THANKFUL BLOG TOUR STARTS TODAY!

Thankful for Cash
$250 Giveaway

November 15th to December 15th

Enter for your chance to win a $250 Amazon Gift Code or $250 in Paypal Cash!!


Thanks to this awesome group of bloggers and authors who have joined with me to bring you one fabulous prize!!


Sponsor List
I Am A Reader
Ebooks For Review
Aubrey Wynne: Timeless Love
Pat Esden
Helen Smith
The Book Referees
Lori's Reading Corner
Cynthia Luhrs Author
Heather Gray
Bookworm Lisa
Elizabeth Isaacs
Diana's Book Reviews
Niki Danforth, author
Barefoot by the Sea
Caroline Clemmons -- that's me!
Glistering: B's Blog
Krysten Lindsay Hager
Melissa A. Hanson, Author
Bookroom Reviews
Talia Jager
Simple Wyrdings
Every Free Chance Books
Author Melissa Wright
Laurie Here - Cont Fiction and MORE
B. Kristin McMichael
Author Inger Iversen
Rockin' Book Reviews
Nicole Tone
Everly Frost, YA author
Rachelle J. Christensen
Cindy C Bennett
Book Crazy Scrapbook Mama
Melissa Giorgio


Giveaway Details


$250 in Paypal Cash or a $250 Amazon.com eGift Card


Ends 12/15/16


Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use money sent via Paypal or gift codes via Amazon.com. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the authors, bloggers and publishers on the sponsor list. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



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PROMOTE YOUR BOOK/PROMOTE MINE BLOG HOP

The purpose of this blog hop is to promote Charlene Raddon’s latest release, THE SCENT OF ROSES, as well as the work of each of the participating bloggers. Be sure to read to the end of this page so you don’t miss out on the grand prize. Also be certain you visit each blog and comment to qualify for the individual giveaways, and the big prize.

And if you go to Charlene's blog at http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com each day of the blog hop, you will learn about the book and giveaways of the other authors involved.

Charlene Raddon has been writing historical romance novels for over thirty years. Her work has won several awards and much well-deserved praise.

Charlene Raddon, Author

Here is what Charlene has to say about her newest release.

Any day when a new book is released is exciting for the author. I’m thrilled to announce that my eBook, THE SCENT OF ROSES, is now available.

THE SCENT OF ROSES is a sequel to my last eBook, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD, but stands alone and does not need to be read in order to be enjoyed. Whip Kincaid, from The Scent of Roses, is the half-brother of Buck Maddux from To Have and To Hold. Whip also has a twin, Cale, who readers met in Buck’s story, which gives me an excuse to write a third book for this series.

The added touch of paranormal elements made THE SCENT OF ROSES a fun story to write. Who doesn’t enjoy haunted houses with hidden passageways? When I first moved to Utah, I lived in this house. No, there weren’t any secret passageways, but in every other way, my description of the old house is accurate. The third element new in this book is the subject of polygamy.

Rosalyn Delaney came to Whisky Ridge, Arizona expecting to receive aid from her estranged husband, Josiah Bullock, in escaping the crazed leader of a polygamist cult determined to have her. She’s broke and has nowhere else to go. But Josiah is dead, murdered the very evening of her arrival. The town is in uproar, searching for the suspected killer, Josiah’s business partner, Whip Kincaid. Rosalyn also learns that Josiah has taken a second wife.

Whip is innocent but to prove that, he needs to stay out of jail. He hides in secret passageways in the old house he and Josiah shared. Smythely, the elderly butler who came with the house, is the only other person aware of the passageways. Lurking between spiderwebbed walls and using the abundance of peepholes provided allows Whip to keep up with what’s going on. Sneaking out at night allows him to investigate. He’s particularly interested in Rosalyn Delaney, and for more than one reason. Besides being attracted to her, he’s sure she knows something about the murder.

 But does she? Is she safe at Rose House? Will she be safe from Whip Kincade?

I hope you enjoyed this peek into THE SCENT OF ROSES. Find it here, at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Scent-of-Roses-ebook/dp/B00D3770I2/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370196831&sr=1-5&keywords=Charlene+Raddon

To be eligible for my contribution to Charlene's Blog Hop Giveaway, please comment on this post with your email. BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT WITH CONTACT INFORMATION. AT THE END OF THE HOP, A NAME WILL BE DRAWN FROM THOSE WHO VISITED AND COMMENTED AT EVERY BLOG. PRIZE IS A $45 GIFT CARD FOR AMAZON OR B&N, WINNER’S CHOICE. Other bloggers are also offering giveaways so make sure you hit them all.

