Judd Romeo, My Kentucky Cowboy by Jan Scarbrough

Meet my hero Judd Romeo in Kentucky Cowboy as the heroine Mandy meets him for the first time since high school.

Fisting her hand, Mandy pounded on the door. Then she stuck both hands into her pants pockets, knocking her car keys out of the right pocket. She bent down to pick them up.

The door opened and a pair of hand-tooled, black leather cowboy boots stepped into her line of vision.

For an instant, Mandy forgot to breathe, and then her breath came too quickly. Her heart raced. She glanced up. Up past the pointed toes of expensive leather boots, past tight Wranglers, past a big gold belt buckle pressed against a flat belly and a white Western shirt that delineated a broad chest and brawny arms, and into the piercing blue eyes of Judd Romeo.

She tipped her head back, unprepared for what she saw. Time seemed to stand still. Judd shifted his stance and flashed his familiar, bad boy smile. There was a Colin Farrell edginess about him, a sexy untamable quality that welled up from every fiber of his cowboy persona.

“Hello, Mandy,” he said.

Judd is a bull rider, a member of the PBR, the Professional Bull Riders, established to bring mainstream attention to the sport. Mandy has never appreciated his love of bull riding. It’s too risky and foolhardy. Only Judd's mother understood his passion.

His mother had known Judd wanted to be a champion bull rider. He really wanted it. Deep down in his soul.

It had nothing to do with the money. Not even the million-dollar bonus. He wanted to win the championship because he wanted to wear the gold belt buckle that proved he was the world’s best.

Knowing the motivation of a bull rider was important in grasping Judd’s character.

She glanced at the makeshift bucking bull hanging between the trees. “Why do you ride bulls?”

It was a long moment before he answered. “It’s a sensation that’s hard to explain—the greatest sensation imaginable. That shot of adrenaline when you leave the chute is addictive.”

Her eyebrows drew together at his words. “But it’s so dangerous. Men have been killed trying to ride bulls.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand the appeal. It can’t be the money, because your mom told me you barely made ends meet during most of your career. Why have you stuck with it for ten years?”

Judd flashed a sudden confident smile. “It’s quite simple, really,” he said, giving her a once over with a look that curled her toes. “I like to make the crowd cheer. I like to win.”

From https://www.facebook.com/pbr

A reviewer on Amazon recently validated my characterization of Judd. She said, “We are bull riding fans at our house so this book was particularly interesting to me. Ms. Scarbrough must either be a diehard fan of bull riding or did a lot of research of the sport of bull riding and interviews with bull riders because she really relates to the passion these young men have.”

I’d say Judd Romeo is one of my most favorite characters. If you’ve read my contemporary western books, tell me the character you liked.

Buy Kentucky Cowboy at most ebook retailers. https://books2read.com/KYCowboy

The Hamill Brothers At Spindletop

The year I turned sixteen my mother moved us from Kentucky to Big Springs, Texas. It was 1988 and we’d made the journey in a late seventies model, faded yellow Datsun 210. The car wasn’t cool, and neither was the wind damage to my Aqua Net hairdo. I cranked up the volume on my Walkman, closed my eyes and tried to lose myself in Bad Medicine. 

Allfreedownload.com

I was a rebellious teenager who wasn’t impressed by the dry, dusty landscape of the Permian Basin or the horrible smells coming from the oil refineries. But Texas has a way of soaking in deep to your soul. I quickly fell in love with the Lone Star State, its people, and history.  

With Breaking the Cowboy, the third and final book in my Coldiron Cowboys series scheduled for release in late summer, I started thinking about where I wanted to go with my next series, which secondary characters nailed their auditions and what stories I wanted to tell. I've been eager to write about Finn Durant ─ a roughneck, bad boy turned sheriff ─ since his appearance in the first Coldiron book. And I was curious about what I might find if Durant Drilling were a real company. I soon began to draw from those memories of the years I’d spent in West Texas, to the derricks and to the stories of the oil boomtowns.

This is where the romantic in me sighs heavily and sets back in her chair, ready to write.

HARPER, W. D. / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

At the latter part of the nineteenth century, the only resource ranchers and farmers wanted to spew from the ground was water and the black sludge contaminating their wells was a pestilence they could do without. Little did they know that it was about to spew forth in an abundance and thrust them into the biggest consumer boom known to man.  

Lyne Taliaferro Barrett is credited for drilling the first oil well in 1866 near Nacogdoches. But the state of the economy after the Civil War made finding investors for his endeavor difficult and the market for oil was limited. Fast forward thirty years, toss in names such as John D. Rockefeller and Joseph Stephen Cullinan, stir in a few politicians and you have the construction of the first pipeline and refinery in the Lone Star States history.

