Coming Home by Tracy Garrett

COMING HOME is here!

Do you remember the first time you were in a new place or met a new person and felt you belonged, that you’d finally come home? Maybe it’s a new house, where you walked in the front door and said to yourself, “This is what I’ve been looking for.” Mine was the first date with my future husband. I knew this man was my “home” no matter where life took us—and it’s taken us quite a few places!

In my short story, COMING HOME, Jericho Hawken meets Maryland Henry and her three nieces and knows he’s found what he’s been searching for. But there are some big boulders in their path to happiness.

I’m so happy to share that Coming Home has been released as an electronic short story for only .99! [It was first released as part of the Hearts and Spurs anthology from Prairie Rose Publications.]

Here’s a little taste:

COMING HOME:  Sometimes it takes two to make dreams come true.

When a man who believes he’ll never have a home and family…

Former U.S. Marshal Jericho Hawken should have been shepherding a wagon train to new territory, but he unwillingly left them vulnerable to a vicious raider. The murder of the settlers he was supposed to be guarding is the hardest thing he’s ever had to face…until he meets the sister of one of the settlers.

…finds a woman who has lost everything…

Instead of a joyous reunion with her brother, Maryland Henry has come to River’s Bend to take responsibility for her three orphaned nieces. Fired from her teaching position and with no other family on whom to rely, Mary believes Jericho Hawken is responsible for all her woes. Or is he what she’s been searching for all along?

It takes a lot of forgiveness and a few fireworks to realize that together their dreams can come true.

Excerpt:

Jericho met her gaze. “I was hired as extra security for their wagon train and was assigned to ride with the group of wagons they traveled in. I spent a lot of nights at your family’s fire on the trip out from Saint Louis. Your brother and his wife were kind and generous people.”

He watched Mary’s throat work as she battled back tears that made her blue eyes seem huge in her pale face. When she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, he knew his time for avoiding the truth was over.

“What happened, Mr. Hawken?”

Self-loathing threatened to choke him. “I’m not sure.”

She glanced at Matt, then returned her piercing gaze to Jericho. “I don’t understand. Did it happen at night? Was it too dark for you to see?”

He gulped down the liquid in his glass and carefully set the crystal aside when he wanted to hurl it against the stone hearth. “I wasn’t there.”

“Where—”

“I was in jail.”

The tiny bit of color the brandy had given her drained away. “What!”

“You can’t hate me more than I despise myself, Miss Henry.” He rose and prowled the room. “I saw—someone I knew. From my past. Someone I thought never to lay eyes on again. It’s no excuse, but I got drunk. When the law decided I needed to extend my stay in their little town, the wagons went on without me. I followed as soon as they let me go. I was only a couple of hours behind, but… It was one hour too long.”

I’m giving away an electronic copy of COMING HOME to one reader who leaves a comment today.

Coming Home will be released on DECEMBER 4. Find me on Facebook (TracyGarrett.author), Twitter (TGarrett_author) or stop by my website, www.TracyGarrett.com, to keep up on what’s new. And thanks for visiting today!

Tracy

BUY LINKS: Only 99 cents

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TRACY GARRETT

BIOGRAPHY:

Award-winning multi-published author Tracy Garrett has always loved to disappear into the pages of a book. An accomplished musician, Tracy merged her need for creativity, love of history, and passion for reading when she began writing western historical romance. First published in 2007, Tracy joined the Prairie Rose Publications in its inaugural anthology in 2013. She is a regular blogger on Petticoats and Pistols. Tracy resides in Missouri with her husband and their fuzzy kid, Wrigley.

Author, Linda Hubalek Presents MILLIE MARRIES A MARSHAL

Millie Marries a Marshal by Linda K. Hubalek

Millie Donovan, the mail-order bride in my romance book, Millie Marries a Marshal, plans to settle on the Kansas prairie with a homesteader. But, things went array when the groom dies before Millie gets there, leaving her penniless and not knowing a soul in a strange town. My writer’s mind went into overdrive when I matched Millie, an Irish immigrant’s daughter with the town marshal, Adam Wilerson.

