Follow Your Cowboy Heart by Janice Seagraves

Hi, my name is Janice Seagraves, one of the authors in the anthology, Roping the Cowboy.
It is now on preorder at Amazon.
My story is called Follow Your Cowboy Heart.
Its a sweet, one pepper.

This story is inspired by some of the Ag students I knew in HS, and my husband who handed over his paycheck to help his family.

Max the hero is based loosely on a good looking senior (when I was a sophomore) who lost his mom, but in my story he had lost his dad. He wore nice western wear and a cowboy hat. He had black hair he kept short. In my story Max can't afford a hair cut and wears his black hair long and in a ponytail. He doesn't have a lot of nice clothes, but wears his one nice outfit to look for work.

The story is told through Max's POV.

Linda the heroine is based loosely on someone I knew who had became the Barn Queen, but in my story she had been the Homecoming Queen. Her father owns a dairy.

Both Linda and Max are twenty years old in my story, and bump into each other two years after graduation, when Max is looking for a full time job.

Max is from a family of psychics, each with their own particular talent, and Max's talent is animals.

Blurb:

Max struggles daily to hide his psychic gift with animals. Being a hired hand at a local dairy probably wasn't his best idea, but his mom needs the money he brings in. And there's the dairy owner's sexy daughter he can't stop thinking about. Will he ever have anything other than himself to offer her?

Excerpt:

Linda pressed him against the fence and kissed him, hard. Surprise had him opening his mouth, but it also gave her entrance. Her tongue skimmed across his, and he was lost. He invaded her mouth, pursuing her. His placed his arms around her and pulled her against him, flattening her breasts against his chest. Desire spiraled through him.

She slowly pulled back and snuggled against his chest. “Wow. I always wondered what kissing you would be like.”

Rubbing her back, he noticed a little black bird in the tree limb above them. He whistled, and it cocked its head. He continued to mimic bird song, until the starling flew down and perched on his extended finger.

“How did you do that?” whispered Linda.

“It must be used to humans,” he lied. “Did you know starlings are better mimics then mocking birds?”

“No, I didn’t.” She smiled.

“What do you think of Linda?” he asked the bird. Forming what he wanted the starling to do in his mind.

It did a wolf whistle. Linda giggled.

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ABSOLUTELY CAPRI!

Absolutely Capri!

Faraglioni

Happy autumn, everyone. Our theme for September is Absolutely! I’m privileged to have a story in the RB4U anthology, Entice Me, an absolutely terrific set of love stories, coming in October. My story is Capri Nights, a sensual romance set on Italy’s Isle of Capri.

I absolutely love Capri. I’ve visited there twice and hope to go again. It’s a place of wondrous beauty and legend, and one of my favorite places in the world.

From Wikipedia:

Capri is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic.

Some of the main features of the island include the following: the Marina Piccola (the little harbour), the Belvedere of Tragara (a high panoramic promenade lined with villas), the limestone crags called sea stacks that project above the sea (the Faraglioni), the town of Anacapri, the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra), and the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

Blue Grotto

I love anything to do with Ancient Rome, so I’m especially interested in Capri during Ancient Roman times. More from Wikipedia:

Ancient and Roman times

According to the Greek geographer Strabo, Capri was once part of the mainland. This has been confirmed by geological surveys and archaeological findings.

The city has been inhabited since early times. Evidence of human settlement was discovered during the Roman era; according to Suetonius, when the foundations for the villa of Augustus were being excavated, giant bones and 'weapons of stone' were discovered. The emperor ordered these to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, the Sea Palace. Modern excavations have shown that human presence on the island can be dated to the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. Augustus developed Capri; he built temples, villas, aqueducts, and planted gardens so he could enjoy his private paradise.

In his Aeneid, Virgil states that the island had been populated by the Greek people of Teleboi, coming from the Ionian Islands. Strabo says that "in ancient times in Capri there were two towns, later reduced to one." Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri. Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th century.

Augustus' successor Tiberius built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis, one of the best-preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27 AD, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37 AD.