At the same time, in the southeastern part of the state, a man without financial investors or political influence was becoming the laughing stock of Beaumont. Holding tight to his notion that there was an ocean of oil looming under the towns salt dome, Pattillo Higgins placed his faith in God and a spiritually like-minded man who, along with other investors, agreed to finance the drilling at Spindletop.  In 1892 Higgins partnered with George Washington Carroll, George Washington O’Brien, and J.F. Lanier to form the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company.

A year and three shallow attempts later, oil was nowhere to be found. Higgins and Lanier parted ways with the company and four years later, Anthony F. Lucas leased the land. John H. Galey and James M. Guffey put forth the finances for drilling and brought in Al and Curt Hamill, two expert oil drillers.

(Cue the dramatic music as the origins of Durant Drilling pop into my head like beautifully written sonnets. Okay, maybe that was a bit much.)

Photo by the Texas Energy Museum Newsmakers

In the fall of 1900, the Hamill brothers brought new technology to the game of drilling by using a steam engine to pump through the sand at Spindletop. But the sand was too fine for progress and the walls soon collapsed. But the brothers devised a solution. Using cattle stomp, water, and dirt, they made mud and inserted it into the well to encase the walls.

On January 10, 1901, they hit the motherload. The geyser at Spindletop spewed oil one-hundred and fifty feet into the air and began producing over eighty-thousand barrels a day. 

The Hamill brothers became legends in the oil industry. In the months that follow, the Gladys City Company produced six more successful wells and over forty-thousand people flocked to the town of Beaumont. 

Forget the series, I'm ready to write a historical romance. 

The stories of oil boomtowns are filled with rich history, colorful characters, treachery, murder, deceit, money and of course, love and the writer in me is always fascinated by the stories that might have been. I can’t wait to write about the rugged Durant roughnecks and the ladies who love them. 

Guest Blogger--Barbara White Daille

Thanks for welcoming me back to Cowboy Kisses!

As I said in my first visit, almost all my books feature cowboys, one of my favorite types of hero. Another subset of faves is the cowboy/daddy hero, whether he’s a daddy when the book opens or he’s about to discover he has a child he never knew existed.

My upcoming book, The Rancher’s Baby Proposal, has a new twist for me. It’s the first time I’ve written the story of a single dad who is raising his child from birth. Don’t ask me why it’s taken me so long to get around to this story, because I love Reagan and his little boy Sean!

Watching the big, strong hero take care of his infant son tugged at my heart. So did seeing Reagan’s struggle to do the right thing for his child. Oh, and I can’t forget my surprise at how he handles the feisty flirt who’s crushed on him forever. :)

Here’s a peek at the back cover blurb:

HER SECRET COWBOY CRUSH

Ally Martinez has always been known as a fun and flirty kind of gal. But deep down she’s never forgotten the cowboy who left town. When her crush Reagan Chase comes home after a five-year absence, Ally knows this is her big chance. The guy I’ve always wanted. Only Reagan has something different in mind…

Still reeling from his last relationship, Reagan needs a babysitter for his month-old son. With Ally’s help, he can get his family’s ranch ready for sale and get out of Cowboy Creek. The problem? Ally is one seriously cute distraction. But Reagan will do whatever it takes to keep his heart safe. Even if it means losing the only place—and the only woman—he can call home.

And here’s a clip from early on in the book:

Just as Reagan’s waitress disappeared through the doorway into the kitchen, the front door of the shop opened, and Ally entered.

Her long dark curls tumbled down almost to her waist and bounced as she walked toward him. She had never been tiny, and she had filled out more in the years since he had last seen her. With her gleaming dark eyes, rosy cheeks and snug orange T-shirt, she gave the bright pink seats and decorations in the sandwich shop some competition. He recalled her hanging around the schoolyard in grade school. He had been a couple of years ahead of her. Even that long ago, she had always acted larger than life—and been the life of the party.

Thinking of Sean, he frowned. Maybe Ally as a babysitter wouldn’t be such a good influence on a preteen or a teenager…but a one-month-old? What could it hurt? Besides, even if she accepted the offer he planned to present to her, he and the baby wouldn’t be here long enough for her to make much of an impact.

“Hi.” Sounding a little breathless, she took the booth across from him. “I got here as soon as I could.”

“Hope you didn’t have to rush.”

“No rush. No more than usual, anyhow. My papa says I never run at half speed when I can take it up to full.” She laughed. “But I’m running behind now because, just as I was leaving, one of the customers came to the register with a big order.”

Since they had met up at the local hardware store, where Ally worked as a clerk, she had slicked something on her lips, shiny and red as cherry candy. Suddenly, he felt an urge to lean across the tabletop for a taste.

Whoa, Nelly.

He’d been away from women too long. Or not long enough.

Sex wasn’t supposed to be on his radar for a good while into the future. Preferably, at least not till Sean turned twenty-one. He tried to think back to his school days and the younger Ally, when the few years’ age difference between them seemed a much wider gap.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “You’re frowning.”

