Twice a Texas Bride

Linda Broday’s Highlights of 2015

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I always enjoy looking back at the end of the year and measuring my progress. Each year needs to show how far I’ve come. If it doesn’t then I slept through it. No sleeping for me this time. Man, I was busy! But 2015 was a stellar year. For the first time in my life I had three new releases–all in my Bachelors of Battle Creek series. January started off with a bang with TEXAS MAIL ORDER BRIDE. The month of May saw TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE and December wound up the series with FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE.

Bachelors of Battle Creek BANNER

I also did quite a bit of traveling. Put a lot of miles on my car and on my body too!

My trip to New York City lingers in my mind as one of the best places I’ve ever gone. I’d always yearned to see it just once before I died. And I did. I toured the Sourcebooks Publishing NY office, did a walking tour of the financial district, saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Statue of Libertysm

George WashingtonsmTimes Square at Nightsm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not all was related to my career. Our family had a family reunion in East Texas and that was fun. I won the Hula-Hoop competition. I beat out my little sister. My oldest daughter got married and my oldest granddaughter graduated from Texas Tech University Suma Cum Laude.

M&R

Melinda and Katie

 

I wound up the year back in Dallas at Richardson when I attended the annual Buns and Roses Literacy Event. So much fun.

My Christmas celebration was low-key. I dragged out my Charlie Brown tree that I’ve had forever and hung little cowboy boots and hats on it. Then I sat a bunch of little doggies wearing six shooters and deputy badges on their vests around it with my cowboy statue guarding everything.

Boot Tree

In between all the travel and book releases I enjoyed being with my friends. I have some of the best friendships ever made.

But now I’m ready to get back to work. I need to finish up book #2 of my Men of Legend series and get the third one written. I’m really loving this series that has the big feel of Bonanza about it. A father and his three sons live on a huge ranch called The Lone Star. Their last name is Legend. I think readers will love it. And I have to turn in a proposal for another series that will come after Men of Legend. One thing about it, writers never have much time to sit around twiddling their thumbs. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

 

Are Writers Really Poets and Liars?

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Linda2015Many of us in the writing profession take our imaginations for granted. I know I do. I’ve always had it and my thoughts are as much a part of me as the beat of my heart. Without imagination to dream up great scenarios, our stories would be as riveting as a plumber’s manual.

 

But what really is imagination? Where does it come from? Any thoughts?

 

Ambrose Bierce an editorialist/journalist and short story writer in the 1800s states, “Imagination, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership.”

That certainly fits.  Writers take a kernel of thought and fabricate a story around it with engaging characters and make us believe it definitely could happen.

 

stack-of-booksDavid Hume, an 18th century Scottish philosopher, became enthralled with human mental activity. He concluded that impressions in our brains are copies of actual things we have seen, felt, heard or read about. According to him we have no original thoughts. For instance – a blind person may know the word blue but he cannot associate it with an image. Therefore, he has no thought of what the color looks like. Same with a deaf person in relation to sound. According to him our ideas are nothing more than copies of impressions.

 

What! I think that’s a bunch of malarkey. What about Jules Verne’s submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? Or his novel, Paris in the Twentieth Century where he describes subways, gas stations, a fax machine? What about any number of other authors who accurately portray things far before their time?

 

It makes me wonder about Divine inspiration. I think some ideas defy logic.

 

Dog ReadingHume did acknowledge that nothing is more free than the human imagination. “Our minds have the power to mix, compound, separate and divide all of our ideas into a variety of fiction and vision.” Now, there you go. I totally agree with that. We have untold avenues of creativity. I fear I’ve only tapped into a small portion of ideas that float around aimlessly in my gray matter, waiting for me to draft them into a story.

 

I don’t know about you, but all this thinking wears me out. I think I’ll relax and curl up with a generous portion of imagination in a good book.

 

On second thought, I think I’ll put some of those fat, juicy ideas to work. After all, they’re only soaking up gray matter.

 

I can lie with the best of them and make readers believe it can happen!

 

Do you have good imagination? What vivid worlds did you visit as a child? Ever have a make believe friend?

 

It’s only a short wait until FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE (the third and final book of my Bachelors series) comes out on December 1st. If you haven’t read the first two of the series, you still have time. Start with book #1 TEXAS MAIL ORDER BRIDE. Click on the covers and they’ll take you to Amazon.

Mail Order Bride

Twice a Texas Bride

ForeverTexasBridemed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you’d like to receive my newsletter, you can register on the home page at http://lindabroday.com/. The link is top right.

Or you can drop me an email at linda (at) lindabroday (dot) com and I’ll add you.

Weddings and Memories

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Nothing makes my heart melt quite like weddings. I ALWAYS cry. There’s something about two people starting this new life together. They’re full of hopes and dreams, unable to see the trials and hurdles to jump over ahead. But I know they’ll be there.

Getting married was serious business with me.

M&R2I’ve been married twice and both husbands have now passed over.

