Meet Jessie Kane from Be Mine, Valentine

With Valentine’s Day approaching, love and romance are in the air (and the taste of chocolates are on the tips of many tongues). I invite you to get to know Jessie Kane, my heroine from, Be Mine, Valentine.

I grew up on a farm in Virginia. It was just Ma and Pa and me working hard from sun up ‘til sun down. The list of chores never seemed to end, but I’m not complaining. Ma and Pa were the best parents; kind, loving, strict when there was need. I lost them to fever before the start of the war between the north and the south. Even though the farm was small, the chores were too many for one person. I sold the land and moved to Chicago where I took an unusual job for a woman―a private investigator specializing in finding runaways. My first assignment I spent a good amount of time honing my skills. Through trial and error, and my own stubbornness, I became adept at tracking those I was hired to find and escorting them home, except for the last girl. Two days before I caught up to her, she was killed in an accident. I mourned as if she were my own daughter, then forced myself back into the saddle to locate the Cantrell’s grown son.

Craig Cantrell proved difficult. He’d changed his name to Gage, fell in with a band of outlaws, and led me on a long chase across the southern territories. Every time I thought I’d caught up to him, he’d vacated his hideaway a day or two before. Sometimes, even a week. Worse, Gage’s fiancée caught up to me and insisted she accompany me in my search. She’s a thorn in my side, too delicate for the trail, but I finally convinced her to hole up in Austin while I follow another lead. A source in Tucson is certain Gage is in Revolving Point, Texas. I have my doubts. The woman in Tucson is unreliable, and too selfish for her own good… and correct in her claim!

Gage Cantrell is the first person to greet me when I arrive in the notorious town along the Rio Grande. Cocky, temperamental, evasive; it’s going to take some careful wrangling to corner him and convince him he can safely return to Chicago. But that’s the least of my worries. For a woman who has never been interested in love and settling down, the eatery manager has set my heart to thumping. And my pulse to pounding. Handsome and quiet, with a warm heart and sorrowful eyes that have captured my soul, this Valentine’s Day, Tom Porter will ask me to be his Valentine. And his wife.

Excerpt:

Quietly moving across the floor, he nudged the door open to find Jessie wearing her night clothes and sitting in a chair before the hearth, her blonde hair hanging loose down her back. She cradled a cup in her lap, caressed the rim while staring at the low-burning fire. He filled a cup and joined her.

“Can’t sleep,” he asked.

“Oh,” she startled, and arched her neck toward him. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He nodded toward the hearth. “May I join you?”

Her guarded gaze traveled the length of him. “Al-all right.” She shifted her attention back to the crackling wood.

He pulled a chair beside her and sat, took a long drink of the hot brew. “Are you up because you’re worried about the squatter?”

“No. The sheriff and the deputies will find him.” She kept her gaze on the flame. “They won’t allow harm to come to their wives and children.”

“Reckon you’re right about that.” He took another long swallow to settle the unease snaking through his gut. He had plenty to say to her, and hoped the words came out right.

“Why are you awake?” she asked.

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Most people do.” She leaned forward, pulled a log from a basket beside the hearth and added it to the fire. Sat back in her chair.

“Jessie,” he started, only to pause and take a deep breath. He let it out slow, prayed his gumption wouldn’t desert him. “I apologize for what I said to you earlier. You’re more than a waitress to me. You’re someone I care about very much.”

She sniffled and met his gaze. Except for the moisture clinging to her eyes, her expression was void of feeling. “So you’ve often said.” She cocked her head. “Are you willing to do something about that?”

He swallowed hard. “If you’re referring to marriage, than I’m sorry, but the answer is no. I can’t marry you.” He touched her arm. “But I can be your friend.” And love you with everything I am. “Someone you can depend upon for anything.”

“I have friends, Tom,” she said, stonily. “I want more than that.”

