Lone Star Legends series

Ahh, Let the Fresh Air in!

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My newest book A MAN OF LEGEND is now available everywhere. This is Book 3 of the Lone Star Legends series and brings it to a gripping conclusion.

Quite a bit of research was necessary, some because I wasn’t sure about the early 1900s as I’d never set a book during that time period. It was really an interesting time with thousands of inventions and improvements in just about every part of life. Automobiles were just beginning to be driven and phones used.

One thing I wanted to add that I had questions about were screen doors and windows. In the 1880s, when diseases caused by mosquitoes and flies began to reach the public, folks started paying attention and installing screens. Then by the 1890s, companies began to mass produce and make them rust-poof and they really took off.

Since my story is set in 1908, I put them on the doors and windows at ranch headquarters of the Lone Star. I mention them quite a bit since Stoker Legend refused to have very much to do with innovations. Up in years at 83, he preferred the old ways.

A lot of people, including Charles Goodnight, slept on screen-in porches. A lot of folks did.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have air-conditioning and always slept with the windows up and doors open in the summer. I can still smell the fragrant night air coming in. I loved that smell. That was some good sleeping. It’s too bad those days are gone now, replaced by manufactured air.

Do you have any favorite memories of a screened porch or open windows? And sometimes we could overhear things we weren’t supposed to. I’m giving away three more copies of A MAN OF LEGEND so leave a comment.

About the book

Crockett Legend has always loved Paisley Mahone, but a family feud sure can ruin a romance. When her father turned against the powerful Legend clan, she took her family’s side and broke Crockett’s heart into pieces. Now her father’s dead and Paisley and her last remaining brother are convinced the Legends are to blame.

If only he can find a way to prove their innocence…

A chance meeting throws the couple together, and when their train is held up by outlaws, Crockett and Paisley have to team up to save a young boy from dying. A tenuous truce is born. Together they may have a chance of bringing the truth to light…if they can get to the bottom of who’s been trying to turn the two powerful families against each other. With so many secrets to unbury, it isn’t long before Paisley finds herself in the crosshairs, but Crockett vows there’ll be hell to pay if anyone hurts the woman he loves…or stands in the way of a Legend in the making.

Here’s my book trailer:

 

 

Joined by a Fence

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It’s a fact that communication on a large ranch was one of the biggest problems. At times it was crucial to get some way to relay information to the cowboys on the range as quickly as possible. Or for them to notify headquarters in the event of a medical emergency or wildfire. Before the late 1800s, it was done by sending a fast rider out.

I found an interesting article in my Texas Electric Co-op magazine about this and have to share.

One of the largest ranches in the world was the massive XIT in the Texas Panhandle at over three million acres, all fenced. That’s hard to fathom. The powers that be there heard about a way of attaching a very basic form of telephone onto the barbed wire fences and letting the wire carry the transmission. Though the quality was horrible, it sure proved to be a blessing. And all at no charge. They didn’t have to pay the phone service anything and they could even connect neighboring ranches with each other.

Later, when the phone company began to provide rural service, they took that idea and used existing power lines instead of stringing new.

I have a new release on March 29th—A Man of Legend. It takes place in 1908 in the middle of an industrialization boom and although the patriarch Stoker Legend wouldn’t allow telephones or automobiles on the Lone Star Ranch, they were widely available.

There’s a crucial scene near the end of the book where Crockett Legend needs to get word quickly to his grandfather of the trouble and bemoans the lack of telephone access. It all works out and Crockett had to hitch a ride in an acquaintance’s new automobile to arrive in time to help save the day.

Here’s a short excerpt from that scene:

Crockett glanced up into John’s laughing eyes. The only person the man would do a favor like this for was Farrel Mahone. His gut twisted, and he broke out in a cold sweat. Suddenly, it all made sense. John was supposed to get Crockett off the ranch. He froze.

Farrel was going to make good on his promise to kill either Paisley or Hilda or both.

