Winning Maura’s Heart

Children and Their Take on Life

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Children crack me up and they greatly enrich my stories when I write about them. I also love writing about love and marriage and have strong personal opinions about the subject—but not as much as children do. My goodness, they’re opinionated. Many years ago (way more than I want to share) Art Linkletter had a segment on his TV show called Children Say the Darndest Things. People before the age of 30 won’t know what I’m talking about. However Jay Leno used to talk to children on the Tonight Show about various subjects and they’re always so funny. I can’t think of anything more fun than talking to kids. Some are pretty wise for their age and they’re always downright hilarious.

The other day someone asked my five year old great grandson how old my daughter (his grandma) was. He slapped his hands to his head and said, “I don’t know but she’s really, really, really old.”

Here are a few random ones from the Linkletter show.

How do you decide who to marry?

One girl said, “No person really decides before they grow up. God decides it all way before and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.”

A boy said, “You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports and she should keep the chips and dip coming.”

What is the right age to get married?

“Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.”

What do most people do on a date?

“Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.” (A wise girl if I say so myself!)

“On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.”

When is it okay to kiss someone?

“When they’re rich.”  (I like the way this girl thinks. Wish I’d have listened to her advice.)

Is it better to be single or married?

“It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.”

How would you make a marriage work?

“Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck.”

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One thing for sure, children sure have a unique view of the world. I love writing about them and usually put at least one in every story. They can add so much more depth and emotion.

I put an orphanage in my Hangman’s Daughters series and there were so many funny things the kids said. Here’s a scene from Winning Maura’s Heart between a six year old boy and a mysterious stranger gives only the name Calhoun.

Henry’s grin revealed a big gap in his mouth where he’d lost two front teeth. His eyes usually had a mischievous twinkle.

“Well, Henry, I’m right proud to know you.” Calhoun held the chair while he sat down. “This is a pretty nice place from what I can see. Are you happy to be living here?”

“Yep.”

“Miss Maura will be back in just a minute. I’m going to shave these whiskers off. Do you shave, Henry?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t say?” Calhoun felt the boy’s jaw. “That’s real smooth. You do a good job.”

“Yep. If I had spec’ables I could see better.” Henry propped an elbow on the table. “Miss Em wears spec’ables but Miss Mo don’t.”

“Miss Mo? Oh, you mean Miss Maura.”

“Yep, I guess.” Henry nervously glanced toward the door.

“Are you hiding from someone?” Calhoun asked.

He nodded. “Rosemary.” He released a troubled sigh. “She wants to get married but I’m tired of playing with dolls. I like playing with boys too, running and playing leapfrog. But she says I gotta choose.”

A tear-jerking Shakespearean tale if Calhoun ever heard one. He struggled to contain laughter. The boy was so serious as though this was the worst problem he’d ever have in his life. Little did Henry know he was only beginning to learn about the complexities of relationships. Calhoun released a long sigh. “There’s nothing worse than woman-trouble.”

“Nope. Sure ain’t. I’m just gonna tell her the weddin’ is off. I ain’t marrying her.”

“That’s it. Put your foot down, Henry. A woman will respect you for it.”

Here’s a link to the book if you want it. CLICK HERE

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Do you like hanging out and talking to kids? Or maybe you know something funny a child has said. Leave a comment to enter a giveaway for the ebook copy of Winning Maura’s Heart.

 

Where Do You Think Early Cars Got Gas?

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Surprisingly, if you said a pharmacy, you’d be right. Before gas stations, pharmacies sold gasoline.

It seems car inventors didn’t give much thought to where a person with a new auto would buy the very thing it took to make it run. He kinda put the cart before the horse so it seems the neighborhood pharmacy stepped in and sold fuel in addition to medicines, made soda pop, cut hair in some towns without a barbershop, performed surgeries, and pulled teeth.

The gasoline they sold was not pumped or put directly into a vehicle. The car owners brought cans into the pharmacies to be filled and they in turn, put it into their auto.

While there’s some disagreement about where the first drive-up service stations were, most think it was in downtown Pittsburg and the company was Gulf Refining in 1913. The cost was 27 cents per gallon. With the U.S. inflation rate, that would’ve been $8.60 in today’s prices.

