Rambling----through the mind, through the country and throughout history: Day one Blogger Book Fair with Jacquie Rogers

It is my great pleasure to be apart of the Blogger Book Fair. As we kick off the week long celebration I get the joy to introduce to you a great author. For this first day I have with me Jacquie Rogers.

Dawn: Jacquie, it is great to have you with me today. First tell us a little about yourself. Your likes and dislikes, your favorite foods, your special pets? What makes you…you?

Jacquie: Thanks, Dawn! It’s great to be a guest on your blog and participate in the Blogger Book Fair.

      Likes: the smell of sagebrush, wind rustling through the junipers, baseball, rodeo, and hitting the bulls-eye. I love reading an action-packed novel that makes me laugh and sigh.
      Dislikes: Macaroni and cheese, cleaning house, and over-bearing people.
      Pets: we have one cat named Annie who was feral when we got her thirteen years ago, and only now will let us pick her up and pet her. But she’s a sweetheart, even if she’s a little scaredy.
      Me: I’m outgoing in some situations and a quivering coward in others—sometimes I’m surprised by which is which. I grew up on a dairy farm in Owyhee County, Idaho, which is where my Hearts of Owyhee series

(http://www.jacquierogers.com/hoo.html) is set. It seemed a natural thing since that area isn’t far removed in culture and deed from the wild west, and I use some of my experiences in my fiction.

Dawn: What is the title of your current work and what is it about?

Jacquie: My latest release is a traditional western short story, Muleskinners: Judge Not, in the Wolf Creek, Book 6: Hell On The Prairie anthology.

Before that, I released another short story, a time travel to the future romance, titled Single Girls Can’t Jump.

But my latest novel is the third book in the Hearts of Owyhee series, Much Ado About Mavericks.

Here’s the blurb:

Benjamin Lawrence is a highly respected attorney in Boston, but in Idaho Territory, they still think of him as that gangly awkward boy named Skeeter. When he goes back home to settle his estate, he's confronted with a ridiculous will that would be easy to overturn--but can he win the regard of his family and neighbors--and the foreman?

The Bar EL's foreman, Janelle Kathryn aka J.K. aka Jake O'Keefe, is recognized as the best foreman in the territory. But being the best at her job still isn't enough--now she has to teach the new owner how to rope, brand, and work cattle before she receives clear title to her own ranch, the Circle J. The last thing she expects is rustlers. Can she save her ranch without losing her heart?

Buy Links:

Kindle: http://amzn.com/B008EDN9T4

Print: http://amzn.com/0985923482

Excerpt:

Much Ado About Mavericks

Ben Lawrence could hardly wait to see his mother and sister, even if his stomach soured every time he thought about his childhood home. But he had to take care of the family and ranch now that his father had died. Worse, he had to contend with Jake O’Keefe because Pa thought his own son too incompetent to hire good people, even after four years at Harvard and nine years of practicing law.

The soda was refreshing and he took his time while she waited, not patiently, shifting her weight from left to right, then tossing a few pebbles.

“I think we should reintroduce ourselves.” He placed the mug on the boardwalk and offered his hand. “How do you do? I’m Benjamin Lawrence, visiting from Boston.”

“Janelle Kathryn.” She grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. “I’m surely pleased to meet you.”

He tested his shoulder to see if it still functioned after her hearty handshake. Then, just to knock her off guard, he took her hand and kissed the back of it with grandiose gallantry. “My pleasure, Miss Janelle.”

♥ ♥ ♥

Jumpin’ juniper berries! Jake snatched her scorching hand away from Skeeter’s lips. His well-placed little smacker burned hotter than a branding iron in August. Only better, but she sure as shootin’ wouldn’t admit it to a soul. Ever. Of course, she had no intention of washing her hand for a month either. That hot kiss sent goosebumps clean down to her toes.

She sucked in a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Let’s go.” She hopped onto the wagon and picked up the reins.

Ben leapt onto the seat and took the reins from her. “I’ll drive.”

His thigh rubbed hers. She didn’t know how he could think right if he tingled anything like she did. But, he probably didn’t. She inched away from him as the buckboard moved out of town. She focused on the sagebrush—at least it didn’t knock her plumb senseless. He was too damned good-looking in a dandified sort of way. Taller than she was, too, by a few inches. Few men were. She stood even with Whip, who, although bent with years of hard work, was taller than the rest of the men.

It ate at her that Skeeter muddled her mind so, and she had no idea what got into her to tell him her real name. She’d better set him straight.

“Just so’s you know, I ain’t no simpering female. Folks around here call me Jake. Jake O’Keefe. I expect you ought to call me that, too.”

She nearly laughed at his horrified expression.

“Jake O’Keefe? My foreman?”

Just what she needed—a greenhorn who didn’t think she could do a man’s work. Well hell, she’d already proven herself better than any hand in the territory, and she wasn’t about to do it again—especially to a feller they called Skeeter. “Yup. And just so’s you know, Harley Blacker hired me on with the Flying B, so as soon as I show you the ropes, I’ll be leaving the Bar EL.”

He set his lips firm like he was cogitating. She didn’t know what there was to think about—she’d laid out the deal square enough.

Finally, he said, “All right then, Jake, just so you know, my name is Ben. Benjamin Lawrence. I expect to be called that.” His jaw tensed and his cheek twitched just a might. “And I’d appreciate it if you’d stay on the Bar EL, at least until I get the family affairs settled. I’ll be going back to Boston as soon as I can.”

“Got a woman?” Jake could’ve slapped her own fool face. Why the hell would she care? But that tickly feeling deep inside seemed to make her lose all her brains.

“I have a law practice there. And friends.” He pulled on the right reins and flicked the left side, turning the team onto the Lawrence road. “A lady friend, too.”