In 182 AD, Emperor Commodus banished his sister Lucilla to Capri. She was executed shortly afterwards.

Marina Piccola

Now you have a little bit about Capri. What I remember most are the flowers everywhere, the festive crowds, the bright colors, the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Naples, and majestic Vesuvius rising in the distance, a monarch surveying his domain.

You can tell the native Italians from the tourists. The natives are better dressed. I loved sitting at the outdoor cafes enjoying luscious meals and rich wines. The Blue Grotto is thrilling and beautiful, but crowded and touristy. In Capri Nights, my heroine, Cat, tells the hero, Alex, that the Blue Grotto is too touristy for her. He tells her it won’t be touristy when she’s with him. And he is so right!

I first visited Capri when I was twenty-years-old. While there, I had a short fling with an Italian named Giuseppe who worked in our hotel. I called him Joseph. I’ve romanticized that fling over the years. Joseph is my inspiration for Alex in Capri Nights.

Here’s my blurb for Capri Nights:

A San Francisco sous chef discovers she might have bitten off more than she can chew when a scrumptious Italian man stirs up a recipe for romance on the delicious Isle of Capri.

Sous chef Cat Connors has spent a lifetime feeling like a stale cracker on a plate of fancy hors d'oeuvres among her stepfamily. But when she travels from San Francisco to the sunny Isle of Capri, she’s determined to finally shed her dowdy image and spice up her life. She has big plans for her future as a chef. Those plans don’t include a yummy Italian with a mouth-watering body and a smile that melts her insides like gelato under the hot Capri sun.

When Alex Viteli retreats to his villa on Capri to escape the notoriety and legal troubles brought on by his family, the last thing he needs is a beautiful, tempting dish of a woman. Alex may be the scion of a wealthy Italian family, but that won’t matter if he can’t cook up a scheme to clear his father’s name and keep himself out of prison.

Though they fit together like strawberries and chocolate, Cat and Alex may not have time for more than a quick bite of romance. Cat’s future is in San Francisco. Alex can’t leave Italy. But the sultry Capri nights might tempt them both to savor just one more sweet taste of love.

Read all the luscious love stories, including Capri Nights, in Entice Me, The Boxed Set, available for pre-order October 1, 2015.

Firemen are HOT!

This week, my latest story, Where there’s Smoke, opened for pre-orders at most major e-tailers, as part of the boxed set, Into the Flames. With seven stories about smoking-hot firemen, by seven incredible authors, (well, six plus me.) it’s already climbing the lists at Amazon and All Romance e-Books.

• Slow Burner by Sam Cheever
• FireBrew by Liz Crowe
• Hook Me Up by Adele Downs
• Flashpoint by Desiree Holt
• Where There's Smoke by Cindy Spencer Pape
•  Uncontrolled Burn: by Nina Pierce
• Rescue Me by N.J. Walters 

 

Here's some Fun Facts about the 1920s and Where there's Smoke

1. Where there’s Smoke was Cindy Spencer Pape’s first book set in the 1920s, but it won’t be the last!
2. The town of Carstairs, Michigan, in Where there’s Smoke, is fictional, but it is based on numerous beach towns along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
3. The Michigan side of the Lake Michigan coast has beautiful beaches and has long been a popular location of summer homes for Chicago’s wealthy.
4. In the 1920’s only the major cities had paid fire departments. That’s why Eli, in Where there’s Smoke, is a volunteer fireman, rather than a professional.
5. Not every girl in the 1920’s bobbed her hair. It was considered a little racy. Since Nettie is an old-fashioned girl in many ways, she’s chosen to keep hers long, which means she still wears it up every day.
6. Nettie wasn’t an uncommon name for a young woman in 1926. I chose it because both my mother and my father, who lived in two different countries, each had an aunt named Nettie, (one short for Arnetta, one for Annetta) both of whom came of age in the 20s.
7. During Prohibition it was quite common to have a doctor prescribe alcohol for medicinal purposes. An unethical physician and an unethical pharmacist in cahoots with a supplier, could easily keep the local drunks lubricated.
8. Much of today’s firefighting equipment has its origins in the 20s. The pump and ladder truck was a new innovation, as were heavy leather helmets and the concept of chemical extinguishers. Fire hydrants weren’t around yet, except in the largest cities, so chemicals were used unless a large water supply was at hand.
9. This was the first time since the Georgian era, where women can openly wear makeup. Lipstick and mascara and eyeliner headed the list. Max Factor and Elizabeth Arden were among the first major brands. Deodorant had been invented but wasn’t available in the stores yet, so ladies used scented dusting powder to absorb any “glow”.
10. Big cities had newsstands where people picked up any newspaper that wasn’t delivered to their doorstep, particularly those from out of town. In smaller communities, the local bookstore often did double-duty. Eli chooses not to get his local paper delivered because it gives him an excuse to see Nettie every day.

