Romancing the Eight October 2015

   The Trans Canada Romance Writers present      another sneak peek for your enjoyment. 

My eight lines are the preface for my new release:
                 Solace: Fae Warriors book 1.


Preface  
   After the Great War between the Tuatha de Danaan and the original earthlings called Milesians, the Fae were condemned to spend their lives underground. They grew smaller, built magical cities in hills and burrows, and only returned to the real world after Man’s belief in them had waned to the point where they could only be seen by children.


   One tribe, however, could not abide this subterranean existence. They languished to near extinction, and Mother Nature grieved as this clan began to fade from the Earth. To save her beautiful Fae creatures, she spirited this special group to a tranquil planet in the Centaurus galaxy. Here they thrived, honing their physical skills and magical powers. With each generation, they grew larger and more fearless, becoming the most respected soldiers within 500 mega light years. They are The Fae Warriors—guardians of the multiverse.  

                    Please visit these sites  
                  for more great Fall reads. 


Linda Carroll-Bradd

Marlow Kelly

Pearl Hart:: Bandit Queen

Little Pearl Hart, mother of two, Saloon singer, laundress, and stage robber. 

       

     Pearl was born in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, and raised in a middle class family offering a good education and high hopes for a happy future. Then her heart betrayed that future when she fell blindly in love with a swaggering itinerant gambler named Frederick Hart. They eloped when Pearl was only 17 years old.

In 1893, the couple traveled to Chicago, Illinois where Fred worked as a sideshow barker at the Colombian Exposition, and Pearl worked at a number of odd jobs. 

     Here, she saw Annie Oakley perform, which cinched her fascination and passion for the Old West. She also attended the World's Fair Women's Pavilion listening to a number of women's speeches, especially enjoying one by the prominent activist and poet, Julia Ward Howe. 

    Fredrick Hart turned out to be better at drinking and abuse than at successful gambling or working. Pearl, inspired by these strong women, and enamored by the heroes of the Old West, gathered her courage, said adios to Freddy, and moved to Trinidad, Colorado. 

       Here she became a popular saloon singer. But the song came to and end when she discovered she was pregnant with Fredrick's child. She returned to her family in Ontario, gave birth, left her son there, and quickly returned to the West. This time she landed in Phoenix, Arizona. While working as a cook and laundress, her dreams and fantasies of the Old West and it's heroes began to dissolved away.   

    Being a woman of substance herself, she toughed it out until 1895, when Fredrick tracked her down and they became a couple once again. Fredrick worked steady, and they lived the high-life for a while frequenting saloons where Pearl learned to smoke and drink. 

    But a  happy domestic life was not to be hers. After the birth of a second child, this time a girl, Fredrick ran off to join Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba. 




  After trekking back to Ontario, where she left her daughter, Pearl again returned to Arizona. But life was becoming harder and harder for a woman alone, and totally depressed, she even contemplated suicide. 

    Then in 1899, she received a letter stating her mother was ill and the family needed money. She asked an acquaintance, Joe Boot, for advice, and once again not having chosen wisely, she hooked up with the ne'er-do-well. 
                                       

   Joe had lots of ideas on how to make money, like having Pearl lure men to hotel rooms with the expectation of romance where Joe knocked them out and robbed them. But this wasn't lucrative enough, and they finally decided to rob a stage.  

The year was 1899, the streets were quiet. No more shoot outs at the Okay corral, and saloons were serving mixed drinks as well as Red-eye whiskey. The stage they chose to stop and rob was making a routine 65 mile trip from Globe, Arizona to Florence. 

