Misty Beller

Storytelling vs. Historical Authenticity?

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We’re pleased to welcome special guest author Misty Beller back to the junction!

I’m so excited to visit with y’all again! The Petticoats and Pistols family is one of my favorite places to hang out. 🙂

My latest releasing is Winning the Mountain Man’s Love, and I was excited to research a job I’d not studied much beyond what I’ve seen on a thousand old westerns. 🙂

Our heroine’s work in this story is as a gambler in the mining town of Missoula Mills. She had a sort of love/hate relationship with being a professional gambler, but that job plays a significant role in shaping her character and her journey.

But what was the reality of gambling in this time and place?

During the 1870s, the Montana Territory was a wild, untamed land, attracting adventurers, miners, and those seeking to make their fortune by profiting from the miners. With the influx of men and money, gambling became a prevalent pastime and a lucrative business. Saloons, gaming houses, and even street corners became hubs for various games of chance, including poker, faro, and dice.

For many, gambling offered a quick path to wealth, but it also led to addiction, debt, and desperation. The lack of regulation and high stakes often attracted unsavory characters, making the gambling scene a dangerous and unpredictable world.

Women like Patience, who found themselves caught up in this world, faced even greater challenges. They were often viewed as mere entertainers or worse, and their involvement in gambling was seen as a mark of moral failure. However, for some women, gambling provided a means of survival in a society that offered few opportunities for financial independence.

Despite the risks and the societal stigma, gambling continued to thrive in the Montana Territory throughout the 1870s. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that anti-gambling laws and reformers began to push back against the pervasive gaming culture.

Thankfully, Patience didn’t have to wait so long to leave the gambling world behind her, but that life certainly left its mark on her. I won’t share any spoilers, but I pray you enjoy Patience and Jonah’s story in Winning the Mountain Man’s Love! 🙂

I’m excited to give away a signed copy of this book! To be entered for the giveaway, I’d love to hear some of the interesting job’s you’ve seen women perform in historical fiction novels. Leave a comment below to share.  🙂

 

Winning the Mountain Man’s Love

In the wild mountains of the Montana Territory, the Coulter ranch is a place of family, second chances…and a hidden fortune.

Jonah Coulter can’t stand to watch his former fiancée build a life with her one true love. That’s the way it always happens for him—second child of six, second choice for love. He’s relieved to escape his family’s ranch to search for the aunt of a lost child he rescued. At least little Anna needs him. She deserves to be reunited with her last living relative.

Patience Whitman fled from her past and the man who killed her late husband. Now she’s reinvented herself in the untamed Montana Territory. Relying on her gambling skills to survive, she’s determined to earn enough to buy independence from the constant threat of men—she’s never met one who isn’t greedy, controlling, or violent. But when a stranger shows up and says his brothers have taken in her orphaned niece, Patience must go after Anna no matter the cost.

As Jonah and Patience navigate the treacherous landscape of their pasts and little Anna’s future, they must confront their deepest fears and learn to trust each other. But when danger catches up to them, they must risk everything to claim the happily ever after they both crave.

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Misty Beller Finds Inspiration

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The Fillies are so happy to welcome Misty Beller back with another new book! Scroll down for a giveaway.

Hey, y’all! I’m so excited to visit again! The Petticoats and Pistols reader family is one of my favorite groups to hang out with.

One of the things I love about writing stories set in the 1830s Rocky Mountains is that Eastern civilization hadn’t yet touched the frontier. The only people who lived in or visited the Rockies during that were Native Americans and mountain men (usually trappers, but sometimes just explorers).

One of my favorite stories from that time inspired part of my latest release, Calm in the Mountain Storm. Wanna hear the fun, real-life details?

From their limited experience with white people, two of the native tribes realized they wanted to learn more about the white man’s God and his “Book of Heaven” (the Bible). In 1831, a delegation of four Native Americans—two Nez Perce and two Flathead—showed up in St. Louis, Missouri, asking for someone to come and teach their people about God.

Over the next several years, a number of people went west as missionaries, including Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman, two well-known missionaries who settled in what would later become Oregon. Their story is fascinating too (and tragic), but is a whole post in itself.

From the first time I heard the story of the Indians showing up in St. Louis to learn about God, my writer mind started What if’s. What if a woman decided went west to share her faith with the natives. She couldn’t travel alone, so who would go with her? How would the tribes respond?  Gradually, the characters and storyline of Calm in the Mountain Storm developed in my head. Though the characters in this book are fictional, the events certainly could have happened!