Pretty crazy, huh?

I admit I never really gave it much thought but if I had, I would not have said a pharmacy. But, if you’d considered that pharmacies also sold kerosene for lamps, it would make sense. I have no idea how it was kept but seeing how strong gasoline and kerosene smelled, I only hope they kept it far away from the medicines they prepared or any surgeries they performed. Good heavens. I just can’t imagine. I wish I had a photo of this.

I love these little tidbits like this that I find on HistoryFacts.com. Some of this stuff is so amazing.

Today, it’s much the same. Electric cars came way before the charging stations. Thank goodness they’re not in pharmacies though! My car is one of the regular kind that takes gas but my niece and her husband have an electric car. They get stranded sometimes when their battery goes dead and forces them to to sit for two hours while the battery recharges. Not for me!

What is your opinion of electric cars? Do you want one? Or what do you think about buying fuel from a pharmacy? I’m giving away a copy (paperback or ebook) of LOVE’S FIRST LIGHT to one commenter.

This book came out in July and readers seem to like it. At least, we don’t have to go to a pharmacy to buy it! 

Here’s the blurb:

After suffering a devastating accident, Rachel Malloy wakens with a stranger. 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?

This book is on sale for $3.99 and it’s also on Kindle Unlimited for free if you have a membership. CLICK HERE to buy.
I also have another book, WINNING MAURA’S HEART, on sale for $1.99 until the end of the month. This is a sweet romance about a woman who’s father is a hangman. The town shuns Maura and her sister and banishes them from their midst. They take the town’s orphans and go to an abandoned Spanish mission. CLICK HERE for more.

Periodicals in the 19th Century

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Early magazines in the 19th century had a tough go and it was due mainly to distribution difficulties. There was no easy way to get the periodicals into the hands of women. It often took weeks and months for mail to travel via stagecoach.  Another factor was the fact subscriptions were very expensive at $2 and $3 dollars a year, and few could afford that especially for non-essentials. In the larger cities, some magazines resorted to accepting pork, corn, cheese etc. in lieu of cash.

Nineteenth century women were often starved for something to engage their minds and relieve the tedium of their lives but before Godey’s Lady’s Book their choices were severely limited. Godey’s was the most widely circulated before the Civil War. The magazine was in circulation from 1830 to 1878. The magazine was owned by Louis Godey with Sarah Hale as the editor. Women loved reading articles they could relate to. While fashion plates were included in every issue, the magazine was geared toward the ordinary woman.

 

While Godey’s mostly appealed to women, Old Farmer’s Alamac was a staple in homes for men. They only sold for $.o4 a copy and was wildly popular. It began publishing in 1792 and still is today. Amazing. I enjoy reading it for for the interesting things it contains.

Ladies Home Journal began in 1883 and was in circulation for 131 years. Sadly, the July 2014 issue will be the last. It was the first magazine to attain one million subscribers and it was one of the first periodical to tackle some of the problems of the nineteen century such as suffrage, family planning, marriage advice, and child rearing.

Good Housekeeping came along in 1885. The thirty-two-page biweekly sold for $2.50 a year. It offered advice on home decorating, cooking and dressmaking but also carried puzzles and quizzes. It’s still in circulation today and publishes ten editions around the world. Their Seal of Approval has become a gold standard for quality in everything.

Cosmopolitan began in Rochester, New York in 1886 by Paul Schlicht who after sufffering financial difficulties due to the $4.oo a year subscription price sold the magazine to John Walker. To bolster interest in the periodical, Walker set out on a railroad tour of the New England states, giving the memoirs of either Ulysses S. Grant or General William T. Sherman to new subscribers. By 1896 the Cosmopolitan had secured its place as a leading periodical. The Hearst Corporation acquired the magazine in 1905.

Vogue was born in 1892, House Beautiful in 1896, National Geographic in 1888 and finally Scientific American in 1845.

There were others of course like the New England Kitchen Magazine in 1894 and the Delineator which included dress patterns in every issue, but the ones I’ve listed were the leading sellers. Although it was probably rare for any kind to find its way into a pioneer woman’s hands.

