Barbour Publishing

DAUGHTERS OF THE MAYFLOWER SERIES by KIMBERLEY WOODHOUSE

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When Barbour asked me to anchor the Daughters of the Mayflower series and to write several books for the series, I was thrilled. And completely fascinated with the idea of following a family line through US history from the Mayflower all the way through WWII.

What I didn’t realize was what the research would do for me personally. I love history. Love the west. But what a thrill it was to learn so much more depth about our country’s great history.

 

 

 

For instance, in The Mayflower Bride, (1620) I had to use all the historical people who were actually on the ship and only fictionalized my hero, heroine, and her best friend. Research for this book, I must admit, was brutal. But oh, so worth it. One person in particular has caused hundreds of readers to write in: John Howland. His escapade of falling overboard that I used in the book, really did happen. How he managed to grab the topsail halyard is truly a miracle in and of itself. What’s the most interesting tidbit to me about his whole story is that he ended up having ten children, eighty-eight grandchildren and now? There’s almost two million descendants of his in the United States. Out of all the passengers aboard, he has the most descendants. By almost double. Imagine what would have happened if he had been lost to sea that day.

 

 

Then there was The Patriot Bride (1774-1776). Researching the American Revolution was extraordinary. But in my research, I became engrossed in biographies of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. So, of course, I had to use them in the story. You’ll have to read the book to find out about how I incorporated Ben’s quirkiness and use of “air baths” – and let’s not forget his love of swimming.

 

 

 

 

 

In The Golden Bride, I learned about all the ships buried beneath San Francisco’s streets, and how they expanded the city’s shoreline by building on the landfill. The gold rush of 1849 was not a time and place I would have enjoyed living in!

 

 

Which brings me to The Express Bride, my latest release in the series which takes place in 1860 during the impressive and short era of the Pony Express. For this book, the tagline is: The wilderness is a great place to hide…

 

 

 

 

And it was. The picture from Karen Rochon is a good idea of what the area looks like today – and back then. Hasn’t changed a whole lot. Except for electricity. ? She posted this picture in an avid readers group when she read my book. Can you imagine being that far from “civilization” back then? But the Pony Express stations had to be every 10-20 miles so that the riders had places to stop and eat/sleep, and so there were fresh horses since they rode at breakneck speeds. It cost a small fortune to send something via the Pony Express (approximately $145 equivalent today – to mail a letter!) and yet it was highly used.

 

IMG 3346 credit – Karen Rochon (this picture is about 50 miles east of the Carson Sink Station area from The Express Bride and is what the terrain looks like.)

 

A strong theme of forgiveness is woven through the story with the heroine finding out hidden secrets of her past. And there’s a bit of suspense and espionage too.

Through this series, it’s fun to explore significant events in US history and to find the love of family and friends standing the test of time. Make sure you check out all the other great authors in the series as well. The Express Bride released on July 1, 2019 and it is the 9th in the series.
Thanks for journeying with me today!

God Bless you!

Kimberley

 

 

Giveaway: Leave a comment about your favorite event in US history or your favorite historical character and you’ll be entered in the drawing. I’ll be giving away three signed copies of THE EXPRESS BRIDE along with other goodies.

THE GILDED AGE by JENNIFER UHLARIK

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Hello, Petticoats & Pistols readers! I’m so excited to be back with you today. I’m sharing a bit about an era in American history called The Gilded Age.

Many of you may already know what the Gilded Age is, but in case you don’t, it was the time period here in America occurring between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century (1865 until 1900). The term, “The Gilded Age,” came from Mark Twain’s novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Twain’s work satirized the many social problems of the era, which society had seemed to gloss over, as if with a thin layer of gold. While Twain’s book was published in 1873, the term didn’t come into use for this time period until the 1920s.

 

 

So what were some of the common issues that marked the Gilded Age?

  • Rapid economic, technological, political, and social transformation
  • Huge disparity between the rich and the poor across the country
  • Building and completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
  • Westward Expansion
  • Native Assimilation—forcing the Native American people to either assimilate into white culture or live on government-run reservations
  • An increase in European immigration
  • The formation of labor unions, which fought for worker’s rights, child labor laws, and eight-hour work days, among other things
  • An increase in popularity of some Christian denominations
  • An uptick in Christian missionary work
  • Social reforms, such as temperance movements or the Women’s Suffrage movement
  • An increase in women in the workforce
  • An increase in leisure activities like sports

And the list could go on.

I was excited to have the opportunity to write a novella for Barbour’s recently-released Of Rags And Riches Romance Collection. The theme of the collection is all about the Gilded Age. Each of the nine stories focus on the haves and the have-nots of society, although the stories aren’t all about romances between a rich person falling in love with a poor person. Sometimes the stories feature two working-class people falling in love, or two rich people finding romance together. But the theme of wealth—or the lack thereof—is prevalent in each story. And in most cases, the stories also delve into at least one, if not several, other themes of this period. Because the era was so broad—board in years, broad in location, broad in the changes that came about during this time—the stories are vastly different, offering quite the range of reading in one volume. The authors in this collection are: Susanne Dietze, Michelle Griep, Anne Love, Gabrielle Meyer, Natalie Monk, Jaime Jo Wright, Erica Vetsch, Kathleen Y’Barbo—and me, Jennifer Uhlarik.

