Wednesday, March 13- Holly Bush, Carolyn Brown, Sabine Starr
Welcome y'all to day three of our, "LADIES LOVE COUNTRY BOYS" CELEBRATION!
This pic was taken at RT 2012 of the Cowboy round-up reader event. Have you ever seen so many fine lookin' boots? If you're at RT this year, be sure to stop in on 5/1/13 at 2:15 pm, Sheraton Inn, Crown Center--Kansas City, Mo.to meet the authors of RT 2013 "Cowboy Corral"
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We'd like to welcome Holly, Carolyn and Sabine to the front porch today! Three very different and very gifted women in their field. Come on up and find yourself a comfy place to sit. Don't worry about "Norm", my old black Lab, he's more bark than bite;) So let's get started!! First up is Holly Bush!
We've not met, but my good friend, Kimberly loves your writing and I have to say, I am looking forward to picking these up myself!
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WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS STORY?
I was driving home from work one day and had what I call one of my ‘mental movies’ playing in my head. There was a petite young woman, fashionably dressed in a pale yellow dress with a high neckline, lace collar and a matching short jacket. The back of the skirt was tiered, ruffled and each row was held in place by bows. She wore a small, yellow felt hat atop her blond, nearly white, hair. She had pale, smooth, cream colored skin, and fine delicate bone structure. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes gray blue. She placed a glove covered hand on the offered arm of the conductor and took one step down onto a busy train platform. He pointed to her leather trunks being stacked beside her. She looked around and saw cowboys in chaps and women in calico dresses holding children’s hands.
I got home that evening and through dinner and laundry and spelling lessons with one of my daughters, I kept seeing this young woman. I pictured her in a navy blue velvet formal dress with a high bustle and a lace bodice. She was at a dressing table attaching earrings and speaking to another woman. When the other woman left, the young woman took a key and opened a small drawer on the table. She pulled out a letter, unfolded it and read.
The following day or days I tried to name her and see her story. Who was she? What was in the letter? Why would a fashionable dressed, wealthy young woman travel alone to a mid-west town? I sat down at my computer to begin on the novel journey of this woman. Those first few minutes are both exciting and terrifying but as I described what I saw happening in my head, Julia Crawford began to take shape as the central character and eventually the heroine. As I wrote, Julia’s motivations became clear and her story followed.
EXCERPT:
Excerpt from Train Station Bride 1887
“Make love to me, Jake,” Julia said.
Jake held her face in his hands. Every fear, hope and dream was visible there. Their lovemaking was reassuring to her. It was a hell of a lot more than that to him. More than a man’s release, a symptom of him being born male. It offered more than physical comfort to him. This beautiful woman wanted him, needed him in a way no one else did. When Julia curled up to him, responded to him, he felt as if he was the biggest, smartest man God had ever graced the earth with. After years of wondering if he’d done the best by his family, by the legacy his parents left him, when Julia touched his chest as she was doing now, Jake was convinced he’d succeed against any obstacle. Was this love? Was this what Flossie was trying to tell him?
“I’d be happy to oblige you, Mrs. Shelling,” he said.
Jake carried her to their bedroom. Their clothes slipped to the floor in a heap until they both stood naked before each other.
“You are too beautiful to grace my bed, Julia,” Jake said as his eyes swept her head to toe.
Julia smiled softly and ran her hands up his wide arms. “I never thought in a hundred years I’d be married to a man as handsome and kind as you.”
Jake kissed her deeply and she inched up to him, her breasts touching his chest. He tilted her head back in his hands. “Don’t ever leave me, Julia,” he said.
“Why would I want to leave you, Jake?” Julia whispered against his mouth. “You make me forget I’m silly and clumsy and fat.”
Jake watched his hand run down the side of her breast and follow the curve of her waist and hip. “Don’t say that, Julia.” He stared into her eyes. “There isn’t an ounce of flesh on you I want to part with.”
BUY LINKS: Amazon / Barnes and Noble /
All Romance e-books
LEAVE A QUESTION OR A COMMENT FOR HOLLY TO BE ENTERED TO WIN A COPY OF TRAIN STATION BRIDE!
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Next we invite Carolyn Brown to tell us about herself and her books!
BIO:
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and a RITA finalist. Her books include historical, contemporary, cowboys and country music mass market paperbacks. Billion Dollar Cowboy debuts the Cowboys & Brides series in June. It will be her 63rd published book and is her 14th cowboy romance for Sourcebooks. She and her husband live in Davis, Oklahoma. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.
What inspired you to write this story?
My last Spikes and Spurs was finished and it was time to think about a new series. Four cowboys were whispering in my ear telling me to write their stories so I started paying attention. I had four very, very rich cowboys who loved their ranches and land. But just how important was love to them? Was it more important than money? Was it more important than a ranch? Was it more important than pride? Was it more important than secrets? And could love ever overcome all of the above or would it falter?”
The first story went to Colton Nelson because he was whispering the loudest. Colton assured me (Billion Dollar Cowboy) that love was important but he was a billionaire so how could he ever trust a woman to marry him for love. Laura Baker didn’t even want to be on his ranch, but she needed money to bail her sister out of gambling debts…again…so she’d agreed to work for Colton’s best friend and financial adviser as a glorified ranch secretary. She was there, she was pretty; they needed a fake girlfriend for Colton so the women would stop plaguing him. Pretty soon, neither of them can figure out what’s fake and what’s real.
