Will Rogers Medallion Awards and OKRWA IDA @CarolinClemmons @JacquieRogers

A Tale of Two Winners
by Jacquie Rogers

Honey Beaulieu must have taken exception to something Will Rogers said!

There's nothing like going to Texas this time of year.  It's snowing back home in Seattle but today it was 93 degrees in Flower Mound, TX.  Guess which I prefer!  Of course, another draw to Texas was that we have wonderful friends and family here.

The instigating factor for coming to Texas, though, was the Will Rogers Medallion Award banquet.  The first two books in the Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series, Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch and Sidetracked in Silver City, finaled in the Western Humor category.  Woohoo!  The committee chose four finalists and my books were two of them, so I figured I had a lock on the bronze.  

However, the probability of a bronze medal wasn't the reason I wanted to attend.   I could hardly wait to meet the head honcho and the founder of the awards, Charles Williams.  We did meet and I can assure you that he's just as kind and friendly as I thought, and he has a great sense of humor.  

Charles Williams, founder of the Will Rogers Medallion Awards
with me, Sassy, and Honey.  Honey too quite a liking to him.

The first day, at the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering booksigning, I met Gene Helmick-Richardson.  So did Honey.  They seemed to get off to a bit of a rocky start but by the end of the doin's, they were best of friends.

Gene Helmick-Richardson knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Did I mention our Texas hosts?  We were lucky enough to stay with one of my best friends who, unbeknownst to her, started off as one of my mentors.  I studied her books to figure out this writing gig, and I was beyond thrilled when she contacted me that first time.  Yes, I was her fangirl!  That would be the awesome and talented Caroline Clemmons.  At this point, you might say we're a mutual admiration society. LOL  

Our Halloween photo courtesy of Snapchat.

So good people and good fun.  What could be better?  Um, well, winning.  Imagine my surprise when both my books won gold medallions!  And also Camp Rogers Press won two!  To be honest, Mr R should've picked up the Camp Rogers Press medals, but I was all too happy to cart them back to the table myself. 

Mr R recorded it on my phone.  It was his first time ever recording anything on a smartphone so all in all, the video turned out pretty well.

Caroline and Hero, Mr R and I were all flying high that night.  We had a delicious steak dinner and met some really nice people.  What a grand time!

The four of us went back to Caroline's house, yammered half the night, and went to bed.  The next morning, we found out that Caroline's book Grant Me the Moon had won the International Digital Award (sponsored by the Oklahoma RWA) for Short Contemporary Romance!  That was so wonderful--two winners in the house.  Our husbands didn't quite know what to do with us. LOL.  We were yipping and dancing through the living room.  It must have been quite a sight.

But we did slow down long enough to get our photo together.

Let me tell you, that sure went well with our bacon and eggs.

Mr R and I will be headed back to Seattle in a few days.  I can't tell you how much I'll miss Caroline.  I really would like to stash her in the car and take her with me.  Then again, if it keeps snowing up north...  

If you're on Snapchat, friend me!  My handle is jacquierogers.  You can get videos of Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy pictures of her scribe.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series

Hearts of Owyhee series

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Romancing The West | Pickle Barrel Bar and Books

MY BOOK WON AN AWARD! #IDA WINNER2017

When I was already having a great weekend, I received notice that GRANT ME THE MOON had won 1^st place in the International Digital Awards sponsored by Oklahoma chapter of RWA. You may have heard me yelling Whoo Hoo! from wherever you are.

Is it all right to admit I love this book? I hope so, because I do and plan another soon featuring this hero’s brother, Brad. I’m elated to learn that someone else liked the story—and relieved.

Hero and I grew up in Lubbock, Texas above the Caprock Escarpment and forty miles from Post. For many years he and I traveled from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Lubbock visiting family. On each trip, we drove through the town of Post, in Garza County, at the foot of the Caprock Escarpment.

Garza Hotel in Post
Note red brick street

For several reasons, this town appealed to me. First, it was founded by cereal magnate C. W. Post as an Utopian community. If you’ve been to Post, you might find it less than Utopian and more a small town on dusty ranch land cut by Highway 84. Part of the downtown still has red brick streets (or did the last time I was there).

Second, I love small towns. Post called to me as a nice place to live. Appearing a quiet community, it’s only forty miles from the more metropolitan Lubbock. So, you have the benefits of a small town with the amenities of the city less than an hour away.

Third is the fact that it has a prehistoric site called the Garza Site, contemporary with the Clovis era. Hero and I enjoy rambling through American Indian ruins such as Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep, and Mesa Verde among others. How annoying we can’t visit the Garza site because it’s on private land.

Clovis spearhead

Not to be deterred, I created an even better find on Grant Grayson’s ranch. See how great life is as an author? I can make up stuff about anywhere. Like most writers, I like research and delved into what the Grayson Ranch site might feasibly include.

Here’s the blurb of GRANT ME THE MOON:

All Tory Fraser intended was to show her high school history club students a local archaeology dig. How could she know the excursion would involve a murder? Or that one of her students would be suspected as the killer? And she had no idea she would meet the man of her dreams.

Grant Grayson has taken over management of his family’s Grayson Ranch near Post, Texas to give his grandfather a less arduous schedule. A flash flood washed away an old talus slope on the ranch to reveal a prehistoric cave that is a Clovis site. Being a good citizen, Grant invited the nearest large university archaeology department to excavate the cave. When a gorgeous blonde high school teacher asks his permission to take her students to the site, how can he deny her? 

Tory and Grant are drawn in to the investigation to clear her student but unintentionally make themselves a target. They must evade the killer and protect those they love.

You can find GRANT ME THE MOON here:

Amazon US: http://a.co/iy1DX2X

Amazon UK: http://amzn.eu/g1QwOmL

Amazon CA: http://a.co/5cBYOeQ

 My wish for you is that you have a safe and pleasant November--and read a lot of books.