Soapstone Prairie Natural Area near Fort Collins, Colorado.

                   

   Recently, day-trippin' with Carol and Laura (thank you), we saw the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area located about 25 miles north of Fort Collins. (Almost to the Wyoming border, later we just had to have lunch in Cheyenne!) 

  Down a 9 mile gravelly road (not too bumpy) you come to this amazing expanse of nearly 19,000 acres or pure prairie where you can picnic, hike, bike, and tailride with equine in specified areas.

Note: This is one of the few Fort Collins natural areas in which dogs are not allowed, including in cars. (service animals that have been trained to assist a person with a disability are allowed).

   In 2004, the City of Fort Collins purchased Soapstone Prairie Natural Area with the goal of conserving one of the most beautiful and important natural areas in the nation with a specific focus on plant communities, vegetation and wildlife. 

  Two types of wildlife were reintroduced to what used to be their natural habitats – the American Bison and the Black Footed Ferret.

    By 1979, the Black Footed ferret was believed to be extinct. Their demise was due in large part to the fact that they use abandoned prairie dog holes in which to live and there was a huge push to eradicate by shooting and poisoning the prairie dogs, hence the black footed ferret died too 

   Today, with fewer than 500 in existence worldwide, Black Footed Ferrets are one of the most endangered mammals in North America. 

    The bison, due to slaughter in the late 1800's, were soon also brought to the brink of extinction. More than 150 years had passed since Bison roamed the prairie at Soapstone. But in November of 2015, the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd, a genetically pure Bison with a Yellowstone bloodline, was reintroduced to the Soapstone Natural Area.

   The American Bison has since been named the national mammal of the United States. The Soapstone Herd has produced the first Bison calves seen on this land in 150 years.

Antelope also range there. They are so pretty!

 Mountain lions, bobcats, and bears are occasionally spotted visiting the area. While coyotes, foxes, hawks, and eagles are the more common predator.  

 

Although when viewed from afar, the land appears muted in color, if you look closely you will find a myriad of flora. 

   Pasque flowers, prairie coneflowers, scarlet globe mallow, wallflowers, Wisk broom...the bounty changes season by season.  

   

The Lindenmeier Site is also located within the preserve. This National Historic Landmark is from the Ice Age. Check with me next month for more details on this 12,000 year old archeological site.  

  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.

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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Let's Talk Tropes

 

Wait...what the heck is a trope?

A trope is a familiar story element, character type, relationship dynamic, or plot situation that readers recognize and enjoy seeing in different stories. Tropes help readers understand the kind of emotional experience they can expect from the story. They help you find stories that appeal to your tastes.

A trope isn't the whole story. It's an element of the story, and a trope is pretty handy!

For example: 

• Enemies to Lovers: Two characters who dislike or oppose each other fall in love.
• Second Chance Romance: Former lovers get another opportunity to find happiness together.
• Forced Proximity: Two characters must spend time together, even when they might prefer not to.
• Grumpy/Sunshine: A serious, grumpy character falls for someone cheerful and optimistic.
• Marriage of Convenience: Two characters marry for practical reasons but develop genuine feelings.
• Small-Town Romance: A love story set in a close-knit community where relationships, friendships, and community ties play important roles.

Small-town romance is my thing. That's what I write, because that's my favorite to read. I like historical and contemporary stories. Many tropes cross over, but some are better kept in their own time period. Like the mail-order brides and frontier romance, but others like ranchers, second-chance romance, outlaws wanting redemption, and ranch inheritance can cross over.

I love many tropes. I've written single-dad cowboys, widowers, inheritance, and mail-order brides and several more. My question for you is: what are some of your winners? Which tropes have your heart?

Comment below.

P.S.

   I sure could use some help. I have a new cowboy book coming next year, but my publishing team is looking for people to help reveal the cover now. There hasn't been a press release yet, so I can't offer details, but if you love a good cowboy romance and you're willing to share my cover, please send me a message and let me know. I'll forward your email on to the team! 