They supposedly planned the robbery to the last detail. Unfortunately they didn't plan the get away quite as well. On May 30th, they robbed the passengers of $450 dollars and sent them on their way. Then Joe and Pearl headed for the hills where they promptly got lost. After a couple of days of wandering around, they made camp and fell asleep, only to wake up surrounded by the local sheriff and his posse. They were taken to the Globe jail where Pearl escaped once, but was quickly recaptured.  
                                    

    Pearl played up being the lady bandit, handing out autographs at the Globe jail. During her trial, she remembered the Women's lectures she attended, and insisted the court had no right to place her on trial under a law which her female sex had no voice in making. The jury found her not guilty, but the judge still sentenced her to 5 years in the Yuma territorial prison. Where she once again became a celebrity. 

 
     Joe Boot got 30 years, but he escaped and rumor has it he went to Mexico and was never seen again. Pearl was paroled in 1902 and moved to Kansas where some say she opened a cigar store. Others say she moved to San Francisco. But most say she married a rancher in Dripping Springs, Arizona, went by the name of Pearl Bywater, and died in 1956.  I hope she had a few happy years at the end. 

     Now that you're in the mood and hankering for a good western romance, why not try one of these. Each comes complete with a wild west adventure, a hunky cowboy, and brave women. 

 E-book only $3.99 at...

Amazon 

The Wild Rose Press

                                          Barnes & Noble

                                        E-Book only $1.99
                                               Amazon                                 
                                       The Wild Rose Press     
                                                                     

                          


Desperate Women of the West by James D. Horan
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Hart
How a Woman Stagecoach Robber became a famous outlaw by Parker Anderson. 
Legends of the American West

Happy Autumnal Equinox

     Autumn, my favorite time of the year. Cool nights for sleeping, the sun feels good on your back rather than sending you desperately seeking a patch of shade, and it recalls knee socks, and wool skirts, and crunching through piles of leaves. 

    Also known as Mabon, from the Pagan perspective, the equinox is a cross quarter day, (and therefore a direct barometer), and we have twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night. All is in balance.  



But on that special day, the battle between light and dark tips in favor of darkness. 

Slowly the night takes over...so subtly at first one hardly notices. Then leaving work one day you're surprised to see you need to turn on your headlights when driving home. Or you need a thin jacket in the morning going out to the barn as you stumble along in the dimness. 

   The edges of dawn and dusk blur and fade away; little bits of daylight replaced by shades of gray. And so it goes until Yule, the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. 

    Then the battle shifts once more in favor of light, and so the wheel turns. 

        Mabon is the second harvest, and we give thanks for the abundance in our lives, whatever form that may take.
                   
   We also must remember to lay in supplies--like wood, and hay, and maybe a bottle of Evan Williams. Aah Evan, the only man I know for sure who will be there when I wake up in the morning. But I digress.  




The equinox also reminds us of pomegranates, and the tale of Persephone. 



 As the story goes, Zeus and Demeter (goddess of agriculture) had a daughter named Persephone. Zeus and Demeter's brother, Hades, falls in love with her and wants her for his bride. For some reason, Zeus agrees to this, and Hades kidnaps his niece and takes her to the underworld.  

Demeter searches the world over for her daughter. destroying crops, land, and livestock as she bewails the loss of her daughter. 

    Helios, the god of the sun, and the one who sees all that happens on earth, finally tells Demeter what transpired. She is furious, especially when she learns Zeus' was jiggy with the whole abduction deal. She takes the form of a mortal and wanders the earth forbidding the trees to bear fruit or the crops to grow. After one year of plague, Zeus relents and send Hermes to get Persephone. 

     During all this time, Persephone hasn't eaten anything, (yeah right) and since Hades is pretty cute, being Queen of the Underworld has it's perks. Anyway, before she leaves, Hades convinces her to eat just one little old pomegranate seed, and that sets the curse into action. If she eats down there she must remain down there.

    Now Demeter is really in a tizzy, so Rhea, the mother of Zeus, Demeter, and Hades, steps in to settle the dispute.  

   Persephone will spend half her time in each realm. Demeter agrees, (Rhea rides a chariot pulled by lions. I wouldn't argue with her either) but Demeter is still ticked-off so during the months her daughter is in Hades, it will be winter and no crops will grow. And thus we have the reason for seasons. 