I looked up the history of American mail-order brides on Wikipedia and this was their summary.

“North American men found financial success in the migration west, but the one thing that was missing was the company of a wife. Very few women lived there at this time, so it was hard for these men to settle down and start a family.

They attempted to attract women living back East; the men wrote letters to churches and published personal advertisements in magazines and newspapers. In return, the women would write to the men and send them photographs of themselves. Courtship was conducted by letter, until a woman agreed to marry a man she had never met.

Many women wanted to escape their present way of living, gain financial security and see what life on the frontier could offer them. Most of these women were single, but some of them were widows, divorcees, or runaways.

A mail-order bride story can have so many scenarios, and I can see why they are a popular story line for anyone that likes to read historical or western romance books. I sure had fun writing it! Please read Rania Ropes a Rancher to start the Brides with Grit series, then follow with the second book, Millie Marries a Marshal.

Millie Marries a Marshal: A Historical Western Romance by Linda K. Hubalek

Brides with Grit Series: Book 2, debuted Nov 17, 2014

Book Blurb:

Mail-order bride Millie Donovan was looking forward to meeting Sam Larson, a Kansas homesteader, who she is sure, from reading his heartfelt letters, will provide her with the love and safety she wants and needs. Millie arrives on the train, not realizing that her husband-to-be was killed in an accident, until Clear Creek’s town marshal informs her of the situation.

Town Marshal Adam Wilerson never plans to marry due to his dangerous job. After reading letters found at his friend’s home following his untimely death which were sent from his friend’s mail-order bride, he can’t help thinking of the woman, and believes he may be in love with her himself. But instead of sending Millie on the train back to her former home, he finds himself welcoming her—and her two-year-old charge—into his house, and into his heart.

When danger threatens, Millie faces it head–on to protect the people she loves, including the town marshal.

Can Adam keep the peace in town—and his house—or will the man following Millie cause an uproar that will endanger them both, and ruin their chance of a life together?

Excerpt from Millie Marries a Marshal, 2014 copyright by Linda K. Hubalek

Jacob Adam couldn’t believe he was walking back from the Reagans, holding a high chair slung over his back with one hand and cradling a baby potty chair against his chest with the other. It was only a three-block walk from the pastor’s house to his, but he’d found more people on the street watching him pass like he was a parade. Dang that woman and her child. No, dang it for Sam dying and leaving him to take care of his new family.

Mrs. Reagan could have filled a wagon with all the things she thought Adam should take to Sam’s intended new son. Adam tried to tell her that Millie and the boy didn’t need all this stuff, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Reagan wasn’t walking behind him with her six boys carrying more things to his house. He was the grand marshal of a potty parade, not the respected marshal of Clear Creek.

Finally reaching his front porch, Adam stomped up the porch steps and set the high chair down so he could open the door. He turned the door knob, flung the door open—and jumped a foot off the porch floor when the toddler streaked past him, screaming at the top of his lungs—and buck naked. Good golly, now what will the townspeople think of their marshal?

Adam stepped back, expecting Millie to run past him next to sprint after the kid. After a few seconds he looked inside his house and saw no one, but he could hear female voices in the backyard.

He looked back to follow the path of the boy and realized he wasn’t in sight. Adam bolted off the porch not bothering to use the steps, frantically searching for the kid as he jogged down the street. He hated to have people hear him calling for the kid—if Adam could remember his name—but he didn’t think the kid would answer anyway. The boy seemed almost scared of him, but then Adam was a stranger.

Adam closed his eyes, with relief, and embarrassment. The boy was standing in front of the mercantile, petting—no, more like slapping—Henry Barclay’s old dog, who always laid at his master’s feet while Henry and his old friend Homer Johnston sat on the bench outside the store. And of course there were another five people standing around laughing at the child’s antics because it was a busy Saturday morning, as people were coming into town to do their weekly shopping.

