|
What was the first Western historical novel you
remember reading?
RG:
I
was 12 years old and I found a book by Johanna Lindsey in my
sister’s abandoned room (she’d gone off to college).
It was my first western and my first romance.
A Heart So Wild. Learned
a lot from that book. Let’s
just say my Health class in school didn’t add much.
LOL..
BW: Oh,
tough question. Probably Rose, book 1 in the Seven
Brides series by Leigh Greenwood. I adored that series. The one book
that probably kicked me into gear to write a story was Only
His by Elizabeth Lowell. I absolutely fell in love with
Caleb Black and it was a turning point for me. I needed to write
books like that, characters like that, to make others enjoy it as
much as I do.
When did you know you were hooked on Western
historical novels?
RG:When
I couldn’t stop buying them. Before
I became an author, I read voraciously to get a feel for how other
authors “did it”. I
believe my love for Westerns sprang from this time, since I read
many Native American Westerns, as well as cowboys.
Read all of Johanna Lindsey’s Westerns, including the ones
I didn’t like. While
Regencies and Medievals are fun, there’s just something about a
Western. I think it’s
the untamed, “wild” aspect we, as readers, love.
BW:
I’ve
always loved cowboys, from the time I was a young girl. It’s the
fascination with the rough, riding man that led me to reading
western historicals. In terms of romance reading, I love any and all
historicals – westerns are my favorite, with medieval a close
second. It just follows logically that what I love to read is what I
love to write. I think as a writer, I created worlds that I
fantasized about living in and that was my ideal, the old West where
you had to be tough or you didn’t survive. No foo-foo fluffy
stuff, I love my men with calluses.
What
do you love about westerns?
RG:
Sand
and sage. Honestly,
I love that period in American history. A man makes his own law down the barrel of a gun.
“Savage” Indians sweeping across the plains. Untamed wilderness and wide-open sky.
Cowboys are the “bad boys” of the historical genre. Kind of like bikers today.
They’re a different breed of man, one who shuns danger and
loves the thrill of a break-neck gallop. They’re drifters, never settling down, keeping to
themselves, and a powerful, brooding man makes one hell of a sexy
hero for a romance novel. I love both cowboys and Indians equally in
Westerns. I also grew up in Nevada and had horses at a young age. We owned
a pony and a mustang. We were even visited a few times by the
local band of wild horses. That was neat. Of course,
they weren’t as “beautiful” as they are in the movies.
They were short and shaggy, not sleek and glossy. :P But
still a remnant of a wilder time. That really made an
impression on me. That, and all the Western history in Carson
City and Virginia City.
BW: I
think it draws me back into a time where things were much simpler.
Right was right and wrong was wrong. Cowboys were the modern day
knights of their time, with a code of honor and conduct that gave
them the rules they had to live by. Yes, they might have been hard,
which they had to be to survive, but they were gentlemen without the
fancy britches and silly mannerisms.
What part of the writing process do you enjoy most
when you write—the research? creating the characters? developing the
plot? providing the historical context?
RG:
I enjoy the plot.
I enjoy throwing things at my characters and “playing
God” in their little world. I
love knowing what’s going to happen next and finally getting
there. I love learning
how these people are going to get through their problems, because
sometimes, they have ideas I never would have thought of on my own.
I love it when my characters “speak” to me.
BW:
I
think the characters are my favorite part. I start with a general
idea of who they are, then I research names to pick just the right
one. Of course, sometimes I have the name first and know who he/she
is before I begin. My next step is to give them a history. To be a
believable character, whether hero or villain, that person has to be
someone, to have a past that makes them who they are. It’s a bit
like world building but with people.
Rebecca,
tell us about your book, In Your Arms,
published by Champagne Books, and your upcoming book, High Noon,
published by Samhain Publishing?
In Your Arms is a book about a
cowboy who’s been damaged emotionally by what he’s done in his
past. He believes
he’ll never make a woman a good husband, so he pushes all of them
away and moves on before he gets too close.
But there’s just something about Lissa Bloom…
She’s a “plain Jane” who believes she’ll never get
married as she’s never had any offers.
Then she meets Marcus. But
Marcus McCaide is so handsome, she’s sure he’d never look twice
at her. As they spend more
time in each other’s presence, their relationship changes, and
this book tells how these two people overcome their insecurities.
High
Noon
is about an Indian hero, Talon, who was found
orphaned as a toddler and raised as a white man.
So he’s an “Indian cowboy”.
He's best friends with a young girl, Allison, who is 7 years his
junior, and of course, they fall in love.But their age gap is too
extreme. She’s 15 and he’s 22. He decides to leave
before he does anything stupid. Five
years later, he hears the news that Alison’s father Jed lost her
hand in marriage in a poker bet to a notorious gambler. Of
course Talon cannot stand by and let that be her fate. He
returns to save her. But
the gambler refuses to back down and suddenly, Talon is challenged
to a gunfight. Winner gets Alison.
This
book came about after a few Samhain authors were talking about their
various anthologies and I’d mentioned if there was a Western one.
