DUSTIN BY MARGARET TANNER

By Caroline Clemmons

 Last week I revealed the new sweet historical western romance series, Guns for Hire. Charlene Raddon conceived the series, and also created the covers via her Silver Sage Cover Designs. This past Sunday, March 28^th, Margaret Tanner released DUSTIN, Book 2 in the series.

Margaret’s western historical romances are very well-written. Learning she lives in Australia surprised me, because her westerns read as if she grew up in the Southwestern United States. She certainly is faithful to the history and landscape while she creates a great read.

Here’s the blurb for DUSTIN:

Dustin is a gun for hire, living in the shadows of black deeds from his past. He has long harbored feelings for Honey yet feels unworthy.

Honey knows Dustin is redeemable. Can she make him believe this so they can live their happily ever after?

https://www.amazon.com/Dustin-Hire-Sweet-Western-Romance-ebook/dp/B0DT87MCJL/

 Don’t forget my latest release, SIDNEY AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE, Book 6 of my Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides series. By the way, Charlene Raddon designed the book covers for this series. You’ll find it on Amazon in e-book and paperback at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNTP95FD

It's also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

 Please continue reading my books! I love to write romances with adventure in them. I also love to get the royalties to make up for the time I sit at the computer creating the books. Royalties are the only way I know you like my writing. (Plus, I need the money.)

Thanks for stopping by! 

FINDING MY MOJO

 

By Caroline Clemmons

Mojo

Mojo (mainly US, informal, slang)

Mojo is a singular noun meaning magic, power, (life) energy or something intangible. It can mean anything, but it is mostly used to mean magic. For example, saying “I’ve lost my Mojo” means you can no longer do something as well as you did before, or maybe you are downcast, depressed.

Where's my Mojo?

There you have it—me. For the last few weeks, I have spent too much time contemplating life instead of either cleaning out the bedroom closet or concentrating on writing my next book. I like the characters of the book, but the plot was getting too far off my usual stories. I have been despondent. Fortunately, Hero is patient and hasn’t told me to get over myself.

In general, authors are highly strung individuals who spend a lot of time listening to characters only they can hear. You may be thinking that mental institutions are filled with people who have similar problems—and you’d be right. The difference is that authors understand that no one else can know these characters unless we translate what’s in our heads onto the computer monitor.

Author obsessing about sales

We also totally obsess over methods to sell our books. Should we have ads on Facebook and Amazon? Does our newsletter have enough opens and clicks? Are the new covers working? Should we run an ad on this site or another? Would we recoup the expense of a Book Bub ad?



But I digress. You see, I lost my Mojo a couple of months ago. I moped around the house, spend too much time on Messenger and Facebook and email, read too many books, dithered over this and that, until it’s a wonder my family didn’t take me to a mental hospital.

This is about retrieving my Mojo! I have to thank Australian author Margaret Tanner, whose books I enjoy. In a Facebook author group, she mentioned that she doesn’t run ads and doesn’t have a newsletter, yet she makes a living wage. (Not luxury living, but a watch-your-budget living). Reading her comments was as if Margaret had come to my house, taken me by the hand, and said, “Just write. Write what you love.”

Me at Margaret's news

So, that’s what I’m doing and my Mojo is back! I put aside the book I was struggling to like well enough to finish. Joyfully, I started work on a new book that I love. I hope you will love it, too. It's titled KEITH AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE. He is such a cutie!

Celebrating--sure, that's how I look. To

be truthful, my hair is shorter than this.

(Would you like to buy a bridge?)

Stay safe and keep reading!

Zinnia – Western Flower Brides – Book 3 by Margaret Tanner

 

Zinnia – Western Flower Brides – Book 3  

by Margaret Tanner 

Blurb:

Transplanted to the West, can these flowers flourish in their harsh new environment? Or will their resolve wilt? 

Each story in the series can be read as a standalone story.

 

Cade Barton has been duped out of his wages.  

Flung into jail, he is shocked to find his cellmate is a young woman. 

Betrayed by a man she thought was her husband, Zinnia was left for dead and ended up sharing a cell with bounty hunter Cade. 

To obtain her release, Cade is forced to marry Zinnia. 

If fate intervenes, can this reluctant groom and his broken-hearted wife find happiness together? 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QQFKFYX 

Western Flower Brides Series page:    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MJ6N98J 

 

Excerpt: 

Zinnia woke up to a world tilting and somehow out of focus. Where was she? Why was she moving? She tried to gather her wits. She had been fighting a crazed woman called Lilly, who said she was married to Tobias. That couldn’t be true. She must be having a nightmare. The pain in her head was real enough, though. It felt as if a red-hot poker was being jabbed into her skull. 