“Okay, fun’s over everyone. I think this runaway citizen needs to be rounded up and carted off.” Adam tried to be official about it, but that was hard to do when the kid shrieked at the top of his lungs and dodged out of Adam’s path again.

He scooped the child up on a run and kept jogging back to his house, trying to get out of sight of everyone on Main Street. Adam slowed to a walk when he reached his porch. Just as he reached for the door handle, he felt a warm liquid running down the side of his body. He jerked the toddler back to see a little stream coming from the boy’s front.

Oh great, I’ve just been peed on…

CONTEST ALERT!!! Linda will be giving away a digital copy of Millie Marries a Marshall to someone who comments. Be sure to include your email address in your comment for a chance to win.

Buy Links for Millie Marries a Marshal:

Amazon US

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Biography

Linda Hubalek grew up on the Kansas prairie, always wanting to be a farmer like her parents and ancestors. After earning a college degree in Agriculture, marriage took Linda away from Kansas as her husband worked in engineering jobs in several states.

Meanwhile, Linda wrote about pioneer women that homesteaded in Kansas between 1854 to the early 1900s, especially her Swedish immigrant ancestors. Her historical fiction book series are Butter in the Well, Trail of Thread, Planting Dreams and the Kansas Quilter.

She also has a historical western romance series called Brides with Grit.

Linda and her husband finally returned back to Kansas, where they raised American buffalo (bison) for a dozen years.

www.LindaHubalek.com

www.Facebook.com/lindahubalekbooks

https://twitter.com/LindaHubalek

http://www.pinterest.com/lindahubalek/

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-K.-Hubalek/e/B001K7XO7I/

Don't Fence Me In: the Texas Fence-Cutter War

(photo with permission from Darius Norvilas)

Don’t Fence Me In: the Texas Fence-Cutter War

By Kathleen Rice Adams

“I’m Going to Leave Old Texas Now” (The Cowman's Lament)

I’m going to leave old Texas now.

They’ve got no use for the long-horn cow.

They’ve plowed and fenced my cattle range,

And the people there are all so strange.

I’ll take my horse and I’ll take my rope,

And hit the trail upon a lope.

Say adios to the Alamo,

And turn my head toward Mexico.

The hard, hard ground shall be my bed

And my saddle seat shall hold my head.

When I waken from my dreams

I’ll eat my bread and my sardines.

When I die, please bury me

In a narrow grave just six by three.

I’ll tell Saint Peter that I know

A cowboy’s soul ain’t white as snow.

Yet in that far-off cattle land

He sometimes acted like a man.

(Texas folksong, source obscure)

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Texas saw a massive influx of former Confederates dispossessed by the Civil War and seeking a place to start over. Texas seemed like a good spot: The state offered plenty of open range and brimmed with feral cattle called longhorns. Many a man with nothing more than guts and grit built a fortune and a legacy by shagging longhorns from deep scrub and driving the tough, stubborn, nasty-tempered critters north to the railheads in Kansas and Nebraska. Others pushed herds to Montana and Wyoming to begin new lives where the West was even wilder.

Between 1866 and 1890, cowboys drove an estimated twelve million longhorns and one million horses north. A crew of twelve to twenty men could push a herd of 2,000 to 3,000 beeves about ten to fifteen miles a day, reaching Kansas railheads in three to four months.

The development of barbed wire in the mid-1870s—along with an incursion of sheepmen and farmers—put a crimp in the cattle drives by crisscrossing Texas’s wide-open spaces with miles and miles and miles of fence. To protect themselves and their herds from the yahoos who would use Texas range for something besides Texas cattle, wealthy ranchers strung wire around the land they owned or leased, often extending their fences across public land, as well. What once had been open range across which cowboys drove enormous herds of beef on the hoof became parceled off, causing no end of frustration and unfriendly behavior.

