Summer Member News

AWARDS

Nancy Oswald's latest, TROUBLE RETURNS, was a 2017 WWA Spur Award Winner. 

www.nancyoswald.com

www.filterpressbooks.com

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 FINDING DOROTHY SCOTT, LETTERS OF A WASP PILOT, by Sarah Byrn Rickman, was awarded the Sarton Women's Book Award.

http://sarahbyrnrickman.com/ 

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Barbara Marriot's “PAINT 'N SPURS: THE MEN WHO FOUNDED THE COWBOY ARTISTS OF AMERICAS” a biography of the founding members of the Cowboy Artists of America was announced a finalist in the International Book Awards. 
www.bsrbramasrriott.com 

Published by Fireship Press 

Amazon

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 NEW RELEASES

BAD BOY, BIG HEART by Andrea Downing

When New Yorker K.C. Daniels heads to Wyoming for a summer job, she wants nothing more than to fit in with the staff of the Lazy S Ranch. Yearning to be independent of her mom and dad, and have a taste of the west before she starts her Master's degree, getting involved with a cowboy is the last thing on her mind—especially when she’s greeted with warnings about ‘Bad Boy’ Chay Ridgway.

High school dropout Chay Ridgway sees summer as his time to be a rodeo star and win a girl in his life, while facing the responsibilities he has for his father. Although working to bring in cash to help his dad, he's never had a problem finding a woman who's happy to be that summer love—until K.C. Daniels appears on the scene.

As two different worlds collide in a season that will end all too soon, is this going to be another summer romance or a love that will last for years?

Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Boy-Big-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B072MKG48B/

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Andrea also has a story, CITY BOY, COUNTRY HEART in the collection COME LOVE A COWBOY

Don’t miss this great collection from USA Today, Amazon Bestselling, and Award-Winning authors!! 

​

Available at https://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Keep-Contemporary-Western-Collection-ebook/dp/B072869SGV/

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THE GIRL WHO WOULDN'T DIE
by Randall Platt
publisher - Skypony

They call her the Arab of Warsaw.
Some say she’s Jewish. A few know she’s a girl.
Most agree she’s high on the Nazis’ hit list.
One person believes she could become a hero.

Poland, 1939. Arab knows that looking out for anyone but herself is as good as painting a target on her own back. So she plans to survive the Nazi occupation the way she always has: disguise herself as a boy, lead her street gang, and refuse to get involved.

But though Arab starts the war with just one goal–staying alive–others have different ideas for her. And when a stranger who claims to work with the resistance tries to recruit Arab for a rescue mission, she has to make a choice. Acting like a hero is a surefire way to get killed. But is she doesn’t do it, who will?

Available at your local independent bookstore, or at Amazon

The trade paperback of Randall's previous book, INCOMMUNICADO, is also now available. Learn more at http://www.plattbooks.com.

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Ordinary Skin: Essays from Willow Springs
by Amy Hale Auker, previous WILLA winner
published by Texas Tech University Press

www.amyhaleauker.com
Book may be purchased from author website or all major booksellers
Amazon

Amy Hale Auker's first book of essays, Rightful Place, was the story of a woman finding beauty in her place, the Llano Estacado. Her new collection of creative non-fiction, Ordinary Skin, explores her mid-life transition with prose poems and essays that illustrate a new terrain as well as new ways of being in the world. Touching on faith and body image and belonging, these essays explore our role in deciding what is favorable or unfavorable, as well as where we someday want to dwell, and who came before us. In that touching, they feel their way with observations about current affairs, drought, mystery, and the hard decisions that face us all as we continue to move toward more questions with fewer answers. This exploration is informed and softened by hummingbirds, Gila monsters, bats, foxes, bears, wildflowers, and hidden seep springs where life goes on whether we are there to see it or not. It is about work in a wild and wilderness environment. In the end, even as life changes drastically around us, we are better off for knowing that the ugly mud bug turns into a jewel-toned dragonfly.

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Susan Matley's story, THE AUDITOR is included in a new anthology, Incarceration (WolfSinger Publications). “The Auditor” is a horror story set in near-future China, inspired by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It’s more eastern than western. The publisher, however, is in Colorado! The details:

The publisher:
http://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/OurBooks.html

Susan Matley's website, Home page:
https://www.susandmatley.com/

Website, with “buy” link:
https://www.susandmatley.com/anthology/


 

March News

Awards:

Sarah Byrn Rickman's latest book ----- the biography, Finding Dorothy Scott: Letters of a WASP Pilot (Texas Tech University Press, 2016) ----- has been named a Finalist in three 2017 book awards:
The Colorado Book Award
The Sarton Women's Book Awards from Story Circle Network
The Foreword INDIE Award

Dorothy Scott's biography is Sarah's seventh book about the women who flew for the US Army Air Forces in World War II.
http://sarahbyrnrickman.com/

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K. Lynn Wurth's new novel, Seven Kinds of Rain: River Saga Book One, is a finalist for the Foreword Indies Historical Fiction Award.
www.klynwurth.com

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Nancy Bo Flood's novel, SOLDIER SISTER has been selected as a finalist in the Colorado Book Awards juvenile literature category! http://bit.ly/2mDFV3q

Soldier Sister, Fly Home, cover art by Shonto Begay, a Junior Library Guild selection, 2016;*starred review, Publisher's Weekly, Scholastic Book Club selection

A celebration of family, riding horses pell-mell in the dark, sharing fears when a sister is deployed, comforted by the beauty of the Navajo desert. The novel was also selected by Tuba City Library, Navajo Nation, as a community all-read.