There was not. So I approached Beth Williamson and Melissa
Schroeder to see if they’d want to go in with me on a Western
anthology and they jumped at the chance! We
pitched the idea to Sasha, the editor for anthologies, and she LOVED
it. I wanted to test a theory about Indian heroes, so I decided to
write another one, and this was the story he wanted to be told.
You see, I think there are far too few Indian Westerns in eBooks
today. There are a few in print, but eBooks only seem to have
a handful of Indian Westerns, the rest are cowboys. There is
nothing wrong with that, per se, however, I believe more readers
want Indians due to an “informal” poll I took of my friends and
fans. So I’m endeavoring to bring them to the masses.
I already have an Indian time travel Western entitled On
Eagle’s Wings that has been immensely popular at
Champagne
Books. We shall see if High Noon is as successful as I
hope it will be.
Beth,
tell us about The Malloy Family Series, published by Samhain
Publishing. You also have more historical westerns in the works.
Tell us a little about those.
The
Malloy family series started with one book, The Bounty.
This was my second full-length novel I started about ten years ago
after my second son was born. It began with a small kernel of an
idea, about a lady outlaw with a bounty hunter on her tail. I had
always been a fan of books with kick-ass heroines who hold their own
against alpha heroes. I gave her a big family, common in the 1800s,
and gave them each a unique quality that set them apart from each
other. I knew then that I’d probably continue writing about the
Malloys and sure enough, after I finished The Bounty,
along came Jack’s story, The Prize.
I
have a new series coming called Devils on Horseback.
There will be five books in the series beginning with Nate
on September 26. Here’s another example of how real life inspires
me. *BG* About two years ago I was at a Christmas party with my
husband’s work. We were at a local steak house looking at the menu
when I spotted a dish called (can you guess?) Devils on Horseback. I
looked at the description, it was oysters in hot sauce, and decided
not to have any. (Eww) However, I told my husband right then,
that’s a great title for a book, I need to write it down. I took
out pen and paper and wrote it down. It stayed in my head until I
fleshed out all the characters and their basic story, then I wrote
Nate’s book. This series is about a group of five men that
survived the Civil War, returned home to
Georgia
to find everything gone, then headed west to start again. I’m
really excited about it!
Where
do you get your inspiration for your stories?
RG:
With In Your Arms, I had a daydream about a cowboy.
I usually get a lot of my plot ideas from dreams or
daydreams. This
particular story idea came to me after thinking about a plain
heroine, because I was tired of reading about the “gorgeous”
women in romance novels. But
even so, I wanted to make Lissa beautiful on the inside, which in
turn, makes her beautiful on the outside as well.
But I knew I wanted to give her a hero who was damaged
himself. I’d never
written a “tortured” hero quite this way before in a Western, so
I wanted to give it a shot.
BW:
Everywhere. I don’t think there’s anything that doesn’t
inspire me. LOL! I overhear conversations, listen to song lyrics,
watch tv and there are ideas in every one of them. For example,
there is a CSI episode (I am a CSI nut) where they talk about the
“mountain shadow effect”. Just the name of that particular
weather pattern made the wheels turn in my head and I started
thinking about how life sometimes isn’t fair, how you are at the
mercy of what comes your way. Bam! I had an idea for a book from
that (unpublished at the moment), but you get the idea.
Beth,
you write "spicier" historical westerns. This has brought
you quite a following of readers. Do you find that women enjoy
spicier stories and want more of them?
Oh
I love the phrase “quite a following of readers” – makes me
feel ten feet tall. Now as to the question, yes, I do think
women enjoy spicier stories. Real life is full of the good, the bad
and the ugly (my fave Clint film BTW). If you’re going to show the
good, show them the really good stuff. I don’t believe you can
have a relationship between two adults without the spicy parts –
it’s just not realistic, even for a western.
Finally,
what are some of your favorite western romances by other authors?
RG:
Well, I’ll always love A Heart So Wild
and Angel by Johanna Lindsey. I
also love Savage Thunder by her.
Another favorite is Mail Order Bride by Diana Bold.
I read that book in one sitting, I loved it so much.
I love some of Catherine Anderson’s books as well.
Cherish was one of my favorites, even if I do think
the sex scene was a little late in coming and rather long with the
poor hero trying to talk his “prudish” heroine into giving it up
for him, the poor guy. Even
after they were married!! LOL
BW:
Oh
tough question again. Okay, some of my favorites (in no particular
order):
Only
series by Elizabeth Lowell
Seven
Brides series by Leigh Greenwood
The
Bad Luck Wedding Dress by Geralyn Dawson
Savage
Thunder by Johanna Lindsey
Angel
by Johanna Lindsey
TexasDestiny by
Lorraine Heath
The
Frasers series by Ana Leigh
Second
Hand Bride by Linda Lael Miller
My
all-time favorite hero has to be Caleb Black from Only His
by Elizabeth Lowell. Don’t know what it is about that man, but I
still sigh when I think about him. LOL! For movie cowboys, has to be
Tom Selleck. Yep, that man could have me every which way, including
Sunday. ;)
Thank
you, Beth and Rebecca, for a great interview, and for sharing our
love of westerns!
|