After the struggles of the first magazines, it seemed a periodical explosion took place.

I had no idea some of these went back so far. I’ll bet you didn’t either. If you had lived back then and had the money, which might you have subscribed to?

Cover Reveal and a Giveaway!

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“Stone Landry stared into the green depth of her eyes and brushed a knuckle across Emma’s soft cheek. “One day.” He dragged air into his lungs. “One day I intend to court you, lady. That’s a promise. Hangman’s daughter or not.”

Courting Miss Emma, Book 2 of the Hangman’s Daughters series, will soon come your way and I want to share this gorgeous cover. The colors and fonts are really nice. I wish her skirt was a bit slimmer but maybe the wind got under it and ballooned it out. After all, we have a LOT of wind in Texas! I also love Emma’s hair and think it’s perfect. With sixteen orphans to keep track of, she wouldn’t have had a lot of time for her hair.

As with her sister Maura in Book 1, she’s never been courted, kissed, or even come close. At 26 years old, she would’ve been considered an old maid back in 1868. But when Stone Landry bought the property next door, Emma began to see herself as a woman with something left to give.

Stone gets her dander up right away after one of the orphan boys wanders over onto his property. He brings the kid back—along with a sharp rebuke for Emma to watch the children better. She sees red of course.

So, that’s how their relationship starts. They mix like oil and water. It isn’t that he doesn’t like kids, he was just never around any.

Add in a couple of adult camels and their baby and you get the idea. The kids weren’t going to stay on their side of the property line and that was that.

It’s a fun story with a group of unscrupulous bad guys trying to take both Emma’s and Stone’s land and shut down the orphanage. It leads to a land war with the couple fighting tooth and nail to stop them.

Wars have been fought over land since the beginning of time. Someone big and powerful always thinks they can take what they want and no one can stop them. It’s a familiar theme in westerns and it happens today all over the world. Sometimes the little guy wins.

This is a sweet romance with lots of action and a mix of humor thrown in. I think you’ll like this story that shows the depth of Emma’s and Stone’s hearts and their commitment to keeping Heaven’s Door open. No matter the cost.

Ever since I wrote Knight on the Texas Plains, I’ve always put children in my stories. They make the stories richer. Animals are another constant and I’ve had a variety—horses, dogs, cats, a monkey, a talking parrot, and now camels. You never know what’s coming next.

I’m giving away an ebook copy of the first book, Winning Maura’s Heart. To enter, tell me the one-word name of Maura’s love interest.

Waltzing Adds Zest to Life

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Spring is here and my heart is dancing along with my feet!

One of the things that always seems to wind up in my stories is dancing. My characters apparently love to dance. Everyone had to work so hard to carve out a life in the 1800s they had little free time. But on occasion, they had dances.

Up until 1814, dancing was confined to the quadrille, cotilion, baroque, and a few others. There was the barest of touching allowed. The fingertips and hand, but only brief touches at that. How in the world they managed to have children was a miracle. But I’m sure when they got in their carriages out of sight things were different. Oh yes, very different.

This was a time when the slightest glimpse of a lady’s ankle was titillating. Yet it’s strange to me that in a lot of pictures of the 1800s, women showed a lot of bosom. Far too much in fact. Kinda weird.

When the waltz came along in 1814, young people were more than ready for it. To dance so close in an “almost” embrace was quite scandalous! My, oh my. The waltz changed the landscape. At last couples could touch more than their hands and it really took off.

It’s a proven fact that I like to two-step and waltz. Sometimes I dance around my apartment just because it makes me feel good.

But back to the subject. In my recent release, Winning Maura’s Heart, I wrote a scene where Calhoun coaxes Maura into his arms. They have no music, only Calhoun humming. But Maura is swept away. Because she is the hangman’s daughter, she’s never been asked to a dance or courted, or even kissed. No man wanted the hangman to look his way.

Calhoun had no such reservations. He didn’t care who her father was. He liked Maura and nothing was going to make him stop. I loved that about him. He found a way to get what he wanted and wouldn’t let anything stop him.