      So, do not tarry, go out and enjoy the last hurrah. The time for snuggling and hibernating (which can be fun too) is just around the corner. 

A Cowboy’s Fate earns 4 1/2 STARS from - Got Romance! Reviews

     Thank you Pattie @ Got Romance! Reviews. 

Forced to leave England, Britania Rule chose to come to The Colonies. She was looking for someone to take her to Leadville. Cody James was wanting to get a fresh start in Leadville, so he answered Britania’s ad. He thought she was very fancy. She thought he was infuriating. They start out, Britania is definitely not used to camping out in the on frontier. They share food, fire and sleep near each other. They get closer as they get closer to Leadville.

Britiana discovers that Cody is the man that will take care of her. They learn to respect each other and realized they that really do care about each other.  Along the way, they have several adventures that bring them even closer together. In spite of their differences and trials they had getting to Leadville, Cody and Britania found their love through their travels.

I really liked this book from the start. I love the characters. Britania Rule is not a woman afraid to take on a challenge. Cody James is a man for hire and does not really have a home or a family. It is not until he meets Britiania that he finds that maybe he can have that and more. Cody never expected to fall for a woman like Britania. In spite of their differences they found their love. I believe that they will have a very happy life together. I would recommend this book.

A Cowboy’s Fate earns 4 1/2 STARS from - Got Romance! Reviews

     Thank you Pattie @ Got Romance! Reviews. 

Forced to leave England, Britania Rule chose to come to The Colonies. She was looking for someone to take her to Leadville. Cody James was wanting to get a fresh start in Leadville, so he answered Britania’s ad. He thought she was very fancy. She thought he was infuriating. They start out, Britania is definitely not used to camping out in the on frontier. They share food, fire and sleep near each other. They get closer as they get closer to Leadville.

Britiana discovers that Cody is the man that will take care of her. They learn to respect each other and realized they that really do care about each other.  Along the way, they have several adventures that bring them even closer together. In spite of their differences and trials they had getting to Leadville, Cody and Britania found their love through their travels.

I really liked this book from the start. I love the characters. Britania Rule is not a woman afraid to take on a challenge. Cody James is a man for hire and does not really have a home or a family. It is not until he meets Britiania that he finds that maybe he can have that and more. Cody never expected to fall for a woman like Britania. In spite of their differences they found their love. I believe that they will have a very happy life together. I would recommend this book.

                     

Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man Extraordinaire

Old Bill Williams

   Born in North Carolina in 1787, William Sherley Williams may not have been the most famous mountain man, but he was one of the most interesting. Proud of his feats of daring, strength, and valor, he felt no need for protection, and often traveled alone earning him the name Old Solitaire, and Lone Elk.

   The end of the revolutionary war was not the end of conflict or chaos, and heading west sounded like a good idea. In his younger years Old Bill was a preacher, bent on missionary work. 

                                     

              He translated the bible into the Osage language,
and and was the interpreter for the 1825 treaty between the Osage and the United States. But in the end, it was the Osage who converted him rather than the other way around.


  He married an Osage woman named Wind Blossom, and fathered two daughters, Mary Ann, and Sarah. After that, even though he turned his back on the white man’s civilized ways, he sent his daughters to school in Kentucky. They both ended up married to the same man. First, Mary became the wife of John Allan Mathews. Upon her death, John married Sarah. They had a deep connection and  kept in close contact with the Osage people.  

 Sarah’s grandson, John Joseph Mathews became an historian for the Osage tribe. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University and the University of Geneva, and after serving as a flight instructor during World War I, Old Bill William's great grandson served on the Osage Tribal Council,                                             and in 1938 he founded the Tribal Museum.

                              Uncle Dick Wootton                                     Kit Carson

                      with his companion Jesus Silva 

Uncle Dick Wootton as I knew him. 

