September New Releases

Michigan & Rookie

by Joaquin Guerrero

as told to Barbara Mershak

It’s been said there is no bond greater than between a K9 handler and his partner. In Saginaw, Michigan—a city plagued with gang violence, Officer Joaquin Guerrero sensed God’s call to work the dangerous night streets with his K9 partner, Rookie. On 9/11 Guerrero responded to Ground Zero with Rookie and for seven long days the pair worked “The Pile” with a never-give-up spirit. Michigan and Rookie is a dog story, a cop story, a Ground Zero story, and a faith story.

Michigan and Rookie: Guardians of the Night is available at Bookhouse Fulfillment through Beaver’s Pond Press at Bookhousefulfillment.com

Visit Barbara at www.barbaramarshak.com and http://barbara-hh.blogspot.com

Published by Beaver’s Pond Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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What the Heart Knows

A Milford-Haven Novel

by Mara Purl

Miranda Jones  has always used her head. Her artist’s rep and mentors, parents and sister, always advised she must. With her paintings at a major fine art gallery, her journey as a struggling artist is finally paying off. But while her head told her success in a big city was what she wanted, her heart told her a simpler life in a small community would feel like home. Now that she’s moved, deeper questions surface: What is her life purpose? What’s missing? And what does her heart know that her head keeps ignoring?

California’s Central Coast  is  growing explosively. Now, in the mid-1990s, tourism is up, but so are environmental regulations.  Housing is on the rise, but so are water restrictions. Gambling is limited, but the Chumash tribe lobbies for a gaming casino. The stock market is booming, the upwardly mobile are pouring out of Los Angeles in search of a fresh start, or a weekend getaway. In these affluent, pre-9-11 days, it’s a time of infinite possibilities.

Milford-Haven is a town full of characters. Escapees from San Francisco and Los Angeles, New York and Arkansas, Montreal and South Africa, have come here with their own  hopes and expectations, agendas and shadowed pasts. The stakes are high: create a new life from scratch. The opportunities are dazzling: own a piece of the California dream. It’s a town of buried secrets and a dangerous mystery, quaint shops and breathtaking vistas, peaceful solitude and spontaneous conversations. What draws people here is the sense that—in their heart of hearts—they know there’s something they’ve always wanted to do. And if not now . . . when? So look for the sign to Milford-Haven, pull off Highway 1 and stop by. Come discover for yourself . . . What the Heart Knows.

Order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Visit Mara at www.marapurl.com

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Before the Lark

In a new edition from Texas Tech,

a classic novel of the American Midwest

by Irene Bennett Brown

It is 1888 and Jocey Royal lives with her ill grandmother, a washerwoman, in Kansas City, Missouri. Since her mother’s death, Jocey’s father has become a drifter. Twelve-year-old Jocey, the target of torment due to her cleft lip, no longer goes to school but she reads and out of her books come dreams. In particular she dreams of the farm her father abandoned in Kansas. On the farm, no one would ever see her. Eventually she talks Gram into going there with her.

Life on the farm is not what Jocey expected. The work is hard as she knew it would be. But there are neighbors and traveling salesman that cannot be avoided. There are problems with Gram who is determined to be an invalid, though she is not one.

Jocey wonders of she made the right decision, until the friendship of a young neighbor and his family shows she can have friends despite her facial disfigurement. And finally, the hope for an operation further opens new vistas for the plucky girl.

A Junior Literary Guild Selection, Bank Street College choice for Best Books for Children, and winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile Book.

Order toll-free from Texas Tech University Press: 800.832.4042.  Also available through your favorite bookstore or  Amazon

Visit Irene at www.irenebennettbrown.com

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Montana Dreams

A Western Historical Romance

by Velda Brotherton

One her way from Kansas City to Virginia City, Montana, Dessa Fallon is kidnapped by outlaws. She escapes into the arms of Ben Poole. She learns her parents have perished in a fire and that they had information about her brother, who was thought killed in the war. 

