The Cowboy Who Came Calling

Happy Accidents That Turned Out

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Just about everyone on the planet has heard of John Steinbeck, the author of Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 which laid to rest any doubts about his abilities. He based his books on events and characters of the time and readers snapped up new works.

But did you know his dog Toby ate the manuscript Of Mice and Men? Toby destroyed the only copy Steinbeck had, all that work of finding the right words to fill the pages gone. If only Steinbeck had a computer and thumb drives back then!!

The dog got swatted with the flyswatter and Steinbeck started over. Back then, a writer had to type everything or write in longhand. I’m not sure, but I think he had a typewriter.

Some writers might’ve thrown in the towel but not him. After writing his agent in May 1936, to inform him of the setback, he started over in new surroundings and inspiration flowed. He finished the book and submitted it a mere three months later in August. He didn’t have a lot of faith that the book would amount to anything. He called it mediocre. However, the book released in Feb. 1937 and was a wild success.

After that, he wrote While Travels With Charley and it gave the ailing author one last bestseller. So everything worked out.

I can relate to this. True story. I was writing a contracted book, The Cowboy Who Came Calling, and had completed the first half. I came home from work to find my husband had deleted the book from my computer. He’d been getting rid of files that were no longer needed and happened to get my story.

A huge lump formed in the pit of my stomach. All that work vanished, every single word, and I was writing under deadline like Steinbeck.

To give you an idea of the total devastation, I’d been losing vision and my doctor warned he might not be able to stop it. So this story was about a woman losing her sight after getting kicked in the head by an animal and I had become the character. I put myself in Glory Day’s shoes and wrote what I was experiencing. It was taking a lot out of me emotionally to say the least.

But, you know, when I began writing the book again, inspiration grew by leaps and bounds. The story turned out far better than it was to start with. I don’t know what it is that kicks in but it’s just amazing. My editor loved the story and it went on to win the National Readers Choice Award.

Sidenote: My neurologist did save most of my vision. And from then on, I saved everything in multiple places and on various devices. I did forgive my husband. He didn’t do it maliciously and felt so badly. He really went all out in showing his remorse.

I’ve recently published my 50th book with my newest western called Creek so that was a good lesson learned. I never lost anything else.

Have you ever lost something, doesn’t have to be on the computer, that held value for you? I’m giving away two copies of Creek so leave a comment.

For more fun and information, check out our Petticoats &Pistols Reader Group on Face Book HERE.

A New Cover Reveal and Pearly Whites

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I’m so excited to share a brand new cover! This book has a long history with the idea to write it coming over ten years ago. I wrote it back in 2012 and it sat in my computer untouched because I got the contract with Sourcebooks which set me off in a whirlwind of writing my westerns. So when they stopped publishing genre fiction, I remembered this story and got it out. It’s gone through five titles before I settled on LOVE’S FIRST LIGHT.

This is my first Christian Western Romance so I’m crossing my fingers that readers will like it.

It’s just up for preorder! Click HERE for the link.

Here’s a Blurb:

Rachel Malloy awakens with a stranger after suffering a devastating accident. He bears no resemblance to her perception of God, nor does he have a halo so she must not be dead. Regardless, after taking her entire family and leaving her, she and God are not exactly on speaking terms.

Rancher Heath Lassiter has prayed fervently and long for a wife. Is she the one? The appearance of a rare white dove shortly afterward seems to be a sign.

Despite Heath’s unwavering faith and kindness, Rachel refuses to marry him. Dark secrets haunt, secrets that blacken her name, making marriage to anyone impossible. Though disappointed, Heath rebuilds her burned-out house. There, her world again shifts with the discovery of a newborn near her family’s graves and a white dove perching nearby.  

Love grows as Heath becomes a constant in her life. Yet Rachel lives in fear of losing this baby. When the infant becomes very ill, she desperately promises God she’ll return to her forsaken faith if He’ll heal the child. But first light brings uncertainty. Will the dove return as a symbol of divine mercy, or will Rachel’s fragile faith be shattered once more?

Again… to PREORDER Click HERE!!

