My lilacs last year. No where near ready to bloom yet this year.

Happy May, Readers! In spite of the goofy weather we’ve had this spring, and it feeling more like winter on many days, the calendar continues to flip and here we are well into the month of May. The last round of snow we saw just last week really made me want to get the Ground Hog on the phone and give him a piece of my mind. Just what the heck was he thinking when he said spring would come early this year? Boy, was he ever way off base. But, I guess he has only about a 39% accuracy rate, and he is just a rodent, after all.

But regardless of Mother Nature and Punxsutawney Phil’s disagreements over the weather, Old Man Time insists on doing his own thing. And whether we’re ready for it or not, the 2012-13 school year is winding down and the kids will soon be free for the summer.

For the past month or so we’ve been pulling double duty around our place—enjoying all the end-of-the-year activities like field trips, spring concerts, track meets, and archery club, but we’ve also been gearing up for the horse show season. We’ve logged quite a few hours in the saddle already, and have had multiple 4-H horse practices with our local club.

It’s been a hectic few weeks and I’ve been slowly checking things off the schedule, each one bringing a little sigh of relief. One more down, one less to go.

In between it all, I still have to find time to write. Some days are easier than others. Some days I make great progress and others not so much so. Kind of depends on how tired my brain is feeling after spending a day with a group of rowdy 5^th graders on a bus for my son’s field trip, or sitting in the rain to watch my daughter burn up the track at the elementary track meet!

But, I’m excited to tell you that if you’ve read COWBOY FLING and if you enjoyed it and have been waiting to find out if Paige’s sister, Dorie, fulfills her side of their fantasy bet, you don’t have much longer to wait. I’m in the process of finishing COWBOY AFFAIR (working title) right now and, hopefully, with a little luck Dorie and Vin’s story will be available before the end of 2013, or at the very latest, early 2014. Trust me; Vin Sheridan is one big, tough cowboy you’ll be drooling over. At least I know I am as I write!

If you haven’t read COWBOY FLING, you might consider giving it a try. You can find COWBOY FLING on sale at Ellora’s Cave, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon. It’s a great bargain at all three sites.

And if you have read COWBOY FLING please share your thoughts on the book. I’m always interested in reader feedback. I’m also curious to know what you like and don’t like about cowboys. And in your eyes, what makes a cowboy super hot!

In the meantime, with just one full week of school left, I’d best kick it in gear so I can get COWBOY AFFAIR done as promised! Have a great May and I’ll see you back here in June during the Authors By Moonlight 2^nd Annual Summer Solstice Bash! A Kindle Paperwhite will be up for grabs so, don’t miss out!

Sherry James
www.sherryjames.com

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Hello Authors By Moonlight! Thanks to Linda LaRoque for inviting me to Guest Post today.  She and I are kindred spirits in writing historical fiction/romance, and enjoying the research that enhances our stories.  She previously blogged about The Joy of Research and I’d like to continue on that theme.

I decided to write my “Welsh-tern”–a Western about three immigrant brothers from Wales in the Arizona Territory–to share the beauty of Arizona with folks who had never been here and different cultures with Arizonans who were unaware of local history. Hours in the Arizona Historical Society Research Library on the campus of the University of Arizona (whew, say that five times fast!) yielded a mother lode of facts, but to take my readers into my characters’ lives, I had to show where they came from and go where they had their adventures.

Book One of my Dragon & Hawk trilogy begins in the mining camps of Bisbee and moves to wild and bawdy Tombstone. Touring Bisbee’s Queen Mine multiple times gave me a real appreciation for how dangerous mining operations were (still are, actually). And visiting Wales let me listen to how Welshmen speak English in a musical cadence with a Welsh sentence structure. When I learned how miners were specifically recruited from the coal mines of Wales to dig out the copper mines of Bisbee, I knew I had to tell the story of how Evan Jones found love in a new land with a Mexican mystic who was nothing like the girls back home.

Book Two, Out of Forgotten Ashes continues in Tombstone and Tucson as well as the booming port of San Diego. The Historical Society of San Diego was a treasure trove of information; for instance, it was much faster to take a boat than a carriage from what was called New Town (and is now downtown San Diego) to small communities on Point Loma. Having maps of what had been compared with what is there now was very handy. This orate archway from what would have been Roseville inspired a rendezvous scene between Evan and a woman from his past, only one of the phoenixes that rise from forgotten ashes to threaten to destroy everything he holds dear.

