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LOVE WITH AN IMPERFECT COWBOY |
The
following is the story line for Love With
An Imperfect Cowboy, Book One of my new Lone Star Dynasty series that will be published in April:
He’s a
decorated soldier/rancher with a tragic past. She’s a runaway bride. How was
she to know that seeking refuge in the wrong bar after getting lost in a Texas
storm could be so dangerous…or so sexy?
So—how
did this story come to be?
I guess
the most-frequently-asked question writers get is where do you get your
ideas? I’ll start there.
For me
ideas are sort of like pieces in a quilt. A writer has a lot of ideas that
don’t seem to logically fit together until she starts playing with them and
forming them into a new emotional pattern.
I grew up
playing cowboys and Indians with my little brother. I rode horses with my
cousins and performed in rodeos when I went to camp. My husband is an ex-vet,
who was wounded in Viet Nam. I talked to the son of one of my friends who
served as a colonel in the army in the Middle East.
Two of my
cousins live on ranches and are always sharing stories about their cantankerous
horses and the mischief they get up to. I have a friend who lives in the Upper
West Side of New York, and she’s always telling me about the different
neighborhoods near her.
I live in
South Texas and frequently go to a large, legendary ranch to write. While there
I hang out with cattle, migrating birds, rattlesnakes, deer, raccoons, killer
bees, buzzards, javelina and all sorts of amazing wildlife.
The ranch
is situated in a spot about ninety miles north of Mexico where lots of
undocumented immigrants travel north to avoid the major highway, and I’ve come
across these people on my walks. On the ranch and in the nearby town, everybody
knows everybody on a first name basis.
When I
began this story, I meant to write a 10,000 word Christmas short story, but the
story kept getting more complicated and Christmas came and went. While writing
it, I stopped and wrote two thirds of the heroine’s sister’s story, which will
be book two. Then I came back and started writing on book one again. I actually
wrote book four first. Then I wrote two thirds of book three. Then I began book
one and dived into book two, and have just now completed book one. So—writing
the series has been a messy process.
I fell in
love with the characters of this book and very much wanted them to find
happiness together.
Ann
