Where We Live, i.e. A Love Affair with Colorado
The Flatirons
The name comes from the "flat irons" that pioneer women would heat on a coal stove and then use to iron their laundered clothes. Whether they are touched with green, dusted with snow, glowing red and warm under the sun, or cloaked in fog, they are a beautiful sight to behold. Many of the Scottish pioneers loved these mountains because they reminded them of the mountains in the Highlands .
Open Space and Hiking Trails
There are untouched areas where it is easy to imagine oneself back in the past. Just taking a walk can often inspire a chapter or two. Early residents carefully mapped the area to try and preserve the beauty
Devil's Thumb
This prominent rock spire can be seen all over Boulder. The Native Americans were said to have named the rock after a legend that told of the Arapahoe burying the devil but leaving his thumb exposed as a reminder of the evils of war.
Scottish Highland Festival - Estes Park
Annual festival with all clans invited to partake in games and festivals. It is a great way to do research on Scotland and is a bit like going back in time..... Scotland can take credit for golf, tennis, rugby, and hockey.
Gold Hill
Not that far from Boulder, a visit to Gold Hill is like going back in a time machine. The buildings are like they were in the 1800's and are perfect models for our western novels.
All aboard the Georgetown Loop
Just like the trains in the "good ole days"..... Georgetown is the site of OUTRAGEOUS. The people of the town have managed to keep it a charming place to live or visit.
Maroon Bells - Aspen
The iconic mountain was shrouded in mist the day of the photo and reminded us of Scotland. This was the day that the idea for HIGHLAND DESTINY was born.
Approaching Aspen on a foggy day
It was on this trip that ESCAPADE and OUTRAGEOUS were born.
Vultures at Rest on Top of Flagstaff Mountain
These frightening birds come to Boulder every April and then leave in October. Watching them fly about and then land in the tree (like outlaws coming home to roost) sparked our imaginations and voila...... RENEGADE LADY and THE LEGEND'S LADY took root in our imaginations.
Boulder Creek in Late Spring
This is a site where the Arapahoe - Native American Tribe made their spring camp. Several streets are named after their chief, Left Hand or Niwot. Sitting beside the creek, listening to the water transported us back in time and SWEET SAVAGE SURRENDER started to form in our minds.
Stanley Hotel - Estes Park
This hotel is rumored to be haunted. Determined to meet a ghost or two, we stayed up all night, traipsing up and down stairs and hallways....even visiting those places said to be haunted. Needless to say, many stories were brought to life in our brains.......
Open Space Behind My House at Night
We used this photo (with a few additions via Photoshop) for the cover of HIGHLAND GHOST (Kramer). At night you can hear coyotes, frogs, owls, and all manner of night animals......
WOMEN OF THE WEST Series
OUTLAW SEDUCTION
Wanted – Dead or Alive! The words goad Travis La Mont to “run for his life”. With a reward of two hundred dollars on his head he feared his chances of proving his innocence weren’t worth a nickel. Particularly with that red-headed female bounty hunter on his trail.
Bliss Harrison was overjoyed when she saw the wanted poster. She was in desperate need of money and was certain she could catch the handsome bank robber. She would ignore his charms, haul him in, hand him over, and collect the reward! It would be as simple as one, two, three. A business transaction only. One that would not involve any feelings. Or so she thought……
Travis was trapped! Held at gunpoint by a flame-haired beauty who was delighted to have caught him in a cave, naked as a jay bird! Now he was in a serious dilemma. How was he going to prove to her that he was innocent before she turned him in for the reward? He knew how to charm women, but one wrong move now and he’d get more than a slap in the face—he’d get a bullet in his back. Nevertheless, he had to try……
CHEROKEE'S CARESS
Known far and wide as the owner of the greatest traveling wild west show since Buffalo Bill Cody, “Cherokee” Ross Sheldon met his match when he crossed paths again with a woman he had loved and left behind.
New England widow, Sabrina James, longed to escape her dreary existence and her father-in-law’s charity. Her dream was to head west—for excitement and adventure! Little did she know that a tragic accident would send her into seclusion and cause her to hide from the law by donning a dark wig. Learning how to shoot, changing her name to “Buckskin” Kitty Tremaine, she found much more than she had bargained for.
Ross Sheldon knew a challenge when he saw one and the blonde beauty at the tavern, wielding a mop as if it were a rifle, was intriguing. He would impress her with his importance as a showman and all the adventures he’d had out west—just enough to seduce her. Little did he know that he would soon regret his betrayal. Succumbing to the lesson that something done can not be undone, he searches for a lost love that can not be forgotten.
