Hey, Ladies, I found Barbara White Daille running around on a blog tour and I made her detour back here for a visit. The woman has COWBOY books coming out this year with Harlequin American. The Rodeo Man's Daughter is new, as in just out, and I am beside myself with excitement. You are sooo gonna love this book and the books before and the book due out in August 2012.

Everybody Needs a Hand Sometimes

Hi, all. I'm happy to be back here with the Pink Fuzzies!

And I'm here to talk about scary times and frightening situations.

Like starting a new book. LOL Yes, that's just where I am right now. And though I always think it's going to get easier, somehow it doesn't. That blank page is still a pure white page—whether paper or computer screen—and it's as hard as ever to put the first word on it.

The good thing is knowing I'm not alone. Many writers feel the same way when they begin a story or screenplay or novel.

And that feeling translates to so many things in our lives—big things that require a lot of time and that we're not quite sure we're up to tackling. I imagine you've run across projects like these, too.

Studying for an exam. Prepping for a speech. Rehearsing with a choir or orchestra for a concert. Practicing for a sporting event. Perfecting your newest recipe for a cook-off or for Grandma's eightieth birthday party or for the first dinner party that includes your in-laws on the guest list.

The good thing is you're not alone, either. But sometimes it feels that way, doesn't it? For me, too.

Remember all those writers I mentioned, who have been in my shoes—or I should say, have sat in my chair—when it's time to begin that book. Well...(gulp)...when I look around my office, there's no one in it but me!

Everyone needs a hand sometimes. Everyone needs a little support.

I get mine in many ways. By filling my journal with things I'm grateful for. By plastering my bulletin board with positive quotes. And by decorating my writing space with items that inspire and encourage me.

Everyone has his or her own source of inspiration. What works for one person might mean nothing to the next. But I'll share one thing that inspires me. That pushes me into action and then keeps me going.

And since we're still in that Valentine's mood, I'm choosing to share a gift from my husband. A little marble statue of a bear with his arms outstretched, ready to give me a supportive hug.

Okay, many of you will get that. You'll understand how looking at that statue can make me smile. You have your whatever-it-is that makes you want to grin, too.

Others of you—those not into Teddy bears and tchotchkes—just rolled your eyes, right? You think it's dumb. Or maybe crazy. But I'll bet you have something that gives you that same I-can-deal-with-this feeling.

I'd love to hear what gives you a hand when you need it! Who knows, it might work for the rest of us, too.

~~

To celebrate the release of her latest book, THE RODEO MAN'S DAUGHTER (February 2012), Barbara is giving away a copy of A RANCHER'S PRIDE, the first Flagman's Folly book.

To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment or question for her by Friday night, February 17th. Check back here at the blog on Sunday to see if your name was drawn as the winner.

And please stop by to visit with Barbara at the following online locations:

Website & blog: www.barbarawhitedaille.com

Facebook & Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/barbarawhitedaille and https://twitter.com/BarbaraWDaille

THE RODEO MAN'S DAUGHTER - February 2012
HONORABLE RANCHER - August 2012
***On Internet tour for THE RODEO MAN'S DAUGHTER - check website for blog tour stops.***

On writing a western character

Since I have just finished my first western romance, I thought it would be nice to explore how much fun I had with it and give some background information on how it came to be. SPEED, LUST, AND A SECOND CHANCE is about a rodeo star who is riding high on the top of his sport until he crashes his racing plane and damages his hand. I wanted to add this element of a wounded hero to this novel and this worked out perfectly.

The heroine is the plane designer. While the hero has mastered riding a bull, he has little experience with women, especially those from places like Boston and with a MIT background. The major question on everyone’s mind is the crash and if it was caused by the designer or the pilot. I set this to cause the conflict to climb.

Like it or not, to save her reputation and his, they have to join forces again to sort it out and enter another race. The crash has caused one major problem for the hero—he has nightmares of the crash every night. The only thing that stops his nightmares at night is sex before he goes to sleep.