Sheltered by her family's wealth, Dessa must learn to survive in the Big Sky Country which she comes to love. She and Ben search for her brother and build a new life together. 

The book is available at Amazon.

Visit Velda at www.veldabrotherton.com

A Kindle release by Velda Brotherton

August New Releases

When Hummers Dream

A Mitford-Haven Story

By Mara Purl

Miranda Jones loves her new hometown Milford-Haven. But why do the tourists have to come and spoil it? Of course, it’s their summer-visits that fuel the town’s economy for the whole year, so she shouldn’t be complaining. But where’s their respect for the local wildlife and the blissful quiet of the peaceful Central Coast?

Hummingbirds make Milford-Haven their summer home, spinning through the lush local gardens and sipping ambrosia from a multitude of flowers. Miranda visits her favorite garden to create her latest watercolor, but finds a close encounter with a tiny bird changes everything...

Don’t miss the story before the story...the short story that happens right before Book One, What the Heart Knows.

Published by Bellekeep Books

Available for download at www.amazon.com
Visit Mara at www.marapurl.com

June New Releases

Married Into It

by Patricia Frolander

Vivid, honest, and full of the beautiful clarity of hard won expression, these are poems that will change the way the world thinks about women in ranching. Beneath the tough conditions and unrelenting work of western ranch life lie unbreakable threads of tenderness and conviction, ones that tie working hands to stalwart hearts, and observant minds to the absolute soul of the Earth.”

** Laurie Wagner Buyer, author of When I Came West

Published by High Plains Press

Available at bookstores or direct from publisher at www.highplainspress.com

May New Releases

Contact Creede!

by Barbara Marriott

It is 1892 and Leonarda Stanton Worthington (Just call me Leo) is on her way west to 

search for a father who abandoned her twenty years ago.  Along the way she meets trouble; Leo is shot, almost blown up, kidnapped, and saved from a disastrous fire by Bat Masterson.  Join Leo in her madcap romp through Colorado's Old West. 

The book is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, bookstores, and www.fireshippress.com.  Available in print, e- book format, and flash drive. 

Check Barbara's web www.barbaramarriott.com 

published by Fireship Press.

March and April New Releases

Katy Creek

Wild Rose CD

Katy Creek released their latest CD titled Wild Rose in February at the 2011 Cochise County Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Sierra Vista, AZ.

The new project is thirteen tracks nearly an hour long of mostly original works. Songs included in this project are Wild Rose, Cowboy Willie, a song about a vaquero who would visit Wes' family each year when Wes was a young boy; Riding Back to Texas, a fun swing tune about a cowboy heading home after the drive; Sarah Hogan, a tragic love story written by John Lowell; Headstone By the Trail, a true story co-written by Les Buffham and Nancy Ruybal; The Dream, a poem by Wes Ruybal that leads into the dreamy song/recitation of Campfire Reflections; Wild Colts and Wild Hearts by Jon Cook, a Grand Lake, CO Cowboy;   Because "Lawman of the Trail" from our CD "Autumn's On Its Way" went number one on the Sunset Western Radio charts, we could not resist giving you, Saddle Up!/Thunder Over the Prairie, another law enforcement dedication, this one inspired by Chris Enss book Thunder Over the Prairie.

Just An Old Cowboy, a waltz tune about the passing of days; Where the Wind Blows A Different Song, a cowboy's lament presented in the manner of the great Western musicals like "How the West Was Won;" The Voice in the Desert, a Gospel poem leading in to A River Wild and Bold, a Gospel song both about a sudden and profound realization and redemption.
 

We are pleased to have Grammy nominated and award winning International Bluegrass Musicians Association (IBMA) fiddler Doug Bartlett lending his musicianship and vocal skills throughout the work, as well as Western Music Association award winning Jeanne Cahill of the duo Call of the West on vocals (Where the Wind Blows a Different Song) and guitar work throughout. 

Cover design by Nancy Ruybal and graphic art by Ryan Johnson at Marooned Echoes. Photograph taken at Old Tucson Studios on the High Chaparral movie set. The stories and inspirations behind the songs and poems are available on request.   