My story, Union Pacific Princess, focuses on the themes of Westward Expansion, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and Native Assimilation. After her mother’s untimely death, my heroine, Dara Forsythe, leaves Boston to join her estranged father, a bigwig with the Union Pacific Railroad. But she experiences quite the culture shock when she steps off the train into a hell-on wheels railroad camp. All around her are tents, mud, and squalor. The one bright spot in the entire tent city is the poor, but charming hero—Gage Wells.

Gage is a Georgia farmer-turned-highly-skilled Confederate sharpshooter. At the Civil War’s end, he moved west to escape the memories of the conflict, but as the railroad plows across the territory he now calls home, he sees another conflict brewing—this time between the railroad, the white settlers, and his new friends, the Cheyenne. Gage’s plans to stop the railroad—and prevent a war—become far more complicated when he meets the intriguing rich girl, Dara Forsythe, and realizes she’s the daughter of his nemesis.

 

So there’s a snapshot of the Gilded Age—and the Of Rags And Riches Romance Collection. I hope you’ll check our stories out.

It’s your turn! Have you ever heard of The Gilded Age? Which of the various parts of the age that I listed above do you think you’d have been a part of, if you’d lived during that time—and Why? I would love to give one lucky reader an autographed print copy of Of Rags And Riches, so leave me your thoughts!

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won and finaled in numerous writing competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. She currently writes historical novellas of the American West for Barbour Publishing and works as a Content Editor for Firefly Southern Fiction. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

 

Copyright Info for steam engine photo:

© Leigh Warner

ID 10208093 | Dreamstime Stock Photos

 

Copyright info for train tracks:

© Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Copyright info for Author headshot:

© Emilie Anne Hendryx

 

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1683222636/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&tag=pettpist-20

 

MAY I PLEASE BORROW YOUR COWGIRL LIFE? by MOLLY NOBLE BULL

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People, especially western romance authors, have actually told me that they would like to borrow my life. Why? Because my maternal grandfather as well as my father were ranch foremen—real Texas cowboys, and I spent part of my growing up years on a sixty-thousand-acre cattle ranch in South Texas.

Some of the biggest ranches in the county, if not the world, are located in South Texas where I live—the King and the Kenedy ranches to name two. When I describe ranch scenes in my western romances, I am often describing something I have actually seen. And the history part? No problem.

I’m not telling my age here, but not getting any younger either. I’ve lived through a lot of changes and historic events, and the Lord has given me a good long-term memory, making it possible for me to recall these events and write about them.

My cowboy grandfather was a man named Seth. He’s the cowboy on the horse, and I’ve always liked his name. In fact, I named the hero in one of my westerns, Seth.

 

In South Texas, we call a row of cowboys on horses, the line up. Here is my grandfather again in the line up, waiting to go and work cattle horseback.

Probably the best western I’ve written so far is When the Cowboy Rides Away. It won the 2016 Texas Association of Authors contest in the Christian Western category and was a finalist in the Will Rogers Awards in the inspirational category that same year. God willing, I will continue to write novels and novellas until He takes me home.

Barbour Publishing published The Secret Admirer Romance Collection in May 2017, nine novellas by nine different authors. My novella was a historical western set in the Texas hill country titled “Too Many Secrets.”

Cinderella Texas takes place on a South Texas ranch in the same location as the setting for When the Cowboy Rides Away but in modern times. My agent published Cinderella Texas in June 2017.

Now, let’s talk about my cowgirl life. First of all, my family didn’t own the ranches I lived on. My father and grandfather worked there. But it didn’t really matter since I could ride out horseback whenever I liked, listen to the coyotes yapping a night after all the lights were out, go swimming in a water tank in the middle of a cow pasture, or pick wildflowers to my heart’s content.

But for me, dating was a problem before I met my future husband. A boy had to really like me to drive twenty or thirty miles on country roads just to go out with me when there were plenty of town girls to pick from. Once one of my dates finally arrived at the ranch where I lived, he had to—open, drive through, and then close four to seven gates just to reach our house. I remember sitting on the front porch at night waiting to see the first blink of car-lights in the distance. I knew that when I saw that first blink, my date would arrive in about twenty minutes. That’s what is meant by “living in the sticks.”

And if you would like the opportunity to borrow my cowgirl life, buy and read one of my Christian western romance novels. Better yet, read them all.

After having lived in isolated areas for much of my life, I love to talk to folks. So, stop by, chat and leave a comment.

Molly Noble Bull is a Christian author with a Texas cattle ranch background, and she has published with Zondervan, Love Inspired, Elk Lake Publishing, and Barbour Publishing. Several of her novels won contests for published authors. She has lived most of her life in South Texas or the Texas hill country, but most don’t know that she also lived in Germany for a year when her husband was in the United States military.

 

 

 

 

 

Molly is giving away a free paperback copy of either The Secret Admirer Romance Collection or When the Cowboy Rides Away to a contest winner with a address in the United States. She is also giving away a Kindle copy of Cinderella Texas.

To learn more about my books and ranch life through my eyes, please visit my website at http://www.mollynoblebull.com or my page at Amazon, http://bit.ly/mollynoblebull