You can order your copy at:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B014V84EUI
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/into-the-flames/id1036986607?mt=11
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/into-the-flames-3
All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-intotheflamesboxedset-1881916-166.html

 

It's the Marriage, Not the Wedding

This month we’ve read a lot of interesting and terrific posts about weddings, pearls, and roses. Weddings, Pearls & Roses, sounds like a rock group.

Thirty-nine years ago this month, I was a cliché—a June bride. I never set out to be a June bride. Growing up, I wasn’t like other little girls, dreaming of a big wedding. Maybe I never wanted one because I don’t like being the center of attention. In 1974, on a trip to Northern California with my boyfriend (now husband) to visit my sister, the three of us went to Reno, Nevada, for a few days. Like Las Vegas, Reno is dotted with wedding chapels. I wanted to get married in one of the chapels, dressed in my cutoff jean shorts and halter top, a simple ceremony with only my sister as a witness. My husband, more of a traditionalist than I am, said no. To this day, I wish we’d done that.

Fast forward two years and I’m engaged and planning a wedding. I still didn’t want anything big. Because of the iffy weather on the East Coast, I chose June, not for tradition, but because it’s a month where there’s less chance of rain. I love to attend big weddings, just didn’t want one for myself. When I was growing up, the custom was to invite children to weddings. I remember having great times at family weddings when I was a child. Nowadays, you rarely see children at weddings.

I was married once before, in 1969, at city hall in Toronto, Ontario. For that wedding, I wore a cute ivory-colored body-skimming jersey mini dress. The morning of the wedding, I took the subway to a florist shop and bought a bouquet of violets. I still have the dress. After fifteen months of marriage, I left Canada and my husband. A few years ago, I sold the wedding band from that marriage for the gold.

As you can see from the picture below of my second, and last, wedding, I wore a simple dress, a bridesmaid’s dress, to be exact. I was brought up in a less tolerant time when it wasn’t suitable for women to wear elaborate bridal gowns for second marriages. I’m glad times have changed, but I wasn’t comfortable wearing a traditional gown, and it didn’t go with my idea of a small wedding.

It’s not the size of the wedding, but the marriage that’s important.

If I couldn’t get married in a Reno wedding chapel wearing cut-offs, then I was determined to get married in the Catholic Church. The priest who married us in 1976 was very, very rigid in his ideology. Because my husband and I lived together before marriage, he felt we shouldn’t have a wedding, but that we should sneak into the church and have a private ceremony with no guests. Don’t ever tell me what I can’t do because it makes me more stubborn and strong-willed to do what I want. That priest set roadblocks in front of us every step of the way, and I fought him every step. He wasn’t going to stop me from getting married in my church. He made me get a notarized affidavit from my aunt and uncle, active in their parish, stating that my first marriage wasn’t in the Catholic Church (if a Catholic is married in the Church and subsequently gets divorced, the Church still considers that person married and won’t let them remarry in the Church). I’d shown the priest my marriage license from 1969 showing I’d been married at City Hall, and my divorce papers, but he still insisted on that affidavit. Then he made my husband, who’d been baptized in the Ukrainian Catholic rite, get permission from the Ukrainian bishop to marry in the Latin rite. We persevered and we had a nice, low-key wedding in the church, with the reception in my in-laws’ back yard. The day was sunny and very hot.