Or maybe he intended to abduct Tye. Maybe all three. 

Crockett stood so fast, he knocked his chair over. He had to get to a telegraph. He hurried out and collided with a woman in the hall. “Pardon me, ma’am. This is life and death.”

Cursing the fact that Stoker had yet to install a telephone at headquarters, Crockett rushed down the street and sent a message to the Lone Star.

“I’ll wait for a reply,” he told the operator. Ten minutes passed. Crockett paced, praying for a miracle. Then the machine began to tap while the man scribbled it down.

“Here you go.” The operator handed the paper to him.

Too late. Boy has disappeared, and women riding to get him back.

A moment later, Crockett fired off another, asking about his dad. The return message said he and Stoker had gone to Medicine Springs to pick up a shipment.

He sagged. Too late. He read the first message again. What women? Paisley and Hilda? Where were the men? Had they all left the ranch? He thrust a hand through his hair. He had to get home.

“Isn’t there a noon train to Medicine Springs?” he asked the operator.

“Not today.”

“Thank you.” Crockett‘s thoughts whirled. He couldn’t wait that long. He was eighty miles away. If he bought a horse and rode it hard, he still wouldn’t make it by dark. He’d have to wait on the train. That would get him to Medicine Springs by eight, then forty-five minutes to the ranch.

That was it. All the air went out of him. Whatever was going on, the women were on their own. He dropped into the nearest seat and put his head in his hands.

* * * *

I put a talking parrot named Casanova in this book that provides a lot of comical relief. He is quite taken with Paisley Mahone and fancies himself her boyfriend. And since Paisley becomes a nurse on the ranch, there are heartwarming scenes with her patients. Crockett watches all with love in his heart for this special woman.

Click HERE for more information and a longer excerpt.

This is the first series I’ve written set in the 1900s. What is your favorite time period to read? Do modern conveniences bother you? I’m giving away a copy of A Man of Legend (print or ebook) to three people who comment.

This book concludes the Lone Star Legends. I have another exciting project that’s completely different that I’ll talk more about in the coming days so stay tuned.

Excuse Me, What’s Your Name?

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This question wasn’t asked much on the American frontier and if you were so bold, you were liable to get shot. The old West offered a man a place to disappear into and leave behind whatever trouble he found himself in.

It was super easy and there was no way to check on anything. No telephone. No internet. No Social Security numbers. Nothing. It was perfect.

There were probably hundreds of men back then looking to change their identities and disappear and did. Outlaws checked into hotels and boardinghouses under an alias as did some politicians and famous people.

In my upcoming release, A Cowboy of Legend, Deacon Brannock has taken a fake name in order to disappear. All is well and good until firebrand Grace Legend marches into Hell’s Half Acre with burning determination to shut his saloon down. She’s a member of the Temperance Society and hellbent on running him out of business.

But, here’s the thing…Grace is also a reporter and writes a weekly column under an alias. Like a bloodhound, she discovers that Deacon Brannock is hiding a juicy secret. Oh, I love it!

A Cowboy of Legend contains a lot of secrets. Writing about secrets is fun for an author. Where there are secrets there’s conflict and those are what drives a story. I just love it when a book contains mysteries. I can’t turn the pages fast enough.

BLURB

Deacon Brannock is determined to make a name for himself and the saloon he’s worked his whole life to afford. He was prepared for the roughness of the Wild West, but he hadn’t counted on Grace Legend…

Grace has always fought passionately for what she believes in, and after her best friend is killed at the hands of her drunk, angry husband, that includes keeping alcohol out of her town. When the owner of the new saloon turns out to be a kind and considerate man, she can’t help but wonder if they could have a future together…if they weren’t on opposite sides of every issue.

This is Book 1 of a new series called Lone Star Legends and releases April 27th. Book 2 – A Cowboy Christmas Legend follows in Sept.

My question: If you could change your identity and disappear, would you? I think I’d chose to be Sierra or maybe Summer or Sapphire. What would you choose?