RENEGADE LADY
Josey McLaury had come to Show Low, Arizona with one thought in mind, to learn how to shoot a gun so that she could take revenge for a most brutal act. Seeking out the services of a once-famous gunfighter who has become a doctor, she finds love unexpectedly. But will the past come back to haunt them?
She had found him—the man who’d shot down her younger brother in cold blood. Was it any surprise that Josie challenged him to a gunfight then and there? She hadn’t counted on getting a bullet in her arm for her trouble, however. Nor in being rescued by a rugged stranger who insisted on taking her under his protection.
Now, with half of the citizens of Show Low ready to run her out of town, Josie found an unlikely ally in Dr. Rafe Gardner. Once, Rafe had ridden with the wildest outlaws in the West. Now, he would turn Josie into one of the best shots in the Arizona Territory. But once she’d mastered the skills of the gunfighter’s trade, and uncovered Rafe’s shocking secret, would Josie be forced to choose between vengeance and a love she’d never dreamed could be hers?
THE LEGEND'S LADY
Clint Tanner’s first meeting with Stephanie Eliott was more than just awkward, it was a catastrophe! Pretending that he thought her to be the bawdy house’s new girl, he patted the haughty easterner on the posterior and swept her into his arms for a passionate kiss—a welcome to the West. Surely this crude cowboy couldn’t be the legendary gunfighter Stephanie had immortalized in the dime novels she’d written under an assumed name!
Proper, pristine, and punctual—that was what people always said about Stephanie Elliott, little realizing that she had a secret; she had won fame and fortune writing under the pseudonym of Steven E. Winslow. Now she had come West to meet her hero, hoping that the encounter would bring her the kind of happy ending she wrote in her books. Little did she know she would get much more than she bargained for.
Clint Tanner cursed Steven E. Winslow with every breath. Damn that writer! Because of his novels Clint was now a legend, the target for every young hothead around who sought their own fame by calling him out for a gun fight. Whoa be to that author if he ever got his hands on him.
ESCAPADE
A woman running from her past. Brandy Jacobs had come to Colorado from San Francisco with an eight-woman troupe of singers and dancers to forget the heartache of a life filled with heartache and betrayal. She wanted to build a new life for herself, a future that did not include a man whose image was plastered on wanted posters all the way from Boulder to Georgetown.
A man running from the law. Logan Donovan had been framed for a murder he did not commit by a political rival. He was determined to clear his name and reclaim his life. In his wildest dreams, he never imagined he would soon be traveling with a group of female entertainers, nor that he would have to hide his real identity by becoming one of them—the infamous ‘Prudence’.
Logan and Brandy were soon to find that life had more than a few surprises, including a love that neither one of them had planned and a dangerous enemy who now plotted their downfall.
OUTRAGEOUS
Elizabeth St. John was a determined, independent woman running away from her past, hell-bent on securing a future for the young female entertainers traveling with her to Colorado Territory. Ben Cronin was a wealthy, self-made mining magnate whose wealth and good looks made him any woman’s dream.
Beth, Betsy, Elise, Lizzie – Elizabeth had used many names as she fled from England to New York, Boston, San Francisco and Colorado Territory. Haunted by the past, she couldn’t forget to look over her shoulder from time to time. She didn’t dare allow herself the luxury of falling in love. A man was the last thing she needed. She was quite capable of taking care of herself. Besides, she had her hands full managing her all-woman troupe of singers and dancers and trying to hide a man falsely accused of murder.
Ben Cronin was of a different frame of mind. One look at Elizabeth, one moment of hearing her play piano and he knew she was a special lady, one who had touched his heart. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman—smart, witty, gloriously independent and irresistibly alluring. Yet every time he tried to get a little closer, she backed away. Still, Ben hadn’t become the most influential man in Georgetown by running from a challenge.
It was a man’s world and women could not even vote, but Elizabeth knew that behind every successful man stood a woman. If men were the backbone of the nation—she knew that women were its heart and soul. In the East a women’s lack of equal rights was circumscribed by entrenched tradition, but she was certain that the West represented a clean slate upon which the progressive idea of sexual equality could be inscribed.