My latest release is Book Three, Dragon’s Legacy, which takes place in 1904 Tucson. Bigotry rears its ugly head as more people arrive from the East with prejudices the half-Welsh/ half-Mexican generation of Joneses must face on an increasing basis. This story explores how two young men vie for the attentions of a beautiful but manipulative woman, unaware of their rivalry–and their connection in a web of deceit that could shatter the Jones clan completely. 

I was surprised to find a high level of racial tolerance in Tucson prior to 1900. Even though officially interracial marriages were illegal, many white men married Native or Mexican women. A real rarity was the acceptance of a black man and white woman as a married couple in 1868, but there they were in the county records. They obtained a mortgage, owned two businesses, and their daughter went on to run a boarding house at one of the stagecoach stops. But around the turn of the twentieth century, more white women came to the Territory, bringing their strict Victorian opinions of what was socially acceptable and what wasn’t.  While Tucson remained more tolerant of non-whites than the outlying mining towns, miscegenation laws were enforced more regularly and outright discrimination grew more frequent.

I visited houses still standing from those days, from the Territorial style house of a real Welsh-born civic leader (with more than one unsavory secret) to the hacienda layout of an Art Deco style mansion built by the owner of the town’s first department store. [insert photo 3] Walking where my characters would enlivens the process for me, makes me feel as though I am actually in the action, and I hope my readers can feel that as well.

To read an excerpt from each book, visit my website.

The Dragon & Hawk Trilogy is published by and available from Champagne Books.

Jude Johnson has been a history enthusiast since childhood and has lectured about her historical research at the Sierra Vista Historical Society, the Welsh League of Arizona, and the West Coast Eisteddfod in Los Angeles. She is a member of Gecko Gals Ink, LLC, a group of “sassy Tucson authors” who encourage other writers to become published by holding writing seminars and classes. While she has no Welsh heritage in her lineage, she has studied Cymraeg—the Welsh Language—and learned just enough to be dangerous in Cardiff pubs. She also speaks bad border Spanish that gets better with cerveza.

She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Website: http://jude-johnson.com

Blogs: wordsthatremain.blogspot.com

thewritersvineyard.blogspot.com

geckogalsink.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JudeJohnsonAZ

Twitter: @JudeJohnsonAZ

Photo credits:

Photo 1: SD Archway, Jude Johnson

Photo 2: Hughes House, Jude Johnson

Photo 3: Steinfeld Mansion, Jude Johnson

Book Cover, Dragon’s Legacy , artwork by Amanda Kelsey

Our Summer Solstice Bash has come to an end, and the final winner in this year is Debra G! She won the Western Basket full of cowboys — congratulations!

All the Moonlighters would like to thank everyone who commented in June, liked us on Facebook or followed our Twitter page. We look forward to hearing from everyone in the future — don‘t forget about our monthly gift card drawings.

Meanwhile, we’ll be contacting our winners so that we can their baskets sent out to them. Woot!

Thank you all again!

Happy July!
The Authors by Moonlight

Authors By Moonlight Welcomes our Full Moon Guest Blogger of the Month Jacquie Rogers!

The Wild, Wild West of publishing has a bonus!  Yes, it’s the re-emergence of the western historical romance, and a whole bunch of talented authors writing them.

For years, nary a lone gunman could be found on the shelves.  The market wasn’t strong enough for the Big Six to publish them, so readers were left in the middle of the desert with nothing but an empty canteen and no love at all.  Now, we can browse any online store for “western historical romance” and find dozens of great books

We western romance authors are back in the saddle, penning story after story, and having a great time.  We western romance readers are scarfing up new books like Sunday hotcakes topped with apple butter.  Television has seen the light, too, with Hell On Wheels, and I hear other western series are in the works as well.

So where do you find new (or at least new-to you) western authors and books?  Sites are springing up all over the place.  Here are a few places to start:

Facebook group: Western Historical Romance Book Club

Amazon forum: Western Romance Authors

Blogs:

• Romancing The West, featuring a new author and title each week, and on Thursdays, articles on just about every Old West topic you can think of.

• Sweethearts of the West, over a dozen authors bringing you informative articles each month, plus new releases and other fun stuff.

