Much Ado About Marshals (Hearts of Owyhee) (2011) (41 page)

There’s nothing quite like growing up in
Owyhee County
,
Idaho
, to fuel a young girl’s imagination. I lived on a dairy farm six miles southwest of Homedale. Stories popped into my head while I was feeding calves, or hoeing beets, or shucking corn. These stories placed me in another time, wild and exciting, full of adventure, handsome heroes, and heinous villains.

They called me a daydreamer, and I made up stuff, outlandish stories for which I was properly chastised, because the world in my mind was a hundred years behind the world I actually lived in.

Our family raised and milked
Holsteins
, but I dreamed of wrangling Texas Longhorns. We grew alfalfa, corn, wheat, and beets, but I dreamed of riding across the sagebrush foothills chasing cattle rustlers. Dad always drove a Buick, but I dreamed of stagecoach rides beset by the fearsome Alsup Gang (Alsup is a family name, and seemed as good for a gang name as any other).

Good people lived in our little corner of
Owyhee
County
, the kind you treasure. Everyone knew everyone else, and our neighbors were community-minded, full of humor, and always ready to lend a hand.

I remember my dad, Jack Walker, and his friend Bill Nafsinger raising money for Homedale’s first ambulance. I remember the dances and parties at the Stateline Grange where Arlene Nafsinger, Al Curtis, and whoever else they could wrangle (sometimes Grandpa Neil or Dad) played fun music like
Silver Threads Among the Gold
and
Little Brown Jug
.

All of us kids had a grand old time at the Owyhee County Fair and Rodeo each August. I really miss it, even the rain and wind storm that always hit at about 1 PM Saturday, sending us all running for cover.

A bunch of us used Graveyard Point as our playground —we rode our horses there and swam in the
Highline
Canal
. We pretended it was an Indian village, though. Everything and everywhere we went, our imaginations made the sagebrush hills that much more exciting.

And so it’s only reasonable that I should end up writing western historical romance full of dashing heroes and despicable bad guys set in the Wild West of my mind, which was and always will be
Owyhee County
,
Idaho
. It’s where the west was won.

Enjoy the ride!

Jacquie

http://www.JacquieRogers.com

http://RomancingTheWest.blogspot.com

Jacquie Rogers has worn many hats before taking up the pen: a former soft-ware designer, campaign manager, deli clerk, and cow milker. She writes romance in three sub-genres: western historical, fantasy, and contemporary western.

Much Ado About Marshals
, a western historical, is the first book in the
Hearts of Owyhee
series, followed by
Much Ado About Madams
. Before that, Mélange Publishing released a romantic fantasy,
Faery Merry Christmas
.

Her first book,
Faery Special Romances
, won the Fall NOR Award for Best Print Sci-fi/Fantasy Romance and finaled several other contests. She then released a short contemp-orary novel,
Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues
.
, a PNR Top-Pick, a CTRR Award winner, TRS Sweetheart of the Week winner, and NOR Top-Pick.

She calls
Seattle
home, and lives with her husband who is an audio/video engineer and a fantastic proofreader. They are allowed to live in the house by a cat named Annie, a feral cat who has decides she likes to be warm, dry, and fed, although not held or petted.

Website:
www.JacquieRogers.com

Blog: RomancingTheWest.blogspot.com

Twitter: @JacquieRogers

Facebook: search for Jacquie Rogers (the Author page, not the website page)

from Mélange Publishing:

The Shaman’s Quest
by Norman W Wilson PhD:
Book 1 of the Shamanic Mysteries. 
Adam is young, handsome, financially independent and unhappy. No one wants to answer his questions. He begins his search for the mysterious shaman, Esaugetuh in hopes of having the nagging questions answered. When he finds Esau
-
getuh he is taken on a fascinating mystical world of the natural and the supernatural. . . one few survive.

The Shaman’s Transformation
by Norman W. Wilson PhD:
Book 2 of the Shamanic Mysteries. 
What do you do when you are a
wealthy, young, and handsome shaman healer beset with mysterious enemies who want you dead? Adam is plunged into a lesson in knowledge, a path fraught with murderous intent. Who do so many people want to kill him? Who is threatened by his newly found shamanic powers? Why must Adam risk his life to learn his lessons?

Faery Merry Christmas
by Jacquie Rogers: Romance has gone awry in Faeryshire!

Who would’ve thought Mr. and Mrs. Claus’s daughter would be “on the shelf”? Yep, Cheshya’s all a’flutter because her 2,000th birthday, the last day
can
take a mate, is on Christmas, only four days away
.
But
Liam of the Red Clan, the only man she has ever wanted is otherwise occupied.

What will it take to make a Faery Merry Christmas?