Cowboys, Rodeo, & a Stray Dog

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I have to confess that I panicked last year when my publisher Jane Porter asked me to move from River’s Edge, my little town on the Ohio River to Marietta, Montana. I mean, holy schnikeys! Except for flyovers and the very urban Bay Area of San Francisco to visit our kids, I’d never been west of Mississippi, and now I was supposed to write in the mountains of Montana? About cowboys? And rodeos and ranches? Yikes!

To be honest, the only things I had going for me as I headed into this new writing territory was a love of and experience with horses, the fact that I’d read a lot of Tule Publishing’s Montana Born books, and a deep respect for Jane and the team’s marketing expertise. They’d never steered me wrong yet, so I took a deep breath and dove in. I even took a trip to Big Sky, Montana, in July with my pal, mystery writer Carol Light, just to get a feel for the setting. Wow, was that ever grand!

I was grateful that I was starting my Montana Born journey with three other romance authors, all of whom already wrote cowboys and Montana and ranches and rodeo. Our 4-book, 4-author series, Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys released one book a week throughout September of 2025. And we needed a theme that would run through the entire series—something that tied all the books together. Someone said, how about a stray dog? That was fine with me, so our little thieving pup first appears in Jeannie Watt’s Unforgettable Cowboy, turns up again in Nicole Flockton’s Headstrong Cowboy, and in Sinclair Jayne’s Rogue Cowboy. Each time, the little trickster is stealing something … and then disappearing. He is a sheltie/border collie mix and cute as can be! Check him out here.

Then my turn came. Because I am the last book in the series, I got to decide what would happen to the little dog we’d named Rascal—because he truly was! Husband and Son both said words to the effect of you can’t kill off the dog. Like I would ever do such a thing! I’ll grant you I’m more a cat person than a dog lover, but surely Rascal needed a happily-ever-after just like all our cowboys and their ladies. Sorry, I’m not going to tell you where that poor critter ended up. You’ll have to read the whole series, ending with my Forever Cowboy to find out. Just trust me … fairy tale ending are my specialty.

Hope y’all enjoy all four books in the Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys series—we sure had fun writing them! And here’s the best part: I have three more Montana Born stories coming up here in 2026! I got into the cowboy thing so much that I created my own Montana world—Juniper Falls Ranch, so although  Forever Cowboy may be book 4 in the Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys series; it’s Book 1 in the Juniper Falls Ranch series. Book 2, The Cowboy’s Comeback, released January 30, 2026. Book 3, Help Wanted, Cowboy releases July 7, 2026, and book 4, The Rancher’s Christmas Wife, which I’m currently writing, releases in November! And you know what else? I’m havin’ the time of my life in Montana! Come join me!

To whet your appetite for my Juniper Fall Ranch cowboys, how about we do a little giveaway? Just tell me below if you like to see pets–dogs, cats, parrots, hamsters, rabbits, really any kind of pet–in your cowboy stories? I’ll give away two e-book copies of Forever Cowboy to two lucky commenters!

Thanks for spending time with me today! See you next time!

It’s Yee-Haw Day!

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The fillies are riding in with news fit for sharing!

Sarah Lamb

I’m riding in to share this brand new release! It’s the next to last in my historical romance series taking place in Red Ridge, but each book stands alone on it’s own just fine too!

Gus Malone has spent years watching younger folks find their happy endings while his own heart stayed silent. He’s loved Glinda Stover from afar for longer than he cares to admit, but what does an aging cowboy with calloused hands and an empty wallet have to offer a woman like her? He can barely choke out a “good morning.” Asking her to take a moonlit walk is far beyond him.

Glinda Stover is a woman who built her own life, nail by nail, and pretended she never needed a soul. Then a stranger rides into Red Ridge with a claim that could destroy everything she’s worked for. Too old to start over, Glinda faces an impossible choice, especially when a piece of her heart is here, and belongs to a man who’ll never know.

As Gus and Glinda try to stop the stranger, their race against time turns into something neither expected. But when the dust settles and the truth comes out, will Gus finally find the courage to speak what’s been locked in his heart for years? Or will fear of losing her keep him silent forever? And if he can’t say it, will she?     Find it here to buy or read on Kindle Unlimited! 

