The House that Made Me…Wasn’t a House

Life is full of ups and downs, good times and bad, laughter and tears. Today as much as any reflects that diversity. Before I start today’s official blog post, I want to pass on two bits of news, one happy, one oh, so sad.

Let’s start with the sad, so that the laughter can lift us up afterward. If you read my previous post When Fact Meets Fiction, you know that young Brittany Maynard, a vivacious young woman dying from brain cancer, planned to take her own life via prescribed lethal medication as allowed under Oregon’s Death with Dignity law, on November 1. In the days before, it appeared she might wait, as she was still feeling good–at least some of the time. But sadly, her illness was unrelenting, and she did end her life as planned that weekend. My condolences to her family and friends. Godspeed, Brittney.

On a happier note, my coauthors and I have begun calling Cowboy Up, our anthology of western romance novellas “the little book that could.” It is currently the Number 1 bestselling western romance on Amazon in both the US and the UK. It has also reached the top spot in Australia and Canada. We are positively giddy and want to thank all those who’ve purchased and read the book and especially those who left one of our many 5-star reviews. We love you!

Now, on with today’s message! I’ve tried to write this post at least three times. I just can’t figure out how to express my feelings on this subject. Let me preface this with an apology to my family. I do not mean in any way to demean what our house–our home–meant to me growing up. It, and you, are certainly what shaped me. But there was another place that was important to me. A place that made me who I am. It wasn’t another house. It was the library. Libraries are magic. Inside their doors one can travel forward or backward in time. Get to know the great figures of history. See our world–or imagine another in some uncharted region of space. My first real job was in a library. I wasn’t even old enough to have a real job, the kind with a time clock and a payroll check. I had to get a special work permit from my school. My responsibility was to reshelve returned books. I was great at it. But at the end of my shift, I often had a stack for myself to check out that was as tall as the stack I had put away. The only thing that made study hall bearable in high school was that as an honor student I didn’t to pass the hour in a cramped desk in a bland room. I had an unconditional pass to go to the library.

Fast forward many years. I wrote several of my first books in the study room at my local library, just me, my laptop and a bottle of water. Away from the distractions of the television and the Internet.

It hurts my heart these days to drive by my local library and see the parking lot empty. Are libraries destined to go the way of the dinosaur? Maybe they already have. But I’m heartened by all my library has to offer, even in a small rural community without much of a budget. Not only are there great books–that’s a given. But they have music and audiobooks and DVDs too. And the programs… Have you checked out the programs your local library offers? Many have everything from yoga for moms to senior bingo to quilting to classes in financial planning. And of course, story time for the kiddos.

These days we can even check out e-books from the library, either directly or through the distributor that provides books to most libraries, Overdrive. Overdrive has a free app so you can browse the selection, check out and return books right from your phone or e-reader! I’m using it and love it. So I guess my message is…don’t write off your local library just yet. Go. Take your kids. Take your grandma. Take your spirit.                

Girls and Horses and Cowboys — yeehaw!

Girls

I’ve told you all how obsessed I was with horses as a girl–I still have a few of my Breyer model horses and other statues. Some girls played with dolls; I played with toy horses. The song “Girls & Horses,” which I love, pretty much sums up my love of horses. You can listen to it (legally) on Templeton’s website. If there’s a horse crazy girl or woman in your family, go buy it. Heck, buy the whole album (also titled Girls & Horses). It’s full of great horsey songs.

Horses

All this reminiscing about my past with horses got me a bit misty-eyed and I went looking for an old photo album. Despite the disaster that is my office, I found it. This is my first horse, Peaches, bought when I was in college.

She was just a weanling when I got her, and I eventually trained her myself. None of those things are really great ideas, by the way: buying a horse while still in school, buying a weanling as your first horse, breaking and training your first horse yourself. But I loved that little mare, and I’d like to think she loved me. We made it work. This picture was somewhere around 1985 or 6. We used to do pretty well in our local open shows.

Cowboys

Which brings me to the real point of this post. I’ve been asked why it’s taken me fifteen years to finally start writing about cowboys, given their popularity in genre fiction. Well…let me tell you a story. See, I was in college, remember? So I had to work to pay for my horse habit. For a couple of semesters I worked for a horse trainer / cowboy we’ll just call Dave. Dave was a good guy. He treated me well and taught me a lot. But he wasn’t a fancy pants show trainer like some you see today. He was a cowboy. And one thing cowboys then were never without was a tin of Skoal in their back pockets. Dipping tobacco. Snuff.