Produced by Doug Bartlett and Nancy Ruybal, and recorded at Dreams Captured Studios in Maricopa, AZ, Wild Rose can be purchased for $18.00 including shipping by mailing your request to Nancy Ruybal, PO Box 187, Stanfield, AZ. 85172;  through the Katy Creek Band website at www.katycreek.com, and will soon be available at CD Baby.

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   Baby Doe Tabor

Matchless Silver Queen

by Joyce B. Lohse

Baby Doe Tabor: Matchless Silver Queen is the biography of a legendary woman who went from rags to riches, and back to rags again, during the boom and bust days of early Colorado's mining history.

After writing several books for the “Now You Know Bios” YA series, Joyce B. Lohse's latest book is written for a general audience, and is appropriate for history buffs of all ages.

As with many historic characters, Baby Doe Tabor was surrounded by myths and misconceptions. After extensive research among archival materials and primary sources, Elizabeth Tabor’s “voice” was found to help discover the truth about her life. This book is available upon request from your local library or bookstore. 

Available here at Amazon.com, LohseWorks.com, FilterPressBooks.com, and others. Retail distribution is through BooksWest. Check the Events and Appearances schedule at LohseWorks.com for booksigning appearances by the author.

With Baby Doe Tabor: Matchless Silver Queen, author Joyce Lohse has accomplished something remarkable. Not only has she retold Colorado history’s most famous soap opera in terms appropriate for all ages, but she has also presented the notorious 'Baby Doe' as a sympathetic character. Rare is the biography that neither demonizes nor romanticizes Elizabeth Tabor. By focusing on her determination and her devotion to her family, Lohse manages instead to humanize this often misrepresented folk heroine. --Debra Faulkner, Author, Brown Palace Hotel Historian and Metropolitan State College of Denver Faculty.

February New Releases

Lady Lavender

by Lynna Banning

This is an "old west" story set in Oregon in 1873, about a young French woman who grows lavender for her livelihood and the Oregon Central Railroad executive intent on laying his railroad tracks through her lavender fields.


Published by Harlequin Mills & Boon Historical
Visit Lynna at  www.lynnabanning.com or www.historyhoydensblogspot.com


Lady Lavender can be published here at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or Borders. 

Writers of 

the West

Writers of the West is a new blog site featuring interviews with novelists and nonfiction writers, both contemporary and historically set west of the Mississippi. 

C. J. Box and a rare interview with Louis L'Amour are currently featured and Joyce Lohse, Lucia St. Clair Robson and Craig Johnson will be featured in December. Five copies of Maverick Writers will be given away in a drawing this month to those who sign up as followers, and the blog interviews will appear in a Kindle book next year.


http://www.writersofthewest.blogspot.com/

If you have at least one traditionally published book and would like to be interviewed, contact JeanHenry@aol.com.

December New Releases

Myths and Mysteries of New Mexico: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained 

by Barbara Marriott

Thirteen Mind-Boggling Tales from the land of Enchantment

New Mexico is a mischievous child that has offered herself up in the most outlandish ways. From unsolved western mysteries, to treasurers both hidden and beyond man’s reach. New Mexico glitters. But she doesn’t stop there. She reaches into outer space to offer a perplexing puzzle then, shocks the world with one of the most important, and deadly discoveries.

Time has no limit on her amazing discoveries. George McJunkin, an honored cowboy made a discovery about ancient man that changed our anthropological history. Even New Mexico’s ghosts are a quirky lot including the gambler who won a pot, but lost a hotel and refuses to give it up for the afterlife.

New Mexico mysteries and myths will promise you an easy read of fun and adventure, not to mention some interesting history. 

Published by Globe Pequot Press

Available for purchase at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Globe Pequot and at barbaramarriott.com

Visit Barbara at www.barbaramarriott.com

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Day Unto Day

by Louise Lenahan Wallace

With the Civil War behind them, Ethan Michaels, a widower with a young daughter, and Larissa Edwards, whose husband was killed in the war, look forward to living out their days on the family farm in Ohio. Fate, however, has other plans.