• Cowboy Kisses, a newly-formed group blog with a bunch of authors and a couple readers posting each month.  Whether trains, American native lore, or weapons, CK will have it for you.

As for me, I’ve resumed my western writing, and have released two in the ♥ Hearts of Owyhee ♥ series: Much Ado About Marshals and Much Ado About Madams.  The third book in the series, Much Ado About Mavericks is due out May 15^th.

About Much Ado About Madams:

* A story this good can only come from the imagination of Jacquie Rogers *

~ Detra Fitch, Huntress Reviews

* A romantic trip to the Old West stamped with Jacquie Rogers’ special brand of humor *

~ Caroline Clemmons, author of Brazos Bride

Overview:

A suffragist schoolteacher with a hidden past,
Six shopworn whores cooking up plans for a better future,
And a hunky cowhand who isn’t quite sure what to do with all these women…
Life isn’t always comfortable at The Comfort Palace!

About Much Ado About Marshals:

* Night Owl Romance Top Pick

* Coffee Time Romance Reviewers Award

Book video, starring model Kyle Walker: http://youtu.be/76P2zKXOO70

Daisy Gardner wants to be a detective just like dime novel heroine Honey Beaulieu.  To her delight, her sister shot a bank robber and he got away, so now she even has a crime to solve. But her parents insist she marry a man whose farm is miles from town.  She can’t solve crimes stuck out there. What better solution than to marry the new marshal!

Rancher Cole Richards saves his friend from robbing a bank, but is shot for his efforts, and now is a wanted man.  His friend takes him to Oreana to see the doc, where Cole’s mistaken for the new marshal.  Now he faces a dilemma few men have to face–tell the truth and hang, or live a lie and end up married. Either way could cost him his freedom.

* * *

Love, adventure, and a few laughs are waiting for you in the Old West.  Not to mention those lickolicious men in chaps.  Pick up a western historical romance for some spellbinding stories of romance!

Thanks so much to the Authors By Moonlight blog for hosting me today.  I’m giving away winner’s choice of Much Ado About Madams or Much Ado About Marshals (Kindle copy).  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment, but I also hope you visit some of the sites I listed above.  Be sure to leave your email address with your comment or I won’t be able to contact you if you win.

Happy reading!