Glancing down at the deep pink dress she had been married in, she tried to grapple with the gaps in her memory. Her and Tobias had been married in a pretty San Francisco church with beautiful gardens surrounding it. She could clearly remember standing in the stately grounds, wearing her beautiful new pink dress and clutching a huge bunch of flowers to her bosom. 

Why was the dress so dirty and ripped? Where was Tobias? Gingerly, she lifted her head and pain shot through it. It was easier and less painful to remain motionless. 

What had happened to her? Why was she moving? Where was the terrible smell coming from? She tried to open her eyes and failed. They felt as if they were fused shut. 

If she didn’t know better, she would think she was moving. A scream rent the air and she realized it came from her. Groaning with pain she forced her eyes open, then glanced around - terrified. She was in a cattle car on a train. How that happened was a mystery.  

Dragging herself to her knees she started crawling over to the closest side. Even this task caused her puny strength to fail; her arms collapsed and forced her face down on a floor covered in cow dung. 

“Take it slowly.” She had never heard such a harsh, guttural voice before, yet somehow knew it belonged to her. Slowly, painfully, with her head nearly splitting in half, she continued dragging herself across the floor. It was too much effort to even try getting to her knees. Forcing her eyes to remain open, she squinted through the wooden slats. Even with her vision see-sawing, and the pain in her skull so bad she wanted to rip her head off to ease it, she realized the train was barreling through a timbered landscape, with huge trees on either side almost forming a canopy. 

Where she was, she had no idea. What had happened, exactly? Bigamy, the word being hammered into skull made it ache even more. Even in this filth she had to lie down; she just couldn’t bear to sit up any longer.  

If she could sleep for a while, it might clear her brain; but would do nothing for her heartache. Why was she heartbroken? Then it hit her with the force of a battering ram. She had married a man and been his wife in every way for two weeks, only to find out he was already married. 

“I won’t scream. It hurts my head,” she muttered. She had seen the black smoke spiraling upward and heard the hiss of steam every now and again, so this railcar had to be near the locomotive.  

Dare she try to yell out on the off chance the engineer or his fireman might hear her? What would they do if they found a filthy, bedraggled stowaway? Kick her off the train, most likely, and leave her to die in the wilderness. 

She had no idea where she had boarded the train, couldn’t even remember whether she had done it herself or been dumped there by someone else. The more she forced herself to think, the clearer her brain became. She didn’t really want to remember, it was too painful. If she could get to a town, maybe she could complain to the sheriff. More than likely, he would throw her into jail for being a vagrant. Who would believe the wild story she had to tell? If someone tried to tell her something this outrageous, she wouldn’t believe them, either. 

Her throat was parched, her belly empty, indicating she must have been on the train for at least ten or twenty hours. It was mid-afternoon going by the position of the sun, even in her wretched state she could see this. It had been around midday on Sunday, just after they had returned from church, when Lilly had burst in on them. 

To think Tobias had been despicable enough to marry her, knowing full well he already had a wife, and more shocking, he had attended church with her. This was the foulest act of all. One of the most important of the Ten Commandments was Thou shalt not commit adultery. It was a wonder the Lord hadn’t sent down a lightning bolt to strike him dead as he calmly sat on a pew in God’s house. She had defiled his house, also, because she was a fallen woman, all be it, unbeknownst to her. 

Author Bio: 

Margaret Tanner is an Award Winning, Amazon Best Selling, Historical and Contemporary Romance Author who now writes mainly Western Historical Romance. She has over 120 books published on Amazon. 

She lives in Australia, is recently widowed, and has three grown up sons and two gorgeous little granddaughters. 

She has been an Army Reservist, a Postal Delivery person, Medical Audio Typist and Army Major’s Secretary, in her decades long working career. Now retired, she is a full-time writer. 

Frontier Australia and frontier America, have many similarities, isolated communities, a large single male population and a lack of eligible women. This leads to many interesting plots and feeds her vivid imagination. 

She has always loved Westerns, soaking up all the Western TV shows and movies when she was young. Bonanza was her all-time favourite show. Little Joe Cartwright was her hero. Western Author, Zane Grey was her favourite author at that time. 

 

Margaret’s Links. 

http://www.amazon.com/author/margarettanner 

 
If you would like to join Margaret’s FB Reader Group: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/406184620325836/ 

NEW SERIES RELEASES!