The first time was a private ceremony with a preacher. No guests. The second was at the Justice of the Peace. So I don’t know anything about being married in a huge church with hundreds (often thousands) of guests except through my oldest daughter. This is a picture of her with her new hubby.

My parents married during the Depression on April 14, 1934 at the JP. They were homeless and living in a migrant camp. Mama had to borrow a pair of shoes from one of the women because she didn’t own any and she wore an old dress. Daddy wore overalls.

They faced hard times aplenty. But they dreamed of owning a real house someday.

It took them seventeen years.

Though the doctors told my daddy he was sterile from having rheumatic fever when he was a boy, they had a baby girl two years after tying the knot and went on to have five more. One was stillborn. (In the lineup, I was kid #5.)

Twice a Texas BrideIn my newest, TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE, Rand Sinclair and Callie Quinn married the first time so they could keep an orphaned baby. Callie borrowed a dress from Delta Dandridge who married Cooper Thorne in the previous book.

Neither Rand or Callie voiced love for each other, though they had it tucked deep in their hearts.

Callie made it clear she wouldn’t sleep in his bed, but Rand made her promise to kiss him each night before they went to their separate rooms.

They married again at the end of the book for real in front of lots of guests and the three children who made up their patchwork family.

Now, I’d like to hear about your wedding tales (either yours or someone else’s.) I’ll give away one copy (any format) of either book in my Bachelors of Battle Creek series.

And don’t forget…Book 3 of the series- FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE – will be out on December 1 of this year! I’ve saved the best for last!

What!! Clothes For Your Walls?

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Linda Brodaypink flowersI love wallpaper. Always have. I still remember the flowered kind that covered the walls in the bedroom I shared with my little sister in the 1950s. The image on the right is similar to it.

Back then, everyone used wallpaper and it must not have been something only for the privileged because our parents didn’t have squat. That paper had to be awfully cheap and my mama and daddy pasted it on themselves.

To me wallpaper is like clothes for the walls.

Here are some that you’ve probably seen.

1800s wallpaper

vintage

Pink wallpaper

 

 

 

 

 

 

It can set a mood. Fun? Whimsical? Sassy? Daring? Elegant?

elegant wallpaper

pretty wallpaperwallpaper2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bordello? Funeral parlor? The first sample is from Downton Abbey.

downton abbey wallpaper

red wallpaper

green

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Twice a Texas Bride, Rand Sinclair buys a rundown ranch. Everything needs tons of work and the house is no exception.

After he finds Callie Quinn hiding in one of his outbuildings in the dead of winter and hires her to cook for him, he talks her into sitting in the parlor with him. One night after a long cold day while relaxing by the fire, he asks her opinion about how to fix up the house.

gold wallpaperCallie tells him she had once gone into a fancy hotel in Kansas City and fell in love with the wallpaper in the lobby. It was gold and a very elegant design. Rand decides then and there that he’s going to put that in the parlor. If he gets the house fixed up real nice, maybe she’ll stay. Except for his brothers, everyone else always leaves.

I think this sample is closest to what she describes.

Now, what about you. Are you a wallpaper or paint person? Do you have any favorites of the above?

By the way, I’ve seen the cover for FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE – the third book and final book in the Bachelors of Battle Creek – and you’re gonna love it. Keep watching for it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in the portrayal of Brett Liberty.

Mail Order BrideTwice a Texas Bride

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twice a Texas Bride – Book Release and GIVEAWAY!

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sceneryWhat price would you pay for love? Would you risk everything?

IT’S FINALLY HERE! Twice a Texas Bride is officially out.

Book two of the Bachelors of Battle Creek series features middle brother Rand Sinclair. I knew he had a powerful story to tell when I introduced him in Texas Mail Order Bride, but I didn’t know how fiercely he’d fight for the woman he loves. Or what he was willing to risk.

ONE CHANCE. ONE LOVE.

ONE OUTLAW WHO’S COMING FOR THEM.

Former saloon owner, Rand Sinclair, finally has his dream—land and a ranch. He knows two certainties—he’ll never fall in love again. Never Marry. Everyone in his life always walks out on him—from his parents to every woman he took a chance with and opened his heart to. No more pain and crushing disappointment. He’s closed his heart.

Twice a Texas BrideIn the dead of winter, he discovers a woman and six-year-old boy hiding in one of his outbuildings. They’re half-frozen and starving. He takes them into his home, feeds them and gets them warm. One look at Callie Quinn tells Rand she’s running from something or someone. He can’t send her back out in the cold. So he offers her a job cooking for him and the future ranch hands he intends to hire.

In the days and weeks that follow, he learns a killer outlaw is after her and the boy. Rand assures Callie that whoever wants to harm her will have to go through him—and that will be a mighty tough job.

While Rand fights his attraction for her and knows that he’s losing, the outlaw Nate Fleming finds them and demands the boy, saying he’ll let Callie live if they’ll hand him over. Rand pushes all his chips to the center of the table.

