Ladies thank you very much for having me back to visit at Pistols and Petticoats. On my last visit I wrote about what traits define a book as being a western historical romance. Today, I want to discuss the spirit inside my newest book One Night’s Desire.
Since One Night’s Desire is a romance a huge claim could be made that the spirit of the book is love. However, there’s more to this book than romance. The words of Chief Ranger Don Sholly, speaking about Yellowstone National Park as a resource also define the spirit of One Night’s Desire. Ranger Sholly said, “The resource is not twenty thousand elk, or a million lodgpole pines, or a grizzly bear. The resource is wildness. The interplay of all the parts of the wilderness. . . .” I would paraphrase that the spirit of One Night’s Desire is not the love that grows between Ev and Kiera, nor the fires, trials, and plots that endanger and unite them, nor the time period, nor the western setting, the spirit of One Night’s Desire is wildness. A union of all the parts of the story that creates an intensity so special no limits can contain it. Hundreds of examples of this wildness exist in the novel but none illustrates my point better than the wolves. The pair of wolves appears only briefly in the story but the appearances are pivotal. They appear at the moment when Ev and Kiera first make love. The pair appears again at the moment of greatest shared danger when it looks like Ev and Kiera won’t survive a forest fire. The pair appears once more when Kiera is forced to leave a badly injured Ev in order to save another life.
Why wolves? A number of reasons, beginning with the fact that these animals are true representations of the wild—you don’t tame wolves. They do mate for life. ”These creatures do mate for life in the social sense of living together in pairs but they rarely stay strictly faithful.”* Most important for One Night’s Desire the wolf is regarded by the Shoshone (who are Kiera’s friends) as very wise. Thus the wolf is a significant representation of the wild spirit embodied in One Night’s Desire.
Here are some interesting Wolf factoids drawn from the Yellowstone Trivia book:
Wolves once had the widest distribution of any land mammal in North America.
Wolves were completely absent from Yellowstone for 70 years until they were re-introduced in 1995.
Coyotes howl more than Wolves.
Wolves do not howl at the moon. They howl to attract a mate and they never howl while hunting.
*http://www.wonderquest.com/animal-mate-for-life.htm
Two Chances to Win a Free E-Download of One Night’s Desire.
Leave a comment here about this post, wolves, the national parks, or any topic you prefer AND/OR
Leave a review of one of my currently available books at Amazon. Just check my author page for book details
I’ll be collecting entries throughout the entire One Night’s Desire release tour (June 13 – July 29—find the schedule of appearances at http://rueallyn.com/4News.html). The winner will be announced July 31st on my blog http://rueallynauthorblog.com/.
If you’d like to know more about One Night’s Desire here’s the blurb followed by a link to an excerpt.
A WOMAN ON THE RUN: Rustlers, claim jumpers and fire, nothing will stop Kiera Alden from reuniting her family. But an accusation of murder threatens her dreams and sets Marshall Evrett Quinn on her trail. She may be able to escape prison bars and eventually prove her innocence, but she can’t escape Quinn’s love.
A LAWMAN IN HOT PURSUIT: Marshall Evrett Quinn is relentless in pursuit of law-breakers, and pretty Kiera Alden is no exception. Clever and courageous, she evades him until a chance encounter turns the tables. Finally he has this elusive desperado under arrest, but success is bittersweet when she captures his heart.
EXCERPT LINK: http://rueallyn.com/2c2ONDexcerpt.html
BUY LINKS: One Night’s Desire and its sister book One Moment’s Pleasure are heavily discounted at Amazon for the entire month of July
ABOUT RUE: Author of historical, contemporary, and erotic romances, Rue Allyn fell in love with happily ever after the day she heard her first story. She is deliriously married to her sweetheart of many years and loves to hear from readers about their favorite books and real life adventures. Learn more about Rue and her books at http://RueAllyn.com
FB: http://www.facebook.com/RueAllynAuthor?fref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RueAllyn
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5031290.Rue_Allyn
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rue-Allyn/e/B00AUBF3NI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Blog: http://rueallynauthorblog.com/