13th annual Read A Book, Help A Cowboy

 

The 13th annual Read a Book, Help a Cowboy campaign is in full swing!

From October 1 through December 24, ten percent of the net proceeds from all of my book sales are donated to the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund.

The JCCF is a non-profit organization that assists rodeo athletes who’ve sustained catastrophic injuries and are unable to work for an extended period. Every book purchased during this promotional period adds to the donation total. Don’t forget to include books on your Christmas lists!

Back in 2013, I was researching details for The Christmas Cowboy, the first book in the Rodeo Romance series. I wanted to know how much medical care an injured cowboy would receive at a rodeo versus going to the hospital.

In the story, the hero is a saddle bronc rider named Tate who sustains an injury at a rodeo. In an attempt to get my facts straight for the story, I reached out to the Justin Sportsmedicine Team®. Through mobile medical centers, they provide care at more than 125 PRCA rodeos annually. Their responses to my questions were extremely helpful and I was so impressed with them, I wanted to do a little something in return.

So I launched a campaign to donate a portion of my book sales to the JCCF during the month of December.

In 2015, I added the month of November to my promotion, giving two months to raise funds for JCCF. Then I extended the promotion period for my Read a Book, Help a Cowboy campaign to October 1!

If you enjoy rodeos and the cowboys who make them possible (or reading about them in books), I hope you’ll take a look at the JCCF. It’s a great organization that really does make a difference when these cowboys are injured.

And I hope you’ll take a look at my books, too!

Be sure to get your copy of A Cowboy Christmas that includes interviews with rodeo cowboys who’ve received a hand up from the JCCF.

Remember, from October 1 through December 24, every book purchased helps benefit the JCCF, and that includes eBooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, audio books, and Kindle Unlimited pages read! 

With more than 140 books to choose from there’s sure to be a book for everyone, including those on your holiday shopping list!

Happy reading!

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield grew up on a farm where her childhood brimmed with sunshine, hay fever, and an ongoing supply of learning experiences.

Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

When this award-winning author isn’t writing or testing out new recipes (she loves to bake!), Shanna hangs out at home in the Pacific Northwest with her beloved husband, better known as Captain Cavedweller.

Arizona State University

By Kristy McCaffrey

In 1886, the Arizona Territory offered a less-than-ideal educational environment. The Pleasant Valley War between competing cattle rustling gangs was in full swing and wouldn’t end until six years later in a fatal gunfight in the town of Tempe. Despite this, however, Tempe—with the burgeoning towns of Phoenix and Mesa nearby—would become home to the Arizona Territorial Normal School.

The school was opened on February 8, 1886, on a 20-acre cow pasture that belonged to George and Martha Wilson. The institution began with a four-classroom building, a well, and an outhouse to instruct the first 33 students. These young men and women arrived on horseback—some having ridden for miles from Mesa or tiny farming communities even farther away—and, in addition to their studies, would need to rent a room with a local family during their enrollment.

Teddy Roosevelt at Old Main on March 20, 1911.

The Normal School was charged to provide “instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education; also, to give instruction in the mechanical arts and in husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental law of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.”

Charles T. Hayden

The idea for a school of higher education was spearheaded by two men, Charles T. Hayden and John S. Armstrong. Arizona Territory was struggling to achieve statehood and the national press loved to print stories of the lawlessness present. It was Hayden who sought to civilize the place with education and culture.

Today, Arizona State University is a sprawling multi-campus school with over 200,000 students and covers more than 1,500 acres in metro Phoenix.

Kristy McCaffrey is an alumna of Arizona State, along with her mother, father, husband, son and daughter-in-law. As a newly married couple, Kristy and her husband named their dog Sparky after the ASU mascot.

Connect with Kristy

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Colorado's 12,000 year old Lindenmeier Site

          

 One of the most important archaeological sites in North America is right in our backyard! The Lindenmeier Site is located near Fort Collins, Colorado within the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area.

   The archeological site dates back 12,000 years to the Ice Age and was discovered with the help of a cowboy named George McJunkin.

       Although the Clovis people lived here previously, the Folsom culture is the most prominent at the site with findings of sewing needles, hide-scrapers, beads, and stone tools making the Lindenmeier site the most extensive Folsom culture site found to this day.

  

What were they thinking about as they sat around the first fire pit? Where they bragging about today's hunt, or wondering what the weather would be tomorrow. 

    The Folsom people were highly mobile hunter-gatherers who followed seasonal migration patterns across the Great Plains and American Southwest. They were given their name when archaeologists discovered their distinctive projectile points near Folsom, New Mexico, in the late 1920s.

 The Folsom Point is thin, finely crafted stone projectile has a distinct channel (flute) chipped out of the sides to help attach them to spears and atlatl darts.