Snuff said.  🙂

I used to accompany Dave to horse shows to help with feeding, cleaning stalls, exercising and such. We travelled in his rattletrap battleship of a rusted pickup truck with a bench front seat. Outside, Dave would just spit his tobacco juice on the ground. But in the truck…well…we all know what happens when you spit out a window at 60 mph, don’t we? So he had a spit cup. A BIG spit cup. And that old battleship didn’t have cup holders so it sat on the dash as we jounced down country roads to the horse shows.

I lived in fear of that spit cup. I just knew one day it was going to land in my lap.

Really, chewing tobacco is not a very attractive habit in many ways. Spitting is gross. Flecks of tobacco between the teeth is gross. And it tastes gross when you…

Yeah, I just might have kissed that cowboy once or twice.

And that, friends, is why it’s taken me fifteen years to write a western romance novel and a cowboy hero.

 

More on inspiration

In my previous post I shared the inspiration behind my new Mustang Wild series. Today I’m going a level deeper and delving into what motivated the debut story in the series, “Cowboys Don’t Cry” (in the Cowboy Up anthology). But first, I just have to post this picture of my wascally little feller Mo. Just because he’s the cutest thing ever.

Okay, now that you’ve met Mo, on with the story of the story. I knew I wanted to write about the American West, with the wild mustangs as a backdrop. And I had this yearning to make these stories feel real, because the mustangs and their plight are real. While they are and will be romantic stories, I didn’t want them sugar-coated and I didn’t want larger-than-life characters with perfect hair and perfect lives running around. Because not much in real life is perfect, and life isn’t fair. I wanted these stories to be emotionally centered.

I knew I wanted the series set around a community where we could get to know the people and follow them from book to book. My heroine for “Cowboys Don’t Cry” came easily to me. She lives in ranching country, but I didn’t want her to be a typical rancher. So I made her a bit of a new ager. Kind of a hippie more into growing organic herbs and vegetables, and hand spinning yarn from alpacas she raised herself than breeding stinky old cows. And I knew my hero was a man running from something–not something like the law. More like something inside himself. But for a long time I didn’t know what.

In fact, I was well over a third of the way through the book when I found my inspiration in a post on Facebook. It was a link to an opinion piece. I’m not going to say what, because it would be a huge spoiler for the book. But let’s just say it was controversial. It took my breath away a little bit. It scared the crap out of me, and that’s why I knew I had to use it.

Still I resisted. This is not something often done in romantic fiction. Would the readers hate it? Would they feel betrayed? Would they scream and throw the book against the wall before they’d even finished the story?

I was so worried that I talked to a couple of writing friends…who of course advised me not to do it. Which was just another reason I had to. I’ve broken some rules before. I don’t like predictable fiction, so I strive to be different. To be real.

I was once told I could never, ever write a romance novel where the hero and heroine were already married at the beginning of the book. So I did. And I sold it to Harlequin, the romanciest of the romance publishers and it received 4.5 stars and a “Top Pick” designation from RT Book Reviews magazine. That book was called Keeping Caroline, by the way, and it’s still my personal favorite.

Then there was the time I was told that I could never, ever kill off the hero in a romance novel. So I did. And that book was published by Berkley and went on to be a Romance Writers of America Rita award finalist. It was a novella called “Angel and the Hellraiser” in the Demons’ Delight anthology.

So yeah, I did this thing in “Cowboys Don’t Cry” that scared me. I think you’ll recognize it when you read it. I hope you’ll like it. And please don’t throw your e-reader at the wall. Those things break.

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or All Romance e-books

Vickie

Inspiration

One of the most common questions writers are asked is “Where do you get your ideas?” So since I just kicked off my new western contemporary series Mustang Wild! yesterday with the release of “Cowboys Don’t Cry” as part of the Cowboy Up boxed set, I’d thought I’d clear the mystery of my inspiration right off the bat.

First off, you should know I’ve loved horses all of my life. When I was a kid without a horse of my own, I used to ride my bike for miles to get to a pasture where two of these magnificent creatures lived just so I could pull grass and feed them across the fence. I come by my obsession honestly. My grandfather was a mule trader back in the day. Here is a picture of him and one of his animals:

Despite having a very large extended family, I seem to be the only one who inherited the horse-crazy gene. But I got enough of it for all of us. As soon as I was old enough to hold down a job and make some money, I bought a horse, and I’ve never been without at least one in my life since. Right now I have four horses, a standard donkey, and a miniature donkey. More about them in future posts.