Additional Books That Capture The Courage of Western Women
WILD WESTERN FIRE
It was along the old California Trail that the first transcontinental railroad was completed in May 1869. The new rails ran from Omaha to San Francisco. The clouds of gray smoke that billowed skyward from locomotives crossing the vast, open plains west of the Mississippi to Santa Fe or San Francisco, were not at all an uncommon sight. People were becoming used to the sound of the train whistles and whirling wheels over the tracks. Nevertheless most of the nation was still amazed that a great part of the American continent could be crossed in about a week's time as opposed to several months travel by any other means.
The Donation Land Act in Oregon in 1865 opened the way for settlement in a vast virgin territory--one hundred and sixty acres of the most fertile soil in the Willamette Valley abundant in water and timber. There was rich black farm soil waiting to nurture many forms of farm produce. The weather was comparatively mild near the sea coast, the rainfall plentiful. The Columbia River gave excellent opportunity for shipping.
With the exception of Portland and Seattle, the vast country of Oregon and Washington was still a wilderness compared to the southern states such as Texas and California. The fur trappers and Missourians had long before carved out small clusters of buildings that had developed in to townships, many of which were crisscrossed by water. The Willamette valley was known for its orchards, flowers, nuts and wheat crops.
In the vast new territory, our story takes place. A young woman comes west to homestead and learns to deal with the elements and her solitude. When a daring young man, on the run because he has been framed for a crime he didn't commit, seeks her land as his haven of safety, they are both thrown into an adventure and romance neither of them had counted on.
ENDLESS ECSTASY
During the days of the “Wild West,” outlaws were often glorified by newspapers, pamphlets, Wild West shows or dime novels. They were feared, yet idolized. In folklore, American bandits were likened to Robin Hood. America offered a tremendous wilderness for escape and hiding—the most famous being the “Outlaw Trail” stretching from Canada, through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and finally into Mexico. “Butch” Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were leaders of the “Wild Bunch,” the biggest, most colorful and last of the western gangs. Their story is of particular interest to me, having lived for a time in Utah and Wyoming.
There was a human side to the outlaws. Indeed, Butch Cassidy made it a lifelong point to avoid needless violence. He shot at the horses, never at the riders, when being pursued by a posse. He once said quite truthfully that he had never killed a man. He and his gang were in fact very democratic in the way they asked members’ advice on projects. Even the wanted posters described Cassidy as cheery and affable.
The Wild Bunch was started after a series of devastating calamities shook Wyoming. A terrible drought struck the territory killing entire herds. Companies that had once employed hundreds of cowboys now sent them packing and those who were jobless turned to cattle rustling. The rustlers built cabins and corrals and established strongholds along the Outlaw Trail. Three of the hideouts were “Hole-in-the-Wall’ in Wyoming, Brown’s Park just over the Colorado line in Utah, and “Robbers Roost” further south in Utah.
It was to Brown’s Park that a young, parentless girl was taken to be raised among the outlaws. Fearless, feisty, she must face the greatest test of all when she falls in love with a man out to avenge his brother’s death—a man who takes a job as deputy and is dedicated to ridding the West of outlaws.
The Bandidos
The Spanish Rose Becomes El Tigre
Rosalinda Renaldo never intended to become a “bandido”. She merely wanted to save her bandito brother from the hated soldiers who held him prisoner. Now as the “Spanish Rose” she is forced to embrace a duel life—performing in a New Mexico cantina to spy on the uniformed men and taking on the disguise of “El Tigre.” She did not know that her careful plan would spin out of control when the handsome blonde captain she meant to charm seduces her in return.
When Captain Devin Wade saw the dark beauty move like liquid fire across the cantina floor, he was entranced and determined to be her lover. But when he found himself looking down the barrel of a gun, he discovered that not only did this rose have thorns but she also had a fierce protector as well.
Devin is determined to exact justice upon the bandido who is terrorizing the soldiers and making them look like fools. He curses the blue-eyed, masked robber who so mysteriously disappears after he has stolen their money, guns, and even their uniforms. That Rosalinda and the bandido are one and the same has never even crossed his mind, that is until she makes a mistake that will cost her dearly.
Against a backdrop of war and revolution a beautiful young woman of Spanish heritage must go up against not only the American soldiers but the ruthless Governor Armijo as well. Little does she know that her deception will lead her in a dance of passion that will hold her heart and her army captain’s heart and soul hostage.