One lucky reader will win a copy of my new Stone Mountain series novella, TABITHA'S JOURNEY!

LIST OF PARTICIPATING BLOGS

May 31,  http://www.heartoffiction.blogspot.com/  giveaway

May 31  http://www.hurricanereads.blogspot.com 

June 1  http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com - Official blog tour for Kat Flannery (not part of PUB/PM blog hop)

June 2, http://authortammieclarkegibbs.blogspot.com/   giveaway

June 3  http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com/     giveaway  

June 4  http://writingdreams.net/          giveaway

June 5  http://ciaragold.blogspot.com/  giveaway

June 7, http://peggylhenderson.blogspot.com/  giveaway

June 8, http://alisonhenderson.blogspot.com /    giveaway

June 9, http://www.pamelaforeman.com/  giveaway

June 10 http://annettedrake.com/annettes-blog/

June 11, http://elizabethdelisi.blogspot.com/  giveaway

June 12, http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/ giveaway

June 14 http://www.wittyonlineeditor.com  giveaway

June 15  http://blog.cathymansell.com/   giveaway

June 16, www.katerobbinsauthor.com/  giveaway

June 17 http://tinafosterspageturner.blogspot.com/  giveaway

June 18  http://ccrawley210.wordpress.com/    giveaway

June 19, http://lynhorner.blogspot.com/   giveaway

June 21  http://ketaskeep.blogspot.com/  giveaway

June 22, http://www.raintrueax.blogspot.com   giveaway

June 23, http://bethtrissel.wordpress.com  giveaway

BAKED ALASKA WITH JOSI S KILPACK

Tour Schedule

Baked Alaska by Josi S. Kilpack

An Alaskan cruise is the setting for amateur detective Sadie Hoffmillers latest adventure. Sadie plans to spend time relaxing with her two grown children, Breanna and Shawn, and her boyfriend, Pete, while enjoying the luxury and cuisine of an elegant cruise ship and helping to plan her daughters upcoming wedding. But even as the crew prepares to leave port, Sadie has suspicions about the voyage ahead and the relationship between her normally easygoing son and a mysterious female passenger he obviously knows but refuses to discuss. When the woman is discovered unconscious during the second night at sea, Sadies apprehension escalates. Over the last few years, Sadie has developed an extreme dislike for secrets and it would seem her son is keeping one from her. *Includes eight new mouthwatering recipes, tested and approved by the official bakers of Sadies Virtual Test Kitchen.

Praise for Baked Alaska

Josi Kilpack has done it again. You would think that all these events that occur in Sadie's life wouldn't be natural, but Josi Kilpack has a way of making you believe that it just "happens" and it is normal. I have grown to love Sadie's character, even if she is a busybody, you can't help but cheer for her as she attempts to solve a mystery or crime. One of my favorite series. :)

~Goodreads Reviewer Lacey McNeill

Purchase

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Deseret Book

Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series

Author Josi S. Kilpack

Josi S. Kilpack grew up hating to read until she was thirteen and her mother handed her a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond. From that day forward, she read everything she could get her hands on and credits her writing “education” to the many novels she has “studied” since then. She began her first novel in 1998 and hasn’t stopped since. Her seventh novel, Sheep’s Clothing, won the 2007 Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense, and Lemon Tart, her ninth novel, was a 2009 Whitney Award Finalist. Josi was the Best in State winner in literature for 2012 and currently has two books (Banana Split and Tres Leches Cupcakes) as finalists in the 2012 Whitney awards.

Josi currently lives in Willard, Utah, with her family.

Website * Twitter

Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 3/20/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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Thanks for stopping by!

STETSON®: THE BOSS OF THE PLAINS AND MORE

Continuing our RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS BLOG HOP today, please let me remind you to leave your email address with your comment. If you follow my blog, please let me know in your comment, as that counts as a second entry. I'm giving away one of my e-books, winners choice, and my giveaway is open worldwide. The organizers of the hop and location of the participants may be found at http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com and http://readforyourfuture.blogspot.com At either location, you'll find the 173 blog urls of participants. Please, also remember to commit a random act of kindness today!

