COME FOR A VISIT WITH ME

Usually, I feature books by other authors, but I have decided to feature my books occasionally. This time I’m revisiting a fun duet Jacquie Rogers and I wrote titled MAIL ORDER TANGLE. These two stories are tangles created around mail order brides. The first is mine, MAIL ORDER PROMISE, which is set in Texas. No surprise there, right? The second is Jacquie’s, MAIL ORDER RUCKUS, and it’s set in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory near where her Hearts of Owyhee novels take place. Once again, no surprise.

Jacquie is a ton of fun, as you know if you are part of her Facebook group The Pickle Barrel Books and Bar. We had long phone conversations and lots of emails while we plotted these two linked stories. I'm pleased with the way both books have been received.

Here’s what happens.

Mail-Order Promise

by Caroline Clemmons

Ellie Dickerson and her sister are in desperate straits when she contracts to become a mail-order bride to a Texas rancher on the condition she can bring her sister. After her arduous trip from Virginia, she learns her fiancé has died. His brother is handsome. And single. And he doesn’t want her. But he has sworn to take care of her and see she has a home. Somewhere, but where? What will happen to her and her sister?

Kage Johannsen, co-owner of a ranch in Idaho with his cousin Matt, is forced to take over his family’s Central Texas ranch on the death of his older brother. Kage is in no hurry to get married, and when his brother’s bride shows up, she’s everything he doesn’t want in a wife—except she’s stunningly beautiful.  Despite his deathbed promise to his brother and his attraction to Ellie, he’s convinced she doesn’t have the grit to be a rancher’s wife.

When a greedy, sadistic villain attempts to take over the ranch and kill Kage, can Ellie save her true love?  What will it take to prove that she’s the only woman for Kage?

Mail-Order Ruckus

by Jacquie Rogers

Matt Johannsen returned to the ranch he and his cousin Kage started in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory, not knowing he took Laura Dickerson's heart with him.  Now that her sister no longer needs her, Laura wants a home of her own and a family to put in it.  No other man would fill the bill as well as Matt, but he’s not interested.  Not wanting to live as a spinster aunt the rest of her life, Laura signs a contract with a marriage broker, choosing to go to Silver City, near Matt’s ranch, in hopes that he might come around.  But he’s not on the roster of eligible grooms!

When Matt sees Laura among the brides on display on the balcony of the Idaho Hotel, he feels gutshot. He’s in no position to take a wife, not with a ranch eating up every spare moment and dollar. But if he doesn't step forward, the one woman he wants will be wed at the end of the week—and not to him.

Will Matt walk away from the woman who stole his heart or let go of everything he's worked so hard to build in exchange for love?

Jacquie and I are still excited about this duet! You can order at 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

In 2017, Jacquie and I have planned a new duet involving Johannsen cousins. Once again, two sisters are the mail-order brides, but the grooms are in for major surprises. I’ll let you know when that duet is published.

HOW WE WROTE COMPANION BOOKS FOR A DUET BOXED SET

You probably know that Jacquie Rogers and I are writing linked books to be boxed as a duet and released in September. You might wonder (I hope) how one goes about writing linked books with another author. 

For starters, I am a major fan of Jacquie’s books, especially her western historical romances. She knows a tremendous amount about the Old West and writes with wry humor that I love. MUCH ADO ABOUT MARSHALS and SLEIGHT OF HEART are my two favorites, but the woman ALWAYS delivers a great story. So, when she asked if I’d be interested in pairing up for a boxed set, I jumped at the chance.

But that’s the easy part. First we had to work out details so our books were compatible and there was continuity of characters. This took quite a few emails and several phone calls. 

Choosing titles was difficult due to the large number of mail order bride books already published. We locked ours in and Jacquie put up a blog for us at http://mailordertangle.blogspot.com  As time goes along, we’ll post more to the blog. 

As soon as we had the titles, then we could commission a cover. Jacquie and I are thrilled with the cover. Don't you agree?

After choosing 1880 for the first book, we decided our two heroes would be cousins. Of course they would each be handsome, tall, with dark hair and bright blue eyes. Sounds like my husband, whom I call Hero. Well, his dark hair is mostly gray now, but you get the idea.

Our heroines are Richmond, Virginia sisters whose debt-ridden father’s suicide left them destitute and disgraced. With no more money after having pawned everything they salvaged from creditors, the youngest sister applied to a marriage broker as a mail order bride on the condition she could bring her sister with her. Otherwise, her sister would have agreed to marry a despicable elderly man so they would have a roof over their heads.

Colorado River near Bastrop, Texas

For locale, we needed the Texas ranch to be on the Colorado River in Central Texas, which is ranching country and supplied herds of cattle to Idaho Territory. All my books are set in Texas and all Jacquie’s books are set in Idaho. Don’t want to waste all our research, right?

The Texas town is fictitious, but based near the real town of Bastrop about thirty miles from Austin. When deciding on a community, we wanted one to which many immigrants had come earlier in the 19^th century. Checking on those in Idaho Territory, Jacquie learned there were a lot of Swedish immigrants in Owyhee County about the time we wanted these books set.

Ranch such as our Texas hero owned.

In Texas, there were more Germans in this area, but also Swedish and Norwegian. We settled on Swedish for our heroes. The fictitious town is named after an actual town in Sweden, which happened a lot when a group of immigrants arrived to settle together. So, we were off and running—I mean writing.

We carefully outlined what we wanted to happen, who the secondary characters would be, names, and the situation in each book. And we all know how the best laid plans work, right? Yes, we had to keep sending our work back and forth so the tone of the books coincided. Plus I had help from my critique group and my plotting group. Apparently, it takes a village to write a book. ☺

MAIL ORDER PROMISE by moi is not as humorous as Jacquie’s MAIL ORDER RUCKUS.  Oh, I have several humorous incidents, but Jacquie has a true gift in that department. We each include skullduggery to keep you guessing how the plot unfolds. Bwhahaha.

Don’t think I’m only going to post about MAIL ORDER TANGLE. Nope, I will maybe once a week for a while, then feature other posts the other two times that week. On Monday, the 25^th, I’ll be posting a character interview with the hero of MAIL ORDER PROMISE. Please come back then. Just like my personal Hero, he’s a keeper.

In the meantime, you can learn about Jacquie's hero, Matt Johannsen, from MAIL ORDER RUCKUS today at her blog at http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com 

Thanks for stopping by!