Probably some frilly-assed, sappy female who batted her eyelashes at him and giggled at any harebrained thing he said. Men seemed to like such silly critters, although, for the life of her, she couldn’t see why. “Well, I ain’t staying, so you’d better be on the lookout for a new foreman. Fred’s probably your man—he’s been sourer than five-day-old pissed-in milk since the old man chose me over him.”

“Don’t want him. I need you.”

“Tough.”

“How much is Blacker paying you?”

“Eighty dollars and found.”

“I’ll give you a hundred.”

She shook her head. “One-twenty and found.”

“One-ten.”

“And found—ain’t interested in eating my own cooking.” She’d starve to death if she did. Whip had taught her how to rope, shoot, and just about everything else, but he never could teach her how to cook. Every concoction she had tried ended up looking and smelling like fresh-branded cowhide. Not that she’d wanted to learn in the first damned place.

He nodded. “And found.”

“I’ll take it. Six months I’ll give you. But come spring, I’m working my own ranch, so you better get used to the idea.”

“One-twenty and found for any months you work after six.”

“I ain’t budging.”

“All right, for now I’ll take six months at a hundred and ten dollars and found. Shake?”

She wasn’t so sure she wanted to feel his hand on hers again—more dangerous than a rattlesnake with a toothache. Grabbing his hand, she gave it one shake and let go immediately, wiping her hand on her pants. “Deal.”

But it would be a helluva long six months if she buzzed like her guts were filled with bumblebees every time Ben Lawrence took a gander at her.

Dawn: Awesome excerpt. How long did have you been writing and when did you know that writing was what you wanted to do? What kind of writer are you, a plotter or a pantser?

Jacquie: My mother wanted me to be a writer so of course I did everything I could think of except write, and only started about 15 years ago. So I’m not one of those who say they were born with pencils in their hands. As for how I go about creating a story, it all starts with characters and I don’t write a single word until I understand my characters as well as myself. Then I plot out the bones of the story, write out a few scene ideas along the way—but then it’s all seat-of-the pants. So 50/50.

Dawn: Share your social profiles with us. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest…where do you spend your cyber-time?

Jacquie: I’m on Facebook more than the others, but it’s frustrating because I’m at my friends limit, so I’ll include the link to my author page.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JacquieRogersAuthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JacquieRogers

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jacquierogers

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jacquierogers

Blogs:

Romancing The West: http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com

Jacquie Rogers, Author: http://jacquierogers.blogspot.com

Website: http://www.JacquieRogers.com

Dawn: If you could travel to any-where or any-when…when and where would that be? What would you do when you got there?

Jacquie: That’s a hard one because I’d like to go everywhere, just about any time—it’s all fascinating to me. I’d love to visit Ancient Greece and before that, Ancient Babylonia. But since I write Westerns, the first place I’d like to visit would be Silver City, Idaho Territory, in the early 1880s. Some things just can’t be learned from books—daily life of those who were never written about, for instance. It would be interesting to follow a rancher’s wife around all day (if I had the stamina!), and the rancher, too. I’d love to go on a wild horse roundup. Then there’s town life. The general store’s contents would tell me a lot, and who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall in a saloon or brothel?

Dawn: What draws you to the genre or genres in which you write?

Jacquie: For the Westerns, it would be the fiercely independent spirit and can-do attitude that I so admire. The lawlessness and resulting moral code interests me. Rooster Cogburn might not have been a model citizen, but he never waivered from his personal moral code.

For my Fantasy stories (Faery Special Romances and others), I’m drawn by the magic. Life is magic but we mostly ignore it, so in fiction we can magnify it and even glorify it. Besides, I’d love to clean my house with a twitch of my nose like Samantha Stevens in Bewitched!

Dawn: Who is your favorite author and why? Which book speaks to you the most?

Jacquie: I have never read by author and in fact, I’m pathetically name-challenged, so rarely ever remember the titles or authors of the books I’ve read. That said, there are a few that stick in my mind, the first being Mary Renault and her novels set in Ancient Greece. Great books, all, my favorite being The King Must Die. Western authors: Louis L’Amour is the king, of course. Currently, I’m reading books by Troy D. Smith and James Reasoner, and am also drawn to books by Robert Randisi and others. For a list of who’s who in western fiction, go to the Western Fictioneers site (http://www.westernfictioneers.com) and click on Members. In Romance, there’s Leigh Greenwood, Maggie Osbourne, Kathleen Eagle, Gerri Russell, Gina Robinson, Heather Hiestand, and in Mystery, there’s Ann Charles and Wendy Delaney (new author). A slew more.

But like I said, I don’t choose books by author or title. I read the blurb, click on Look Inside, and whatever interests me, I buy.

Dawn: What do you like to listen to when you write? Music, TV, silence?

Jacquie: Usually, I listen to four little boys fight. Peace and quiet would sure be nice.

Dawn: When do you find the time to write? Are you an early morning person or a late at night writer?

Jacquie: Night owl. I write from 10pm to 5am, and go to bed around 6am.

Dawn: Tell me about any promotions or contests you are running? Where can we go to sign up and what are the rules?

Jacquie: Besides the Blogger Book Fair, I’m in the Western Roundup Giveaway Hop. I’m giving away several books and you can find out more at Romancing The West: http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com.

It’s been fun today, Dawn, and once again, I’d like to thank you for hosting me on your blog for the Blogger Book Fair. I hope everyone checks out your post on my blog at http://jacquierogers.blogspot.com

Jacquie Rogers, thank you for being with me today. I enjoyed learning about your book and look forward to reading it.

Check out Jacquie's blog at http://jacquierogers.blogspot.com

and come back to see me tomorrow to meet my guest Zrink Jelic.