Devil and Angel, Bandit and Postulant
When Angelica left the safety of the convent to teach at the mission in Santa Barbara, she would never have believed she’d become a hostage in a Mexican bandido’s camp. Now her only hope was that her brother would pay the ransom of gold and guns so that she could return to the sheltered life she had known. There was more danger of losing her heart than her life to El Diablo. The bandit leader, with his passionate kisses and whispered words of love, was quickly turning her world upside down. But she had to remember that he was an outlaw, with a price on his head—a man who would never be tamed.
Rodrigo—El Diablo—had never put a woman before his fight for his people’s freedom. But the angelic señorita tempted him beyond reason with her blond hair that shimmered like gold, her blue eyes that sparked with promised passion, and her brave, courageous spirit that matched his own. This woman had captured his heart and although he knew their love would face the ultimate test—he wanted to know the warmth of her love just once before he had to let her go.
TAME THE WILD WIND - Katherine Vickery
“This is my hut. You, and everything else in it, belong to me,” the handsome bandit exclaimed as he slipped his strong hands around Cecilia’s waist and pulled her gently to the cool earthen floor. Was this a nightmare or a seductive dream coming true?
Cecilia Amanda Sinclair’s life was not exciting but it was predictable. She felt safe and secure as she followed her well-established routine that included teaching at the small wooden Austin schoolhouse. She was content, assuming that today would be like all the other days that preceded it. She did not know how wrong she was nor did she foresee that her life would be changed forever by an encounter with a bandit leader whose wish was to better the life of his people.
Ramón Bautista Renaldo y Ortega was frustrated with himself because he could not read the message of warning intercepted by his bandit band. He wanted a better future not only for himself but for the children of the camp. Little did he know that his light-hearted comment to “bring back a gringo teacher to aid him” would be taken seriously. Nor could he have realized that the passion that stirred within him for the lovely captive would endanger their love, their lives, and the destiny of their two countries.
Swept up into the tides of the Mexican-American War, their love must survive every obstacle to become as strong as the great state of Texas in which they live.
When Two Cultures Collide
They were from two different cultures, their people were adversaries, yet once they had experienced the sensual sweetness of their passion, they knew they must risk every obstacle to be together.
Skyraven was the pride of her Arapaho tribe and the granddaughter of the tribe’s medicine man, a beauty with blue eyes and ebony silk hair. Though sought after by many of the braves she had not yet met a man of her choosing, that is until she came upon the golden-haired soldier in the clearing who had been captured by her people’s enemy—the Utes. In spite of her own danger, she quickly freed the handsome stranger from the cruel bonds that held him captive and took him back to her people to heal from his injuries.
Major John Hanlen had thought that death was a heartbeat away. Instead, he opened his eyes to see an enchantingly beautiful angel of mercy cutting the ropes that held him prisoner. Helping him to her horse, she rescued him from the hostile Indians intent on inflicting a gruesome death to the hated soldier. But though John had escaped capture, he soon found that he was a prisoner nonetheless; a captive to the longing of his heart and his soul for the lovely half-breed temptress who was so gently tending his wounds.
But their new-found love is soon marked by treachery and betrayal. Despite promises of peace by the white man’s army, Skyraven’s people are scheduled to be brushed aside and exterminated like bothersome gnats at Sand Creek. Now it is John Hanlen’s turn to do everything in his power to save the woman he loves from the wrath of a madman.
The Sand Creek massacre is one of the most controversial of Indian conflicts. For nearly a full century the complete story has remained unchronicled, largely because of the prejudices which surround it.
WHISPER ON THE WIND - Katherine Vickery
It was a fateful meeting. Listening to the soulful notes of a bagpipe, young Conoa of the Wolf Clan moved through the darkness to find the source of the sound. He found much more than he could have ever imagined. Standing beside her Scottish father was a girl of extraordinary beauty, a girl with flaming red hair and a passionate nature to match. Right from the first Conoa knew that she was to be part of his future.
Marsali was fascinated by the handsome Cherokee boy, a youth only four years older than she. She did not complain when her father befriended him because right from the first she was determined that when they came of age she would marry him. Murdoch’s hope was that the young man could tame his wild-hearted daughter. That was why he enacted Conoa’s promise that if anything happened to him Conoa would protect Marsali and keep her safe.
While hunting in the forest Donovan, a young soldier, saved the life of a Cherokee youth and took him back to his village. Befriended by the Indians he was drawn to Woya, a lovely Indian girl and Conoa’s cousin. Though he wanted to marry her, his hopes were denied until he risked his life to protect her clan from the greedy gold miners who would go to any lengths to steal the land that had belonged to the Cherokees for generations.