Fence-cutting began almost as soon as the first wire went up. Small confrontations over “the Devil’s rope” happened frequently, with wire-nipping taking place in more than half of Texas counties.

In 1883, the conflict turned deadly. Instead of merely cutting fences that got in the way during trail drives, bands of armed cowboy vigilantes calling themselves names like Owls, Javelinas, and Blue Devils destroyed fences simply because the fences existed. Fence-cutting raids usually occurred at night, and often the vigilantes left messages warning the fence’s owner not to rebuild. Some went so far as to leave coffins nailed to fenceposts or on ranchers’ porches. During one sortie, vigilantes cut nineteen miles of fence, piled the wire on a stack of cedar posts, and lit a $6,000 fire.

In response, cattlemen hired armed men to guard their wire…with predictable results. Clashes became more violent, more frequent, and bloodier. In 1883 alone, at least three men were killed in Brown County, a hotspot of fence-cutting activity, during what came to be known as the Texas Fence-Cutter War.

The bloodiest period of the Fence-Cutter War lasted for only about a year, but in that period damages from fence-cutting and range fires totaled an estimated $20 million—$1 million in Brown County alone.

Although politicians stayed well away from the hot-button issue for about a decade, in early 1884 the Texas legislature declared fence-cutting a felony punishable by a prison term of one to five years. The following year, the U.S. Congress outlawed stringing fence across public land. Together, the new laws ended the worst of the clashes, although the occasional fracas broke out in the far western portion of Texas into the early part of the 20^th Century.

The Texas Rangers were assigned to stop several fence-cutting outbreaks, and being the Texas Rangers, they proved remarkably effective…with one notable exception. In February 1885, Texas Ranger Ben Warren was shot and killed outside Sweetwater, Texas, while trying to serve a warrant for three suspected fence-cutters. Two of the three were convicted of Warren’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1888, a brief resurgence of fence-cutting violence erupted in Navarro County, prompting famed Texas Ranger Ira Aten to place dynamite charges at intervals along one fence line. Aten’s method was a mite too extreme for the Texas Adjutant General, who ordered the dynamite removed. The mere rumor of the explosive’s presence brought fence-cutting to a rapid halt in the area, though.

In my debut novel Prodigal Gun, a barbed-wire fence touches off a war in the Texas Hill Country, bringing an infamous gunman to Texas for the first time since he left to fight for the Confederacy sixteen years earlier.

To celebrate the book’s release, I’ll give an e-copy in the winner’s choice of formats to one person who comments today!

Prodigal Gun

A dangerous man. A desperate woman. A love no war could kill.

Widowed rancher Jessie Caine buried her heart with the childhood sweetheart Yankees killed on a distant battlefield. Sixteen years later, as a Texas range war looms and hired guns arrive to pursue a wealthy carpetbagger’s agenda, Jessie discovers the only man she ever loved isn’t dead.

At least not yet.

Embittered by a brother’s betrayal, notorious gunman Calhoun is a dangerous man, come home to do an unsavory job. A bushwhacker’s bullet nearly takes his life on Jessie’s land, trapping him in a standoff between the past he tried to bury and the infamy he never will. One taste of the only woman he ever loved puts more than his life and her ranch in the crossfire.

With a price on his head, a debt to a wealthy employer around his neck, and a defiant woman tugging at his heart, Calhoun’s guns may not be enough to keep him from the grave. Caught between his enemies and hers, Jessie faces an agonizing choice: Which of her dreams will die?

LINKS:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00PJEEKCG

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prodigal-gun-kathleen-rice-adams/1120743393

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/492507

Paperback will be available Thursday, Nov. 20

 Kathleen Rice Adams

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperados. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks…even Kathleen’s good guys wear black hats.