This book is about building trust and learning to accept people who are different from you. As in any relationship there has to be compromises and in this story—a lot of compromises.

I was actually born in Texas and always wanted to write a western romance. If my readers like this one, I think I can add others. But even in these western romances I will always add my signature suspense angle.

A year ago I went to Arizona for a month. After seeing this land up close for a while, I knew I had to write this novel. The jump from bull riding to racing grand prix racing planes was fun. I enjoyed the research and hope it made for a twist that I don’t think has been tried before.

The novel is currently for sale of the Siren Publishing site where you can also see other work of mine. http://www.bookstrand.com/speed-lust-and-a-second-chance   I look forward to hearing how you like this twist on a western romance.

Welcome back Margery Scott.

Here is the promised excerpt from Emma's Wish

You're gonna love this one. You might need a hanky or some tissues.

Still grieving his wife’s death, Sam Jenkins needs a mother for his children. He can't build his ranch and care for three precocious youngsters alone. Emma Witherspoon has accepted the fact that she will never have a husband and children of her own, but that doesn't ease the ache in her heart. When Emma makes Sam an offer he can’t refuse, neither of them can foresee the changes in their lives because of two little words – “I do.”

Prologue

Texas, 1880

"Please don't send us away, Pa." Six-year-old Nathan tugged on the rolled up sleeve of his father's shirt. "We'll be good. We promise. Don't we, Joseph?"

Beside him, his older brother nodded vigorously, then scrubbed at his tear-stained eyes with his grimy knuckles.

Studying the two boys, Becky's head bobbed in agreement, setting her pale blonde curls bouncing. She was too young to understand the significance of what Sam had just told them, but whatever her brothers did, Becky followed suit, as much as any three-year-old could.

Sam Jenkins raked his fingers through his hair. God, if there was any other way ... But there wasn't. It was the right thing to do. He'd done his best to look after the children and the ranch, if it could be called that - but it wasn't good enough. He was failing at both, and now he had to muster up the courage to do what was best for them, no matter how painful it was. Seeing the children lined up in front of him, looking at him as if he was some kind of monster, just about tore his heart out.

Leaning over, he picked Becky up and settled her on his lap. Her pudgy arms reached up around his neck, and she planted a loud smacking kiss on his cheek.

Swallowing painfully against the grief choking him, he took Nathan's small hand. His gaze rested on the calluses on the little boy's palm. Dammit, his hands shouldn't already show signs of hard labor. Youngsters shouldn't have to work that hard.

This was exactly why he'd made the decision, the decision the children hated him for right now. But they'd thank him later. He had to believe that.

He was doing this for their own good. Sam had to remind himself of that every single day. By sending them back east to live with his wife's parents, he was giving them the life they deserved, a life of privilege and wealth. But even though his reasons made sense, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that he was making a huge mistake.

"It's just for a little while." He tried to sound convincing, but the promise rang false even to his own ears. "Right now, I need to work too hard--"

"We can help," Joseph volunteered. "I'm almost a man. You said so yourself when Ma died."

When Ma died. That said it all. Their lives had fallen apart when Catherine died six months before. The children had lost their mother, and he'd lost the only woman he'd ever loved.

"I did say that, didn't I?" he asked, ruffling the boy's hair. "And I meant it, too."

Catherine had always called Joseph her little man, and a melancholy smile twitched at Sam's lips at the recollection. He'd called him that, too, as Joseph had stood beside him at the cemetery when they laid Catherine to rest. Joseph had stood in the rain, his head held high, determined not to cry even though his eyes brimmed with tears and his chin quivered throughout the short service.

"I can work--" Joseph put in.

"Me too--"

"Me work--" Becky smiled up at him, the dimples in her cheeks and the clear blue gaze in her eyes bringing back the image of Catherine's angelic face.

God, couldn't they see how badly he wanted to keep them with him? They were all he had left, and sending them away was slowly killing him. But they had no way of knowing that. They only knew they were being sent to live with people they'd never met, in a place they'd never seen.