He risks everything…his name…his heart… his life for the woman who’s awakened a fierce hunger for love.

Locked in a desperate battle to rid themselves of the outlaw’s special brand of terror, he reaches deep inside for every weapon in his arsenal.

One of them will die. Who will it be?

I hope you’ll take this thrilling journey with me in this story of learning to trust again, of taking one more chance, of defeating the odds.

What would you do, or have done, for love? What would you risk? Would you wager everything you have?

To celebrate the release, I’m giving away five copies (your choice of print or ebook) of TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE!

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Linda Broday: Dr. Benjamin Thomas Crumley, Old Indian Doctor

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scenery It’s strange at the things that catch my interest. An old friend of mine is always sending me things she finds in magazines. A few days ago, I received a thick envelope full and among the articles was one about Dr. Benjamin Thomas Crumley.

Dr. Crumley was known far and wide as “the old Indian doctor.” He was born in 1822 and was part Cherokee. In Texas, he was a bit of an oddity because he wore his hair very long. No one knows for sure if he went to medical school but it was common knowledge that he studied with the Cherokee for seven years.

A resident of Buttercup, Texas which is now Cedar Park , he treated his patients with plants, roots and herbal remedies for almost 50 years. Such as horehound for coughs, colds and sore throats. Sassafras to settle the stomach. Chest colds with a mustard plaster. Willow bark for fever. Johnson grass or broomcorn for kidney and urinary problems. Chicory root as a sedative. Asafetida for stomach flu and sour stomach.

Dr. BenjaminThomasCrumley & wife LuLuIn his saddlebags, he carried his trusty “madstone” for treating rabid animal bites. Madstones were often found in the stomach of deer. It was an oval, quartz-like stone about 1 ½ inches in diameter and ¾” thick. Patients swore by the stone’s healing properties.

Dr. Crumley achieved quite a reputation across the state and doctors in larger cities were always asking for his help with difficult cases.

I would love to have seen him. It’s said that he wore a white linen suit and rode a white horse to visit patients.

Once he was abducted by masked horsemen and taken to a remote hideout to treat the outlaw Sam Bass.

The photo shown on the page is of him with his third wife, Lulu. She looks thrilled to death, doesn’t she?

In my work in progress, I have a woman who was born and raised in the mountains. She knows all about natural medicines and what they cured. So no wonder this article caught my eye!

The countdown is on for the May 5th release of TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE. This is book two of the Bachelors of Battle Creek series and is about Rand Sinclair, the middle brother.

I’ll tell more about this book in my next blog on May 5th and will be giving away several copies.

Have you ever used or heard of any of these remedies or a madstone?
Twice a Texas BrideVisit me at: www.LindaBroday.com

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Cover Reveal and Giveaway!

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Linda BrodayWoo-Hoo! I’m excited to show the cover of my May release, Twice a Texas Bride. I love this cover and the expression on the couple’s faces. So much love in the way he’s touching her and she’s leaning into him. I cried when I first saw it.

For those who don’t know, this is the second book in my Bachelors of Battle Creek series.

The Story Continues……..

Middle brother, Rand Sinclair has washed his hands of any hope of love. Everyone always leaves, always betrays. His heart can’t take anymore pain. He’s come to know two certainties…He’ll never fall in love again. Never marry.

The former saloon owner has sold the Lily of the West and bought a ranch. Rand finally has the land he’s dreamed of owning and that’s enough.

But when he discovers a woman and little boy hiding out in one of his outbuildings in the bitter cold, he can’t turn his back. He offers them safe haven and the warmth of his fire- nothing more than anyone else would do.

Callie Quinn is on the run from a killer outlaw who has vowed to see her dead and take the boy. She’ll die before she turns the six-year-old over to the man who’ll destroy him. Fulfilling a deathbed promise consumes her.

Twice a Texas BrideSlowly, Rand uncovers her secrets and realizes the only way to keep her safe is to push all his chips to the center of the table. He risks everything…his name…and his heart…for the woman who’s awakened a fierce hunger for love.

Locked in a desperate battle to rid themselves of the outlaw’s special brand of terror, Rand reaches deep inside for every weapon in his arsenal.

Whoever wants to harm her will have to go through him.

And he’ll go through hell for her.

This is a story of learning to trust again and finding a way to heal past hurts and deception and looking to the future.

When the three brothers–Cooper,Rand and Brett–stand as one as they have throughout their lives, no one can defeat them. Only now, the stakes are higher with the lives of two children and a motherless babe hanging in the balance.

Will Rand and Callie survive long enough to claim a future?

The release date for TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE is May 5. It’s available for preorder now. Click HERE to order from Amazon or HERE to get it from B&N.

Do you find stories with children in them much deeper or would you prefer it only to contain adults? For myself, I think a child/children adds so much more emotion and depth. All three of my Bachelor of Battle Creek series contain children.

I’m giving away a copy of the first book, Texas Mail Order Bride, to one person who comments.