Swept up in the government’s push to rid the lands of the Cherokees by the Indian Removal Act, both pair of young lovers will defy the odds, the government, the injustice, the brutal weather and even Andrew Jackson himself so that they can be together. Faced with betrayal, greed, revenge, and prejudice, they will go west on a journey that will soon become known as the "Nuna-Da-Ut-Sun'y", meaning the trail where they cried. The infamous "Trail of Tears."
The Cherokee Rose
There is a legend that says that the mothers of the children were distraught that they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother’s spirits and give them strength. The next day a rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; has a gold center representing the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. The wild Cherokee rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma to this day.
UPCOMING BOOKS
Rainbow RIders - July 2019
Chane, Dylan, Matthew, Mary Margaret, Teddy and Ashley wait apprehensively for the train that is going to take them to a new life out west. The orphans are to be riders aboard the “Orphan Train” (along with several other children) that transports parentless children from eastern orphanages to homes in the west.
Apprehensive about what awaits them at the end of the line, the children form a strong bond of friendship with each other. They call themselves the Rainbow Riders (each of them following his/her dream….their rainbow). “All for one and one for all,” is the motto they adopt from Matthew’s favorite book – The Three Musketeers. Reaching out, Ashley touches Dylan’s hand and although they are children she knows in her heart at that moment that she will always love him.
The journey takes much longer than anticipated due to the engine failure of the old train and the snow storm that is ravaging the countryside. Through the trials and tribulations of the trip the children draw closer and closer, leaning on each other in times of need. As they begin to trust each other they tell the others about what has happened in their young lives to make them homeless and parentless. Although they do not have “families” they form their own kind of family and promise that somehow, someway, no matter where they end up, they will keep in touch.
Several years later, the friendship that began aboard the “Orphan Train” has lasted to the years of adulthood. Through the years they have managed ways to correspond with each other concerning the ups and downs of their lives.
Then Ashley, Matthew and Chane receive a letter from Teddy. One of the “riders” is in trouble. Dylan is in danger of losing his ranch in Wyoming Territory and all that he has worked so hard to obtain. Matthew reminds each of the “riders” of the promise they made long ago and requests that each of them come to Wyoming to save their troubled friend and one-time companion.
Wanted Poster
Between 1854 and 1929 there were approximately two hundred thousand children (orphaned, abandoned, abused, and homeless) who were put aboard trains bound for cities in the west and mid west. The trains, which promised a new life, a family and a fresh start were dubbed “orphan trains”. This migration began in 1854 and lasted seventy five years.
Before this movement began there were nearly thirty thousand abandoned children living on the streets of New York City. Children who were either parentless or whose parents were unable to care them. Desperate for shelter and suffering from hunger these little ones, called “street Arabs” or the “dangerous classes” by the elite, did whatever they needed to get by whether it was selling matches, rags or newspapers, begging for food or even stealing. For protection against street violence they banded together to form gangs. But their gangs couldn’t guard them against disease and crime. Indeed it was like a page right out of Charles Dickens, proving that America, the land of opportunity, had it’s own Oliver Twists.
Charles Loring Brace was horrified by the plight of these cast-off waifs. Though he had been ordained as a Methodist minister he abandoned this calling for another. Realizing that the western communities, particularly the farm families, had “many spare places at the table of life,” he initiated a plan. Notices were sent announcing the time and date a train-load of orphans would be arriving in western and Midwest towns.
One of the trains
Once the train arrived at a stop the orphan train children were paraded up and down so that prospective “parents” could decide if they wanted to adopt one of them. At other times they were asked to line up for inspection when they got off the trains at which time their teeth and overall health was evaluated before they were chosen to work on the farms. And then there were the lucky ones who were spoken for before they arrived at their destination. The train continued on until all the children had found homes.
Soon there was competition as the Catholic Charities of New York joined the orphan train business. In 1869 the Sisters of Mercy started the New York Foundling Hospital, sending its own “mercy trains “ west.
The orphanage kept close tabs on the children it placed in adoptive homes. Nevertheless, there were stories told of abuse and neglect, of forced labor and not enough food. There were also successful stories where the right match of foster parent and orphan brought a fulfillment of the promise to find a happy home at the end of the rainbow.
Apprehensive about what awaits for them at the end of the line four orphans form a strong bond of friendship with each other. They call themselves the “Rainbow Riders” because each of them is following his dream, his rainbow. When one of the “riders” is in trouble the others are reminded of the promise of eternal friendship they made long ago…..