Now on to my scheduled guest, Gini Rifkin:

STETSON®: THE BOSS OF THE PLAINS
By Gini Rifkin

Gini Rifkin, Author

I was delighted when Caroline invited me to quest blog on her site and when I realized it had a Western flavor, I thought it prophetic. Although I have published two Medievals and one Victorian, my first western novella, Special Delivery, will be released in May. I’m thrilled to be heading into cowboy country.

Brushing up on history of the American West, I felt it was essential to study the Stetson phenomenon. I needed to know if geographically my hero would have access to purchasing one of these hats and if they were common or even in existence in the time period I chose for my story. I’m a stickler for detail regardless of the era, spend hours researching, and hope the end result is a story that feels real and offers a painless subliminal learning experience.


Here’s what I discovered about……..


THE HAT THAT WON THE WEST

A cowboy without his hat
is simply a man on a horse.

The concept of a broad-brimmed hat with a high crown worn by a rider on horseback can be seen as far back as the Mongolian horsemen of the 13th century. A tall crown provided insulation, the wide brim, shade. In hot, sunny climates, hats evolved to have extremely wide brims, such as the sombrero of Mexico.

Before John Batterson Stetson created the “The Boss of the Plains”, men who drove cattle and worked the range sported any number of hat styles. They generally wore whatever headgear was required at their previous profession so it wasn’t unusual to see them in a sailor hat, a beret, derbies, Civil War paraphernalia, and even top hats. None of these were very useful out on the prairie. And luckily this was soon to change and a legend was about to be born.



John Batterson Stetson started his life in East Orange, New Jersey in 1830. His father, Stephen Stetson, was a successful hatter and taught his children the hatting trade. But having developed tuberculosis as a young man, a doctor advised John B. to move west and in 1859 he struck out for St. Joseph, Missouri.

While there, he tried to join the Union Army in the early 1860’s but was rejected do to his poor health. Undefeated, he worked as a bricklayer, which went fairly well until the river flooded and washed his business away. At loose ends, he joined a group heading west to the gold fields of Colorado.



This didn’t “pan” out but during his stay in the mountains, he fashioned a head covering from beaver hides. After a mule driver paid him a $5 gold piece for the hat right off his head, Mr. Stetson, being no fool, decided to refine, manufacture and sell this type of product.



By 1865, he was back in Philadelphia working in the hat manufacturing trade. A year later the “Boss of the Plains” came into being, and after that, came the front creased Carlsbad, destined to become “the” cowboy style. The Stetson® hat has captured the essence of the west, has become an American icon, and is now an indelible part of western history.


The rugged individualism of the West was perfectly represented by a hat that could be shaped differently by each wearer—a punched-in crown, a bended brim, a braided leather band—all were different ways to make a Stetson® one’s own.

Stetson's hat factory

By 1886, Stetson owned the world’s biggest hat factory. Situated in Philadelphia, it employed nearly 4,000 workers. And by 1906, the factory was putting out about 2 million hats a year. John B. transformed hat making from a manual to a mechanized industry by introducing iron cutting and shaping machines, and by improving quality control. He was also among the first U.S. tycoons to offer benefits to reward workers for hard work. He dispensed free health care to employees and gave shares in his company to valued workers. As a philanthropist, he founded Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and built a Philadelphia hospital.

Inside the cowboy hat is a memorial bow to past hatters, who developed brain damage from treating felt with toxic mercury (which gave rise to the expression "Mad as a Hatter"). The bow on the inside hatband at the rear of the hat resembles a Skull and crossbones. Early hatters used mercury in the making of their felt. Their bodies absorbed mercury, and after several years of making hats, the hatters developed violent and uncontrollable muscle twitching. The ignorance of the times caused people to attribute these strange gyrations to madness, not mercury.


SINGING COWBOYS IN TEN GALLON HATS

In the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, a hat was an indispensable item in every man’s wardrobe. Stetson focused on expensive, high-quality hats that represented both a real investment for the working cowboy and statement of success for the city dweller.


Early on, Stetson® hats became associated with legends of the West, including “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Calamity Jane, Will Rogers, and Annie Oakley. It is said that George Custer rode into the Battle of Little Big Horn wearing a Stetson®. Later on, Western movie cowboys were quick to adopt the Stetson®. Many were drawn to the largest most flamboyant styles available. Tom Mix, an early-20th century movie star, wore a ten gallon hat (my Mom rode in his car).

Tom Mix in a Stetson

Texans were known for their preference for the "Ten Gallon," model, possibly so named for its enormous crown which at least appeared to be able to hold ten gallons were it to be dipped into a stream and used as a pail. An early Stetson® advertising image, a painting of a cowboy dipping his hat into a stream to provide water for his horse symbolized the Cowboy hat as an essential part of a stockman’s gear.

