DO YOU LIKE TO WIN?

By Caroline Clemmons

We’re having Valentine’s Parties and you’re invited to both.

Pioneer Hearts Facebook Group authors are having giveaways from February 1^st -14^th. Log onto https://www.facebook.com/groups/pioneerhearts/ and follow the conversation for the day to qualify. Some of us are allowing the winner to name a character in our next book. Each of us has a giveaway. My day is Tuesday, February 10^th, so please come chat with me then.

Sweethearts of the West blog members have a party from February 4th-14th and you’re invited. Check Lily Graison’s post on the blog at http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com/2015/02/valentines-ebook-giveaway.html

for February 4^th. There’s a Rafflecopter for you to follow for an entry. Prizes will be awarded February 15^th.

Isn’t February a great month? Okay, a cold month, but great things happen in February. Things that sometimes involve chocolate, yum, and others that involve prizes and surprises. And the month isn’t even half over yet. Wow, the possibilities! 

LASR Book of the Month: MAIL-ORDER TANGLE #historicalromance #mailorderbride

Mail-Order Tangle

Long and Short Reviews
Book of the Month

This last weekend has been really somethin'!

Caroline Clemmons and I found out that our duet, Mail-Order Tangle, had received a 5-star review (thank you, Sorrel!) so was in the running for Long and Short Review's Book of the Month.  We were already happy as two puppies in a rawhide chewy store, so this was just the cherry on top.

Our readers and friends rallied and yes...
Mail-Order Tangle did win!  

Needless to say, we've been doing the happy dance since we found out about the win this morning, and we're ever so thankful to the members of the Pickle Barrel Bar and Books, Ann Charles' Purple Door Saloon, the Western Historical Romance Book Club, Pioneer Hearts, The Authors' Billboard, and Easychair Bookshop, as well as the beta readers and all readers who've supported us through this entire endeavor.  Also, Claudia Stephan of the Books, Readers, Authors, Reviews and Events page posted several times.

Here are a couple review snippets.  The first is about Caroline's book, Mail-Order Promise:

If a book can make you feel things then it’s a very good book. This is a very good book.

The second is about my book, Mail-Order Ruckus:

Perfect book to unwind at the end of the day and get lost.

You can read Sorrel's entire review at the Long and Short Reviews website.

Mail-Order Promise
by Caroline Clemmons

Ellie Dickerson and her sister are in desperate straits when she contracts to become a mail-order bride to a Texas rancher. After her arduous trip from Virginia, she learns her fiancé has died. His handsome brother has sworn to take care of her and she’s instantly attracted to him, but he seems indifferent toward her. What will happen to her and her sister?

Kage Johanssen, co-owner of a ranch in Idaho with his cousin Matt, is forced to take over his family’s Central Texas ranch on the death of his older brother. Kage is in no hurry to get married, and when his brother’s bride shows up, she’s everything he doesn’t want in a wife—except she’s stunningly beautiful. Despite his deathbed promise to his brother and his attraction to Ellie, he’s convinced she doesn’t have the grit to be a rancher’s wife.

When a greedy, sadistic villain attempts to take over the ranch and kill Kage, can Ellie save her true love? What will it take to prove that she’s the only woman for Kage?

Mail-Order Ruckus
by Jacquie Rogers

Matt Johanssen returned to the ranch he and his cousin Kage started in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory, not knowing he took Laura Dickerson's heart with him. Now that her sister no longer needs her, Laura wants a home of her own and a family to put in it. No other man would fill the bill as well as Matt, but he’s not interested. Not wanting to live as a spinster aunt the rest of her life, Laura signs a contract with a marriage broker, choosing to go to Silver City, near Matt’s ranch, in hopes that he might come around. But he’s not on the roster of eligible grooms!

When Matt sees Laura among the brides on display on the balcony of the Idaho Hotel, he feels gutshot. He’s in no position to take a wife, not with a ranch eating up every spare moment and dollar. But if he doesn't step forward, the one woman he wants will be wed at the end of the week—and not to him.

