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Friday, September 4, 2015

4-Legged Characters--Always Unpredictable #romance #western #pets





Critters Liven Up the Place!

This is my latest release, Don't Go Snaring My Heart. If you get past the handsome hero and beautiful heroine, you'll see a chicken in the lower right corner. Yes, a chicken. It's not Jethro the Killer Rooster--actually one of his harem wandered onto the cover. Don't worry, Jethro's on the alert and he won't let anything happen to her.

Then there's a goat named Lady Jane Grey. She adores her mistress Betsy so when Dex, the hero, arrives on scene (upside down), Lady JG gives him a little butt, er, love pat, just to let him know she's got Betsy's back.

Even when the deputy comes out to help Dex save the day, guess who's riding with him? Yep, Deputy Duke from Much Ado About Miners.  So besides a lawdog cat and a killer rooster and his harem, there are more goats, including kids who bounce all over the place, and canine-type dogs, too. And that's just in a single read. So my question is this, do you enjoy animals in the stories you read?

People have asked me why animals horn their way into most of my books. I'm not sure. I suspect it's because I grew up on a farm and animals are part of farm life. I had a cow named Cleopatra and a dog named Pinkie. Actually, I had dozens of animals, including an evil Shetland Pony named Smokey and an actual real horse, Penelope.  I'm a country girl, so in my view, animals have their place in our world and that's just the way of it.

Then there's the two-legged critters.  Oh, my.  The man in the original cover didn't suit us so Livia Reasoner (cover designer) swapped him out for my nephew, who's also on Much Ado About Mustangs.  Same costume, even.  But we use the same cover models all the time, so I'm not concerned about that.  

And, it's not a critter, but check out that background photo by Chelle Gluch.  Awesome!  Because guess what?  It's the exact location of Betsy's claim and home.  Exact.  How many times has that ever happened?

About Don't Go Snaring My Heart
Alone in the high-mountain desert, self-sufficient Betsy Lynch is determined to eke out a living selling goat cheese while she fulfills her father’s dream to find a rich silver lode. Claim jumpers threaten to take everything she holds dear, so Betsy uses a bullwhip, her wiles, traps, goats, and an attack rooster to defend her land.

Rancher Dex Madsen needs to feed his hungry crew. He tracks a herd of pronghorn and shoots one, then steps into Betsy's snare and is jerked upside down. The goats and rooster attack before Betsy cuts him down, and soon he's neck deep in her fight to protect the claim. But can he get past that killer chicken to claim her heart?

Return to southwest Idaho in the 1880s in Jacquie Rogers' acclaimed Hearts of Owyhee series.

10 comments:

  1. I love animals in stories, to me they make the story more real. When I was little I had a "pet chipmunk" while we were up camping, that my dad thought was a bear and threatened to shoot it. All poor Harold wanted was trail mix

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    1. Poor Harold! Yes, that was pretty funny, and he did get his trail mix. :)

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  2. I love animals in books. It adds so much more flavor to a story. I've had the usual cats, dogs, guinea pigs and mice for pets. I love reading about the more unusual pets though.

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    1. I keep telling Mr R that I'm going to buy a goat for him to milk. He's not impressed. Or enthusiastic. Wouldn't mind getting some of those lop-eared bunnies, though. They're so cute! Don't think I could eat them, though.

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  3. The story comes alive when there is animal or two. I enjoy reading all the adventures or scenes. Cats jumping on heads, dogs running after a little girl getting caught in a clothes line, just to name two memorable parts of stories I love.

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    1. I have a dog stealing a widow's unmentionables in Much Ado About Marshals. Animals do keep us on our toes. Fun! Thanks for stopping by, Michelle.

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  4. You already know my take on that subject, Trail Boss. I. Love. Animals... particularly those that end up stealing the show in your stories.
    I love cats but it's only since 2002 that my husband finally agreed for us to keep a cat home - said cat was a female who was already pregnant. She gave birth to 4 beautiful kitten on our couch (1 male, 3 females).
    At one point, right before we ended up with Mouffette (the pregnant cat we adopted), we had little mice (4 of them - which ended up being close to 50). Ariane begged us for those... I wasn't very thrilled and was surprised by those we had. They were wonderful - one in particular that we took with us once. Ariane wanted her to choose her own "mouse friend" (I guess we were kind of crazy and we agreed). That particular mouse was also eating with us.
    Now, we have three cats - Kitty (the sole survivor of Mouffette's kitten and sister of my late beloved Boule - she turned 13 on August 18); Kirikou (a 6 years old tortoise shell) and Timon (a very handsome 7 years old tuxedo).
    Keep on letting those crazy animals of yours have a part in your books - which, in turn, will keep me choking on whatever I'm drinking or eating when I read your stories.

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    1. Yes, you're #1 Deputy Duke fan. LOL. I bet your three cats keep you laughing. They can sure do some funny stuff, especially when they start playing and jumping around with their tails all fluffed up. ☺

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  5. Animals add so much to a story! I love the goat's name. Very regal.

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    1. She thought so, too. She also was quite serious about the queen bit. LOL.

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