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C.M. Mayo has been elected to the Texas Institute of Letters, and also, for the second half of this May, named artist-in-residence for the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Her latest publications include an excerpt from Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, her book about the secret book by Francisco I. Madero, leader of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, in Tiferet, and her translation of Mexican writer Rose Mary Salum's short story in Catamaran.

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Mara Purl's novella "Where An Angel's On a Rope" won the Silver Benjamin Franklin Digital Award

New Releases:

The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan
Patricia Bailey
Albert Whitman & Company
www.patriciabaileyauthor.com

Thirteen-year-old Kit Donovan made a lot of promises to her dying mother, and the most difficult one to keep – the one about being a proper lady – seems downright impossible in a place like Goldfield, Nevada. The corrupt owner the gold mine seems to hold sway over the whole town. When Kit convinces Papa to speak out against the dangers in the mine, trouble finds her family.

Now she must find a way to expose the misdeeds before it’s too late. With help from an unlikely friend, a Shoshone boy, and a newspaperman, she puts her big mouth and all the life skills she’s learned from reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to work. But is she really brave enough to stand up for what's right?

"A rip-roaring tale of love, friendship, and betrayal. Determined Kit will steal your heart. A romping good read!"
 -Karen Cushman, Newbery Medalist for The Midwife's Apprentice

"As dirt-caked and rough as any gold-flecked nugget found in a mine, Kit Donovan glimmers as a hero for the ages."
-Kate Hannigan, author of Golden Kite–winner The Detective' Assistant

Purchase Links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Powells
Indiebound

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 P.H. Garrett has been published in the 2016 Anthology, Untold Stories from the bottom of the well. A short story titled Breathing Fear

She has also been published in “Sisters Born, Sisters Found,” an award-winning collection of short stories, edited by Laura McHale Holland.
Web: www.wordwranglingwoman.com
Blog: wordwranglingwoman.com/blog
Email: wwwcomink@gmail.com
facebook.com/word wrangling woman

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Tanya Buck's new book "101 Ways to Die with a Horse or Live Happily Ever After" is a safety guide for all things horse related for the first time rider, owner or student as well as the experienced horse person, trainer and riding instructor.

Aimed to simplify the world of horses and prevent injury to the equestrian and her horse, topics include:

Safety measures to take before you get to the barn; what to wear, how to act.
How horses think and why it matters.
Choosing the best trainer, Veterinarian and farrier.
Buying and selling a horse.
Safely riding in company; on the trail and in the arena.
Tack: which is best for you and your horse?
Trailer loading and safety hauling tips.
Health care.

"101 Ways to Die with a Horse or Live Happily Ever After, an essential safety guide for horse & rider" is the first in the Horses Happily Ever After series and the launching of the Horses Happily Ever After Project.

The project mission is to better the horse world through education that keeps both horse and human safe and happy. This project focuses on giving back to the horse world by my donating ​1​5% of the 2017 profits from the book  being donated to horse charity. I am also committing to offering seminars to raise funds for the preservation of wild horses in America. Please visit the interactive Horses Happily Ever After
 website: ​www.​Horses​H​appily​E​ver​A​fter.com

Published by Flying Frog, Jan 2017, also available in eBook version and on Amazon.

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Bobbins and Boots
Shanna Hatfield

How does an act of kindness result in… marriage?

One carefree cowboy is about to find out in this sweet historical romance!

Born dirt-poor into a life of hardship, Allie Tillman seizes the opportunity to better her situation by answering an advertisement for a mail-order bride in the West. Upon her arrival in Baker City, Oregon, she discovers her intended is a low-down, lying thief. Determined not to marry him, she grasps at the one thing that will keep him from forcing her to be his wife — marrying another man.

Good-natured cowboy Ben Amick had no idea a simple trip into town would completely change his life. When he happens upon a mail-order bride desperate to avoid marrying her fiancé, Ben does the first thing that pops into his head and marries her. Willingly, he gives her the protection of his name and his arms, never expecting her to capture his heart.

Humorous, heartfelt, and awash in sweet romance, Bobbins and Boots captures the tender and tumultuous emotions of falling in love.

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCJCSZB

October Member News

Marsha Ward, The Complete Owen FamilySaga is a chronological box set of the five novels: Gone for a Soldier, The Man from Shenandoah, Spinster's Folly, Ride to Raton, and Trail of Storms. Join Rod and Julia Owen, their sons, daughters, and neighbors in Colorado Territory and beyond for action, adventure and romance in 19th Century America.

