The Harvey Girls, in full uniform, stood shoulder to shoulder, arms linked, at the entrance to the church. Emma was at the center of the lineup. Grace Hopkins was on her left and a woman Max didn’t recognize was on her right, all three also in uniform. Sheriff Bolton stood before them, shouting out threats to arrest the whole lot of them. Off to one side sat the bride, her face blotched with either fury or misery or both. Father O’Meara stood between McCoy, the local lawyer, and Mr. Gilmore, trying without much success to get them to lower their voices. And instead of consoling his bride, whose day had clearly been ruined, RJ stood with his arms around his mother—and his eyes fixed on Emma. Max started making his way through the crowd. “Wait, Max,” Aidan called, stopping him. “Let them alone. This just might work.” “Mr. Campbell,” Ford said, “please explain why employees of the Harvey Company are staging what appears to be a protest outside a church of all places.” “It was all their idea,” Aidan said, gesturing toward the waitresses. “Emma’s really—along with Grace and Lily, of course.” “Who’s Lily?” Max asked. Aidan pointed to the…

Can you believe Christmas is right around the corner? To celebrate, we asked the authors of our 2019 Christmas titles to answer some fun, wintry and Christmas themed questions! Fall in love this Christmas and be sure to read: Longing for a Cowboy Christmas by Leigh Greenwood, Rosanne Bittner, Linda Broday, Margaret Brownley, Anna Schmidt, and Amy Sandas Wish Upon a Cowboy by Jennie Marts Cowboy Firefighter Christmas Kissby Kim Redford Cowboy Christmas Homecoming by June Faver A Dash of Christmas by Samantha Chase Puppy Christmas by Lucy Gilmore Silver Town Wolf: Home for the Holidays by Terry Spear Keep reading to get in the Christmas spirit and check out the books over at Romance Reads! *** What’s the best part about writing a Christmas book? Rosanne Bittner:       The best part about writing a Christmas story is that it takes me into that “miracle” mood that seems to be a part of the Christmas holiday. I always try to include some kind of little miracle in my stories. In last year’s anthology, Christmas In A Cowboy’s Arms, my story miracle was the healed awakening of an unconscious little girl. This year, in Longing for A Cowboy Christmas, my miracle surrounds…

I write Romance with main characters that are male/female, so a believable heroine is vitally important to every story. She must be someone the reader can identify with. . . or at the very least, someone they’d want to be friends with. These are my tips for writing realistic and believable heroines. 1. Create a character outline or overview. I realize not all writers feel the need to do this, but for me, it’s necessary. I must know my characters inside and out before I start writing them into a plotline. A good character overview is invaluable when it comes to maintaining consistency in behavior, attitude, perspective, etc. The tools I most often use are The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines by Tami Cowden, Caro LeFever and Sue Viders, online personality tests (such as Myers-Briggs), and detailed horoscopes. Once I have an idea of her natural tendencies, flaws, passions, strengths, and fears, I can better ensure that my heroine responds consistently to any scene or situation. 2. She needs goals and aspirations. Though love is the focus of all romance, no heroine should exist solely for the love of her hero. A realistic heroine will have personal dreams…

As a born and raised Montana rancher and rodeo cowgirl, I am immersed in my subject matter—often literally in the case of mud, manure, and bovine amniotic fluid. Yeah, I see that face you’re making. I do occasionally get a little too real and my editor has to explain that not only is she baffled when I say a horse ‘broke in two’, but the visual is extremely disturbing. (For the record, it is a synonym for suddenly starting to buck, also known as ‘bogged his head’ and ‘blew up’.) Beyond the language and the technical details, though, I find a writer is most likely to miss the mark by failing to understand that this is a culture unto itself. Regular folks tend to find our values and priorities a tad difficult to comprehend. First, and most awesome, is the way in which women tend to be perceived. Imagine a world where you are routinely praised for being strong, aggressive, independent, and competitive. Where on a day to day basis you are valued for what you can do versus how you look and complimented for kicking ass. Imagine being in a relationship with a man who is utterly baffled if…

“If you write a book set in the past about something that happened east of the Mississippi, it’s a ‘historical novel.’ If you write about something that took place west of the Mississippi, it’s a ‘Western’- and somehow regarded as a lesser work. I write historical novels about the frontier.”   Louis L’Amour My great-grandfather was born in 1904 and was a Polish immigrant. He supported himself by working on the railroads. In his later years, I knew two things – he liked a glass of whiskey now and then, and he liked to get comfy in his recliner with a Louis L’Amour Western. At the time, I was young, and my literary taste ran more along the lines of Nancy Drew books and the Sweet Valley High series. It’s only in recent years that I can appreciate a tale of cowboys, horses, rodeos, and occasionally cattle rustling. Although, admittedly, my Westerns are of a very different variety than those preferred by my late great-grandpa. Mine is full of more naked shenanigans than he would probably care for. I can’t pinpoint which book was the first romance I read with a Western vibe, but it might’ve been “Catcher Creek” series by…