Visit Kathleen on the web at:

KathleenRiceAdams.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Rice-Adams/e/B00GAI0L2I/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.riceadams

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisorderlyWords

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/disorderlywords/

Kristy McCaffrey, Author

Canyon de Chelly and the Navajo

By Kristy McCaffrey

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay) National Monument is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Rock art and other excavations reveal human habitation for at least 4,500 years, encompassing not just the Navajo but the ancient Anasazi as well. In the 18th century, the canyon became a major stronghold of the Navajo—the high walls offered protection, and the streams helped grow corn crops and peach trees.

It was here that Kit Carson, under orders from James Carleton—governor and commander of New Mexico Territory—sought to purge the Navajo and relocate them to the Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. The Long Walk, an arduous journey which encompassed well over 50 separate treks led by the U.S. Army, occurred from 1863 to 1866. The accounts of death by starvation, sickness, or violence left an indelible trauma on the people. Although they were allowed to return to Canyon de Chelly in 1868, they would never forget this painful period of their history.

Today, the Navajo still occupy Canyon de Chelly, tending sheep and raising crops.

**************************************************************************

CONTEST ALERT!!  Kristy will be giving one commenter an ecopy of COWBOYS, CREATURES, AND CALICO VOL. 2 as well as an ecopy of THE WREN, Book One in her Wings of the West Series.

Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico Vol. 2

~ Includes Kristy's short story "The Crow and the Coyote" ~

In Arizona Territory, Hannah Dobbin travels through Cañon de Chelly, home to the Navajo, in search of a sorcerer who murdered her pa. Bounty Hunter Jack Boggs is on the trail of a vile Mexican bandito, but with the shadows of Hallowtide descending, more dark magic is at hand than either of them know.

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The Wren

Captured by Comanche as a child, Molly Hart was assumed dead. Ten years later, Texas Ranger Matt Ryan finds a woman with the same blue eyes.

Interview with C. Marie Bowen

C. MARIE BOWEN

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

What is the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done? 

I bungee jumped. My husband and I and our youngest son were on a visit to Colorado. We spent the day at Heritage Square riding the alpine slide and decided to try the bungee. No, I wouldn't do it again.

What adventure would you like to have that you haven’t done yet if money and skill were no problem?

I would go on an African photo safari or take a cruise around the world.

Who are some of your favorite authors?  What commonality do you see in them? 

Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin and Diana Gabaldon. Although their stories are vastly different, they write with such richness that you become part of their world. They are excellent world builders and their characters grow and change across the story.

I believe color says something about a person’s personality.  What’s your favorite color?

Hmm. I actually have two. One is a light burgundy. Darker than pink, lighter than wine. The other color is peach, not orange and not gold, but somewhere in between. They should never be worn together.

If you could have a do-over life, what one thing would you do differently? 

That is so hard. Every choice would change where I am, and I'm pretty satisfied with how things turned out. I guess I wouldn't let the bullies see me cry in seventh grade, and I would have learned much earlier not to care what people thought of me.

What would you do again?

Have my kids. They are the best things, the best times and the best friends I've ever known.

What is your writing process from conception to finished MS?

I get an idea, or a character, or a setting. I set up a story board and throw every crazy idea at it. Then I organize the ideas. Some change, some fall by the way side, but eventually I have a loose chapter outline. Then I round up the characters and hope they cooperate. As any writer will tell you, they often have minds of their own. I follow the outline and write the story, then go back to the beginning and fix the POV's, backstory, pacing, etc. The first draft gets it all, then I trim.

Are you a planner, panster or both?

I'm the planner. The characters are the pansters. They wander off and misbehave. My husband once asked me what I was thinking about. I had to explain that I wasn't thinking at all. I was listening to two of my characters argue about what they were going to do.

How did you research for your book?

Hunter is a character in book two of the trilogy I'm writing. The research for Hunter and Lily Graham was done on line using maps, historical records, you tube videos, anything that would help.

What is your all-time favorite movie?  TV show?

Movie – The Princess Bride or Stardust.

TV show – Firefly.

How important do feel writing workshops are to any writer?