A few years ago I started volunteering with a dog adoption program that just happened to have an annual event held in conjunction with the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Ft. Worth, Texas. It was my first up-close-and-personal interaction with mustangs, and I was wowed with what they can do.

Then I stumbled on a Facebook page created by Mustang Meg, a photographer who regularly haunts mustang territory and takes amazing pictures. If you just want to look at pretty wild horses, follow her page. Seeing the mustangs in the wild, the way they were meant to be, got me really hooked and I new I had to write about them. Sadly, as I learned more about the wild horses, I found out they are being systematically exterminated by the government organization established to protect them. More about that, too, in future posts. For now just know I needed a way to express that sadness and my anger.

So I created Mustang Wild! The stories are set in Oregon, and while the humans in the books are on center stage, the mustangs make a dramatic backdrop.

So there’s the story of how the series was born. In the next post I’ll talk about how “Cowboys Don’t Cry” specifically came to be written.

And by the way, the Cowboy Up boxed set is on sale now for just 99 cents.

Monday morning, and time to kick off the Summer Splash Blog Hop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the picture to start hopping. Win e-readers, gift cards, e-books!

Three people who comment here will win an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of the upcoming fantasy romance novella “Mother Nature & Father Time.”

Healthy Eating Idea #3

It’s no secret that I’ve packed on a few pounds these last few years, a victim of middle age and the butt-in-chair lifestyle of a writer. Thankfully, I’ve recently been shedding them back off with some careful eating. I’ve dropped 22 lbs. and I’m still rolling strong!

One of my strategies for losing weight is to take every opportunity to trim a few extra calories off of my favorite meals (instead of giving up those favorites). I like tacos. I mean, who doesn’t? But those corn taco shells add a lot of extra calories for not much nutritional value. So as I was thinking up way to have tacos without breaking the weight bank and a way to use up some romaine lettuce in the fridge without having to eat another salad, a light bulb popped on (in my mind, not the fridge. That one was already on as I stood there contemplating while all the cold air escaped).

Taco boats. Yep, I was going to make taco boats.

I’m still a vegetarian, so I opted for a portabello mushroom sauteed in taco seasoning filling, and kept the toppings light–some salsa, a slice of avocado, a few black olives, a small crumble of queso fresco; however, this idea will work fine with whatever you like to use as a main taco filling. But I saved over 100 calories by forgoing the corn taco shell in favor of a romaine lettuce boat. I was going to put lettuce on the taco anyway, so why not use it as the containment vessel?

Here’s what I did: I sliced a stem of romaine lettuce in half lengthwise. Then by hand I peeled out the innermost leaves (putting them back in the bag for use in a salad another time). The remaining lettuce was a perfect little boat. I put my portabello filling in, layered on my toppings, and it was done! 

It turned out so great that I devoured it. I did some quick calorie calculations and determined that with my vegetarian filling (I’ve since also done this with a taco-seasoned black bean mix and a Spanish rice mix) I could have TWO taco boats for less calories than I would ingest with just one taco in a shell.

So give it a try. It’s a perfect summer dish: cool, crisp and pretty.

How do you go about trimming a few extra calories from your diet to achieve your weight goals? Or to maintain your weight for those lucky enough to be in a healthy range?

And hey, don’t forget my psychological suspense/thriller/horror short story (plus a bonus inspirational short story) is now available on Amazon for just 99 cents. Jump to the book page by clicking on the cover below.

A new release!

I’m known in some parts as a romance girl–I read romance, write romance, and promote romance fiction, and I’m proud of it. But I’m also more than romance. I love mysteries and thrillers and horror and science fiction, among other things. So I’m happy to announce that this year I’ll be stretching my..er…pen into several different genres. To kick things off, I’d like to show you my new release, out today in Kindle format. Don’t worry if you don’t have a kindle. You can get a free reading app for your PC, Mac, Smartphone, or tablet (or just read it online using the Kindle cloud reader without downloading any software) by clicking here.

So without further ado, here is my new release, Of Heaven and Hell.

Explore the light and the dark side of faith in two new short stories from national bestselling, award-winning author Vickie Taylor.

At only 15 pages, it’s a short–but intense–read. And hey, it’s only 99 cents! You can buy it by clicking on the cover image above.

I hope you enjoy this first departure from my romance roots. Please let me know what you think by leaving a review on Amazon.com.