Election Day on the Trail

 

A cowboy on a cattle drive generally could not vote from the trail. In the 1880s, there was no modern absentee ballot system that allowed a man to mail in his vote from wherever he happened to be. Voting was normally done in person at a designated polling place, and in many places voting was still a very public affair. By the 1880s, paper ballots were increasingly common, but voters often used party-printed  tickets, and voting could still be closely watched.

So if a cowboy knew an election was coming, he might arrange to leave the trail temporarily and get to the county seat, a nearby settlement,or another polling place where he was legally entitled to vote. Though, a long cattle drive could make this difficult or impossible. Trail drives of the era commonly lasted for weeks or months, and the great drives were often headed hundreds of miles north from Texas to Kansas rail-heads. A cowboy who was still out with the herd on Election Day simply might have to miss the election.

There wasn't one universal cowboy party. Location mattered enormously.  In Texas during the 1880s, the Democratic Party was overwhelmingly dominant, and many Texas ranchers and other white Southern voters were Democrats. In the cattle country farther north and west, political loyalties were more mixed, with Republicans, Democrats, and smaller parties such as the Greenback Party attracting support.  The Greenbacks were particularly interesting to workingmen and debtors because they favored expanding the nation's money supply.

For a cowboy, the right to vote was worth making the trip to town for--even if it meant leaving the herd behind for a spell and riding a long way to have his say. 

Available at Amazon

 

 Sandra

The Mysterious Rose of the Cimarron ~ D. K. Deters

The “Rose of Cimarron” was introduced to readers in 1915 in a book titled Oklahoma Outlaws. The book used information supplied by Bill Tilghman, a deputy U.S. marshal and one of the “Three Guardsmen.” In the years that followed, the woman known as the “Rose of Cimarron” remained a mystery. In Desperate Women, published in 1952, author James D. Horan identified her as Rose Dunn.

Some sources list her full name as Rose Ella Dunn, while others give it as Rose Elizabeth Dunn, so even that detail remains uncertain.

Rose Dunn was born in Winfield, Kansas, in 1878. Although she was one of ten children, accounts differ on the circumstances of her childhood and education. Some sources state she received a formal education at a convent in Wichita, Kansas.

After her father died, she moved with her mother and stepfather to Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. By the time she was a young teenager, some of her brothers were involved in outlaw activity. Later accounts say they taught her to ride, rope, and shoot. According to those accounts, Rose became known as the “Rose of the Cimarron” because she was a skilled horsewoman who enjoyed riding across the sandbars of the Cimarron River.

Rose Dunn

Around the age of fourteen, Rose reportedly met George “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, a prominent gunman associated with the Doolin gang. The two were said to have become romantically involved.

The most famous story linking Rose and Newcomb involves the 1893 Battle of Ingalls, when U.S. marshals confronted members of the Doolin gang. Newcomb was shot and badly wounded early in the gunfight. According to later accounts and Old West legend, Rose smuggled a rifle and ammunition out to Newcomb and helped him escape.

However, the story has an important problem, as noted in True West: Researcher Glenn Shirley initially accepted the story of Rose Dunn’s involvement, but after finding no contemporary newspaper account mentioning Rose or any other woman at the gunfight, he eventually concluded that Rose was not there. While Rose’s association with the outlaws appears genuine, her role in the gunfight remains unverified.

 A $5,000 bounty was placed on Newcomb’s head by 1895. Rose’s brothers had turned to bounty hunting, and on May 2, 1895, they ambushed and killed Newcomb and Charley Pierce. Rose was later accused of telling her brothers that Newcomb and Pierce were coming to the Dunn ranch. Rose denied informing her brothers, and they supported her account, saying she did not know of their plans. Whether Rose knew about the ambush is uncertain.

Rose left the outlaw life and was never prosecuted or jailed. She later led a quiet, respectable life. She married Charles Albert Noble, a local politician, in the late 1890s and eventually moved to New Mexico. Her husband died in 1930. In 1946, she married Richard Fleming and relocated to the Pacific Northwest. Her past as the “Rose of the Cimarron” reportedly contributed to her withdrawing from public attention. Rose died in 1955 at the age of 76 in Salkum, Washington.