Louise Lenahan Wallace’s short story, “The Warning” is included in Chicken Soup for the Soul’s The Joy of Christmas under the section Holiday Miracles. And a miracle it was. I didn’t know where the overpowering feeling of dread was coming from that Christmas Eve afternoon, but I’m thankful to the depths of my soul that I heeded it.

AWARDS

Heidi M. Thomas, Dare to Dream and Cowgirl Up! A History of Rodeo Women have both received Finalist awards in the Book Excellence Awards contest, Dare in the Young Adult and Cowgirl Up in the non-fiction categories.

Gaby Pratt, Comanche And The Mex Girl is a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards contest, Young Adult category. It’s 1878. Fort Richardson closes. Feisty laundress, Elena Wade, a sixteen-year-old Anglo/Mexican seizes the moment, takes the gold coins found in the laundry sheets, lifts a brand new Army issue Colt from the supply room, buys a horse, and takes off for the Chisholm Trail in search of the American father she’s never known.

Jan Cleere's biography, Never Don't Pay Attention: The Life of Rodeo Photographer Louise L. Serpa, has been selected as a Finalist for the Indie Book Awards and as a Finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.Louise Larocque Serpa often said she was born “in the wrong place, to the wrong woman, at the wrong time.” Born in 1925 and growing up in New York society with a mother who was never satisfied with her rather lanky, unpolished daughter, teenager Louise eventually found happiness when she spent a summer on a Wyoming dude ranch scrubbing toilets, waiting tables and wrangling cattle. Later in life, she settled in Tucson, Arizona, where her introduction to photographing rodeos came about after a friend invited her to watch his children participate in a junior rodeo competition.

June Member News

Congratulations to you all on your new releases and Kudos to those who have won awards.

 

NEW RELEASES 

Cynthia Woolf, Mail Order Outlaw. Lizzie can’t find a husband and then one shows up unexpectedly. Ed Talbot isn’t husband material. He’s an outlaw, was forced into his father’s gang at the age of thirteen, and is wanted Dead or Alive in more than one territory. Can Ed get away with impersonating Lizzie’s intended? 

LaDene Morton, The Country Club District of Kansas City. One of the grandest experiments of American urban planning, the Country Club District, lies tucked in the heart of Kansas City. Initiated in 1905, it eventually spilled over 6,000 acres and attracted national attention to a city still forging its identity. In her new book, author LaDene Morton examines a project that required a half-century of careful development to fully fulfill the vision of founder J.C. Nichols. Home today to many of the city’s most exclusive residential areas and commercial properties, the district served as a model for residential development in cities all over America in the ways it built communities to stand the test of time.

Vella Munn, One Day, a novella, introduces her four-book contemporary romance series set at Lake Serene in the Oregon mountains where forgiveness and love is possible. The complete series is now available at Amazon and other retailers. Five years ago Jes and Shyla Croft spent their honeymoon at Lake Serene. Now they've returned to end their marriage. They will not speak of what they once believed would last forever. Then Jes hands Shyla something that will make more of an impact than
divorce papers.

 

AWARDS

C.M. Mayo's Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I.Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual (Dancing Chiva), has won the National Indie Excellence Award for History. A blend of biography, personal essay, and a rendition of deeply researched metaphysical and Mexican history that reads like a novel

 

Jane Kirkpatrick, A Light in the Wilderness (Revell) is a 2015 Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist. This is a story of one of the first African American women to come to the Oregon Country. Letitia Carson had reason to bring a lawsuit, a rare thing in a territory that excluded free blacks from even being in it. 

 

Marsha Ward, Gone for a Soldier, the prequel to the Owen Family Saga was named a 2014 Whitney Award Finalist for Historical Fiction. The novel introduces the Owen Family and details their trials on and off the battlefield during the American Civil War. The main characters, Rulon and Mary Owen, learn that not all enemies wear the Union blue.

Carolyn Neithammer The Piano Player The International Book Awards has named as a finalist in the category Fiction: Western. When well-bred Mary Rose follows her dream to rowdy 1882 Tombstone, she quickly discovers that her sheltered life has not prepared her for the challenges of being a piano player in The Bird Cage Theater.

Mary E. Trimble’s memoir, Tubob: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps received the IndiePENdents’ Seal of Good Writing. The IndiePENdents celebrate and recognize the work of independent writers and, as a group, are on their way to making a change in the industry by opening the gates to self-published writers. Tubob: A newly married couple who discover themselves in new light as they work and learn about the culture in a third-world country. They find strength and frustration trying to make a difference.

Andrea Downing, DearestDarling received the Golden Quill Award for Best Novella from Desert Rose branch of RWA. Stuck in a life of servitude to her penny-pinching brother, Emily Darling longs for a more exciting existence. When a packet with travel tickets, meant for one Ethel Darton, accidentally lands on her doormat, Emily sees a chance for escape.