Karen Witemeyer

I’m excited to share that my Christmas novella – A Star in the West – with my nerdy mathematics professor hero is a finalist for the prestigious ACFW Carol Award! YeeHaw!

I had so much fun writing this story, and it makes my heart smile to see that others are enjoying it so well.
And before this blog post went live, I learned of a second final. WooHoo! To Love a Beast is a finalist in the Faith, Hope, & Love Reader’s Choice Awards. I delighted that readers enjoyed my western spin on the classic Beauty & the Beast tale.

Shanna Hatfield

I’m thrilled to share I have a new wholesome western romance releasing this week!

He’s spent decades guarding his heart.

She’s spent a lifetime chasing the horizon.

Neither of them were prepared for love to catch them by surprise.

Widower Jason Price isn’t looking for romance. As a trusted pickup man for the Rockin’ K Rodeo Company, part-owner of his family’s ranch, and a proud grandpa, his days—and his heart—are already full. Love is for younger folks with fewer scars and more time.

Photographer Lainey Collins traded corporate life for the open road, capturing the faces and stories of everyday people. Living out of her travel van, she’s built a life of freedom, purpose, and just enough distance to keep her heart safe.

But when a chance meeting at a rodeo puts her in Jason’s orbit, everything begins to shift.

As Lainey sets out to create a book featuring the faces of the rodeo, she finds herself returning again and again—to the arena… and to Jason. What begins as a project turns into something deeper as sparks fly, laughter comes easy, and two guarded hearts start to open.

Falling in love is one thing.

But trusting it—and daring to build a future—is another.

Can a cowboy who’s learned to live without love and a woman who’s always kept moving finally find a place to belong… together?

Coming June 4!

Cheryl Pierson

PROUD MAMA ALERT! I am so excited to let y’all know that my daughter Jessica just graduated from the Oklahoma City University School of Law two weeks ago on May 16th!

Jessica had a whole other career/life happening when COVID hit and completely shut down the acting/casting agencies (including the one she worked for here in OKC) back in 2020 or so. She went back to school and received her psychology degree, and then was offered a full ride scholarship to the OCU School of Law.

It has been a very tough time the last three years for her, with having to work AND go to school full time, but she made it and we are just so proud of her. Here are a few pictures of her graduation day!

Jessica and me outside the graduation venue there on campus, just after it was over–(Mama sure looks tired…) LOL 

Family picture outside the graduation venue on campus–my d-i-l Kayla, daughter Jessica, husband Gary, me, and son Casey. Such a joyful day for all of us!  Just wanted to share with my P&P family here! YEEEEEE-HAWWWWW!

Cathy McDavid

I got some fun news last week. My second ever Harlequin book about a cowboy veterinarian and woman construction company owner/former trick rider called “The Family Plan” was reissued, along with two other authors, in a German trade book edition. My book was retitled “Mein Herz will zurtick zu dir” – which translates to “My Heart Wants to go Back to You”.

Tina Radcliffe Has Winners!

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Oh, my goodness, Miss Tina! We gave you plenty of boot shop names to choose from! That was fun.

Are you ready for the Drawing? I am.

One winner gets a grand prize with five other winners getting stickers.

Grand Prize Winner — DENISE

Stickers Winners:

SABRINA

ELLIE

JOYE

JUDY SEXTON

KAREN JENNINGS

Congratulations, Ladies!! We’re doing the happy dance. Now, watch for Miss Tina’s email!

 

Welcome Guest Author Tina Radcliffe!

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Good morning, Fillies!

I’m thrilled to be with you. I’m going to take you on a tour of Aspen Creek, Colorado, today. So grab your sunglasses and a bottle of water. Off we go!

Book one of a brand new, six-book series launches on May 26th. The Sheriff’s Secret Past introduces the town of Aspen Creek. I’ve lived in a lot of places, but my time in Colorado was the longest stretch in one place (18 years), and I’m excited to return.

