Dear Readers, I’m excited about the publication of my book Cowboy Charm School.   It’s been in the works for a long time. I played around with the concept for more than five years before I actually got around to writing it.   Book ideas generally come to me in scenes.  I’ll suddenly visualize someone atop a runaway stagecoach, scrambling over a roof, or running from a burning building and then have to figure out who, what, and why. The scene that popped into my head for Cowboy Charm School was a bride and groom standing at the altar about to say, “I do.”  Suddenly, a tall, handsome stranger runs into the church yelling, “Stop the wedding!”   I finally figured out that the stranger is Texas Ranger Brett Tucker, who thinks he’s saving the bride from marrying an outlaw. He’s mistaken, of course, but his accusations cause the bride and groom to break up.  Feeling terrible for what he’s done, Brett decides to work to bring the estranged couple back together again. God knows he means well.  But as the old western saying goes: When buying a horse, don’t consult a pedestrian; when courting a woman, don’t ask the…

I didn’t set out to write series. I fell into it by accident. I was watching the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with my younger son about twenty years ago. We didn’t pay much attention. He was eight and preferred trying to wrestle his father to watching a musical even though it was his idea to watch the movie together. (Since he’s never watched a musical before or since, Providence’s hand must have been at work.) After it was over, I thought that seven brothers looking for wives would make a good idea for a series, never dreaming it would turn out to be an idea for me. Sometime later, I realized I had a group of brothers in my head. I didn’t know where they’d come from or why they were there, but they were remarkably well defined. A little bemused, I asked my agent what I should do about them. She suggested that I write a proposal, let her send it out, and see that happened. Thus was born the Seven Brides series. A John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, gave me the idea for my The Cowboys series. He recruited schoolboys to help with a cattle drive….

Most everyone knows that Halloween, October 31, is the day before All Saints or All Hallows Day. But did you know that some of our modern traditions grew from the ancient Celts more than 2000 years ago? The Celtic festival of Samhain, or the Feast of the Dead, celebrates the day when summer ends and winter begins. It is believed to be the day when the dead revisit the mortal world. Carving pumpkins—or jack-o-lanterns—dates from the 18th century, when a blacksmith named Jack consorted with the devil and was condemned to wander the earth as punishment. He begged the Devil for some light and was given a burning coal, which he placed inside a hollowed-out turnip. When the Irish came to the United States during the great potato famine, the practice of keeping a turnip with a candle in it in the window to ward off the Halloween demons came with them. Since pumpkins were easier to get here than turnips, the substitution was made and a new tradition was born and shared. Wearing costumes also dates back to Celtic times. On Samhain night, when the living and the dead were at their closest, the Celtic Druids would dress up…

Billy Killdeere is Western romantic historical fiction, right? Right. Is Billy Killdeere an outlaw, a lover, or both?He was raised an outlaw and becomes the best gunman in his gang, but he also respects women and treats them like ladies. Part of the story has him helping a young woman in a whore house where the gang hides out. There’s gunplay and then later when he’s on the run, he’s remembered as the man who rescued a woman from prostitution. Billy is considered a friend and hero to the “soiled doves” with whom he comes in contact. “Good” women enjoy his pleasant demeanor and charming smile, and he takes lovers until he meets Jenny. He can’t marry Jenny, but no other woman fills the ache in his heart. What is it about Killdeere’s story that attracts you as a writer?Billy is a young man with the deck stacked against him, but he drives forward, determined to stop “hurting people what never hurt him.” He fights no matter the odds. When Jenny is abducted, he is forced to ride on a dangerous and lucrative job. Despite lawmen, gang members and citizens who believe he’s turned, he saves Jenny. Billy just isn’t…