Be Mine, Valentine is available at Amazon for .99cents.

www.amazon.com/DP/ B01ATV451O

****Jessie Kane was first introduced in Debra's Bandit, which can be found here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0095IG390

The Mercantile

When I began creating the Revolving Point, Texas series, I actually wanted the series set in a different town and state. I had read an article several years before about a nowhere town tucked away in Oklahoma. Outlaws hid there, providing the perfect setting for my outlaws to be outlaws, to win the hearts of the women they love and to redeem themselves at the end of each story. I had planned to begin with Buck and have him become sheriff of this town, but this place wasn't in existence during the timeframe of my story. So, I went back to fictional Revolving Point, which I had created in Luck of the Draw, the notorious town along the Rio Grande known for its lawlessness, card sharps and soiled doves. To make the series more interesting, I destroyed most of the town with a fire and conveyed through the three books the rebuilding of Revolving Point. The businesses I chose to keep were the jail, the boardinghouse, the telegraph and mail and Miller's saloon. All played important roles throughout the series, but it was the rebirth and further usage of the mercantile that gave me the most trouble.    

Zanna's Outlaw is the first book in the series. As the story opens, a newcomer has arrived and builds a new mercantile with his own money. For reasons I won't spoil, Buck runs this person out of town and Debra takes over managing the store. I didn't have a problem with her acting as proprietor in the second book, but when it came to the third book, Debra's Bandit, with Debra as the heroine, I found myself aggravated with Debra and the mercantile. I knew who she was, but I couldn't quite translate onto paper her true character and mannerisms. And then, it hit me as to why. Where I could move her hero around town and showcase his personality to readers through his actions, I couldn't with Debra. She was stuck inside that store.

 

I thought long and hard about Debra and the mercantile, on how to make both shine. I came up with the idea of giving Debra a helper, enabling her to leave the store and interact with other characters in different locales. But something else kept nagging at me. Finally, I realized the scenes with Debra inside the mercantile were wrong, even boring, because I wasn't using both properly. 

 

When I think of a mercantile, shelves of canned goods, sacks of flour and sugar and a back wall housing tools, guns and bullets come to mind. There's a counter with an old-fashioned cash register, maybe a glass jar with peppermint sticks and a potbellied stove in the corner. But the mercantile wasn't just a place to purchase dry goods. It was also a place where townsfolk and neighboring farmers and ranchers gathered to hear the latest news pertaining to the goings-on in town and cities both near and far. In essence, it was today's internet and telephone.

 

Once I was able to wrap my mind around the importance of the mercantile, I was able to make the store and my heroine shine. At heart, Debra is kind and caring. She's also the mom-and-pop business of yesterday. Her customers' needs for flour and coffee are important to her, but more important are the people themselves. Her eagerness to help others shines in the way she greets her customers, in how she takes the time to inquire after them and their families, in how she strives to ensure that everyone who walks through her door feels special and appreciated, which is true of today's mom-and-pop businesses. Now when I think of a mercantile, I imagine people who, like Debra, provided the community with more than just a hammer. I see a building and the person giving the townsfolk what they needed most--communication and a sense of belonging.    

 

 

 

 

The Trail to El Paso

  The working title for Under A Texas Star was El Paso Trail. My son still prefers the old name, but you can’t argue that the new name isn’t sexier.

Marly Landers and Ranger Jase Strachan are both headed for El Paso when they meet. Marly is after the man who cheated the people of her home town of Cherryville, Kansas. Jase is after a con man who cheated the wrong people in his home state of Texas. Of course, their quarries are one and the same man. The destination isn’t nearly important as how they get there, but they do get to El Paso eventually and I had to get a mental picture of the town before I wrote about it.

In 1581 Spanish conquistadores found their way across the Rio Bravo del Norte (aka the Rio Grande) from what would become Estados Únidos Mexicanos into what is now the United States of America. They named the passage El Paso del Rio del Norte (the pass through the river of the north). Of course, the Europeans were “discovering” an area that had already been home to native cultures. Archeological evidence supports thousands of years of human settlement within the El Paso region.

The first European settlement that would be called El Paso was south of the river – present day Ciudad Juárez. Apaches discouraged European invasion north of the river for as long as they could, but eventually farms and missions migrated north. In 1682, the Tigua Indians, fleeing the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, together with their Spanish masters, built the mission Nuestra Señora del Carmen, in what is now a suburb of El Paso. In Under A Texas Star, Marly skips town and goes to a village surrounded by farms and vineyards that had, up to the year before, been Tigua land. In 1874, the State of Texas passed a law that turned over 500 parcels of Tigua-owned land to American settlers.