“No. Nothing’s wrong. I’m just trying to decide what to have. To drink.”

She smiled at him. “So, how has the big, bad city been treating you all these years? Well enough, I guess, or you would have been home again before now.”

“Houston did treat me well, I have to admit.” The woman he had met just before graduation was another story. “Going to school there was a good experience, one I don’t regret. But I’m not in Houston anymore. I’ve got a job outside San Antonio, sales manager for a distributor of farming equipment.”

She blinked those big dark eyes. “Why would you be selling farm equipment, when you have a ranch right here to come home to?”

“It pays the bills.”

“Oh.” His curt reply had thrown her. It didn’t keep her down for long. “Well, I can certainly see the benefits of that.”

He hoped so. Just as he hoped this meeting would benefit them both. But he wanted to lead up to his idea slowly. And he didn’t want to say too much about the past.

If he had his way, neither Ally nor anyone else in Cowboy Creek would learn what happened between him and the woman he’d loved and had thought loved him, too.

Links

Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Ranchers-Baby-Proposal-Hitching-Hotel-ebook/dp/B01LLPCDXY/

Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ranchers-baby-proposal-barbara-white-daille/1124564570

Books-A-Million
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Ranchers-Baby-Proposal/Barbara-White-Daille/Q92625305?id=6809026813830

Harlequin
http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=70354

IndieBound
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780373757596

Kobo
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rancher-s-baby-proposal

About the Author

Barbara White Daille lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest. Though they love the warm winters and the lizards in their front yard, they haven’t gotten used to the scorpions in the bathroom. Barbara also loves writing, reading, and chocolate. Come to think of it, she enjoys writing about those subjects, too!

Barbara wrote her first short story at the age of nine, then typed "The End" to her first novel many years later...in the eighth grade. Now she's writing contemporary romance on a daily basis. Sign up for her newsletter to keep up with the latest in her writing life:  http://barbarawhitedaille.com/newsletter.

Social Media Links

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Amazon author page  http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-White-Daille/e/B002J6B0QQ

Harlequin author page  http://www.harlequin.com/author.html?authorid=1244  

Goodreads author page
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/529361.Barbara_White_Daille

Romance of a life time...

Writing historical fiction about cowboys and the cowgirls who love them is one of my greatest pastime pursuits. We know that life on the frontier was hard and often unforgiving. With that said, when you read about a remarkable love affair that over comes so many pitfalls it stays with you. I am a sucker for true love conquers all.

For me, one of the greatest love stories of the American West revolves around the figure of Phoebe Anne Moses. Born in 1860, Phoebe arose from poverty to become one of the greatest folk heroes that America ever produced. You may not know her as Phoebe Anne, but I'm sure you recognize the name "Annie Oakley".

 

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

At fifteen, Annie had already endured the poor farm and some unsavory guardians. She ran away from a couple she had been sent to as a farm hand and returned home to help her mother by hunting and selling the game she'd shot. Hearing of a sharp shooting competition, Annie signed up all to the surprise of Frank Butler, who at that time was considered the best shot in the world. Poor Frank, he should have taken her seriously, before long, Annie was not only keeping up with him shot for shot but besting him at the end. Imagine the shock on his face to be ousted by a beautiful fifteen year old innocent. Swallowing his pride, Frank began courting little Annie and a year later, in 1876, the two were married.

At that time, Frank was the star of the show. But when his partner fell ill, Frank brought on Annie who adopted the name 'Oakley' from a town near where she grew up. Before long, Annie's sharpshooting tricks out classed Frank,who took great pride in managing his wife. Their courtship and life has been depicted in film, Broadway, and on T.V. But it's their devotion to each other that outshines this Hollywood love story.

Late in 1901, both Frank and Annie were involved in a terrible train accident. She retired from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and toured in a melodrama written just for her called the Western Girl. During World War I, she helped the Red Cross to raise money and pressed the president in the hopes of recruiting a group of women sharp shooters. The idea was much to broad for it's time.

In 1913, Annie and Frank retired from touring and split their time between homes in Maryland and North Carolina. They spent their time teaching women how to shoot for protection and hunting. Late in October of 1926, Annie took ill and on November 3, 1926, she died. Upon hearing the news, Frank was inconsolable. He refused to eat and eighteen days later, he died.

Annie was cremated and her ashes buried with her husband in the Greenville, Ohio - oddly on Thanksgiving Day, 50 years to the day of that fateful sharp shooting competition where they first met.

 Photo courtesy of The Annie Oakley Garst Museum: Annie, Frank, and their dog Dave.

Until next time,
Nan O'Berry


To read another great group of love stories, why not check out the Indigo Springs series and find out how the Malone brothers get their brides.

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