THE WOMEN WHO LOVE COWBOYS

Isn't that most women? Oh, maybe we don't want to marry one, but we enjoy reading about them. At least I enjoy reading about them . . . and writing about them. What kind of women to cowboys find attractive? A western woman must be spunky, possess determination, know how to take care of her man, and being beautiful doesn't hurt.

For instance, let's discuss the women who captured the hearts of the Stone brothers in the Men of Stone Mountain series.

Hope Montoya not only possessed beauty, but intelligence and compassion. When she realized someone among her friends and family wanted her dead, she had the wits to defeat the killer. Hope was born to a cold couple who showed her no affection. In fact, they taught her that any display of emotion indicated weakness. Yet Jorge Montoya, her father lashed out in anger whenever anyone displeased him. He never bothered with a compliment. Even though a wealthy man, Jorge hoarded his wealth without a care for those less fortunate. How Hope acquired compassion for those less fortunate is as much a mystery as who wanted to kill her. Jorge never let anyone forget that he descended from Spanish aristocracy. No one was good enough to marry his daughter, and he let Micah Stone know that a lowly cowboy rancher had not even the right to dance with Hope.

Alice Price had lived an isolated life and had a hard time trusting any man. From the time her father died and Mama married Pa when she was young, she left Pa's ranch only once. Pa said a woman as pretty as Mama and a girl as cute as Alice attracted too much attention. Notice was the thing he wanted least, but he was good to her and Mama. She didn't realize the life they led kept them prisoners on his ranch. She knew Pa was into thieving, though not how much, but she had no chance to leave his ranch. She nursed her Mama several years. When Mama died, Alice planned to leave, but then Pa turned up sick and she stayed to care for the man who'd treated her like his own daughter. Pa knew his two sons were worthless, so he helped Alice make plans for her escape once he had died. He didn't count on her not knowing her way around or being able to navigate through the Palo Pinto Mountains. With her stepbrothers close on her trail, luck was with her the evening she threw in with Zach Stone. But could she trust him? He said he was a rancher, but that's what Pa had told folks, too.

Rosalyn had been pressured by her ambitious father into marrying a man much older than her for whom she had no affection. He was a brutal man and she longed to escape him. She didn't know who killed her former husband, but she knew she hadn't been guilty. She figured she would hang anyway. From her cell window, she watched the scaffold being built. Before she could be unjustly executed, a tornado swirled through the town and set her free. She reclaimed her daughter, Lucy, and left for parts west. When she'd traveled to what she thought must be the ends of the earth, she set up as a seamstress. Drat, the first person she met was a sheriff, Joel Stone, and he appeared determined to woo her. A sheriff--the last person whose attention she wanted to attract. Already there might be wanted posters arriving across his desk with her description. What should she do?

These three women are the heroines of BRAZOS BRIDE, HIGH STAKES BRIDE, and BLUEBONNET BRIDE.  The books are available individually at most online sources or as a boxed set from Amazon.
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Celebrating Women and the Right to Vote

Congratulations to Celia Yeary, who won my Saturday prize drawing. Celia wins a PDF of my current release OUT OF THE BLUE, a paranormal time travel. I'll be emailing her with her win.

Now for my blog post for today. I  recived this in an email from a cousin, but it's written by an anonymous woman. I've never  used information from an email before, but I think this is worthy of a reminder. So, her goes:

This is the story ......of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.





The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.









Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.



So, refresh MY memory. Some women won't vote this year because - Why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Mrs Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a 60 day sentence.

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown, New York

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

(Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate)

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." 

"The right to vote," she said, "had become valuable to her all over again."



HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco/Bingo night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, Jackson Place , Washington , D.C.



Left to right: Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))


It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying a banner, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

_____________________

Thank goodness, I didn't have to withstand this terror to gain the right to vote. Personally, I appreciate all these women did so that we all could share in democracy.

Thanks, Caroline