When the heroine, Elise Lane, heard that the Indians wanted to learn about God and simply needed someone to come tell them, she knew she had to answer that call. Of course, her brother Benjamin couldn’t let her go into that danger alone, so together, they set out on an expedition they knew would likely change them forever. Elise doesn’t have any idea exactly how much!

I pray you enjoy reading the story of Elise and Goes Ahead, the Indian brave she meets who’s desperate for help getting his young children across the mountains. As with our hero and heroine in the story, I pray your faith is inspired!

About the Book:

This epic journey will test his ability to protect his children—and they’re all he has left.

Missionary Elise Lane returns with her team to the Rocky Mountain native tribe they serve to discover the entire village—including the children she’s come to love—has been massacred. A fierce brave standing at the edge of the devastation has taken the only surviving child.

Goes Ahead returns home with his son to find his worst fears have come true—his entire village has been slaughtered, including his wife. Only their infant daughter has survived. But there’s no time for grief or vengeance. He must get his children across the mountains to the protection of his family.

The last thing he wants is help from the white people who’ve brought this disaster on his village, but his babe is not yet four moons old. Her hungry cries prove he can’t make this journey without the white woman already nursing a babe of her own. But she refuses to come without the rest of her group, including the opinionated missionary who thinks she knows best for his children. As winter closes in and the mountains prove treacherous beyond anything Goes Ahead can control, only a strength and love greater than his own can save his children—and the woman he’s come to love.

From a USA Today bestselling author comes another epic journey through breathless landscapes and adventure so intense, lives will never be the same.

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Today, I’m excited to give away a copy of Book 1 in the series, Freedom in the Mountain Wind.

I’d love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite book settings?

Misty M. Beller is a USA Today bestselling author of romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love. Raised on a farm and surrounded by family, Misty developed her love for horses, history, and adventure. These days, her husband and children provide fresh adventure every day, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

Misty’s passion is to create inspiring Christian fiction infused with the grandeur of the mountains, writing historical romance that displays God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters. Sharing her stories with readers is a dream come true for Misty. She writes from her country home in South Carolina and escapes to the mountains any chance she gets.

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Misty M. Beller On Unusual Settings (and she has a giveaway!)

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Hey, y’all!

It’s always such an honor to spend the day with you! The Petticoats and Pistols reader family is one of my favorite places to visit.

Are you a fan of unusual settings in books? I’ve always loved western settings, especially in the mountains. (especially the Rocky Mountains!) My latest release, A Healer’s Promise, has an especially unusual setting—a secret village hidden in caves in the Canadian Rockies. They’ve been completely cut off from the outside world for a hundred years!

This series has been so much fun to write, and I’m often asked if the hidden village of Laurent was a real place. My answer is…it’s possible! J

I was listening to a historical podcast a few years ago that talked about the Vikings and the female warriors who would sometimes gain fame among them. As the hosts talked about the first Viking raids to North America, I started thinking… “What if one of those groups went farther west than any of us thought? What if they found the Canadian Rockies and lived there in a hidden community for centuries?” The thought took hold, and little by little, the idea for the Brides of Laurent series came to life. I eventually changed the village to be a French settlement named Laurent.

Much of the book takes places in the mountains just outside of the village of Laurent, and some of my favorite parts are the snowy winter weather, hiding in a cave, a horse named Chaucer who saves the day…

And of course, our hero and heroine!

From my mind’s first glimpse of Levi and Audrey, I fell in love with them both. Levi is a British spy, and he’s one of those really good guys. He’s strong and capable. A gentleman, who struggles to protect Audrey, especially when his very presence is part of what puts her in danger. And add in the British accent… (happy sigh)

Audrey is one of those caring people who give freely of themselves to help others—and she really loves doing it! She’s a born nurturer, which is one of the reasons she helps Levi escape instead of letting him face unjust punishment because of his background.

Of course, no one is perfect and these two have their share of personal struggles. But I love their hearts throughout the story. And of course, the way things develop to a sizzle between them! I think you’ll love being part of their story as it unfolds. And I hope you love the wild majesty of the Canadian Rockies as much as I do. J

Today, I’m excited to give away a copy of book one in the series, A Warrior’s Heart.
I’d love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite book settings?

Misty M. Beller

Available for preorder! A Healer’s Promise
USA Today bestselling author of romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love. 

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