THANK YOU, THANK YOU! WE WON!

Jacquie Rogers and I are grateful to all y'all who rallied around and voted for MAIL-ORDER TANGLE for January Book of the Month at Long And Short Reviews! You are the greatest of readers and friends.

Jacquie and I had fun working out the linked plots for these two books, MAIL-ORDER PROMISE and MAIL-ORDER RUCKUS. Jacquie can't help being a pleasure--she is a vivacious, upbeat person. You may have heard us laughing when we talked on the phone about writing these books. 

Although she lives in the Seattle area now, Jacquie grew up in Idaho where her book is set. Although I lived in Southern California for seven years as a small child, I grew up in Texas, where all my books are set. Well, all my books except for one novella are set in Texas, LONG WAY HOME. Not all of them take place in the Lubbock area of West Texas.

In fact, only two are set in West Texas, HOME SWEET TEXAS HOME and BE MY GUEST. The Kincaid series is set in Central Texas in a fictional town about thirty miles from the State Capitol of Austin. The Stone Mountain series is set in the fictional town of Radford Crossing in the real Palo Pinto Mountains of North Central Texas. The McClintocks are near Bandera, MAIL-ORDER PROMISE is set near Bastrop in Central Texas.

Lake Bastrop

Bastrop is a lovely small city. When I first saw this town, I was captured by the picturesque setting. I'm glad Jacquie and I decided on that area for MAIL-ORDER TANGLE. Bastrop is on the Colorado River and has a historic shopping area on the main street. Lost Pines State Park is nearby. 

Enough about Jacquie and me. This post is really about YOU! Thank you to each of you who voted for us, read the book, and/or left a review! 

 

WOO HOO! VOTE FOR US, PLEASE, FOR LASR BOOK OF THE MONTH!

MAIL ORDER TANGLE, by Jacquie Rogers and myself, is up for book of the month at Long and Short Reviews. We received five stars for these stories and couldn't be happier. Okay, we would be a little happier if we won this poll at Long and Short Reviews. Yeah, a LOT happier.

Voting is February 1st and 2nd only. Here's where to vote: http://wp.me/p2ZcT9-aT6  Remember, voting ends February 2nd, so please don't delay. We're counting on you.

Here's the 5 star review again (I love writing that):

Sisters… so close to each other yet so different from each other. They are willing to do anything for their loved ones. Being Mail Order Brides is the last chance for a happiness in their lives.

Mail Order Tangle is a set of two books written by two different, popular and best selling western authors.

Mail Order Promise by Caroline Clemmons

Ellie Dickerson becomes a contract mail order bride to a Texas rancher. She agrees to marry to on one condition. Her sister gets to stay with them. However, upon arrival she finds out that her fiancé is dead.

Erik takes a promise from his younger brother Kage on his death bed, to marry his fiancé. A promise to a dying man is binding. Though Kage made the promise he is not willing to marry a city gal. Nonetheless he is willing to take care and make sure she and her sister have a home.

Kage wants a rancher wife. And is dead set that Ellie doesn’t have what it takes to become one.
Through it all, there is someone lurking eager to do anything, even kill to get what he wants.
Will their love conquer?

I was pretty surprised from the first chapter in how different the sisters were from each other. Ellie is a social butterfly. Much more comfortable interacting with other people in dinners and parties than being in the kitchen or cleaning. However, she gets no choice when her fiancé dies. The simple truth is, they can’t go back from where they came. She sets herself to become the kind of rancher wife that Kage wants. Ellie is very stubborn. She makes a drastic transformation to become and survive being on a ranch.

I loved reading how she changed herself. Learning different tasks. Trying again and again until she gets it right. This is a Historical western romance novel. I expected guns and animals and all aspects of ranch life. I got all of that and more. The writing set the scene put me in the story. It was not only romance, for me there were times that made me smile like a fool while other times I couldn’t contain the tears. There was a myriad of emotions to be felt while reading.

If a book can make you feel things then it’s a very good book. This is a very good book.

Mail Order Ruckus by Jacquie Rogers

Matt Johannsen, cousin to Kage returns to the ranch that they built together before Kage had to go back to take care of Erik’s ranch.

Laura Dickerson, older sister to Ellie, is set on having Matt choose her for his bride; for that, she contracts to become a mail order bride in the same town where Matt lives.
Matt is hesitant to marry with his ranch taking all of the money that he makes. But he is put in a very tight place when he sees Laura with all the other brides. Laura is bound to get married, to him or someone else.

More, there is someone who wants to destroy Matt and his ranch.

Laura Dickerson met and fell in love with Matt. However, Matt is adamant. He will marry after one or two years after his ranch has gotten profit. Though this decision is taken out of his hands. I very much liked seeing how everyone came together and plotted behind his back so that Laura has every resource and advantage to get him married to her.

There was something about how the how the animals are depicted in these stories. It was terrifically funny. It really added a comic relief layer to the stories that kept them from being overly dramatic or serious.

It also portrays other mail order brides and their road to love. They find their love and it is entwined with Laura’s. I loved hearing the other bride’s stories. It is written in a way that the reader knows that Laura is the main character and the other brides are the secondary.