Aspen Creek is in southern Colorado, a mere four hours from the New Mexico border. It’s in the San Louis Valley, near the Rio Grande River.  Located on the edge of the San Juan Mountains, the altitude is 7883. Remember, Denver is known as the Mile-High City at 5280 feet.

A delightful town full of quirky characters, Aspen Creek, is the cowboy version of Stars Hollow where the Gilmore Girls live. BTW, you can grab your own map on my website (HERE) and tour each shop on the aspen-lined streets.

There’s always room for new shops, and I’m thinking about a boot shop in town for a future book.

What do you know about cowboy boots? I thought a boot was a boot. Not true.

Here’s a list of varieties:

  1. Traditional/Western. Tall shafts, angled half-inch heels.
  2. Ropers. Lower square heel, shorter shaft. These are designed to protect the ankle.
  3. Buckaroo. Fancier with a higher heel and intricate stitching. Tall shaft to protect in tall brush.
  4. Western Work Boots. Rubber sole, reinforced steel toe box. Rounded toe shape.
  5. Packers. Lace up rugged work boots used by cowboys riding pack mules and horses in mountainous terrain.
  6. Cowgirl boots. No different than men’s except in women’s sizes and preferred colors.
  7. Booties. Short without a long shaft.
  8. Dress boots. Intricate stitching and embroidery.

 

Now all I need is a name for the shop. What are your thoughts?

In honor of my new shop, I’m giving away a cowboy boot mug along with a print or ecopy of The Sheriff’s Secret Past to one reader who comments today. US only.

I’ll also throw in five (5) boot stickers to an additional five readers. US and International.

 

Now, let me introduce you to The Sheriff’s Secret Past.

To give his family the perfect future…
He must face his past

There are only two things on Sheriff Chase Everett’s mind: his upcoming reelection, and adopting his sweet niece after his sister’s death. The last thing he needs to worry about is the new editor of the local newspaper digging into his past. Newcomer Emily Taylor is eager for a juicy scoop for the Aspen Creek Journal, and the handsome sheriff is the perfect subject. But Chase has a dark secret that he’s desperate to hide. He needs to keep his distance from the feisty journalist, which should be easy, until a dog and a little girl bring them together…

 

Did you know that you can read the entire chapter one HERE?

Here’s where you can grab your own copy

Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Sheriffs-Secret-Past-Uplifting-Inspirational-ebook/dp/B0FP9BHQFW/ref=sr_1_1?tag=pettpist-20?

Barnes & Noble  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sheriffs-secret-past-tina-radcliffe/1148152406?

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-sheriff-s-secret-past

 

And more fun! Book 2 already has a cover. A K-9 Christmas Blessing.

Thanks for spending time with me. I’ll be scouring your comments to find the perfect name for Aspen Creek’s new boot shop.

Be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter, as I’ll announce the name chosen THERE.

Publishers Weekly bestselling author Tina Radcliffe is an American Christian Fiction Writers Honor Roll member. She is also a five-time nominee for the ACFW Carol Award and a four-time ACFW Mentor of the Year finalist. Besides her novel-length fiction for Love Inspired, Tina has sold over three dozen short stories to Woman’s World Magazine. A former registered nurse and library cataloger, Tina is a frequent workshop presenter. She currently resides in Arizona, where she writes fun, heartwarming romance.

Stay up to date on all her releases and fun giveaways by signing up for her newsletter here. Visit her on the web at http://www.tinaradcliffe.com.

Catch Up With a Little History of Ketchup

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I have a good friend who puts ketchup on everything. And when I say everything, I mean it. I’ve watched her pour it all over her tacos and drown her macaroni and cheese in it. I’ve even dined with her in a Chinese restaurant when she’d asked the server for a bottle (sidenote: this created quite a scramble in the kitchen). Look, there’s nothing I like better than dipping my French fries in a pool of ketchup, but Chinese food? No way.