"Joseph," he said, trying to make his tone as stern as possible. "I can't keep you here right now. Your grandparents are looking forward to seeing you. So I need you to be a man now and promise me you'll take care of the younger ones. That's the way it has to be."

It's available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes&Noble and Allromance

www.margeryscott.com

If you didn't read Friday's post, read it and learn more Margery Scott.

“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.” Richard Bach

A friend gave me a plague with the above quote inscribed on it some twenty-five years ago. The plague still hangs on my office wall. That quote has inspired me to take steps in my life that I might not have taken otherwise.

One path I started on was to strive to write for publication and years later, I’m finally seeing my dreams come true. My first release, OBSSESED BY WILDFIRE, hits the cyber-shelf today! I’m so excited. My stomach clenches as I wonder if anyone will dish out cash for the story. If they decided to, I don’t think they’ll be disappointed.

OBSESSED BY WILDFIRE is not my first completed novel, it’s not even my second or third. It’s my fifth. Does its ranking, among my completed works, diminish the excitement which tingles my entire soul today? HE** NO.

A funny but true story about Obsessed By Wildfire, my critique partner, Sylvie Kaye, and I were kicking around ideas for her next western. I suggested she write a story about a woman barrel racer. She knew nothing about the subject. I knew some as I used to barrel race. At her insistence, I wrote the story in a matter of three months. I submitted a query to The Wild Rose Press on a Friday morning before leaving for work, received a request for the novel an hour later, sent it to the editor at lunch and was offered a contract by the 5pm. Will that ever happen again? I can wish.

OBSESSED BY WILDFIRE is rated HOT! I didn’t know I could write HOT. My editor thinks I could erotica. My answer to her is a topic for another blog.

The story, set in the Texas town of Wayback, is about a woman who meets a man who could stop her from her accomplishing her dreams. I love the banter Isabelle’s emotional conflict causes between her and the sexy fire marshal, Warner. The couple made me chuckle. By the end of the book, Isobel learns love can make dreams a whole lot sweeter.





Excerpt:
“Warner Keyson. You?” He folded his arms across his chest. His muscles bulged from beneath the rolled back sleeves of his white dress shirt. She’d seen bigger forearms—on a few NFL players.

“Isobel Trinidad.”

“Well, Ms. Trinidad, you could’ve caused some damage or killed someone the way you barreled in here.”

“The last time I heard, Raleigh was Wayback’s chief and you’re not one of his officers. Besides everyone’s inside.”

“There could be a couple or two in the backseat of those cars. You know, enjoying the night.”

Warner Keyson’s warm caramel gaze drifted over her and Isobel’s legs buckled a degree before she roped off her reaction. Refusing to look away, she wrestled the urge to step closer and touch the cute dark lock that curled behind Mr. Keyson’s

“Nah, not peeking.” His full lips pulled up the tiniest bit.
Looking pass him, she scanned the cars. Had he been in the backseat of one of them? Had one of the local girls already run him down and claimed him?

“So what do you have in mind with that whip?”


*******
If you’d like to read the entire story, and I hope you will, here is the link to The Wild Rose Press home page.
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

And if you’d like to see a trailer for Obsessed BY Wildfire here is a link to that.
http://www.autumnjordon.com


For everyone commenting today, your name will be included in a drawing I'm holding at my own blog http://www.autumnjordonsnotes.blogspot.com/ The winner will be announced there on Feb 3, 2010.

Also, I'm running a special at my own blog. Winner will be announced February 14, 2010. So please stop over and check it out.

Recently, I won a free copy of Anna Kathryn Lanier's novella Salvation Bride. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and wanted to share it with everyone.

In the little town of Salvation, Texas, widower sheriff David Slade anxiously awaits the arrival of the stage. He's anxious because one of the passengers is a woman whom he's never met in person--his mail-order bride. Everyone in town is aware of what he's done and, to his consternation, it appears that they are all just as eager as he to see the lady, so there's a rather large welcoming committee waiting to meet the young woman. They aren't aware that David has asked Laura Ashton to marry him to get a housekeeper and a mother for his three-year-old daughter, Ginny, as well as to receive her five thousand dollar dowry because he's nearly submerged in debt, a fact of which he is ashamed.