Now, I want to talk about early toothbrushes. Writers rarely mention things like outhouses, taking care of business, or brushing teeth.  Readers just want a story.

But in my book The Cowboy Who Came Calling, Glory Day, my heroine, is so envious of the rich girls who have toothbrushes and tooth powder. So Luke McClain who’s taken a liking for Glory buys her one. Incidentally, this book won the National Readers Choice Award.

 

So about toothbrushes…people found a way to care for their teeth as far back as far back as Ancient Egypt. They made a powder out of ox hooves and egg shells. The Romans one-upped them by fraying the ends of thin sticks.

Photo compliments of Delta Dental of NJ.

Then the Chinese got into the act and drilled holes in a bamboo handle and attached short hog hair bristles secured with wire.

Compliments of The British Museum

So fast-forward to 1938 when DuPont came out with nylon fibers and I’m sure people were really thankful they didn’t have to use the hog hair bristles anymore! I sure would’ve breathed a sigh of relief! But curiously, it wasn’t until soldiers came home from WWII that everyone took personal hygiene seriously. Evidently the military taught them a lot more than just putting bullets in a gun and firing. They became dedicated teeth-brushers. Wow! That’s something I did not know.

Okay, let’s chat. What do you think about my cover? About these ancient toothbrushes? Whatever you want to say. I’ll give away a copy (either print or ebook) of The Cowboy Who Came calling to a lucky commenter. Word of warning…this isn’t an inspirational. It has love scenes.

Epitaphs Tell a Story

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I guess it’s the writer in me but I always love strolling through a cemetery. The buried stories are too many to number and I always wish I knew them all.

I can get a pretty good idea from the epitaphs carved on tombstones. Some are sad and some are hilarious, revealing a sense of humor. I wrote about a Texas Ranger once who was thinking about his epitaph and what he might be remembered for. It was in The Cowboy Who Came Calling with Luke McClain.

Here’s what he came up with: Here lies Luke McClain, he was one hell of a lawman. He fought injustice and crime wherever he found it. He gave generously of himself to make the world a safer place. He lived well and loved hard. He will be missed.

Of course, Glory Day told him he didn’t need to write a whole book. Her’s was: She lived. She died. End of story. 

The epitaphs told so much about each of them. Glory was going blind so she was at a low point in her life.

         

Here are some favorite ones that I found:

Old Ma Walker, Non stop talker, Ran out of breath, Talked herself to death

Here lies Shawn O’Toole, kicked in the head by an ornery mule

Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a .44. No Les. No more.

Here lies George Johnson hanged by mistake 1882. He was right, We was wrong. But we strung him up and now he’s gone.

Here lies a man names Zeke. Second fastest draw of Cripple Creek

They abounded in riches. But she wore the britches.

Here lies Rosalie Tanner. A woman that spent most of her life on her back

 

 

I’ve often thought about what I would say on my tombstone. Maybe something like “I laughed. I cried. I lived.” Or maybe the opening lines of my book Forever His Texas Bride: “A plan? Definitely not dying.” 

What would you say on yours? Leave a comment to enter the drawing for one of 3 autographed copies of THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING.

 

 

Come With Me To Santa Anna!

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Settings are very important to me in my stories and when I can, I go to visit the land. I stand, close my eyes and listen to what the wind tells me. Often I hear voices long past whispering in the breeze and I know this is what I’m supposed to write.

In the back of The Cowboy Who Came Calling, I explain that everything I put in the story is historical fact. I think readers want to know that.

This story is set in the small town of Santa Anna, Texas in the central part of the state. Both the town and the nearby mountain were named for the Comanche war chief, Santanna. He was an important chief and the first of his tribe to visit Washington, D.C. There, he saw what his people were up against and began advocating for peace. He was struck down and died in a cholera epidemic in 1849.

Here are the Santa Anna Mountains in the distance. Not very high at all. Most probably wouldn’t even call them a mountain range.

