It’s so much fun to have Lauren back in the Blue Rose Writing Room! We’re being treated to a character interview!
Welcome, Lauren!
Good morning, Miss Rutherford. What brings you from New York City to the Great Plains of Kansas?
Oh, please—call me Maggie. No need to stand on ceremony. I love how the West is so informal, and everyone is so down-to-earth. I’m here to research my newest dime novel.
You’re a writer? A woman? And dime novels, you say. That’s an interesting profession for a lady from high society.
Actually, I write under a pen name. Many dime novels tell stories of our American frontier, and I thought using a man’s name would convince readers to buy my work. My pen name is Lud Madison. Doesn’t that sound like a true Westerner? And then there’s another reason I took a pseudonym.
Sounds intriguing. Do tell!
My family owns Rutherford House, one of the largest publishing houses in New York. Naturally, I didn’t want to sell books to a competitor—but I didn’t want a “pity publish” either. If my brother, who’s now head of the firm, knew I’d submitted a novel? He would have published it—even if it was rubbish! I wanted my work to stand on its own merit. So far, I have two books in print and am here in Abilene to start on my third.
What will this book be about?
Definitely a cowboy. I thought using a cattle drive as the background for my story would bring lots of action to the plot. They experience stampedes, Indian attacks, snakebite, tornadoes—so many things that readers would simply gobble up. But I do need to interview someone who’s actually been on a cattle drive. I love to include all types of small details to give my work a certain polish. I believe that’s what sets me apart from other writers in the genre.
So that’s why you’ve come down to the stock yards, to find someone coming off the long drive. Maggie? Maggie? Miss Rutherford?
Oh, sorry. Yes, I’m here to find rugged cowboys, men who have experienced it all on the trail. (She smiles.) And I think I’ve found the perfect candidate right over there. See him? The tall man with dark hair and crystal blue eyes. What a powerful physique! I’ll bet he’ll have dozens of stories to tell me. Now if you’ll excuse me—I need to arrange an interview with him.
And once you’ve completed your research, where are you going next?
I’ll be heading to Easton, just a few miles from Abilene. I’m off to visit my brother’s best friend, Frank Stansel, who’s the sheriff there. Oh, I bet Frank will have all sorts of criminals to tell me about—horse thieves and gunslingers and cattle rustlers. Why, I sense another book coming on!
BLURB
After the Civil War, veteran Ben Morgan marries his childhood sweetheart and takes her to homestead on the Great Plains. Losing her and their unborn child in an Indian attack, Ben detaches from emotion and becomes a roaming gambler. When he kills a cheating opponent in self-defense, the man’s gunslinger brother swears revenge upon Ben.
Ben hides on a cattle drive and brings in a herd to Abilene, where a waiting Maggie wants to find a rough and tumble cowboy to interview for her next story idea. Sparks fly as the dangerous drover and popular novelist wind up living in the same household, running a general store east of Abilene. But with Black Tex Lonnegan hot on his trail, will Ben run from his growing attraction to Maggie and the gunfighter’s promise of death–or will he make a stand for his life–and love?
Excerpt:
I love her.
That scared him beyond words.
Ben never intended to get close to another woman, much less fall in love. But there was a powerful draw to Maggie that mere words couldn’t describe. He felt whole again around her, whole and healed. His damaged heart, ripped to shreds by Eliza’s death, suddenly knit together as never before.
He loved Maggie’s mind and heart, her spirit and soul. She seemed as necessary to him as the air he breathed. Each time he saw her, he wanted to kiss her senseless.
And more.
But she’d mentioned her wedding day. And then, exhausted by the turmoil of the day—her injury, ingesting the strong patent medicine, awakening in terror in the dark, sharing her traumatic experience as a child—Maggie had fallen into a deep sleep.
She never referred to her wedding after that. Ben, too much of a coward, couldn’t force himself to bring it up. It had eaten away at him, even as he’d kissed her today. The kiss was so right. Or he wanted it to be. For him to even consider doing it again, much less even toying with the idea of a future with this woman, he had to know the truth.
She touched his arm. “No. I’m not married. I never have been.”
“But –”
She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, there was a wedding day. There was a church full of New York society people, and a groom waiting at the altar.”
“What happened?”
“I panicked. I walked down that aisle with all of those people looking at me, and everything closed in on me, and I was suffocating.”
Ben nodded. “What did you do?”
“I literally ran back up the aisle. I ran to the West. I ran for a new life. I didn’t look back. And here I am.”
He started to smile. He could see her bolting for freedom. It was just like her.
Relief ran through his veins. Before she said another word, he kissed her deep and long and with a passion that flared out of control.
He would’ve gone on kissing her. Until a whack landed on his head. Twice. And then a smack hard on his shoulder.
He tore his mouth from hers. “What the hell?”
He saw a broom coming at him. It struck him hard before he could utter another word. He released Maggie. He saw the Widow Morrow on the other end of the broom, swinging it like the Archangel Michael swinging his sword.
Ben instantly knew Maggie would make good use of this bit of nonsense in a scene for one of her books.
“No spooning on my porch, young man! I have a reputation to maintain. I run a respectable business. Now, git!”
Mrs. Morrow looked at Maggie. “Inside. Now.” She glared at Ben. “I said, git!”
He hid a smile and tipped his hat. “Evening, ladies.” Ben hurried down the steps, chuckling all the way home.
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Author Bio
As a child, Lauren Linwood gathered her neighborhood friends together and made up stories for them to act out, her first venture into creating memorable characters. Following her passion for history and love of learning, she became a teacher who began writing on the side to maintain her sanity in a sea of teenage hormones.
Lauren’s novels focus on two of her favorite eras, medieval times and the American Old West. History is the backdrop that places her characters in extraordinary circumstances, where their intense desire and yearning for one another grows into the deep, tender, treasured gift of love. Her novels include Music For My Soul, Outlaw Muse, A Game of Chance, andWritten in the Cards.
Lauren, a native Texan, lives in a Dallas suburb with her family. An avid reader, moviegoer, and sports fan, she manages stress by alternating yoga with five mile walks. She is thinking about starting a support group for Pinterest and House Hunters addicts.
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