Laura has ulterior motives for marrying David, also, and hasn't been exactly honest with him. She's willing to leave her home in the East and travel all the way to Texas to marry a stranger--yes--but what David doesn't know is that Laura has more than five thousand dollars at her disposal, and she's also a licensed physician. The reason she accepted his proposal is a little more basic. An unwanted suitor had tried to force himself upon her in hopes of making her marry him so he can gain control of her money, and running away is the only way to escape him.



So, she and David are wed, and it doesn't take long for Laura to find herself firmly settled in David's home, his daughter's heart, and--after a very short time--his own heart as well. Determined to have their marriage be in name only because they've had no time to get to know each other or court, David's promise lasts only a short while once the ring is on Laura's finger (and off again, because it's too large and she nearly loses it.)

Problems immediately rise, of course. Laura thinks David's emotional withdrawal from her is because he's still in love with his dead wife. She doesn't know he suffers from guilt because of things that happened to his wife while he was in a Northern prison camp during the War Between the States. David refuses to allow Laura to practice medicine because he fears people will think he can't provide for her. When she gives him more money to buy a nearby ranch to add to his own spread, this shames him, although he accepts it. These worries appear minimal, however, when Ebner Moody arrives from Laura's former home, claiming he's her lawful husband and he's come to take her back with him. Now, David finally admits he loves Laura and refuses to let her go, but Moody has a marriage certificate signed by both Laura and himself. David is determined to prove it a fake.

The interaction between David and Laura--both at their first meeting, their one-night "honeymoon" and their life at David's ranch--is at first awkward and shy, then emotional and filled with what neither recognizes as slowly-developing love. David thinks he's being lustful, Laura decides to accept whatever he gives her. Their feelings for each other have just begun to be revealed when Moody shows up, and it becomes the catalyst for the drama that comes afterward.

Salvation Bride is a short piece of fiction which I wish had been longer. Perhaps some day, the author will add to it and make it into a full-length novel.

(Salvation Bride is a Cactus Rose Miniature Rose, released by The Wild Rose Press.)

Most people who've ever watched a Western movie are familiar with the name Quantrill. This Confederate guerilla and his men have been the subject of many movies and as far as I know, there has never been a sympathetic portrayal of them (as a group) yet. They fought during the War Between the States under the command of William Clarke Quantrill, a former Ohio schoolteacher, who led his men on raids throughout the state of Missouri.

Although Quantrill wasn't the only Confederate guerilla in Missouri, he was undoubtedly the most infamous. His men's job was to halt Union activities in a state which had been taken over by Federal forces and they did so with a vengeance, firing on army supply patrols, disrupting the mails and eventually attacking towns on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border. Most of their attacks were against Union sympathizers although even Confederates might get killed if they got in the way. At that time, their opposite number was the Jayhawkers, a Union group which was equally bloody and undisciplined.

Receiving the commission of Captain in the Confederate army, Quantrill rationalized the brutality and devastation his men caused by citing the Partisan Ranger Act which allowed guerilla activities within certain limits. Most of the time, however, he and his men operated outside the law of even the Confederate forces, and he was declared an outlaw by the Union. Ranging from Missouri as far as Texas, their greatest moment of lawlessness was the attack upon Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 when they massacred 200 men and boys. Though that act alone--often called "Bloody Kansas"--brought severe censure from the Confederacy, Quantrill's forces were still allowed a free hand because of their effectiveness against the Union.

