Romancing The West with Jacquie Rogers: October 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Jane Leopold Quinn: JAKE AND IVY @jelquinnauthor #western #romance

Jake and Ivy

The Brothers Agee - Jake

RTW: Jane, tell us about Jake and Ivy, please.

JLQ: Ivy Westlake, thought to be a demure young lady, comes alive at her friend’s hacienda in Mexico when she discovers the Flamenco. Her wild side is unleashed in the sensuality of music and dancing. She will not allow her father to force her into a marriage of convenience back East, so she runs away with the dance troupe.

Jake Agee, cowboy, horse trader, loner, has carefully built a life with no commitments. That life explodes in his face when Ivy dances. He doesn’t know she’s run away until he spots her performing in a small California town. He battles his desire to have this woman against his well-honed sense of independence.

Jake and Ivy perform their own style of pas de deux throughout southern California until their passions ignite in a desert cave in the middle of a thunder storm. Jake fights his growing love as Ivy fights her craving for their erotic pursuits. Jake’s long lost brother suddenly and mysteriously surfaces. Will this appearance tear Jake and Ivy apart? Will it destroy their love?

RTW: You're gifting us with an excerpt today--thanks! Please set the scene for us.

JLQ: Jake and Ivy have danced their own pas de deux throughout southern California, fighting their attraction, trying to keep their independence. Emotions are running high and a coming storm brings them together for the first time…

Excerpt

Slowly he stretched out an arm, his hand spread welcomingly wide.

Her breath stopped in her chest. Her belly tightened. She didn't think he was just asking her to take a ride with him. In her short life, she'd never thought to feel this kind of desire for a man, hadn't known it even existed. He'd ridden out of nowhere. For her? He didn't say the words but she knew what he was asking. Come with him. The only possible response from her was yes. She shifted her glance in the direction of the town.

His eyes narrowed. "It's close enough. They'll reach it before the storm hits."

"Go, niña."

She heard Christina's whispered urging but had already made her decision. She stood, balancing on the wagon frame and placed her hand in his. He swung her over, settling her in front of him to straddle the horse, her skirts hitching up to her knees. His arm tightened around her middle as he wheeled sharply away.

Her heart beat wildly recognizing the inevitability. It was what she'd been waiting for. He wanted her. She wanted him. It was as simple as that. Her body nestled into the shelter of his chest. His arms encircled her shoulders, one hand handling the reins, his open palm anchored over her belly. She twisted around to scrutinize him, her heart fluttering at his tender vulnerable neck, at the sight of the beating pulse pumping madly. Even his strong jaw shaded by light bristles looked arousing. Through lips slightly parted, little bursts of air coincided with the rise and fall of his chest as she leaned against it. Her eyes finally met his.

Jake and Ivy

Available at Amazon

RTW: What else do you have hidden up your sleeve?

JLQ: Let me give a little shout out to the short story, Wooing the Librarian, loosely connected to Jake and Ivy and also available now. Isis doesn't want another man, not even handsome preacher Pres. Bounty hunter, now preacher, he can’t hide his attraction to the new librarian. Does he discover the way into her heart? Pres isn’t about to give up. Can Isis forget her past pain and see a future with him?

Wooing the Librarian

Available at Amazon

♥ ♥ ♥

Jane Leopold Quinn s a multi-published author of highly sensual novels, novellas, and short stories. They've all been well reviewed, including 4-1/2 Stars and Top Pick, as well as a Reviewers' Choice Nomination for Best Erotic Romance of 2006 from Romantic Times Magazine for her debut novel, Ancient Ties.

She loves the creative process and is constantly, madly writing and revising the "next great book." Nothing is more satisfying than bringing two people together for a happily-ever-after ending. Writing romance is the greatest job in the world and is her passion and niche in life. Creativity in romance authors isn't usually limited to writing. Her other interests include building and decorating doll houses and miniature room boxes, as well as designing silk flower arrangements. Next up? Mosaics...

Jane lives in Chicago, overlooking the park and Lake Michigan, with her wonderful husband.

Jane's Books

Ellora's Cave

Lost and Found

Indie

Valentine's Day

His Hers & His

The Keeper

Soldier, Come Home

Winning Violetta

A Promise at Dawn

Jake and Ivy

Wooing the Librarian

Home to Stay (coming soon)

The Long Road to You (coming soon)

Siren

Undercover Lover

Mercenary Desires

I'll Be Your Last

Jane Leopold Quinn - My Romance: Love With a Scorching Sensuality

Blog | Twitter

Amazon Author Page

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Eight Mules and One Stubborn Woman: Muleskinners #1: JUDGE NOT #western #novella #kindle

A Novella!

Judge Not

Muleskinners #1

by Jacquie Rogers

The first installment of the Muleskinners series, Judge Not, is now available. This is my first traditional western story and I hope you enjoy it. I really loved writing it, and four more stories are planned, the second installment will be released later this year. If you love strong women and stalwart men, give this novella a try!

Judge Not was first printed in Wolf Creek, Book 6: Hell on the Prairie.

About Judge Not

Elsie Parry and her eight mules survived the war, but can they escape the wrath of the Danby Gang? She lived alone for five years after the Recent Unpleasantness and was overcome with happiness to be reunited with her father. Now, his fondest desire is to leave all the bad memories behind and see the Pacific Ocean, so she agreed to head west. All’s well until they approach Wolf Creek, where they’re set upon by the notorious gang of ex-Confederate guerrillas… intent on proving the war is not over, after all.

About Elsie

Elsie's had a rough time of it. In 1863, border ruffians abducted her brother, Zeb, along with the neighbor boy, Hank, from the family farm in Missouri. The next year, more came – she didn't know which side – and burned the farm to the ground. Elsie was given responsibility for eight draft mule foals and sent to live on a forested hill out of harm's way. She had little contact with the outside world, but her father visited infrequently.