Well, apparently, my friend is more on track than me. Turns out, ketchup was likely invented in ancient China as a fermented fish sauce — though the original sauce, called ge-tchup or keu-chiap, differed vastly from the common table condiment we use today and wasn’t made from tomatoes. As with many Eastern delicacies, ketchup made its way to Europe via traders in the 1600s. There, it was mixed with various ingredients such as mushrooms, nuts, shallots, horse-radish, nutmeg, and even anchovies (yuck). Tomatoes were first incorporated into ketchup in the 18th century, and the modern version we all know and love came into popularity around the 1920s.

Interesting point, tomatoes were considered poisonous because their leaves contain toxic compounds. It wasn’t until the late 1600s when an English physician named John Gerard claimed cooked tomatoes, as opposed to raw ones, were edible. By the mid-1700s, English doctors were claiming tomatoes (or love apples) not only aided in the treatment of digestive and liver-related ailments, they were also an aphrodisiac. Eventually, tomatoes made their way to America where, according to Thomas Jefferson, British doctor John de Sequeyra introduced them to the commonwealth of Virginia. Sequeyra was reputed to say that a person who ate enough of these love apples would never die. Yet one more good reason for my friend to eat ketchup on everything.

Of course, eventually, the medical community came to dispute the tomato’s medical and performance enhancement properties. Tomato pills, which were touted to “cure all your ills”, soon disappeared from grocery store shelves. So where did that leave our ketchup, a.k.a. fish sauce?

Enter Henry John Heinz, who founded the H.J. Heinz Company in 1869. By the late 1800s, glassmakers figured out how to manufacture inexpensive glass flasks. This created a way for food companies to more easily transport their products ­— products like ketchup. Being a smart entrepreneur, Mr. Heinz saw an opportunity for his thicker, sweeter version, and I don’t think there’s a person in America today who hasn’t at least heard of Heinz ketchup.

So, where does ketchup fit into the old West you ask? Well, like most things, recipes and bottles traveled with pioneers and prospectors and homesteaders, along with tomato seeds and canned tomatoes. As you’d expect, cowboys added their own twist to this favorite table condiment, leaving out the sugar and adding spicy ingredients like peppers and onions. The perfect addition to flavor up a bowl of beans or a T-bone steak.

Sadly, for my friend, ketchup sales have been on the decline with salsa now outselling this former “cure for all your ills”. But don’t tell her. I’m sure she’ll ask for a bottle the next time we go out.

Fun question: are you a ketchup lover and, if yes, what food do you most like to put it on? Like I said earlier, I’m a French fry girl.

 

Tina Radcliffe Coming Friday!

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Our dear talented friend, Tina Radcliffe will arrive for a visit Friday, May 29, 2026!

She’ll tell us about the fictional town of Aspen Creek, Colorado where a brand new six-book series is set and give us some information about cowboy boots! It’ll be plumb interesting, I’ll bet’cha.

Her grand prize giveaway is a print copy of Book One plus a cowboy coffee cup and sticker. Five winners will only get the stickers.

So saddle up and head over come Saturday. You’ll have a passel of fun along with us!

Modern Conveniences and a Give Away

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My house. I loved it.

I lived off the grid for twenty-two years. We only lived two miles from power lines, also two miles off a main road, but the power company wanted $500,000 to take a power line to our house. We chose not to do that, so we created our power with a generator, first propane with a wind backup, and then diesel. I learned a lot of basic mechanics over the years because the one rule of generators is that they will fail, and usually at a very inconvenient time. Ask me why I flinch when the lights flicker. My fridge was propane and a whopping 7.7 cubic feet. It too failed every now and again, so I am now quite adept at fixing propane fridges.

Now that I have “regular” power, I have it easy. At my old house, I had to schedule laundry, ironing, showers, TV watching, hair drying, cooking with the electric oven, and using the microwave around the times that the generator was running–from whenever we got up to 10:00 in the morning, then from 4:00 in the afternoon to bedtime.  I could not use a crockpot. I did not charge my phone at night. Oh–I also had one of the first cell phones because the telephone company took eleven years to run a line to us. It was so big that it was mounted on the wall, and if you took it somewhere you had a special carrying bag like a brief case to hold it. All calls, incoming and outgoing, were 60 cents a minute. If a telemarketer called you, it cost you.