This monument was erected by the state to mark the site of Camp Colorado. It was part of a line of forts built in the 1800s to protect settlers against the Indians. There wasn’t anything left when I last visited here. It’s on private land now. Luke McClain joins a gang who use the old fort as a hideout in my story.

The town (only 8 miles from Coleman, TX) was never very large and today the population is a little over a thousand people. Here is a very old building and an old crumbling wall.

 

The picture below shows the thick vegetation and in the distance, the ridge of Santa Anna Mountains above the treeline.

Below is Bead Mountain that I mention in the story is actually a sacred Indian burial ground. When it rains, colorful beads wash down the sides. It’s actually reputed to be haunted.

Okay, that’s a quick look at my setting. I apologize for the poor quality pictures.

Here’s your question: How often do you look on the map for the place a story is set when you’re reading? Do you feel cheated just a bit when you find it’s a made-up place? I’m giving away four copies (winner’s choice of print or ebook) of The Cowboy Who Came Calling. Comment to enter the drawing.

A Cowboy Will Soon Come to Call!

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Sometimes events in my life inspire a story. That was certainly true with Knight on the Texas Plains and my little playmate who’d been won in a poker game. And now again with THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING (Book #2 Texas Heroes series.)

When I wrote this story in 2002, I was locked in a battle to keep my eyesight. I’d been diagnosed with MS and the disease was determined to steal my vision no matter what doctors did. Each day found a drop in the things I could see. Then, I woke one morning unable to see anything but shapes and shadows. My neurologist put me in the hospital, gave me bags of steroids, and was able to bring much of it back. Although I still struggle with eyesight, I can do almost everything I want today.

In The Cowboy Who Came Calling, Glory Day is slowly going blind and this terrifies her. She’s the sole support of her younger sisters and her mother. If she doesn’t hunt, they don’t eat. To make matters worse, the bank is trying to take their farm.

On the trail of a wanted outlaw, Glory shoots former Texas Ranger Luke McClain then has to take him home with her and fix him up. She desperately needs the reward money to pay the bank and try to get her father out of prison before she loses all her vision. Luke desperately needs the outlaw as well in order to clear his name and get his job with the Texas Rangers back. But the outlaw Mad Dog Perkins slips away.

As Luke recuperates in the Day household, he sees all the things in bad need of repair and begins to make himself useful as soon as he’s able. Glory sees his help as pity and it gets under her skin so she starts calling him Mr. Fixer. But her deep irritation comes from attraction to him. He won’t want a blind wife.

The Cowboy Who Came Calling is in the vein of Little Women and Glory reminds me so much of Jo March. She’s embodied with such courage and strength. The book is a reissue and releases Feb. 6.

I have a Goodreads Giveaway going until release day. Here’s the link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35023957-the-cowboy-who-came-calling

(You have to have a Goodreads account or the giveaway won’t show.)

More News!!

The e-book version of Knight on the Texas Plains (Book #1 of this Texas Heroes series) is on sale for $1.99 until Monday, January 22nd on all outlets. Click HERE for the Amazon link.

Book #3 Texas Heroes — To Catch a Texas Star — releases July 2018.

My question:

Can you tell by maybe added depth when a story is inspired by an event in a writer’s life? Do you enjoy stories a little better when you know they came from an author’s life?

Two people who comment will win a copy of my handy-dandy 2018 calendar.

 

Real Life That Inspires

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It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books – KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING – came from real life experiences. I didn’t know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn’t know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor’s girl wasn’t really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn’t work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must’ve been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I’d be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn’t know how I’d do that.

And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft.

A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose.

Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who’d just buried his wife and son. He’s wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of.

On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She’s hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he’ll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked.

Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn’t count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she’s wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have.

Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible.

This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for $2.99. I’m so glad that readers who didn’t get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of “Knight on the Texas Plains,” I knew I had to write a story about Duel’s brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn’t know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write.

In Luke’s story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family’s sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she’s developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory’s vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn’t know how she’ll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn’t going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory’s life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not.

He’ll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does.

Today, I’m happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory’s character.

The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of $2.99.

Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything.

I’m giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.

Petticoats & Pistols