I loved writing their short private dance. Here’s a little excerpt:

Holding her gaze, his dark eyes softening in the dim light, he silently took the pins from her hair. The mass of long tresses cascaded down her back, spilling over his hands like the whisper of a hope. She closed her eyes for a moment, as some strange desire surged through her veins, knocking her off kilter. Before she had time to adjust, he ran his hands through the long strands, murmuring low.

She raised her eyes and stared into his dark orbs that held so much emotion. “Calhoun.”

“Nothing can compare to your loveliness. I mean that. Nothing. You truly take my breath.” He bowed at the waist and extended his hand. “May I have this dance, Miss Maura?”

With his manners and handsome features, he could easily be a charming prince.

Maura’s heart fluttered. “Here? I’ve never danced in my life. Besides, we don’t have any music.”

“I’ll hum a song I know. The dance is simple. Just stand in one spot and sway.”

“Then I have to try.” She fitted her hand in his and placed the other on his shoulder. He didn’t know this fulfilled one of her secret fantasies.

Here with no one to see her make a fool of herself, she took a deep breath and relaxed. He hummed a song with a nice melody and the sound transported her to a ballroom in some castle. She was dancing with one of the most desirable men she’d ever seen.

In his arms, she felt safe and protected. A languid warmth spread through her and she leaned into the cocoon he’d created, resting her head on his shoulder. She swayed back and forth against him, imagining they were in some fancy place.

“See? I knew you could do it,” Calhoun murmured against her temple. “You’re doing fine.”

 

Do you like to dance? Or maybe you once did. Can you remember how it made you feel? Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for two e-book copies of Winning Maura’s Heart.

Winning Maura’s Heart and a Giveaway!

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“I lie awake and wonder what it might be like to kiss a man, to feel his arms holding me.”

At almost thirty, Maura Taggart had never been courted, been to a dance, or known a kiss. She’s lived the life of an outcast with her sister Emma due to their father’s profession as a hangman.

After tending the sick during a yellow fever epidemic, townsfolk run them out of town again but not before cutting Emma’s hair. Also unwanted are the orphans left behind when their parents died. Determined to make something worthwhile of their lives, to matter to someone, they take the orphans with them and open an orphanage in an abandoned Spanish mission.

The children name it Heaven’s Door because they believe there is a doorway from the orphanage to heaven and their parents watch over them.

Maura discovers a man near death and they take him in, unsure if he’s an outlaw or lawman. When the mysterious stranger can speak, he says his name is Calhoun, refusing to give more.

The time spent tending him draws Maura closer to him. The soft-spoken man has kind ways and loves the little orphans.

With a gentle finger, Calhoun lifted a strand of hair from her eyes. “Try to find someone else. There are hundreds of men better than me. I’m no good for you. Don’t you see? It’s better this way.”

Who is Calhoun? Who shot him? Maura tries to figure it out while keeping her heart locked. She has to keep the children safe and she knows he’s brought trouble to their door.

While writing this story, I did a lot of research and I found that not only were old West hangmen unwelcome once their job was done, but also their families. No one wanted them to live amongst them. Folks were quick to call for the hangman but once he’d dispensed of an outlaw, they wanted him gone.

In the old movies, he’s always alone. Rides in, doesn’t speak to anyone much, does his job and he rides away. I always wondered about their families. In the movies, they were never mentioned.

Even today, there is a certain distaste and even hate for those who carry out capital punishment. For that reason, the executioner is always hidden. We don’t have a name or anything.

I wrote Winning Maura’s Heart in the vein of the story Sommersby where the mystery of Richard Gere’s character is kept hidden. In my story, the identity of Calhoun isn’t revealed until the end but it draws speculation throughout the story.

Is he an outlaw or lawman?

This is a sweet romance and releases on March 7th. Click HERE for an excerpt!

Do you like stories where things aren’t straightforward? Or where certain characters’ true identities aren’t revealed until the very last? I’m giving away an autographed hardback to one person who comments.

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Also, I have a Goodreads Giveaway going on with 50 copies of the book up for grabs! Click HERE to Enter!

 

Thank you for coming.