Meet Uber-cool author Marsha A. Moore!

Hey ya’ll, I’ve got a treat for you today: I’d like to turn you on to a cool author I’ve discovered, Marsha A. Moore. Marsha writes awesome books that include…wait for it…DRAGONS!

I love dragons as much as I love gargoyles, unicorns, and all things mystical and magical. So without further ado here is Marsha and her dragon world. Buy her book for your Kindle for just 99 cents by clicking on the cover!

 

Dragons of the Enchanted Bookstore Legends by Marsha A. Moore

Since I have a dragon on the cover of Seeking a Scribe, you’d expect those magical creatures to play a major role. Dragon lovers will not be disappointed. I love dragons and have included many types, ages, and sizes. I’d like to share a brief description of the most common ones in this first legend.

Like all fantasies, the battle between good and evil is a key theme. The dragons in my fantasy world of Dragonspeir are either members of the good Alliance, governed by the golden Imperial Dragon and his High Council, or the Dark Realm, led by the Black Dragon.

Alliance Dragons:

Gold dragons are born leaders, being lawful, just and good. Their intelligence exceeds the other types, and their wisdom is sought after. Being good-natured, they help those who are kind and fair. The Imperial Leader helps train and guide my heroine, Lyra, along her quest. Golds are the most powerful and largest in size. The breath weapon of gold dragons is a cone of fire. Although they are cautious about entering a fight and dislike killing, once engaged, they will pour their entire being into the battle.

Physically, gold dragons are spectacular. Two prominent horns point backwards along their heads. The most obvious feature is probably the tentacle whiskers that sprout from the bottom of the gold dragon’s jaw, giving the appearance of a sort of beard in both males and females.

Like his father before him, the present Imperial Dragon will serve the Alliance until either he dies or steps down.  Similar to most golds, he keeps his Alliance headquarters in a grand network of caves set in the rock plateau. His overlooks the Steppe of Ora, the wide plain which divides good and evil in Dragonspeir. His lair includes an elaborate gathering hall, a vast library, guest quarters, and his own personal chambers with cases of magical instruments and a glass-walled observatory to consult the stars. As one of the four Alliance Guardians, his area of expertise is magic powered by the air element, including mystical astronomy studies of the skies.

Blue dragons are the sentries to the Imperial Dragon. They love spending hours soaring and are excellent trackers. Squadrons of them patrol the Alliance. They are lawful and obedient, with strong moral character.

They are a brilliant cobalt blue, bearing a single horn. Their eyes are smooth and glossy, without pupils, which makes for an hypnotic appearance.

Although slightly smaller than golds, they are quicker to strike in battles with their lightning bolt breath.

Bronze dragons are duty-bound and honorable to a fault. Physically, the bronze dragon is quite fierce in appearance, despite its good nature. While most of its body is a reflective copper color, the wings are often tipped with green.

There are two breath weapons these dragons employ. They either use a bolt of lightning or a repulsion gas, which is so putrid that it forces everything away. Always in line with the Alliance, the bronze dragon is a deadly combatant, roasting enemies with bursts of lightning or ripping them open with its clawed forelegs.

Good thing for Lyra, the bronze dragon named Yasqu, who she raised from a hatchling, hasn’t learned about repulsion gas yet!

Dark Realm Dragons:

Black dragons, like the leader of the Dark Realm, always seek to lair in deep dark caves. Although small, they are vile, evil-tempered, and abusive. Their hearts are as dark as their slimy scales. They are obsessed with death and take comfort in the sickening-sweet aroma of drowned, rotting carcasses. The Black Dragon leader prefers his drake servants leave the prey they bring him in pools within his personal cave. The victims float for days or weeks before he eats them.

The dark leader, like all black dragons, is grim and skeletal. His eyes lie deep in their sockets between two great horns that curve forward and down. The flesh of his face is partially deteriorated or burnt from his acidic drool.  His method of attack is spitting caustic acid. My heroine and hero, Lyra and Cullen, learn too well what that feels like!

As allies to the Black Dragon, green dragons live alone in dense forests. Although short dragons, they have nasty, belligerent tempers. They delight in torturing their captives. The head of a green is covered in hornlets. They reek of chlorine since their chosen breath weapon is hurling clouds of toxic chlorine gas.

Numerous types of drakes are the soldiers and scouts of the Dark Realm. Fire and magma drakes attack with burning flames, while the evil ice drakes freeze victims with contact.