Essential. As with anything you do in life, you have to learn how to do it. Those skills are not simply bestowed upon you. Workshops are teachers helping students. You can be both your entire life, depending on what you know and what you are trying to learn. 

If you could learn one new skill, fear and money no deterrent, what would it be?

I would learn how to ride a motorcycle.

If you had a million dollars to donate to any one charity, what would it be?

I'd need three million. Meals on Wheels for seniors, Women's centers (Medical and safe houses), and The Humane Society.

What advice would you like to give to an aspiring writer?

Write something. Take classes and join a writer's group. Enter contests. Find a critique partner, or three. Learn to take constructive criticism. Trust yourself enough to know that sometimes the critics are wrong.

Did anyone mentor you or help you along the way?  Please tell us about your mentor

 and what you feel they contributed to your writing career.

I took a self editing class through RWA. The teacher was fantastic. One of her stories is in Vol. 1 of the Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico anthology. Linda Carroll-Bradd changed the way I look at my writing from the ground up. Next would be the two critique partners I have now, C. A. Jamison and Jodi Hale. They are both outstanding writers and I am very lucky to have fallen in with them.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

From my mom:  Raising kids is easy. All you need to do is feed them and love them and let them grow up.

If you could live anywhere in the world you wanted to, where would it be?

(Language is no barrier)

There are a lot of places I'd like to visit, but only two places I'd like to live. Either in Denver, with my mom and family, or in Chicago with my two boys.

Where do you write? 

At my computer desk in the front room.

How much time do you devote to writing each week? 

Too much right now. I'm starting a business and the learning curve is kinda steep. I write every day for 5-6 hours. That includes editing and media.

Do you have a day every week that you take off?

On the weekends I like to hang out with my husband. Even then I usually get an hour of writing, critiquing, media or editing in.

What is a genre that you have not attempted that you would like to try?

Fantasy. Like Robin Hobb or GRRM, build a world from the ground up.

Is there anything you would like readers to know about you?

I can't think of anything you haven't asked.  I'll have to get back to you on that one.

CONTEST ALERT!! Connie will be giving away an ebook copy of Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico, Vol. 2 to a commenter. Be sure to include your email address in your comment to enter.

C. Marie's contribution: Hunter and Lily Graham

Hunter and Lily Graham is an unforgettable tale of a beautiful school marm’s love for her children that surpasses all. When a Cajun bounty hunter known only as “Hunter” shows up, Lily Graham knows he, and no one else, can help her save a young girl.

Hunter will need his unusual tracking skills to help Lily Graham find a missing child. Dealing with Lily will be a different problem entirely.

BLURB:

Hunter hoped to beat the winter storms south, and be snug on a riverboat before the Kansas snow began to fly. Instead, his spirit guides sent him east toward Wichita, with no hint at what he would find. His Cajun upbringing fostered respect for his special talents, and life as a bounty hunter taught him to ignore those tiny voices at his own peril.

After collecting a bounty in Wichita, he thought his side trip was over. Then he saw Lily Graham. Beautiful and desperate, she fell to her knees and begged for his help. A child was missing and a young life was in danger. Hunter would need to call upon his extraordinary skills to find the child, but time was running out. And what would he to do about lovely Lily?

Excerpt:

Hunter stood and touched the door. It moved. He drew his revolver and glanced toward Lily. She was pinned to his side. He tipped his head to her, she nodded, and then he pushed open the door with the barrel of his Colt.

            They moved into dark interior and Hunter stepped sideways, away from the door. From the back of the house, a chair scraped across the floor. Dim light spilled from the doorway ahead. He stood still and allowed his eyes to become accustomed to the dark front room. Senses extended, he could feel the room ahead, one man seated at a table. To the left, through the opening was another room. Susan would be there. He slid his gun into his holster.

            Hunter stepped around a chair and put his back to the wall beside the opening. Wind blew the front door ajar and leaves skittered across the floor.

            “Hummel?” the man in the next room called. “You back?”