I have great news! Today the first of the sweet historical Impostor For Christmas series releases. This nine-book series is, as you suspected, about a mail order bride who pretends to be someone else. There are nine reasons for the charade and nine reactions when the true identity is revealed. Each book in the series is stand alone and has no relation to the other books except each book occurs at Christmastime. Each is a complete story to brighten your mood and relieve your holiday stress.

First to be released is Cheryl Wright’s novella, MAIL ORDER LILLIAN: AN IMPOSTOR FOR CHRISTMAS.

Lillian is an unwilling impostor bride. What will Simon do when he discovers her secret?

Montana -- 1880. Simon Watson, owner of a prosperous ranch, needs a wife to look after his motherless four-year-old daughter.

Joy Hanover accepts Simon's proposal, but later changes her mind. She begs her cousin Lillian to go in her place -- leaving out the part she found most objectionable, namely Simon's child.

Lillian plans to tell Simon about her deception the moment she arrives in Samson's Creek, but the best of plans can often go awry.

What will happen when Simon finds out he married an impostor? Will he have the marriage annulled, or will they stay married and get the happy ever after ending each of them crave?

Author's Promise: This is a heartwarming historical Christmas novella with a happily ever after ending and no cliffhangers. It is a clean and wholesome story with nothing more than hugs, kisses, and holding hands.

https://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Lillian-Impostor-Christmas-ebook/dp/B09G6YHP6N/

Releasing November 16 is Margaret Tanner’s MAIL ORDER CHLOE: AN IMPOSTOR FOR CHRISTMAS.

Chloe was an impostor. Joel lied by omission. What hope does this marriage have?

Joel Taggarty rescues a small boy who has been discarded in the wilderness. He now needs to speed up his marriage plans to his mail order bride.

Chloe discovers her friend Rebecca has been working at a saloon and secretly writing to a Colorado rancher. Rebecca's dying wish is that Chloe should go to Joel and pretend to be her. Homeless and without a job, Chloe is desperate enough to try it, even though such an undertaking is fraught with danger.

Will Christmas weave its magic and save their marriage once Joel realizes Chloe is an impostor?

https://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Chloe-Impostor-Christmas-ebook/dp/B09G6LLY13/

 

While you’re thinking of it, please select preorder for my book, MAIL ORDER GLORIA: AN IMPOSTOR FOR CHRISTMAS. My book releases on December 3, so you won’t have to wait long before it magically pops up on your e-reader.

A desperate woman…

A distrustful rancher with a secret…

And a boy in need of a family.

Orphaned at an early age and sent to live with her relatives, Gloria Tabor is fed up with the treatment she receives from her aunt, uncle, and spiteful cousin. In a moment of desperation, she leaves her only relatives’ home. With only a small savings, where is she to go? The question is sobering, but she is determined she will not return to her kin’s home.

While deliberating her lack of choice, she overhears a young man comforting a sobbing woman. After discovering the woman is a friend from school and a few minutes of conversation with them, the young woman offers Gloria the chance to escape town to a ranch in Texas as a mail order bride. In exchange, Gloria must promise not to divulge her real identity until the couple has eloped and had a honeymoon. Elated at the opportunity, Gloria agrees. She vows she will never let herself be told what to do or think again. Committing herself to becoming less shy and more adventurous gives her courage.

On the way to her prospective groom, Gloria rescues a ten-year-old boy from a policeman who wants to take the boy to the local orphanage. Heart filled with sympathy for the homeless child, she intercedes. Later, she wonders how her prospective groom will react to her bringing a ward with her.

Texas rancher Dwight Price is a stickler for honesty. Once someone has lost his confidence, he won’t er fully trust the person again. He strives to live up to his beliefs. On the one hand, he isn’t certain he wants to wed the daughter of his father’s oldest friend. On the other hand, he looks forward to a life of quiet harmony with his mail order bride and the boy he rescued from renegades eight years ago.

On December 23, Gloria is relieved to receive a telegram releasing her from her promise. Dwight wants to know who sent the wire and why. Her explanation destroys the faith he had in her—but then his own secret crops up.

Can these two overcome the damage to their relationship or will each be alone again?

 

Here’s the link to preorder MAIL ORDER GLORIA.

https://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Gloria-Impostor-Christmas-ebook/dp/B09GQLXMVL/

  

The series page is at https://www.amazon.com/Impostor-Christmas-9-Book/dp/B09H7NN9XK/ At that site, you’ll find nine books listed.

The Impostor For Christmas Series consists of sweet, western historical romances that are short reads certain to bring comfort and pleasure to your fall reading time.

Stay safe and happy reading!