlaw. Glory needs the reward in order to save her family’s farm and Luke needs the capture to help him get his job back with the Texas Rangers. While recovering in Glory’s home, Luke sees her desperate plight and vows to help her all he can before he hits the trail again. But Glory sees his “help” as meddling and tells him so. She just wishes this cowboy who keeps calling would find someone else to save. But when her eyesight suddenly begins to fail, she’s grateful to have his arms around her. Maybe having him near isn’t such a bad thing. But the real question is…can the meddlesome cowboy be tamed?
One report is that the tie was created by Silversmith Victor Cedarstaff. It is said he slipped his hatband around his neck to keep from losing it while riding his horse on a windy day. Someone commented that he was wearing a nice tie which inspired him to create the bolo tie.
Now, Frank B. Gregg, he sold Fire,…Lightning and Tornado… Insurance – and he liked effusive punctuation. Okay, this was Kansas, so that tornado insurance probably came in handy. Suppose Aunty Em took out a policy with Frank?