Jacquie Rogers

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Romancing The West * Blog

I grew up in a two bedroom farmhouse with seven brothers and sisters (after the sixth child was born, we added on and had three bedrooms—yippee!). For a while I slept on a couch in a room we called ‘the middle room’. So maybe it had four bedrooms, but my room was a thoroughfare, which may explain my insomnia.
My dad was a dairy farmer. My mom was a stay at home mom, who later went to work when my youngest brother was about four.
Simply put, we were poor. Dirt poor. But maybe poor isn’t the right word. We had no money. Zero money. But we were never hungry. We weren’t stuffed exactly, but not hungry either. Mom and Grandma (who lived two miles away) both gardened. We had chickens and milk cows. So we didn’t go without food. We wore hand-me-downs and the neighbors gave us old clothes. My grandma always had us over for a delicious Sunday dinner, the old fashioned kind of meal with roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy and plenty of everything. But Grandma was working on the farm, too, she was kind of the boss of the operation.
We were born, eight kids, in eleven years.
We played outside winter and summer. Where are you going to play inside in a house that tiny? Climbing haystacks and running through the woods, swinging on a rope in the hay mow, riding horses, sledding. We had one horse and one bike for eight kids. I always had a roommate (except for those blissful years in the ‘middle room’. At one point there were four girls in one small bedroom. But it didn’t matter because we weren’t ever in there except to sleep.
No air conditioning. Come to that, very little heat. We had two oil burning stoves for the whole house. We had a bathroom in our unheated, rodent infested basement. EEK!
Our bathtub was a tin tub mom would haul in from the small entry room every Saturday night.
You know, we weren’t that different from a lot of people, honestly. We had a neighbor that still had an outhouse until about the time I was full grown.
I remember my dad coming home from an auction once with four beds. That must’ve been when we added on. He’d bought four beds for five dollars. Five dollars TOTAL, not five dollars each.
We went to a one room country school house. I started first grade with four classmates, by the time I graduated from eighth grade and got to go to town for high school, I was alone in my grade.
I give you this back ground because there was nothing about our growing up years that was ‘enriched’ in the way people think of it today. No passes to the Children’s Museum. No children’s theater. No travel.
No Sesame Street. But my parents were special people. Different people in some really wonderful and hard to describe ways.
My dad read to us, doing all the voices, making it funny. He made us help around the farm, including milking cows. Dairy farming…now there’s a hard way to make a living!
We went to the library constantly and checked out stacks of books. Reading was a fundamental part of our lives. Church was every Sunday, no exceptions.
My parents were mild mannered, though mom could scold for a fact. But they were mostly so kind to us. They had a knack for acting like they were so lucky to have us. Can you image what a rabble we were? All those kids in that tiny house with no money? But I remember Mom smiling at me one time and saying, “The man who marries you is going to be so lucky.”
But one thing my parents have that was different, besides their kindness was their education. They’d met at college and married. I think my family grew up with this sort of … mythology about education. Dad left the farm because he unexpectedly got a scholarship at his high school graduation. Before that, he was planning to stay home and farm. When the scholarship money wasn’t enough, he enlisted in ROTC. Both of these things changed the direction of his life for a time—though he ended up back on the farm eventually. And during his college years he met my mom.
They both really believed in education. They never asked us IF we were going to college, they asked us WHERE we were going to college.
So out of this tiny house, overflowing with children, came my family of whom I am very proud.
Between us we have eight Bachelor’s degrees, four Masters Degrees, three doctoral degrees and one published author, me.
This is just a little glimpse into the fires that forged me. Education, books, enforced togetherness, kindness, love and faith.
I tried to raise my own kids the same way. And I try to include respect for those things in my books.
I’ve got a new book coming in August titled Out of Control, with a heroine who has educated herself mainly out of loneliness. And now here she is with this wonderful love for the natural world, and ambition to tell about it, and all she really gets to do is care for her young stepsister and cook stew. And now it looks like she’s going to be a rancher’s wife and the rancher thinks she needs to stop exploring the fascinating cavern she’s found and help him build up the ranch.
It’s made Julia very cranky. But she’s also begun to learn about love, and begun to see what’s really important in life.

Visit Mary at her web site to learn more about her books!

Hello all. It is an honor to join the wonderful authors of AUTHORS BY MOONLIGHT and become a regular contributor to this blog.  For my first post, I’d like to share with you a short story I wrote in 2009 as an assignment for The Texas Mountain Trail Writer’s Retreat held at the Paisano Baptist Encampment just outside of Alpine, Texas. The stories were to be read around the campfire, but in far west Texas fires have been banned. I’m including a picture of our substitute camp fire.

Romance and the Texas Ranger

The Journey Home

           Texas Ranger Caleb Johnson slumped atop his horse, swaying to the pace of his sorrel mare. His head bobbed with the gait as he struggled to stay in the saddle and catch a few winks of sleep. It was a ritual he and Red were accustomed to. He’d ridden many miles while asleep and his horse hadn’t tossed him once. Some weeks it was the only sleep he got. Now wasn’t a good time not to be aware of his surroundings. He was alone, wounded, and weak. The pain from his shoulder injury screamed with each movement.

            The captain had ordered him to stay in camp until he could send him home with an escort. But, Caleb wouldn’t have it. Hell, he was shot, not dead. He’d stolen away in the middle of the night. All he wanted was to get home to Amy. It’d been five years since he’d seen her. Maybe he no longer had a wife. Rangers weren’t good marriage material and she’d not wanted him to join up. They’d had a terrible row. Her blue eyes had flashed fire as she screamed, “I won’t be here when you decide to come home.”

           Contrite over her scalding words, Amy wrote him faithfully at least once a month. It’d been a year now since he’d heard from her. Every time he thought he’d get home, his division was dispatched to another area and he couldn’t go. He shuddered. Was the tremor from his wound or fear? Something was wrong at home. He could feel it in his bones.

           He struggled to stay awake, but fatigue, blood loss, and now with a raging fever, illness won out. His chin hit his chest and darkness clouded his consciousness. Dreams whirled through his mind—Amy on their wedding day, her shiny brown hair piled high on her head, ringlets curling around her face. Eyes spitting fire the day he’d left, her face red, almost as dark as the freckles that covered her pert nose. Oh, she was a corker. He loved her spit and vinegar.