Straw Stetson for hot summer wear

According to Win Blevins' Dictionary of the American West (p388), the term "ten-gallon" has nothing to do with the hat’s liquid capacity, but derives from the Spanish word galón (braid), ten indicating the number of braids used as a hat band.

The first American law-enforcement agency to adopt Stetson’s western hat as part of their uniform was the Texas Rangers. In the Second Boer War, the flat brimmed Stetson® became the standard issue of the second Canadian Contingent, becoming recognized throughout the British Empire as a symbol of Canada. Canadian police, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Red Serge dress uniform includes a Stetson® with a flat brim.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

　John B. created not only a hat but an image, a daydream inducing piece of clothing that has survived into the 21^st century. A cowboy today might carry a GPS gizmo on his belt rather than an 1851 Colt Navy, but the hat is still the same. Tonight I'll be dreaming of Stetsons® and the men who wear them!

Don't know if this is a
Stetson...don't care!

My late husband Gary and I spent many years re-enacting the Mountain Man Era, attending rendezvous and making our own clothes accouterments, and foofaraws. It was a brilliant learning experience for my writer’s treasure trove of sights, sounds, smells, and just plain old tales of adventures.

Gary and Gini in their
Mountain costumes

Then while living alone in the middle of 73 acres of Colorado prairie, a barrage of western sagas began forming in the back of my mind. It was an eye-opening atmosphere which lent itself to imagining what a woman’s life must have been like out there on the edge of nowhere, or what the daily struggles must have been for the Plains Indians. I had all the modern conveniences and yet there were days I was overwhelmed and daunted by the effort it took to withstand draught, hail, flash floods, mountains of snow, and blistering heat. At present, I have a little patch of land not far from the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains where I care for a Noah’s Ark of abandoned farm animals.

For me, the road to publication has been long and arduous, yet well worth the tears and effort. My best advice, if I dare presume to give any, would be to rise out of the ashes of your rejection letters and like the heroines in your books, don’t give up. And write not only what you know, but what you love, and that for which you have an innate and sometimes inexplicable attraction. Never let age determine your dreams. My first romance was released one month before my 60th birthday.

Please visit www.ginirifkin.com and http://ginirifkin.blogspot.com

SPECIAL DELIVERY
(Release date, May 2012)

Clover City, Colorado—1888

A mysterious letter and the drop-dead handsome town marshal, are the last things Mariah expects to find making rounds as a midwife.

Mariah McAllister plans to be married before her next birthday. Too bad Marshal Virgil Kincaid barely knows she’s alive. Not one to give up easily, she’s determined to show him she has an abiding passion for more than her work.

Virgil Kincaid loved a woman once—after she broke his heart, he spent three years in prison. Women can’t be trusted, no matter how good they look. He’s sworn off relationships in favor of Saturday night poker games. Life is simple—the way he wants it…until a stranger turns up dead in the road.

Forced to work side by side with Mariah, Virgil begins to wonder if she might be his second chance at love. As they trade kisses and oh so much more, he’s willing to take the gamble. But when a killer threatens their once peaceful town, all bets are off.

SPECIAL DELIVERY Excerpt:

Virgil Kincaid was a prime cut of man. Over six feet tall, he made Mariah’s five-foot seven height seem less gawky and awkward. And he was built for action, long and lean with broad shoulders—shoulders she hankered to hold onto—and with narrow hips—hips she could easily envision pressed up against her own.

And then there were his eyes. Gray as the sky in winter, full of secrets, revealing nothing. Virgil had been the town Marshal for nearly three years, yet no one knew where he’d come from or how long he intended to stay. What would it take to light a fire in those eyes and put settling down in his thoughts?

Her gaze drifted lower and latched onto the front of his Levi’s. A picture of what he might look like naked skittered across her mind and her cheeks grew hot at the imagining.

“You done lookin?” he asked.

Her gaze snapped up to meet his and the heat of humiliation replaced the lustful warmth.

"Yes,” she babbled, “there doesn’t seem to be anything of interest here.”

“Really?” he challenged, with a cocky grin and a raised brow.

He stepped closer and stood so near she could smell the man scent of him as she tried to ratchet her breathing down to a more normal rate.

“You’re a very unusual woman, Miss McAllister.”