Will Matt walk away from the woman who stole his heart or let go of everything he's worked so hard to build go in exchange for love?

♥ ♥ ♥

We sincerely hope you enjoy these books.  It was a fun collaboration and of course we fell in love with the characters.  We'd greatly appreciate a review--that's such a tremendous help.

Mail-Order Tangle

Two books

by bestselling western writers

Caroline Clemmons

and

Jacquie Rogers

Now at all major online stores:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple

Kobo | Scribd | Page Foundry

* Also in print *

Happy Reading!

ADDICTED TO RESEARCH

By Caroline Clemmons

Historical writers—at least those of us who want our work to be accurate—delve into research with the enthusiasm of a crack addict for drugs. We never get our fill of details to add credibility to our work. Often while researching one subject, we come across information that spawns a new book idea. Lucky, right?

Not that we need new ideas. Most of us have so many plots and characters buzzing in our heads that we’re set for about a hundred years. Still, we welcome new information. Each of us wants to get better and better as our writing career progresses.

My friend Mary Adair (fellow blog member) recently sent me a wonderful research book titled BLEED, BLISTER, AND PURGE: A HISTORY OF MEDICINE ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER, by Volney Steele, M.D. Mary knows and shares my addiction for research of the historical time period about which we write. Her time period is earlier than mine, but each of us spends countless hours making sure our books’ historical details are correct.

I’ve taken blog member Beth Trissel’s herbal medicine class a couple of times and have her herbal book PLANTS FOR A MEDEIVAL HERB GARDEN IN THE BRITISH ISLES (http://amzn.com/B00IOGHYVU). Although the title says British isles, those who immigrated to America brought their seeds and seedlings, making this book important for historical writers whose subject is America. In her classes, Beth covers Native American medicine as well as European. Can't have bluebonnets blooming in fall, can we?

Although I love my Kindle Fire for reading, for research I want to be able to thumb through print books. I underline, highlight, and stick post-it strips on pages. My book on Victorian fashions from Harper’s Bazar have post its on the pages I’ve used in my books. But I use a wide variety of research. Hence, my several book cases of research material.

Don’t think we writers want our research to appear as such in our books. The style of a woman’s dress, the flowers blooming, the style of house, and the miles a rider covers by horseback are examples of details we want to be correct without being pedantic. No, we want our research to enrich our books without the reader ever noticing those details. They’re supposed to slip into the story without distracting. I do enjoy knowing what the women are wearing, don't you?

When I read a book and see an anachronism, not only am I distracted but I lose faith in the author. That’s why my friends and I work so diligently to prevent this happening in one of our books. I hope I’m succeeding.

Do you notice anachronisms when you read? If so, do they detract from the story?

Valentine's Day Confessions by Kimmie Easley

Hello, February and the time of candy hearts, roses and plush stuffed animals. Yes, I'm a sucker for love. I'm a romance author, after all! So I wanted to share with you a few of my Valentine's Day confessions. 

Confession #1: I bought myself a heart shaped box of chocolate (yes, I know it's still January) to indulge in while I hunker down in my writing cave to meet impending deadlines. 

Confession #2: A good love poem stirs my soul.

Love is More Thicker Than Forget 

By: E.E. Cummings

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall

more seldom than a wave is wet

more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win

less never than alive

less bigger than the least begin

less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly

and more it cannot die

than all the sky which only

is higher than the sky

E.E. Cummings, “[love is more thicker than forget]” from Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1985 by George James Firmage. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Source: Poetry (January 1939).

Confession #3: I collect old, vintage Valentine's Day cards. 

Confession #4: My ideal date with the hubs is a chilled bottle of wine, or cold beer on the front porch while watching the sun fade and listening to classic country on the radio. 

Confession #5: A gal's first Valentine should always be her daddy.