                       

The atlatl is the weapon that filled the evolutionary gap between the spear and the bow and arrow. 

                                    My atlatl, thank you Tim H.
                                

    Discovered originally in 1908 by a former enslaved cowboy named George McJunkin, George tried numerous times to interest archaeologists, but with little success. 

     In 1918 he sent sample bones and a lance point to the Denver Museum of Natural History, who sent paleontologist Harold Cook during the following spring, and he and McJunkin did some exploratory digging. But a thorough excavation did not occur until 1926, sadly after McJunkin's death. The site would become known as the Lindenmeier site, named after William Lindenmeier, the landowner at the time.

                                   

    Finding the Folsom site, forever changed American archaeology by linking human tools directly to Ice Age megafauna.

     The City of Fort Collins owns the site today. The property is open for visits from March 1 until November 30 each year.

                           

    The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated a National Historic Landmark. Artifacts from the site can be found at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and in private collections. 

Directions

Soapstone Prairie is 25 miles north of Fort Collins, allow about an hour travel time. From Fort Collins, take Hwy 1/ Terry Lake Road to County Road 15 north (towards Waverly). From CR 15, turn north onto Rawhide Flats Road and continue north to the entrance station.

From I-25, take exit 288 (Buckeye Road) west to County Road 15. Go north on CR 15 and turn north onto Rawhide Flats Road. Follow Rawhide Flats Rd to the entrance station. Soapstone Prairie is not accessible via I-25 exit 293 (CR 126/CR 5).

My Stories: 

Western Romance: Break Heart Canyon * Undercover Outlaw * Cowboys, Cattle and Cutthroats * A Cowboy’s Fate*Special Delivery. 

Contemporary Romantic Thriller: Fatal Recall

Medieval Romance: The Dragon and The Rose * Iron Heart        *Promise Me Christmas. 

Victorian Romance: Lady Gallant * Victorian Dream 

Romantasy: The Fae Warriors Trilogy: Solace * Bliss * Portence 

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Haunted Fallon House by Zina Abbott

 

Like many old towns that are not “ghost towns” because they are still in existence, Columbia State Park, a preserved California gold rush town in the western foothills of the Sierra-Nevada mountains has its share of ghosts. This post I am going to share a bit about the Fallon House and Fallon Theater.

Remaining since the days of the California Gold Rush, the Fallon Hotel was built by an Irish stone cutter in 1859. Original owner, Owen Fallon expanded the hotel in 1863 by purchasing an adjoining building and later the Gunn Saloon. These three buildings became Fallon’s Hotel and Fallon Theater.

The hotel was later owned by James Fallon. Fallon was born in Columbia. In addition to becoming a hotel owner, he was also a noted artist. Some of his works are on display at the nearby St. Anne's Catholic Church.

 

In the theater, which still offers live performances during the summer months, visitors and patrons still claim to experience ghostly manifestations. Although smoking is not allowed, guests can often smell the odor, along with that of whiskey. A female apparition is often seen in Room 9, and in the theater lights seemingly turn on and off of their own accord and shadow images are often spotted.

Rear of Fallon House Hotel & Theater

Visitors and guests often comment on a strong odor of smoke in different parts of the hotel, although California does not allow smoking in any of its public buildings. Many feel it is reminder that during the course of its history, the building has burned down twice. Also, its owner, Mr. Fallon was known for smoking cigars. Guests also detect the smell of whiskey even though the saloon was replaced by an ice cream parlor long ago (a must-see place to stop by for a wonderful treat, by the way). During the remodeling, a phantom youth was often seen climbing through a back window. When the construction crew rushed inside, there never was anyone around.  They came to the conclusion it was a youthful spirit searching for a sweet treat.

 

Guests in Room #13 are often startled by a young woman wearing a Victorian gown who disappears as quickly as she appears. She moves from room to room. Also, a little boy has been seen in Room #3 and the second-floor hallway. He likes to play and takes other children’s toys and hides them. In Rooms #1 and #6, guests have seen shadowy apparitions. Strange noises and cold spots in the halls and guest rooms have lead visiting paranormal experts to conclude the building is definitely haunted.

The original of most of this post was published on October 15, 2018 on the Prairie Roses Publications blog.  

Ardith Yosemite Bride take place in Yosemite Valley, which is not too many miles south of Columbia, California. It is available for sale as an ebook and at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. For the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

Same for Emily Yosemite Bride, although this story takes place decades after the busy days of Columbia. This romance is for sale as an ebook and available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. For the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

Sources:

Williams, Nancy K.; Haunted Hotels of the California Gold Country

http://fabulousfoods.com/articles/21946/true-ghost-stories-of-tuolumne-county-california