            Red kicked up her heels, sending him forward, jolting him awake. Like a drunk woken by the nudge of a boot, blurry eyed, he glanced around and noticed three Indian braves on the mesa top to the west, a half a mile away.

            He wrapped the reins around the saddle horn, pulled his Winchester from its scabbard, and propped the butt on his thigh. He’d show them he was armed. Hell, he was so weak he couldn’t shoot a rabbit.  Hopefully they hadn’t seen him swaying in the saddle like a drunk. His knees tightened around Red. She sprinted forward but didn’t break into a full gallop. Don’t let them think you’re afraid and running. They’ll be on you like ants.

            War whoops echoed behind him. He raised the rifle with one arm, propping the butt at the juncture of his shoulder, turned and shot wild. A bullet slammed into his chest. He hit the packed earth. Red broke her stride and returned to him, nudging him with her nose and whinnying for him to get up.

            Shouts of victory surrounded him. Red’s reins were grabbed by a young brave. She fought against the restriction but the Indian coaxed her forward, gently stroked her muzzle and whispered in her ear. Soon, she quieted and stopped struggling though she snorted and stamped her hooves in agitation at the smell of blood.

            Vision fuzzy, Caleb spotted his valued star adorning the shirt of an older brave. Several men poked him with their rifles. He didn’t feel pain, only a roaring in his ears, and a calming sense of peace. The war party rode away in a flurry of triumphant shouts.

Bright light enclosed him. A form stepped out and knelt at his side. Pink lips, accompanied by a pert freckled nose and blue eyes, smiled. She leaned down and kissed him sweetly on the mouth. Her lilac scent filled his nostrils and joy filled his heart.

            “It’s time, Caleb. Time for you to come home.” Amy helped him rise and took his hand. “Come, my love.” Together they walked into the light.

The End

Please leave a comment and let me know how you liked “The Journey Home.” Visit me on my website and my personal blogwhere I give away an Ebook every month.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda

First off I want to shout out a great big howdy to all of the new authors joining us here at ABM! Welcome, gals! We’re glad to have you here.

I received my May issue of RT Book Reviews in the mail the other day, and what headline should I see on the cover?

“Cowboy Heroes: Lasso Our Hearts”

I flipped the magazine open and  inside I found a nice two page article on the contemporary cowboy hero. Liz French’s trend watch article states something I’ve known for years—“Cowboys are the quintessential American hero“. Darn straight.

And because of that little fact, the contemporary cowboy sub-genre is growing. Well, and because cowboys are just so darn hot, hot, hot! Again, something I’ve always known. Who can deny the appeal of a sexy and rugged man in a cowboy hat, nice fittin’ pair of jeans, and chaps? I know I can’t.

A few weeks back eHarelquin ran an online poll as to who was the favored hero by their readers. Was it the billionaires? The cops? The cowboys? Well, cowboys won it hands down. And if that cowboy also happens to be a billionaire, or cop/sheriff, you get an added bonus! And if you’re a Harlequin reader I’m sure you’ve noticed cowboys are showing up all over their lines right now.

Great news for me since I love to write about cowboys, both contemporary and historical. My cowboys are down-to-earth, comfortable with who they are, and have strong morals and beliefs. They love and respect the land, their animals, and, of course, the woman they set their mind to. Once they fall, they fall hard. Check out this excerpt to get a taste of one my cowboy heroes, Lane Hart, who’ll find doing his best to help Paige Holister realize her three sexual fantasies in my contemporary cowboy romance, Cowboy Fling from Ellora’s Cave .

At my web site,  you’ll find more sexy cowboy heroes to drool over. Check out Devlin McCord in Eight Seconds, and Adam Ford in The Cowboy and the Hellcat.

Since I also love to read great cowboy stories, I’m on the look out for some recommendations. Have you read a great cowboy romance lately? If so, share with me. Here’s a couple for you. I recently read The Rustler in the Stone Creek series by Linda Lael Miller. Loved this book. And I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series.

Another one of my favorites, although it’s been out for a while, is The Gunslinger’s Bride by Cheryl St. John. Cheryl is one of my fav authors. She never disappoints. BTW, Cheryl will be guest blogging her with us at ABM on June 16th. Can’t wait!