Special Guest:: Starla Kaye!

 There's nothing I like more than someone taking over my blog! And, I couldn't be happier that Starla Kaye has agreed to do so! So, sit back and enjoy her confessions about cowboys! And, leave a comment below with your email address and Starla will randomly draw a commenter to win a copy of Cowboys In Charge and a surprise Christmas gift!

All I Want For Christmas Is…a Cowboy

A cowboy…maybe two or three…or seven. Cowboys in Charge, my newest release from Black Velvet Seductions, an anthology of seven strong and loving cowboys and their women comes out the first week in December. This is a Christmas anthology that I hope will warm your heart.

I’ve been in love with cowboys most of my life. I grew up watching Westerns with my dad, science fiction, too. He was eclectic in what he liked and so am I. Sometimes it was the good guy I pulled for. Sometimes it was the Western bad boy.

When I first started playing around with writing, I did a lot of fan-fic type stories based on old TV westerns and cowboy heroes. Gunsmoke, with Marshall Matt Dillon (tall, strong-willed, big heart), Doc, Chester, and Kitty (the independent woman who could wind them all around her little finger) was one of my favorite shows to play with. It had my perfect set-up: the big, sometimes gruff Marshall, sidekicks, and, of course, the woman he loved and who drove him crazy at times. And it took place in Dodge City, Kansas, one of the most familiar places in the Old West.

The Big Valley was another show that intrigued me and gave me lots of story ideas. A strong-willed, widowed mother, three handsome and very different sons, and a daughter. What a great set-up for a cast for many of my early stories.

One of my novels from Blushing Books, Whiskey’s Rebellion, was loosely based on these two TV Westerns. It was great fun playing with some of the actual people and actual places from Dodge City. And I loved “torturing” a hardened U.S. Marshall by pushing him together with the younger sister of his trail buddy. She was spoiled by her three older brothers and extremely independent, perfect for driving the man nuts.

What in particular do I like about cowboys? Their devotion to the brand they ride for. Their respect for women, even in the times they are most frustrated with them. Their confidence and certainty that they know what is right and what is wrong. Of course, these are the fictionalized, perfected cowboy heroes. To knock off some of that “perfection,” add a bit of bad boy attitude.

I’ve published a ton of cowboy stories, contemporary and historical, as well as heroes from other time periods and other careers. But time and again I come back to writing about cowboys. In this newest anthology, Cowboys in Charge, I have seven cowboy heroes: Joshua, Jason, James, Adam, Ryan, Trent, and Justin. (Wow, I just now noticed I had four heroes whose names started with “J.”) The short stories include a couple struggling over having a baby, a couple facing financial problems because of the wife’s shopping addiction, a couple drifting apart and trying to find their way again, a couple deciding about kicking up the wilder side of their life even more, a couple considering divorce, a couple facing the tough decision of whether to marry or not, and a couple dealing with the too-little-time issue.

AUTHOR INFO

Website:  http://starlakaye.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/StarlaKayeWriter

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/starla_kaye

Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002ZH8K3U

Authors Den:  http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?authorid=151725

Title:  Cowboys in Charge

Publisher:  Black Velvet Seductions

Release Date:  First week in December

ISBN:  978-1-936556-14-4