Next year we celebrate our 40^th anniversary. We didn’t have an elaborate wedding, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and I didn’t wear a traditional wedding gown. But we’re still together, and that’s all that matters.

Since we’ve had lots of discussions here about weddings, I thought I’d do a little research on the history of marriage.

I read a very interesting essay by Friedrich Engels, in which he gives the origins of the patriarchal societies and marriage. In simple terms, during prehistoric times, women held power in the tribes. As men began to acquire property, they wanted to be sure their property passed down to their legitimate male heirs. Hence, marriages were made that were property contracts. The chivalrous love of the Middle Ages, celebrated in poems and stories of the time, wasn’t conjugal. Among the ruling classes, marriage remained what it had always been, arranged by the parents. Because these marriages were of convenience, in most cases a strategic alliance between families, the married couple looked outside the marriage for romance.

It was quite common in Biblical times, and even now in some countries, to keep marriage within the family. It’s estimated that throughout history, most marriages have been between first and second cousins. Polygamy was also common throughout time. Most instances of polygamy were one man with several wives. In some cultures, the women took multiple husbands.

I found some of the information below at www.livescience.com

Monogamy in Western cultures became the norm somewhere between the sixth and ninth centuries. Even then, a monogamous marriage was very different from the mutual fidelity we demand now.  Up until the nineteenth century, men had wide latitude to be promiscuous. Women, on the other hand, were dealt harsh punishments if they were sexually active.

Marriages in the West were primarily contracts between families, with the Church staying out of it. Until 1500, the Church took a couple’s word that they’d exchanged marriage vows. In the last several hundred years, the state has taken a more active part in marriages. Massachusetts began requiring marriage licenses in 1639.

Mutual attraction and love in a marriage weren’t important until about a century ago. In Victorian England, it was believed women didn’t have strong sexual urges. Love matches gained ground throughout the world as we shifted from an agricultural to a market economy. With women gaining independence and parents no longer holding the purse strings, couples were finally free to marry whom they chose.

Marriage wasn’t about equality until about 50 years ago. As close as the 1970’s, marital rape was legal in many states and women couldn’t open credit cards in their names. (I had trouble getting car insurance in 1971 because I was divorced. I was told, many times by women, when I called insurance companies, that they did not insure divorced women. A divorced man could get insurance). If a wife was injured or killed, the husband could sue the responsible party for depriving him of home services but the wife couldn’t sue under the same circumstances.

Now, we’re seeing same-sex marriage gain ground, and I applaud that. Many would have you believe marriage has always been a sacred, church-sanctioned sacrament, but that’s not the case.

The Marriage Coin Boxed Set is a collection of five original marriage-of-convenience novellas. My contribution is Her Forever Husband, also available separately. Our anthology has been a best seller on Kobo, and is popular in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, places that still have arranged marriages. I think the fact that these are sweet romances, with the lovemaking occurring behind closed doors between married couples, makes the book a favorite in those cultures. The Marriage Coin Boxed Set is 99 cents everywhere. It’s also available in print.

“Flowers make the perfume of love stronger.” 

A mysterious coin is passed down through the centuries to those deserving of Luck and Love. Five couples in different eras each come into possession of the coin and enter into a marriage-of-convenience. Will the coin lead them to love as well as luck? 

Five original sweet novellas by three award-winning authors and two talented debut authors. 

Violet-Any Earl Will Do by Gwendolyn Schuler 
Lilly-The Bronze Talisman by Martha Schroeder 
Rose-The Power of Hope by Kate Welsh 
Poppy-Her Forever Husband by Cara Marsi 
Dahlia-A Gypsy’s Flower by Daria Grady 

http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Coin-Gwendolyn-Schuler-ebook/dp/B00KTJOV3O/?tag=carmaraut-20

Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Coin-Ms-Cara-Marsi/dp/1499745273/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-marriage-coin-gwendolyn-schuler/1119692485?ean=2940149473694

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-marriage-coin

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-marriage-coin/id886478274?ls=1&mt=11

 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/445302

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