It was just supper, for God’s sake; it wasn’t an inquisition. They weren’t going to take her out in the yard and stone her to death if she ate with the wrong fork. Andy had said they were just like family, and since she was his assistant she should meet them, but she didn’t want to get all friendly with the “family.” She just wanted to work off her debt and get out of Ambrose, Texas. She’d managed to avoid most of them for a whole week and thought she could do so for months, but oh, no, Andy decided it was time for her to break bread with them that very evening.
Laura sat up straighter in the chair and pushed her glasses up on her nose. She hated going back to glasses after years and years of wearing contacts. She could wear her contacts on special occasions, but not more than a couple of hours. Tonight didn’t qualify for that in her opinion.
“We are glad that you came to supper, Laura,” Maudie said.
Maudie was tall, thin, with salt-and-pepper hair, and not nearly enough wrinkles to be Colton’s grandmother. She’d never be worth a damn in a poker game because Laura could easily read her through her green eyes. She’d popped in and out of the office at least once a day, so Laura had met her, but saying a brief hello and sitting at the supper table with her was two different things.
Laura’s smile was strained at best. “Thank you.”
Andy clapped his hands once. Conversation stopped and all eyes were on Laura. She sincerely thought about crawling under the table and hiding, but she refused to let anyone intimidate her. Not even the people who lived in a house so big that it took her breath away when she first saw it. It had turrets and wings and tall windows, a deep wraparound porch, and would put Tara from Gone with the Wind to absolute shame.
“Introductions!” Andy said with a sweep of his hand. “Maudie is the only one who has met Laura, who has been getting settled into the apartment and the job this week. As you all know, she is my distant cousin so I’ve known her since we were both kids.”
Laura nodded at Maudie even though saying hello from behind a desk and computer was far different than knowing them.
“And,” Andy went on, “that feller over there with the platter of steaks in his hand
is Rusty. He’s the ranch foreman and the person who knows what’s going on in any corner of the ranch. The kid beside him is Roxie, our new resident teenager.”
Rusty smiled. “I’d begun to think you were just a figment of Andy’s imagination or that he’d hired a robot. Welcome to the ranch. If I can help you with anything, you just holler. The apartment suiting you all right?”
“Yes, sir. It’s great,” she said.
Roxie looked up and Laura’s heart went out to her. There was something in her blue eyes that said she wasn’t real sure of her place in the world or where she’d fit in if she figured out that she even had a place.
“Hello,” Roxie said in a soft Southern drawl.
Laura saw herself at sixteen when someone new came to dinner at Aunt Dotty’s ranch. Trying to remember her manners and not talking too much, but being friendly. It was an awkward age at best. Andy had already mentioned that Roxie had just recently come to the ranch on a full-time basis and was more than a little bit shy.
Andy pointed in the opposite direction. “The cowboy at the head of the table that looks like shit is Colton.”
BUY LINKS:
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Sourcebooks / BAMM / Indigo / Indiebound
TODAY CAROLYN IS GIVING AWAY YOUR CHOICE OF A BOOK IN THE SPIKES AND SPURS SERIES! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT OR QUESTION FOR HER TO BE ENTERED TO WIN!
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Welcome now Sabine Starr with her new release Angel Gone Bad!
What inspired me to write about a Viking Cowboy in the Old West?
A lightning storm made me think of mighty Thor throwing his Hammer across the sky . . . and that led to an irresistible urge to write about a Viking cowboy and the dime romance novelist who done him wrong. Well, he did put her out of sorts when he wouldn’t give her everything she wanted from a man, but in his defense, he was treating her like a lady. She got her revenge, but now he’s back and ready to mete out justice. He gives her no choice except “to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want.” And after all, she does need hands-on research for her novels. Angel Gone Bad is second in my Gone Bad Series set during the 1880s in Texas and Indian Territory (Oklahoma). I was inspired by the fact that “G.T.T.” was once widely known to mean “Gone to Texas.” Those letters were frequently found scrawled on doors in the South, Midwest, and East, and those folks were simply gone. And many of them, gone bad. That idea led to the title for my Gone Bad Series. Another inspiration for this series was the paranormal interest that was part of society at that time. Native American mysticism was also still practiced in their cultures. In Lady Gone Bad, Sharlot hears danger warnings in her head. In Angel Gone Bad, Crystabelle is a card reader. In Bride Gone Bad, Tempest speaks with ghosts.
“Angel, look at me.”
She didn’t want to open her eyes. She simply wanted to focus on his touch. But she did. In the dim light of the room, his eyes had turned from sky blue to deep, mysterious
lapis.
“Tell me you want me as much as you did before.” He moved his hand in slow circles, gently massaging her hot, tender flesh.
She shivered, feeling a burning chill. “More. I want you more.”
“Kiss me.”
She realized that he needed her, too. He needed to know she still wanted him. He needed her to set aside the smart words, the games, the barbs. He’d made himself vulnerable to her. Could she do any less?
BUY LINKS: AMAZON / B and N / BOOKSAMILLION /
Learn more:
Sabine's website / Facebook
Leave a question or comment to be entered to win! The lucky winner will receive an eBook of Angel Gone Bad courtesy of Kensington Books.
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My thanks to each of you gals for stopping by! It's been great to visit with you and we'll be looking for more good reads from each of you!
http://www.amandamcintyresbooks.com/2013/03/wednesday-march-13-holly-bush-carolyn.html
Nice excerpts
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