            The scrape of the chair again. Hunter watched the light from the doorway dim as the man stepped into the opening.

            Hunter slammed his fist into the man's nose, and felt it dissolve beneath the blow. He followed the man as he stumbled into the kitchen, reaching for his gun. A quick slice across the man's windpipe, and he fell onto the table, and then slid to the floor. Hunter knelt and cleaned his blade on the man's pant-leg. He caught a glimpse of Lily's skirt as she disappeared into the adjoining room.

            “Hunter …”

            He rose, slid his knife into the sheath at his back and followed Lily into the room. The light from the kitchen lantern illuminated an empty cot. 

BUY LINKS:
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What Spookiness Lurks In Your Backyard?

Author, Tanya Hanson

I’m a California beach girl who loves those cowboys. My firefighter husband and I love to travel and spoil our two little grandsons. We just got back from New Orleans and Savannah! God has greatly blessed us with happiness and health and I’m humbled to have won a couple of writing awards. Find me at www.tanyahanson.com

What Spookiness Lurks In Your Backyard?

One never knows what spookiness lurks in your own backyard! And being October, well, I wonder if the vibes are eerier when we get nearer to Halloween.

Now I’m not talking about bodies buried in Gramma’s garden, or skeletons in the attic. I mean, local places with their own ghostly cachet.

THE MISSION

Like the San Buenaventura Mission of California’s central coast, not far from my homestead. It was established by Franciscan padre Juniper Serra in 1782 (his last) and is sometimes visited by a gray-robed spectral monk! It’s been going on for years. A local woman, awash in family troubles, had just lit a candle when she saw the monk by the church door. He was dressed in flowing gray robes tied around his middle. Although certain she was at church alone, she was not convinced he was a spirit--she even reported feeling warmth emanate from him. But as soon as he smiled at her, he disappeared.

Thing is...Franciscans wear brown!

Hmmmm. How about ghosts in a church? What do you think about that? Or about spooky stuff in general?

THE MODERN MISSION

But that’s not all you get today. I am thrilled to have been invited to be part of the Halloween anthology from Prairie Rose Publications. 

Cowboys, Creatures and Calico, volume one 

Wow, did I have fun writing my first-ever creep-fest. Here’s some  quick words on my story, The Bridesmaid:

It ain’t all white lace and a wing-ding 1880’s bacherlorette bash. There’s a woman drowning in a well.

Except the well is dry...

Four nights in her dreams, a handsome cowboy tries to kiss her...letting Lydia think she's close to finding true love. Off to Colorado for her friend Milly's wedding, she's stunned to realize her cowboy is...Milly's bridegroom.

She's standing right in front of him, the beautiful woman Garner has ached to kiss for four long nights. Milly's bridesmaid. Can he betray his bride...even as his love for Milly turns to terror?

http://tinyurl.com/mzvg2p8

OUTLAW LOVE

And if you don’t mind, since I have your undivided attention, here’s a word or two about my other new release. Outlaw Ahab Perkins has run roughshod through many of my books at The Wild Rose Press, so I reckoned it time to settle down this charming bad boy and let him find his soul and true love.  Which he finally does in Outlaw in Love, last in a trilogy.

On the run from his gang, having robbed his own sister, outlaw Ahab Perkins has no place to go but good. He’d give his heart to Teresa in a single beat...if the beautiful woman in gray weren’t a...nun.

Unbeknownst, Teresa Avila is as wanted as Ahab, hiding out in disguise at a rundown mission. After her crimes and her evil stepfather’s abuse, she’s convinced she’s not good enough for any man, not even the outlaw she’s falling for.

Enter a burned-out homestead, an abandoned little girl and a kindly sheriff...can both find love as they guide their souls out of darkness?

http://tinyurl.com/ktp8uqx

Give Away Alert!! Tanya will be giving way a Kindle copy of the Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico, volume 1 anthology to one commenter and a Kindle copy of Outlaw Love to another commenter.  Be sure to include your email address to enter.