“Is that good or bad?” she dared to ask.

“I’m not sure yet.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Gini for sharing her life and her story with us.

Thanks, readers, for stopping by!


Boss of the Plains

DIME NOVELS LEAD THE WAY WEST

Welcome to  the Random Acts of Kindness Blog Tour sponsored by the reading friendly blogst http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/ and
http://readforyourfuture.blogspot.com/ At the first, you'll find the sites for the 173 blogs participating with giveaways. My giveaway is an e-copy of one of my books (winner's choice) to someone who leaves a comment today through February 22nd. If you follow my blog on the sidebar, that counts as a second entry, so be sure to tell me if you follow me. If you're already a follower, let me know that as it counts, too. Please leave your email address with your comment. And by the way, please commit a random act of kindness today! Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog:

     DIME NOVELS LEAD THE WAY WEST

If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard about dime novels all your reading life. Originally I believed there was only one form of dime novel, but I’ve learned that is far from the case.

Various forms of so-called
dime novels

The term dime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different (but related) forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction, including supposedly true (yeah, right) dime novels, story papers, five- and ten-cent weekly libraries, “thick book” reprints, and sometimes even early pulp magazines. The term was being used as late as 1940, in the short-lived pulp Western Dime Novels. In spirit, dime novels are the antecedent of today’s mass-market paperbacks, comic books, and even television shows and movies based on the dime novel genres. "Dime novel" has become a term to describe any quickly written, lurid potboiler and as such is generally used as derisive term to describe a sensationalized yet superficial piece of written work. Call them what you wish, I yearn to own a few of the genuine old dime novels.

Generally, historians agree that the term "dime novel" originated with the first book in Beadle & Adam's Beadle’s Dime Novel series, MALEASKA, THE INDIAN WIFE OF THE WHITE HUNTER, by Ann S. Stephens, dated June 9, 1860. Aha! A female author breaking in a new tradition! I’m pleased to know that. The novel was essentially a reprint of Stephens's earlier serial that appeared in the Ladies' Companion Magazine in February, March, and April 1839. The dime novels varied in size, even within this first Beadle series, but were roughly 6.5 by 4.25 inches, with 100 pages. The first 28 were published without a cover illustration, in a salmon colored paper wrapper, but a woodblock print was added with issue 29, and reprints of the first 28 had an illustration added to the cover. The books actually were priced at ten cents.



This series ran for 321 issues, and established almost all the conventions of the genre, from the lurid and outlandish story to the melodramatic double titling that was used right up to the very end in the 1920s. Most of the stories were frontier tales reprinted from the vast backlog of serials in the story papers and other sources, as well as many originals.



Beadle’s Dime Novels were immediately popular among young, working-class audiences, owing to an increased literacy rate around the time of the American Civil War. By the War’s end, there were numerous competitors like George Munro and Robert DeWitt crowding the field, distinguishing their product only by title and the color choice of the paper wrappers. As a whole, the quality of the fiction was derided by higher brow critics and the term 'dime novel' quickly came to represent any form of cheap, sensational fiction, rather than the specific format.



Although the larger part of the stories stood alone, in the late 1880s series characters began to appear and quickly grew in popularity. The original Frank Reade stories first appeared in Boys of New York. Old Sleuth, appearing in The Fireside Companion story paper beginning in 1872, was the first dime novel detective and began the trend away from the western and frontier stories that dominated the story papers and dime novels up to that time. He was the first character to use the word “sleuth” to denote a detective, the word’s original definition being that of a bloodhound trained to track. Hooray for Frank Reade! I love reading mysteries with an amateur sleuth - a human sleuth, not a bloodhound.


By 1873, frontier stories, evolving into westerns (Hooray!), were still popular, but the new vogue tended to urban crime stories. One of the most successful titles, Frank Tousey’s New York Detective Library eventually came to alternate stories of the James Gang with stories of Old King Brady, detective.


Dime novels endeared western lore to the nation, even spreading throughout the world, as you’ll learn when you read Julie Garwood’s PRINCE CHARMING. (By now you know that book is one of my all-time favorites.) City people followed the exploits of legendary heroes in the West. Talk about literary license? The fact that most of the tales were pure drivel didn’t matter a whit to their eager audience. The lure was cast, and many took the bait and headed to America’s West.



Has a novel ever influenced you to try something new? 


Don't forget our Random Acts of Kindness Blog Hop. Each participating blog has a prize to offer.

Thanks for stopping by!