Eventually--as to be expected with such a bloodthirsty group--there was dissention among Quantrill's men and he began to lose what hold he had over them. The band began to split up, forming smaller groups who independently attacked Texas and Missouri towns. After Quantrill was killed by Union troops, these groups became more and more lawless, eventually becoming nothing more than highwaymen and bank robbers out for their own interests. Among the men who rode with Quantrill were Frank and Jesse James. After the War, during the terrorist days of Reconstruction, they formed the James-Younger Gang, consisting of brothers Frank and Jesse, brothers Cole, Jim, John, and Bob Younger, Clell Miller, Arthur McCoy, Charlie Pitts, John Jarrette (Cole's brother-in-law), Bill Chadwell, and Ace Nelson. The gang ranged from West Virginia to Texas, but eventually disbanded when Jesse and Frank decided to "go straight," and ended with Jesse being shot in the back by Bob Ford, "that sniveling little coward who shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave"--as the song goes.

This was the group of men after whom I patterned the guerillas Hobbs' Raiders in my book Vengeance from Eden--lawless individuals who may have started out with the best intentions but who eventually let their baser instincts of cruelty and enjoyment of pain inflicted on the helpless take over, placing themselves outside the laws of decency in the process.

It is this band which the racist Race Jago led and it is Jago whom rancher Luke Brennan tracks from Nebraska to the little border town of Rosarita, Texas, for a final showdown with the man who destroyed his life.

In the first place, I didn't intend to write a Western, nor to have it made into an audio book.

It just happened.

It came about like this:

I was dating a guy who didn't like science fiction. "Write a Western," he told me. "They always sell."

So, I did.

Secretly, I didn't consider it a "Western". Yes, it was set in Nebraska, yes, there were cowboys and Indians, but to me it was a Romance. And it was short--only about 110 pages. He read it--used his expertise as a reader of Western novels--and made a couple of corrections, and pronounced it "Great."

Well, Time marched on and so did the boyfriend but I was left with the story. I set it aside and went back to my science fiction/fantasy--wrote the Sinbad series and the kan Ingan Chronicles--but it kept niggling in my memory. I had this novella, I had spent time writing it, so I should do something with it. The problem was, not many publishers accepted book manuscripts of that length. Finally, I sat down with my NOVEL & SHORT STORY WRITERS MARKET and went through it page-by-page, looking for publishers who handled novellas. There weren't many and most of the ones there were didn't want Westerns. Finally, I came upon Books in Motion, an audio book company. They wanted stories specifically not more than 110 pages and they accepted Westerns. So, I wrote a synopsis and a cover letter, included an SASE, and sent my little manuscript on its merry way...

...and promptly forgot about it--as I am prone to do. (Ask Linda or MM!)

Time trotted onward some more and I had other things to think about. I was scheduled for hip surgery; the prosthesis I had been given to replace my crushed hip had worn itself to a nub (probably from all the sky-diving and mountain-climbing!) and taken part of my pelvis with it. A week before my admission, a letter came from Books in Motion, thanking me for my submission, telling me that--alas!--they had changed their requirements and now wanted full-sized manuscripts, so, though they liked my story, they were returning it. I stared at the letter...WALKS THE SHADOW TRAIL...that was my title, all right, but when had I sent the manuscript? I couldn't remember. Going to my Submissions Log--a handy device--I started checking the entries. Sure enough, there it was--April, 1996--a year before! I reread the letter, decided I wasn't going to let a little thing like a lack of pages stop me; after all, they liked the story, didn't they? Keeping my fingers crossed to invalidate the lie, I whipped off a quick letter informing them that originally the manuscript had been longer, but at some anonymous person's suggestion, I had shortened it and if they liked, I'd put the deleted chapters back and would they reconsider it then?

The day before my surgery, I got their answer: They would.

So, I wrote the non-existent chapters, bundled the whole thing together and returned it for their scrutiny.

In a few weeks--while recovering from my survery--I received another second letter from Books in Motion.

A contract. What a get-well card!

And the rest, as they say, is H-I-S-T-O-R-Y....

Walks the Shadow Trail was one of the publishers best sellers for several months. It has since been published in ebook and softcover by Double Dragon Publications.


(This excerpt is taken from a presentation I made at the South Coast Writers Association in 2001.)