Five-Star Cowboy launches my first mini-series with Silhouette Desire called Suite Secrets. It’s a series I had a lot of fun writing and because I wanted the first of the three stories to include all of my favorite things, I threw in everything dear to me into this story. So what do I love? Well, location, location, location. I love Arizona. I set my very first book there, a Kensington Precious Gem titled Chance in a Million. Now 25 books later, I’m still using Arizona as a primary setting for many of my stories. Five-Star Cowboy takes place the fictional area known as Crimson Canyon, fashioned after Sedona, Arizona. Jutting mountains, deep colorful canyons and vistas from Mother Nature’s best day all play a part in my story. I love cowboys. What’s not to love about a rugged, man of the earth? I grew up watching Bonanza, The Big Valley, The Rifleman and so many more. Those stories dealt with family and values and taught me a thing or two about western life. The cowboy heroes were all men you could admire and trust. So of course, the owner of the elite, exclusive dude ranch type Tempest West Hotel had…

Traveling about the United States has always inspired my writing. I guess that is why, when I have the time, I prefer to drive places rather than fly. Besides the names of mountains and lakes, the town and street names catch my eye. For example, my grandparents lived in Buzzards Bay on Cape Cod. Now doesn’t that sound like a great place to set in a story? Other “east coast” names that fascinate me are Nantucket Sound and Owls Head. The name Poughkeepsie in New York just makes me smile. It sounds like fun—and would be a light story. Roanoke and Claymont give away their “stuffy” British backgrounds. The name Nags Head makes me wonder what happened to the poor horse there—or was it about a discontented woman? (Probably neither—but there goes my imagination…) Women seem to get little respect from history as the names of most places related to them are similar to Crazy Woman Creek, Maggies Nipples, or Squaw Hill (all of Wyoming.) Even old names of streets such as Gallows Road and Persimmon Tree Road start stories spinning through my head. Seven Locks Road—now there just has to be a story about covering up a murder in…

I grew up in a little town in northeastern Washington state, a place called Northport. My dad was, really and truly, the town marshal. I was raised on stories, told mostly by my adopted grandmother, Florence Wiley, about ‘old times’, when she lived on a farm outside of Coffeyville, Kansas. In my childhood, she was usually working at the wood-burning cook stove while she told her stories, and that stove has been in every western I’ve ever written, always in the same part of the kitchen. Later, when the uncles went together and bought her an electric model, she hated it, claiming it burned everything, and banished it. The black iron and chrome Kitchen Queen was soon back in residence.Her stories were great. Jesse James once slept in the family barn, and she clearly remembered the day the Dalton brothers tried to rob the bank in Coffeyville. The townspeople had gotten word that they were coming, and they were ready, on roof tops and between buildings, with rifles. The gang was annihilated–the shots were audible from the farm several miles outside of town–and later the bodies were displayed as a deterrent to budding outlaws. Grandma Wiley’s father was ahead of…

I’ve been an avid reader since I was ten years old. Blame it on the elementary school’s reading program (re: read twenty books in a month and win a prize!). I wanted that prize, so I read the twenty books. Along the way, I discovered…I LOVED reading. Since then, I’ve always had my nose stuck in a book, much to my childhood best friend’s annoyance. When I was in tenth grade and my older sister was in twelfth, she brought home an assigned reading book. The fiction book sat in the exact same spot she’d dumped it—on the chair next to the stairs—for days. After a week of passing by this book, I picked it up and read the blurb on the back. A mystery to solve and a love story…hmmm, it didn’t sound too bad. I sat down that night and read the entire book and I loved it! I was so excited about the story that I told my sister all about it, hoping I could get her excited enough to read it herself. While I blabbed on and on, my sister nodded and uh huh’d and smiled. The next day she wrote the book report and turned…

Aloha One and All: A big Mahalo (thank you!) to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today. This is such a fabulous site, one that makes promotion painless for those authors like me who somehow look up from the monitor only to discover a year has gone by and I’ve yet to let readers know what’s been going on and when to expect my next novel. I’m pleased as punch to announce that next year my first single title novel for Steeple Hill will be published in July ’08. The title is now officially, HOMECOMING, and for those of you who have read my early Western Historical Romances and have been asking for more, this one is for you. Written as a Western Inspirational Romance, HOMECOMING is the kind of story I love to tell about characters who find the strength to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It’s a book that romance readers can pass along to their daughters and grandmothers as well. Whenever anyone asks how I was able to switch from secular romance novels that were on the sensual side to Inspirational Romance, I remind them that I’ve always tried to instill a sense of hope and triumph…