Perfect book to unwind at the end of the day and get lost.

Thanks for your support for MAIL ORDER TANGLE! Jacquie and I will appreciate your vote! And if you haven't yet read our duet box set, here're the buy links:

Amazon http://amzn.to/1yZyIfs

Kobo http://bit.ly/167JGUN

Nook bit.ly/1ExiM7A

If you love romance with a dash of humor and adventure, MAIL ORDER TANGLE is for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

FIVE STAR REVIEW FROM LONG AND SHORT REVIEWS FOR MAIL-ORDER TANGLE!

Woo Hoo! Another great review for MAIL-ORDER TANGLE, the duet Jacquie Rogers and I wrote about cousins who marry sisters. We had so much fun writing this together. I hope readers have as much fun reading the books. Two books in one, the second one continuing the first's story. Each book stands alone, but they flow together very well.

Here's the review by Sorrel of Long and Short Reviews:

Sisters...so close to each other and yet so different from each other. They are willing to do anything for their loved ones. Being Mail Order Brides is the last chance for happiness in their lives.

Mail Order Tangle is a set of two books written by two different, popular and best selling western authors. 

Mail Order Promise by Caroline Clemmons

Ellie Dickerson becomes a contract mail order bride to a Texas rancher. She agrees to marry on one condition. Her sister gets to stay with them. However, upon arrival she finds out that her fiancé is dead. 

Erik takes a promise from his younger brother Kage on his death bed to marry his fiancé. A promise to a dying man is binding. Though Kage made the promise he is not willing to marry a city gal. Nonetheless he is willing to take care and make sure she and her sister have a home.

Kage wants a rancher wife. And is dead set that Ellie doesn't have what it takes to become one. 

Through it all, there is someone lurking eager to do anything, even kill to get what he wants.

Will their love conquer? 

I was pretty surprised from the first chapter in how different the sisters were from each other. Ellie is a social butterfly. Much more comfortable interacting with other people in dinners and parties than being in the kitchen or cleaning. However, she gets no choice when her fiancé dies. The simple truth is, they can't go back where they came from. She sets herself to become the kind of rancher wife that Kage wants. Ellie is very stubborn. She makes a drastic transformation to become and survive being on a ranch.

I loved reading how she changed herself. Learning different tasks. Trying again and again until she gets it right. This is a Historical western romance novel. I expected guns and animals and all aspects of ranch life. I got all of that and more. The writing set the scene put me in the story. It was not only a romance, for me there were times that made me smile like a fool while other times I couldn't contain the tears. There was a myriad of emotions to be felt while reading. 

If a book can make you feel things then it's a very good book. This is a very good book.

Mail Order Ruckus by Jacquie Rogers

Matt Johannsen, cousin to Kage returns to the ranch that they built together before Kage had to take care of Erik's ranch.

Laura dickerson, older cousin to Ellie, is set on having Matt choose her for his bride; for that, she contracts to become a mail order bride in the same town where Matt lives. 

Matt is hesitant to marry with his ranch taking all of the money he makes. But he is put in a very tight place when he sees Laura with all the other brides. Laura is bound to get married, to him or someone else.

More, there is someone who wants to destroy Matt and his ranch.

Laura Dickerson met and fell in love with Matt. However, Matt is adamant. He will marry after one or two years after his ranch has gotten profit. Though this decision is taken out of his hands. I very much liked seeing how everyone came together and plotted behind his back so that Laura has every resource and advantage to get him married to her.

There was something about how the animals are depicted in these stories. It was terrifically funny. It really added a comic relief layer to the stories that kept them from being overly dramatic or serious.

It also portrays other mail order brides and their road to love. They find their love and it is entwined with Laura's. I loved hearing the other bride's stories. It is  written in a way that the reader knows Laura is the main character and the other brides are secondary.

Perfect book to unwind at the end of the day and get lost.

Five stars

In case you haven't read MAIL ORDER TANGLE yet and would like to do so, here are the links:

Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Tangle-Caroline-Clemmons-ebook/dp/B00MZ6ZRXC/ref=sr_1_11?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1408824167&sr=1-11&keywords=caroline+clemmons

Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mail-order-tangle-caroline-clemmons/1120641044?ean=2940046258950

Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/mail-order-tangle

Thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

Look for the button
on this site!

Happy Hallowe’en! This is the time for spooks, goblins, tricks and treats. One of the treats is the scavenger hunt for valuable prizes from Long and Short Reviews. The trick is to find their symbol  hidden on this site--not the one like that to the left, but a different one. Keep looking--it's here. Really, it is.

And while you're here, why not Follow me? Also please sign up for my newsletter! Painless, I promise. No salesman will call, no surcharges or hidden fees. Monthly FREE reads, recipes, news, and miscellaneous truly great stuff in the newsletter. Okay, maybe that's a hard sell (maybe?), but I'd love for you to sign up on the sidebar.