One of the key aspects for my book is that El Paso served as a major stop for the famous Butterfield Overland Mail Coach. That, and its easy access to Mexico via the Camino Real, made it an ideal destination for Charlie Meese, the fugitive Marly and Jase are tracking. At the time the story takes place, El Paso has only just been incorporated as a city. Jase notes that it has grown a lot since he was last there. To get a sense of that for myself, I looked up old maps of El Paso so I'd know where my fictional landmarks would fit among the historical ones - or at least which way was what.

  After breakfast, Jase arranged for them to have baths at one of the more reasonably priced hotels. Jase took the privilege of having the first bath, giving her the chore of taking their trail clothes to the Chinese laundry. Since he trusted her to go out on her own, Marly deduced that El Paso wasn't as dangerous as she thought―at least not by daylight.

  It might as well have been a foreign country. El Paso was nothing like anywhere Marly had been before. There were at least as many people speaking Spanish as English, and a fair number speaking other languages like German, French and Chinese. The railway was coming and the city was already showing signs of things to come.

  The El Hombre was just off the Camino Real that had linked Santa Fe and Mexico City since the first Spanish colonists settled in the area. Just down the street and across the river lay Mexico. Marly put a visit to the border on her to-do list, along with finding the post office, dealing with Meese and settling her account with Jase. However, first she had to find the laundry.

Some day I’ll have to take Marly and Jase back there when the railway comes through. That’s when El Paso really exploded - in population and lawlessness. In fact, that’s the El Paso I was originally headed to until research set me right. Ah well, it gives me something to play with later.

www.elpasohistory.com/history.html
www.desertusa.com/Cities/tx/tx_elpaso.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paso,_Texas

Alison Bruce is the author of Under A Texas Star (western romance) and Deadly Legacy (mystery). Find her at:
www.alisonbruce.ca
www.alisonebruce.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/alisonbruce.books
twitter.com/alisonebruce

I'd Be Duchess to "The Duke" Any Day!

Do you have a favorite cowboy?  For those who don't enjoy the western genre, I imagine men who rode the range, chased the bad buys and worked on ranches conjure up images that don't convey any type of romantic notion. Not so for me.  I have an all-time favorite, and even though he's been dead for years, he still lives on in the magic of movies, and in my mind, as I put his face on most of my heroes.


  Honestly though, when you watch my favorite guy, John Wayne, do you ever notice anything besides his sexy swagger and confidence?  To me, he remains the ultimate image of the old west...feared by men and loved by women.  I still remember him storming through the muddy streets in North to Alaska (1960), chasing Capucine, and even though the script dictated she run, I think I wouldn't have.  :)

And how masterful and sexy was he was in McClintock (1963)?   John Wayne starred as a hunky cattleman who found his life suddenly complicated by the arrival of estranged wife Maureen O'Hara.  He always starred with some of Hollywood's finest females, and Maureen O'Hara had parts in many of his films.  In my opinion, they made a stunning duo, and I think she added a lot to Rio Grande made in 1950.

Another favorite of mine, Chisum (1970) was set in 1878 with JW again starring as a cattle king.  I don't think the man made a bad movie, and not all of them were westerns.  He was equally as stunning in war movies, but this blog is called Cowboy Kisses.  *lol*

 Whether you're watching his movies made in the 40s or enjoying Rio Lobo, made in 1975,  John Wayne had swagger.  You can't deny that. Even in one of his last films, True Grit, where he played craggy old Rooster Cogburn, the man still made my heart go pitter patter.

Through the magic of movies and books, we never have to picture a sweaty, ugly fella in a hat, rather we can let our imaginations run wild and put John Wayne's face and attitude on any hero we want.  I mourned the passing of Marion Mitchell Morrison on June 11, 1979.  I'm pretty certain he never would have made such a splash under his real name, but he certainly claimed my heart as The Duke!  Who's your favorite cowboy?


Note:  Thanks to http://www.moviesunlimited for the pictures I 'borrowed.'