Rose Dunn Noble Fleming

Bill Tilghman’s widow, Zoe, said she knew Rose Dunn personally and defended the basic story that Rose was present during the 1893 Ingalls gunfight. She was also critical of the sensational stories that had accumulated about Rose.

Her second husband, Richard Fleming, said: “She was a true friend of the outlaws and never betrayed them, but she was never the sweetheart of any.”

Rose still became a legend.

 

Resources:

Alexander, Kathy. “Rose Dunn, aka: The Rose of Cimarron—Hanging with the Doolin Gang.” Legends of America, May 2025.

McCubbin, Robert G. “Who Is Rose of Cimarron?” True West, May 1, 2005.

Schmitt, Martin F., and Dee Brown. The Settlers’ West.

“Wild Women of the Old West—Cimarron Rose.” Heroes, Heroines, and History.

 

Why I Believe in Second Chances

Hi everyone! Brandi Creek here.

If you've read many of my books, you've probably noticed that second chances show up a lot.

Sometimes it's a second chance at love, but I've never thought second chances belonged only to romance.

Life is full of them.

Sometimes it's mending a relationship with a parent, a child, or someone else you love. Sometimes it's realizing the career you thought you wanted isn't making you happy and finding the courage to chase something that doesn't feel quite so much like work. Sometimes it's starting over when life takes you in a direction you never expected.

I've experienced all of those things in one way or another, and I think most of us have.

Life has a funny way of refusing to follow the plan we made for it.

We grow. We change. Our priorities shift. The things we thought would make us happy at twenty might look completely different at forty, fifty, or sixty. Sometimes circumstances make those decisions for us; other times, we reach a point where we realize something simply isn't working anymore.

That's one of the reasons I love writing second chances so much.

My characters don't always need another chance with someone they loved years ago. Sometimes they need another chance with their family. Another chance to build a life they're proud of. Another chance to trust someone. To come home. To forgive. To let go of something that's been holding them back.

And sometimes they need to take a risk without knowing whether it'll work out.

I think that's what life is really about: evolving, adapting, rolling with the punches, and being willing to recognize an opportunity when one comes along.

Because starting over can be scary.

Changing direction can be scary.

Taking a chance when you're comfortable, even if you're not necessarily happy, can be really scary.

But some of the best things in life happen because we were willing to take that risk.

Maybe that's also why I love writing characters who aren't perfect. They've made mistakes. They've taken wrong turns. Some have stayed too long, left too soon, trusted the wrong person, chosen the wrong path, or convinced themselves that what they had was good enough.

Then life gives them another opportunity.

What they do with it is where the story begins.

That's the kind of second chance I love most. Not erasing everything that came before, but taking everything you've learned from it and using it to build something better.

Maybe that's why I'll never get tired of writing second chances.

There's something hopeful about knowing that one wrong decision, one closed door, or even one really difficult chapter doesn't have to determine how the rest of your story ends.

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches, look for the opportunity, and be brave enough to take the chance when it comes.

I'd love to hear from you. Have you ever taken a second chance that changed the direction of your life?

Happy reading,

Brandi

hello@brandicreekauthor.com

Before Colorado Became a State -Zebulon Pike

 

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

An early photo of Pikes Peak

I've been talking about Colorado, and on August 1, 2026, we celebrated 150 years as a state. In this post, I'll be looking back to before Colorado was even conceived.

Zebulon Montgomery Pike: Born in January of 1779 in Lamington, New Jersey. His father, Zebulon Pike Sr., was an Army officer who began his career in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. Pike Senior achieved the rank of Major and moved from New Jersey to Illinois, Pennsylvania, and other western areas. He died in Indiana in 1834 at the age of 82.

Pike Jr. enlisted at the age of 15. In 1805, he was sent out on an expedition to find the source of the Mississippi River. He erroneously said the river began at Leech Lake. The actual source was Lake Itasca, twenty-five miles further.