Call me morbid but I like visiting old cemeteries, the kind with upright monuments in every conceivable shape. Since I love history as well as writing, perhaps that’s why I read the epitaphs, dates, and names as if they were stories. They are! Sometimes epitaphs are funny, sometimes sad, sometimes bleak. What annoys me is when the wife’s tombstone has only something like “Mrs. John Jones,” as if her life were whittled down to being a wife with no experience anywhere else or value in any other capacity.

My scare for you is a trip through the local cemetery. Here are some weird tales.  Whoo-ha-ha-ha! That's supposed to resemble a blood-curdling laugh.  Scared yet? Didn't think so.




Witch-real or
only in her mind?

Our community had a local couple who were, um, shall we say eccentric? Having little to do with genuine witches or warlocks, this couple called themselves a witch and warlock, dressed in Goth style, were heavy into the drug scene, and drove a black car decorated with white polka dots. Unfortunately, they had several followers. The local Justice of the Peace was asked to perform their marriage ceremony at midnight on Hallowe'en in the largest local cemetery. Because he was a good public servant, he agreed and showed up. After the ceremony, when he said, “You may kiss the bride,” the bride and groom slapped each other. Hard! That’s when the JP made his escape. Sadly, about a year later, the bride was found in the cemetery dead of a drug overdose. Friends who are real Wicca tell me that Wiccan practicioners do no harm to themselves or others, which makes this poor victim's life and death even sadder.



Crypt similar to that 
of the"white witch"

Sometimes rumors are so much more interesting than the truth. The same cemetery has what supposedly is “the white witch’s” grave. No one knows where this incorrect label originated. Actually, the grave is a white marble crypt built for a man who had no family. No one visits the grave-—except those searching for a sensational story.

Nearby is the statue of the “weeping” angel. Many visitors believe that name means the statue weeps actual tears. Sorry, the sculptor portrayed a weeping angel, not nearly as interesting as a statue that sheds real tears, right? Still, it's a beautiful statue.

Chased by a ghost?

In a town where I once lived, some teens went to the cemetery to share beers they weren’t supposed to have. When they realized the owner of the car had already been drinking before he picked them up, they argued with him about whether he was sober enough to drive them home from the cemetery. He beligerantly insisted, so the other teens reluctantly climbed into the car with him to go home. Can you hear your mom telling you never to ride with a driver who's been drinking?  Here's why.  Shortly after they left the cemetery, they had a wreck that killed the driver and a couple of the passengers and badly injured the others. A few months later, the greatly altered story appeared in one of those sensational press newspapers one sees at the checkout stand. In the account, supposedly a ghost had chased the teens from the cemetery and caused the wreck. Not true, but that sort of thing sells newspapers. I hate to refer to that sort of publication as a newspaper, don't you?


What’s your favorite Hallowe’en tale?



Prize Giveaways and Writing--What's the Connection?

The winner of my weekly prize giveaway for August 7th is FIONA CHAN. Fiona, please email me to tell me your email address. You have your choice of a PDF download of the Civil War anthology NORTHERN ROSES AND SOUTHERN BELLES in which my novella LONG WAY HOME appears, or my June release OUT OF THE BLUE, which is a time travel in which a woman travels from 1845 Ireland to modern Texas to help a police detective discover the murderer who shot him and killed his partner, framed him for a drug scandal, and almost succeeded in other murders.

This is a BIG month for giveaways. I'm participating in the Long and Short Reviews webiste owners big Third Anniversary "Long And Short Of It" Celebration. They're giving away THREE Nook e-readers in their scanvenger hunt which lasts from August 2-29th. You can check the rules and the sites involved at http://www.longandshortreviews.com/ Each of these Nooks comes loaded with ebooks from the participants and a fifty dollar gift certificate to Barnes and Noble.Wow!

August is also when some of The Wild Rose Press authors are having a Wednesday Blog Tour, at the end of which a lucky visitor will receive a gift basket of PDF books from participating authors plus a banner from Aileen Harkwood. Participating blogs are as follows: Aileen Harkwood, Amber Leigh Williams; Caroline Clemmons (here, but you guessed that, right?), Catherine Bybee, Christine De Petrillo (scan down the page past her books to find the interview), Lauri Robinson, Lilly Gayle, Maya Blake, Rae Summers, and Sandra Sookoo. We're trading blogs and will be rotating through various blogs on Wednesdays this month. Follow us if you can for a chance at this fabulous gift basket.

What do these prize giveaways have to do with writing? Good question. This is one way in which authors hope to attract readers to their blogs and websites. We hope that with this exposure, you will remember our names and buy our books. If you win a book, we hope you find you love our writing voice and style and will want to buy our future books. We take pleasure in the sharing of these characters who have become real to us. No, they aren't just mere names on a page to their creators. The people about whom we write--while we're writing their stories--become alive, friends or enemies whose tale we must relate. If you read a book you enjoy, let the author know! That's what we live for after all---the knowledge that a reader/readers loved our books.

Doesn't that empower you? You have the power to touch an author's heart.

Writers don't write for money. Of course, we don't turn it down. We are humans, after all, and love fat advances and fatter royalty checks. Few of us receive those, however. So what keeps us writing? Our primary purpose is to tell our stories and share them with readers.  With you! You keep us going!