    Old Bill traveled in esteemed company including such notables as Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wooten, and John C. Frémont. But because he had a gift for languages, he spent more of his life with the varied Native American tribes than with other mountain men. A skilled trapper and natural born leader, he never sought fame or a captain’s title. He explored for the sake of exploring, and loved what he called “an innocent frolic”. He seemed to be of a dual personality, looked upon by some as treacherous and near crazy, and by others as kindly and trustworthy. Wherever he went, he was steeped in controversy, with a penchant for mischief, and mysticism, including the belief in reincarnation. 

                          

John C. Fremont

     In November 1848, Frémont headed up the Transcontinental Railroad survey party. Their route to the west included crossing the treacherous Sangre de Cristo mountain range. By the time Frémont reached Bent’s Fort in Colorado, there was already a foot of snow on the ground. 

                                                         Bent's Fort reconstructed

       Here he ran into Uncle Dick Wootton, and asked him to be their guide over the pass, but was turned down. Moving on to Pueblo, Frémont next came across Old Bill Williams who agreed to give it a go. But as the unrelenting snow continued, with no signs of letting up, Williams eventually advised Frémont to turn back. 

    Unfortunately, Fremont continued on, and ten members of the expedition were lost to starvation and exposure. Old Bill's group not being among them.

                                                                                                                            (How it looks in good weather.)

  Rather than admit to his own failings, Frémont blamed all on Old Bill accusing him of incompetence, premeditated treachery, and even cannibalism. Truth be told, they would have been in even more dire straights without him. Old Bill never got a chance to refute these terrible claims. About two months after arriving in Taos with the splinter-group of survivors, he was killed by Utes in an area he often traveled. The army in Taos had recently been out "teaching the Indians a lesson" and when Old Bill crossed paths with the Utes they were in no mood to parley. 

It is surmised the band of Utes who killed Old Bill did not recognize him at the time. Later when they realized who he was, the gave him a chief's burial. 


For more details on Old Bill's life, read Favour's excellent book, from whence came a good deal of this wonderful information. 

           

SOLACE: Fae Warriors Book 1 / AVAILABLE NOW.

    Can a six-foot-tall female Fae Warrior from another realm, and a hunky ready for action ex-Army Ranger save the earth from invasion?  

     Adventure and romance clash headfirst in Solace, and although touted as a Sci/Fi/Fantasy, you won't have to leave earth, or learn a new language. The action takes place right here on earth. But villains will be villains, regardless of species. And no matter where they call home, heroes and heroines will always find love.   

     Available now, e-book or paperback at...
              Amazon  and The Wild Rose Press


Back Cover:

Solace Goodeve, one of Mother Nature’s favorite Fae Warriors, is assigned to Earth to help save the planet. Reptile invaders, disguising themselves as humans, are waging a takeover—and Mother is mad enough to eat asteroids. Solace is ready to prove herself as a warrior, but having a human for a partner is not in her battle plan—even if the man is rugged, ripped, and ready for action. 

Army Ranger, Tanner Jackson, has seen his share of black op missions. The last one took a toll on both body and soul. Tanner isn’t looking for love, even though his new partner is six-foot-tall and drop dead gorgeous. However, after Solace shows him a new meaning to working undercover, he may have to reconsider that possibility.

As the Reps plan to sabotage NOAA, Tanner and Solace must learn to trust one another. But as they're trying to save the world, Solace and Tanner might just lose their hearts—and that takes the most courage of all.

 ****

Excerpt:

     There must be some mistake. The man striding toward her couldn’t be Tanner Jackson. Dressed in a black t-shirt, camo cargo pants, and rugged lace up boots, he looked ready for a special ops mission, not a day of wrestling with figures and scientific data. Tall and well-muscled, he appeared rock solid, like he belonged in the age of Athena. In fact, he seemed so overwhelmingly masculine, she worried he might not be human. That gave her pause. Had the Reps already established a man on the inside?

               Don't forget! Available now, 
                  e-book or paperback at...
                   Amazon  and The Wild Rose Press