When Petticoats & Pistols invited me to guest post, I laughed a little. My novel doesn’t take place beneath the big skies of Texas or Wyoming—it unfolds among the ridges and hollers of Appalachian Tennessee. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized Appalachian and Western communities have more in common than we often think.
What is it we love about Western novels? The rural setting. Frontier life. Strong family and community ties. Traditional values. Characters overcoming hardships. And yeah, the cowboys are pretty cool.
The Appalachians may not be the American West, but both places share a common spirit—a spirit of independence, resilience, and community. Maybe that’s what we love about Western stories in the first place. It’s not necessarily the landscape. It’s the people.
That’s what my books are about. My other series is Western. This series is Appalachian. The locations are different, but the spirit is the same.
In my upcoming novel, The Teacher’s Mending Heart, both main characters face struggles that require grit and determination to see them through. Bethany Astor, a nurse who served overseas during World War I, moves to the Tennessee town of Laurel Ridge at the request of the Red Cross to serve a community torn apart by the war and other tragedies. While she wants to heal others, her own heart is in need of healing. Her fiancé was killed in the war and she closed herself to love. She just didn’t count on Dylan Harper, the town schoolteacher haunted by a terrible accident that took a student’s life and left him with a limp. He’s a bit of a golden retriever in contrast to Bethany’s level-headed calm. Her skill as a masseuse pulls them closer together and allow them to form a friendship.
Resilience is the characteristic that both characters demonstrate most. Both have something to lose if they give in to their feelings. For Bethany, it’s saying goodbye to her fiancé and the life she dreamt they’d have. Dylan has to let go of his feelings of unworthiness and open his heart.
They can’t do it alone, and that’s where the community comes in. The town is fighting for its survival, just as Bethany and Dylan are fighting their own battles. Friends offer support and love, sometimes tough love. The town council, of which Dylan is a part, works tirelessly to save Laurel Ridge. While shops are closing and people are moving away, the council knows Laurel Ridge can be saved. They do all they can to make sure their beloved town survives, all while loving their neighbors and relying on God’s help to get them through.
Maybe that’s why I don’t think you need a cowboy—or even a pistol—to write a story with the spirit of the West. When I first laughed at the invitation from Petticoats & Pistols, I was thinking about geography. Tennessee isn’t Montana. Appalachia isn’t the frontier West. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the heart of these stories isn’t about where they happen. It’s about the people who refuse to give up, the communities that rally around them, and the hope they find in one another. And that’s something we can all relate to—Western or otherwise.
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Giveaway
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1963212819?tag=pettpist-20
I’ll be giving away an e-book copy of The Teacher’s Mending Heart to someone who comments on this post. Sound off below, and let me know your thoughts—what is it you love about the spirit of the West? Do you think that spirit applies to other stories?
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Thanks for reading! God bless.
Lauralyn