This is a dangerous topic for me. Because if you’re going to make me name my must-have writing snacks then I’m going to have to think about them. And if I think about them, I’m going to want them. And if I start to want them and deny myself, I’m going to crave them. And if I crave them, I know I’ll end up going to the store to get them. And if I go to the store I’m probably going to peruse the book section. And if I peruse the book section I’m going to end up buying quite a few. And if I buy quite a few then I’m going to feel guilty for adding to my already overflowing TBR pile. And if I start to feel guilty then I’ll have to set aside time to read them. And if I set aside time to read them then I won’t be writing. And if I’m not writing then I won’t even need my snacks after all, right? My logic may be slightly flawed, but thanks for going along with my rambling journey. At the risk of never writing another word, here are my 5 must-have writing snacks. I’ve…

Since very few people enjoyed the last season and most importantly, the last episode, of Game of Thrones (myself included), I started thinking of all the other shows I have watched that had equally terrible endings. These weren’t as high on the ratings scale as Game of Thrones of course, but they were still good shows with multiple seasons that finished on a sour note. These are my personal top 5 shows with absolutely dreadful endings. THE SOPRANOS This show was six seasons of crazy—death, backstabbing, lies, violence, drama—then along comes the final episode. With the family enjoying one of a few happy together moments, the screen goes black just as a shootout starts—with no resolution on who lived or died. After dutifully following the show for the full six seasons, the ending was a major let down. TRUE BLOOD This show was absolutely brilliant. It was one of the few shows where it didn’t matter what gender, race, or sexual orientation you were or weren’t—it was equal parts vampire campiness for everyone to love. Not to mention lots of Alexander Skarsgård! After all the twists and turns through seven seasons, it wrapped everything up in a pretty little end-credits…

Renegade is the second book in the Cowboys & Harvey Girls series. It’s a sweeping, powerful Western historical romance series, featuring intrepid Harvey Girls and the rugged cowboys who win their hearts. I hope you enjoy this excerpt! *** She hadn’t seen much of the sheriff since Grace’s wedding. He rarely ate in the hotel dining room. She’d seen him a couple of times passing through the lobby, and he’d tipped his hat to her as he continued on his way. Now, once she reached the office door, she hesitated. The window that faced the street was dark, but a dim light was coming from a window at the side of the building. She rapped sharply on the door and after two seconds repeated the action, doubling the force. “I’m coming,” a male voice grumbled, and light flooded the window that overlooked the street. Lily stepped back, and when the door opened, she rushed inside, brushing past the sheriff, who was hooking his suspenders over his broad shoulders. “Miss Travis?” He ran his hand through his tousled hair. “What on…” He stepped outside and glanced around before returning and shutting the door. “Are you all right?” He looked her over….

1. Tough Manly Men! I love reading and writing cowboy books. Nothing defines America and its values like the Old West. That was when men were men and women were women, but a cowboy wasn’t a cowboy unless he was wild, woolly and full of fleas. Of course, the heroes we love to read about are more likely to be tall, dark and handsome.  He can also charm the bark off a tree and is able to cope with whatever comes his way. 2. Cowboy Lingo: Today’s language seems rather dull compared to the colorful lingo of yesteryear.  Can you think of more mouth-pleasing words than hornswoggle, caboodle or skedaddle?  Or what about fiddlefooted, ranktankerous, or splendiferous? A latte may be the haute cuisine of coffee, but give me an Arbuckle’s any day. The rebellious part of me delights that my characters can use such words as “ain’t” and “druther” without guilt.  My eighth grade English teacher would have had a fit. Of course, back in the 1800s, she’d be more likely to have a conniption (any way you call it, it serves her right for branding me with an F). When a cowboy said “hell on wheels” he wasn’t talking about no bikers…

I live in Colorado, so I’ve done a lot of hiking in the woods.  The only dangers I have to deal with are black bears and panthers, neither of which will bother you if you’re making plenty of noise and minding your own business.  Folks in Montana, where Sullivan’s Promise is set, are facing something far more frightening—grizzly bears. My heroine, Victoria Grayhawk, is committed to protecting endangered species, like the grizzly, while my hero, Ryan Sullivan, is a rancher who would just as soon not have the enormous bears making a meal of his newborn calves. You can imagine the conflict between them when Ryan’s brother is attacked and mauled by a grizzly, which has to been hunted down and killed. I learned a lot about grizzly attacks on humans while doing my research for this book, and I have to admit, I may have scared myself out of the woods, the way Jaws scared me out of the water.  Grizzly attacks are few and far between, but they’re pretty horrific when they happen, which is a lot more often as humans encroach on areas previously left to the bears in Montana.  So hike with bear spray, stay on…