She learned her mother had passed away, whether from sickness or hunger, Elsie didn't know, and neither did her father. In fact, he disappeared the last year of the war and Elsie thought he was dead, too, but imagine her elation to find him alive and relatively well five years later. Meantime, those eight mules were her only friends and she'd named them after the Greek gods in her mother's book. They have a good communication, and she's very protective of them. Her father was born with the gift of blarney, and he's a lot better at making deals than actually coming through with them. Still, he's her father and she loves him dearly – her only family other than the mules.

Excerpt
Muleskinners #1: Judge Not
by Jacquie Rogers
Copyright 2013 Jacquie Rogers

My pa wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. He’d flapped his lips all the way from Missouri to the middle of Kansas, and I reckoned by the time we did get to the ocean, I’d be ready to dunk him in it.

“One of the mules is lagging.”

“Hermes,” I hollered. “Quit sniffing that bush and get over here.” Sure, my mules were coddled, but they’d been my only company for a year during the war, and the six years since, my best friends. “You know you’re supposed to stay by the wagon.”

The mule sent me a guilty look and trotted to his spot by the rear wheel with the other three. I have eight mules, but a harness for only four, so four mules pulled half a day, then I traded them out.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to tie the spare mules to the wagon, Elsie?” My father, Obadiah Parry, had lost his wife, son, home, and thought he’d lost me and the mules in the war, but he’d run into me a few years back.

Believe me, the moment I saw that man was the happiest day of my life. His brown hair had grayed and he’d hunched over and slowed down considerable, but his blue eyes still had that sparkle – the one that let you know there very well could be a frog in the sugar bowl, so watch out. I wouldn’t call him a moocher, but he did let me do the working while he did the talking.

“Maybe, but I ain’t tying them up. They know their jobs.” Unlike Pa, who was more of a dreamer than a doer. The one dream he had that worked out was when he decided to start a draft mule business with a mammoth jack he’d won in a card game. He talked the local farmers who had quality draft horse mares into giving him one foal for every two breedings. The result was more than a dozen draft mule foals the next year, but then the war broke out.

Now his dream was to go to California. I had eight of the mules, the wagon, nowhere else to go, and I was happy to make up for lost time with my pa. He had the gift of gab and a hefty dollop of charm, which got me more than one well-paying freight job. We had a light load this time, though – supplies for the trip west. But we had to take a detour to Wolf Creek to pick up a wagon he’d won playing euchre last week.

Amazon | Smashwords

Jane Leopold Quinn: Cowboys Are My First Loves @jelquinnauthor #romance #western

Cowboys Are My First Loves

by Jane Leopold Quinn

Sorry Paul (my husband), but I've always loved cowboys.

He always kids me about The Duke.

John Wayne was the best!

I was in love with the TV and movie cowboys of the '50s and '60s. So, when I first began writing romances, cowboys were the logical heroes.

Although they weren't completely historically accurate, those old western shows are my main research "bible." But I do have quite a few books showing male and female clothing from different historic periods, as well as pioneer women's diaries, women who'd crossed the country in covered wagons. The women walked along side the wagons, cooked meals, washed clothing, looked after the children. Men rode horses and drove the wagons. To give them their due, the menfolk hunted for food but still on horseback. In their diaries, women didn't mention their periods or even childbirth. The most they'd say is that there was an addition to the wagon train. Life was difficult and lonely for many women in the west, but they had no choice but to continue moving one step forward, literally and figuratively. Thank God they did or most of us wouldn't be here.

The first manuscript I wrote was The Long Road to You, and it starred a hero named Nick as an homage to the western, especially the TV western, The Big Valley. I was/am a Nick Barkley fan. That black outfit and especially the omnipresent black gloves were quite sexy. And in Nick's case, a black Stetson didn't make him the bad guy.

Around the same time, I was listening to an Andrea Bocelli CD, Sogno, and in particular the song, 'O Mare e Tu. Its haunting minor chords, the Spanish/Arabic/Gypsy sounds put me in mind of the Flamenco. A young Anglo woman became my heroine, and she became the Flamenco dancer. You'd think a Mexican or Spanish woman would be the dancer, but I turned it around so the properly brought up and schooled American girl fell in love with the Flamenco, tried to break her bonds of propriety, and flee to escape the threat of an arranged marriage. Jake and Ivy came into being and is now the first book in the series, The Brothers Agee.

The Flamenco is a sexy dance. The serious focused faces, rigid dance poses, minor chord sounds mesh with flying, tapping feet and gracefully waving arms. I used the music to portray Ivy's self-discovery of her sensual nature.

My hero Jake was inspired, in part, by an incident in my husband's youth. Jake and Nick were raised in an orphanage. Nick left when Jake was ten years old, and Jake became a loner — until he met Ivy. This in particular was not part of my husband's experience, but my heart ached for the young orphan boys.

A scene in Jake and Ivy takes place in Barranca del Cobre, Copper Canyon, in northern Mexico. Thank heavens for the internet, because it allows you to visit places you could never go to and get an idea of what they looked and felt like. That combined with my own experiences, of places I've traveled to and sights I've seen in person, really help in writing the scene.

What would a young woman in 1880 have known about men and sex? I don't think much since women were protected. The challenge is to take our modern 21st Century sensibility and write to an historical perspective. I don't believe an 1880s era young woman would speak a certain way, use particular words. This means I had to be aware of Ivy's innocent thoughts and dialogue and write them as realistically as possible.

I really like the challenge of subsuming myself in a character to see life as she/or he would. Especially in the male point of view. That's really a challenge!