I did love the “simple” life and it was a great way to raise kids.  That said, it’s so nice to take a shower without tuning on the power. To cook when I want, sew when I want, make a phone call that doesn’t cost 60 cents a minute (that did change to a more reasonable price as cell phones became more common).

Would I go back? Let’s say this–I could go back. It’s a tougher life, and expensive, but doable, and there are some definite advantages. It’s really peaceful and at that time, before phones and battery powered laptops, you looked to other things to fill your time. And even though it was a challenging life in some ways, it was nothing compared to how rural people lived in the first part of the last century. Now those were tough people.

My question to you today, for a $10 Amazon gift certificate, is an offshoot from my topic.  Let’s say you have a cooking stove that needs no electricity, an ice box, and (wonder of wonders) indoor plumbing. No communication or entertainment devices. What modern convenience would you like to add to the mix?  For me, it would be electric lights.

Fashion on the Frontier

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There are few things as hopeful as a new dress.
Not a practical dress meant for scrubbing floors, hauling water, or feeding chickens. I mean a new dress. One sewn from carefully chosen fabric, trimmed with ribbon if one could afford it, and made for church socials, dances, weddings, or simply the pleasure of feeling pretty for an afternoon.

For women on the frontier, fashion was not frivolous. It was aspiration stitched into fabric.

Life in the West could be hard, dusty, and painfully practical. A woman might spend her days baking bread over a hot stove, mending shirts by lamplight, or battling wind that coated everything in dirt by noon. But even in rough mining towns and isolated homesteads, women still longed for beauty.  And when a new dress arrived? Oh, mercy. That was an event.

A woman might save for months to buy fabric from the general store, or eagerly await the arrival of a Sears Roebuck catalog to gaze at the latest fashions from back East. Imagine living in a tiny frontier town and suddenly seeing illustrations of elegant walking suits, velvet bodices, fitted jackets, lace collars, and sleeves shaped in the newest style. It must have felt like peeking into another world.

Sometimes dresses were ordered ready-made. More often, however, women sewed them at home or paid a local seamstress if they had the means. And frontier women could be remarkably resourceful. A dress might begin as one garment, then be altered and remade several times over its life. Skirts were recut. Bodices reshaped. Trims removed and replaced as fashions changed. Nothing was wasted.

Still, despite the practical nature of frontier life, women absolutely paid attention to fashion trends. Bustles, fitted waists, decorative buttons, embroidery, ruffles, and fine hats all made their appearance in western towns sooner or later. Even isolated communities wanted to keep up with the times.

And honestly? I love that.

There’s something deeply human about wanting a little beauty in the middle of hardship. I especially love imagining the excitement surrounding special occasions. A church social. A wedding. A town dance. A woman carefully pinning up her hair while smoothing her newest skirt, hoping the hem didn’t drag in the mud before she arrived. A husband pretending not to notice the new ribbon while secretly thinking his wife looked prettier than the sunrise.

Believe me, men noticed.

Oh, they absolutely noticed! I think that’s part of why dresses mattered so much. They represented more than fashion. They represented identity, femininity, dignity, and sometimes even hope. On the frontier, where life could become survival very quickly, putting on a beautiful dress was a reminder that a woman was still herself beneath all the work and worry. And let’s be honest… there is still a little frontier woman alive in most of us today.

Modern women may not wait six months for fabric to arrive by wagon train, but we still understand the thrill of finding the dress. The one that makes us stand a little taller. The one we smooth over our hips before turning to the mirror with a smile.

Some things never really change.

So now I’m curious…

If you could step into the Old West for one evening, what sort of dress would you wear to the town social? Something elegant and sophisticated? Bright and cheerful? Lots of lace? Or practical with just a touch of flair?

Remember & Honor – Memorial Day 2026

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“Memorial Day is a time to honor the brave men and women who gave everything to protect our freedoms. It’s not just about remembering their sacrifice, but about ensuring their legacy lives on in the values we uphold every day. We owe them more than a moment of reflection—we owe them our gratitude, our respect, and our commitment to preserving the liberty they fought for.”

Petticoats & Pistols