Of course, 1806 was his journey into the 'Southwest' and the failed attempt to climb the mountain that now bears his name. He was arrested in 1807 by the Spanish for entering their territory, in what is now Southern Colorado, and taken to Santa Fe.

He continued his military service through the southern portion of the United States, and when the War of 1812 started, then-Brigadier General Pike led a successful attack on York (Toronto) but was killed in 1813 in the same area when a powder magazine exploded.

He also eloped with his cousin Clarissa Brown in 1801. Of their five children, only one child, a daughter, lived to adulthood.

When he was captured by the Spanish in 1807,  they confiscated his journals and other papers. They were returned by the Mexican government in 1907.

I had the privilege of viewing and photographing Pike's saber and journal. Enjoy.

All images are the property of Doris McCraw

(This is a modified version of another post)

Until next time:

Stay safe - Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon

Eight Writing Tips

 

By Kristy McCaffrey

I always appreciate advice from other authors, so here’s a few bits I can offer.

Keep writing to learn your baseline

Every writer is different in how they approach a new project. Some outline, some don’t. Some write in a linear fashion, some don’t. If you compare yourself to other authors, you’ll likely become frustrated. Be patient and learn your own process. 

(Mine tends to be free writing followed by periodic outlining. I build a story in layers, so it will take about 8-10 revisions of a manuscript before I’m done.)

Trust your instincts and intuition

Follow your creative impulses—they’ll always be right and true. But be more business-like and discerning during the editing process and the subsequent marketing of a book. Don’t crumble at the first sign of criticism.

Learn the craft

This will be an ongoing process that never ends. You’ll make mistakes. Learn from them and move on.

A side note regarding AI

Writing is a skill that grows in direct proportion to the effort expended. If you allow AI to do the heavy lifting in your story, those writing muscles will weaken. However, AI can be an important tool in research, administrative tasks, and marketing, freeing up more time to be creative in the work itself.

The 80% Rule

If a story is 80% good enough, I send it off to the editor. With good editing, I strive to bring it up to 95%. It’s impossible to reach perfection, so stop tweaking and release your creation to the world.

Be authentic

As an author, as a writer, and as a person. You are your writing. At the same time, your job is to be as invisible as possible within the work itself. Dig into your characters and plot. Embrace research.

Surround yourself with people better than you

This is how you’ll improve. And you can always improve.

Have fun

If playing with words and stories wasn’t buried deep in your bones, you wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. There are no limitations, really, so don’t place any on yourself.

Be humble. Be curious. Be grateful.

New Release Date for The Falcon

The Falcon by Kristy McCaffrey

Wings of the West: Book 12

Coming December 22, 2026

Mexico

December 1899 

Josie Ryan’s connection to Texas runs deep, from the land to an almost preternatural kinship with the animals in the wild. This bond has led her to the edge of life and death, from saving a boy caught in a fire when she was eleven years old to being struck by lightning to a mountain lion attack that almost ended her life. The discovery of an abandoned falcon chick leads to a fierce attachment, but with only intuition to guide her, Josie struggles to train the wildest creature she’s ever encountered. When she learns of a man who could help, she’s determined to gain an introduction. 

Mateo Almirón, El Halconero—The Falconer—and Argentine gaucho, is tasked with delivering two prized purebred Criollo mares to Matt Ryan, a man whose reputation casts a long shadow. Years ago, Ryan saved the life of Mateo’s father, and the horses will settle the longstanding debt, but when the exchange goes wrong, Mateo is entrusted with protecting Ryan’s daughter, Josie. Now Mateo and Josie must hide in the mountains of Northern Mexico where stories abound of Josie’s mother, a woman who lived among the Comanche and rose from the dead. 

But in a place alive with superstition, Josie and her untamed falcon will give rise to a new legend …

Josie is the youngest child of Matt and Molly from THE WREN.

* * * * *

Available for pre-order from Nook and Apple Books.

(It will also be available at Amazon, Kobo, Google Play Books, and in paperback on release day.)

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