This was only a quick summary of many of the evil and good dragons in my Enchanted Bookstore Legends. There are others I enjoy just as much, like the little three-foot long pseudodragon, Noba, who is the wizard’s familiar to Cullen Drake, the Imperial Sorcerer of the Alliance. Read more about Noba and all the dragons in Seeking a Scribe: Enchanted Bookstore Legend One.

All about Marsha 

Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Her creativity also spills into watercolor painting and drawing. After a move from Toledo to Tampa in 2008, she’s happily transforming into a Floridian, in love with the outdoors. Crazy about cycling, she usually passes the 1,000 mile mark yearly. She is learning kayaking and already addicted. She’s been a yoga enthusiast for over a decade and that spiritual quest helps her explore the mystical side of fantasy. She never has enough days spent at the beach, usually scribbling away at new stories with toes wiggling in the sand. Every day at the beach is magical!

It’s a Backwards Birthday for Carrie Ann Ryan!

Yes, this week is fab author Carrie Ann Ryan’s backward birthday. What’s a backward birthday? I’m glad you asked!

A backward birthday is when instead of you giving presents to the birthday girl, she–and a bunch of her also-fab author friends–give presents to you, the reader! All you have to do is comment on this blog and/or any of the blogs on the list below before 11:59 pm, April 6, to be entered to win the gifts offered on each site or one of the grand prizes, a new Kindle Touch or a $60 Amazon giftcard. The more blogs you visit and comment on, the more chances you have to win!

So put on a silly hat,  have some cake,  and start hopping…blog hopping, that is. Don’t forget to leave your email address in your comment so that we can contact you if you win.

Oh, and don’t forget to wish Carrie a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

1. Carrie Ann Ryan	2. Lia Davis	3. Beth-Ann Mason
4. Writer, Author, Husband, Dad	5. Natasha Blackthorne	6. Romance Book Club Blog
7. Daryl Devore	8. Eliza Gayle	9. Realmantic Moments
10. Amber Kallyn	11. Harlies Books	12. Wickedly Erotic by JL Oiler
13. Kacey Hammell	14. ILoveShape-Shifters. com Paranormal/Sci-Fi Romance	15. Marie Dees
16. Victoria Adams	17. The World of Heaven OShey @ blogspot	18. Lucy Francis, Contemporary Romance
19. Vickie Taylor	20. Tara Lain erotic romance	21. Birthday Traditions
22. Wendi Zwaduk – Romance to Make Your Heart Race	23. Megan Slayer – Too Hot To Handle	24. Cari Quinn
25. Stephanie Haefner- Slip into something sexy!	26. Angelique Armae	27. Cassandra Carr – Hot Blogging with Heart
28. Kharisma Rhayne	29. A Page In The Life	30. Wendy Elys Books
31. Jessica E. Subject	32. K. E. Saxon	33. Stacy Jubas Mysteries, Murder & More
34. Jesse Kimmel-Freeman	35. Tracy Sumners Romance Site	36. Shells Book Corner
37. Allison Merritt	38. Suzzana C Ryan	39. *lizzie starr
40. Diana Layne Blog	41. Love is a Many Flavored Thing – DC Juris	42. Dianne Venetta
43. Sharon Gerlach – Writer Unleashed	44. Book Lovers Haven	45. Romance you can sink your fangs into
46. Casey Crow (INT – 18+ only)	47. Writing with Kristine Cayne	48. Just a Readers Ramblings
49. Angela S. Stone	50. Rawiya Erotica	51. Conversations with Lisa Mondello
52. Passion Recalled and Celebrated	53. Bull Protettore Hates Birthdays!	54. Louisa Bacio — Love Knows No Bounds
55. Cat Johnsons Blog Hop Contest!	56. Cynthia Woolfs Blog	57. Diane Alberts
58. Patricia Green Books (Erotic Romance)	59. Discovering Nya Rayne

At RG2E, it’s all about the readers!

This post wouldn’t be complete without background music. Click here for a short clip of the theme song.

That’s right…there’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to sites for readers. It’s a big, confusing world out there when it comes to books. So many titles to choose from, so little time to read!

So what’s the shortest path to the best books on the web?

That’s right: The Readers’ Guide to E-publishing. This site lists some of the best e-books on the market in all genres.

What could be better? Why, if they gave away some of those books free, of course!  And they do, of course!  Free books daily.

What could be even better than free books daily? Free e-readers! And they do that do.

Check it out and make it a destination stop for book shopping.

You might even find some of my books there starting later this month.  😉