Larissa's daughter survives a deadly illness, but with tragic, far-reaching consequences. Larissa and Ethan have planted their marriage in the rich soil of shared love, but when someone from Larissa's earlier life appears, the roots stretching deep into their separate pasts yield heartbreak that threatens to destroy their new-found happiness.

Published by All Things That Matter Press.

Available for purchase at allthingsthatmatterpress.com

Visit Louise at www.louiselenahanwallace.com/

November New Releases

Paradise Ridge

By Sue Cauhape

A young Nevada buckaroo rejuvenates the vigor and good fortune of those around him, showing the true magic of the Seventh Son. But is his power supernatural or the accidental gifts of an observant young man?

Everyone around Leandro Arriaga sees him differently, but who is he really: the mythic Seventh Son of his father’s imaginings or the spawn of a prostitute bent on destroying the House of Arriaga?

When a fall from a horse forces Leandro into the care of his estranged sisters, he heals ancient wounds inflicted by his birth. An unexpected inheritance presents the opportunity to help his siblings develop their ambitions. In doing so, Leandro establishes a new trust in his family.

Though he gives so freely to others, his own life spirals downward in a series of events that challenges his faith. The most humiliating incident of all, however, helps him understand his young and fragile Shoshone wife, Lucy. In the end, he comes full circle, reclaiming his wife and son and his own paradise on the beautiful Nevada range. With the majesty of the American West and wild horses as a backdrop, Paradise Ridge traces the serpentine course Leandro and Lucy must travel to return to grace and walk in beauty.

Like peeling away the layers of an onion, this 21st-Century western saga draws upon the vaquero, Basque and Shoshone traditions to add texture to a story of betrayal and regeneration. An ensemble of quirky characters reveals how personal mythologies can guide or mislead us, delivering the tragedy, comedy and ironic twists that come when we misinterpret a person’s true identity.

Published by Robertson Publishing

Purchase here at Robertson Publishing, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble

Visit Sue at www.ringaroundbasin.com

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Spooky Creepy North Dakota

by Lori L. Orser

Travel the prairies of North Dakota to discover ghost stories, rural legends, andhaunted places that dot this state. Visit the haunted San Haven Sanatorium, where over 1100 people died of tuberculosis and eerie spirits still linger! Travel to college campuses where students died but never left.


Learn about haunted historic homes, the ranch cabin where President Teddy Roosevelt's ghost remains, along with more modern homes whose former residents still make their presence known. Puzzle over three mysterious and famouse murders in North Dakota -- do the victims still haunt the plains?


Did Satanists connected to the Son of Sam murders have a hideout in theghost town of Tagus? And visit sacred sites of the earliest residenets of North Dakota, and learn about their histories and ghost stoires. Spooky Creepy North Dakota will haunt your dreams!

Published by Schiffer Publishing

Purchase here at Lori's website, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com

Visit Lori at www.lorisbooks.com and http://www.LeeScott58.wordpress.com 

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Jackson Hole Journey 

(Yellowstone Series - Book 4)

by Linda Jacobs

Immigrant Francesca di Paoli reaches Jackson Hole in 1925 . . . and narrowly misses dying in the historic Gros Ventre landslide. Poised above homes and ranches, will the wall of debris hold back the dammed waters?

Over the next two years, Francesca cooks at the Snake River Dude Ranch, where the Sutton family's sons compete for her. Firstborn William appears the steady one, but wants to be seen as more than the owner's son. Bryce, believing his parents care more for William, spends time away until he meets Francesca.

Tensions rise as their Nez Perce uncle comes to the ranch to die, attracting the Klan's attention, and earth tremors shake up the landslide dam. Swept up in the floodtide of history, what will become of Francesca, William, and Bryce?

Published by Books in Motion

Purchase the audio original here at Booksinmotion.com and Audible.com


Visit Linda at www.readlindajacobs.com