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Welcome to the Springtime in the Country Blog Hop!

With most of the country just staring to melt out from under an arctic winter… I decided it’s time to start thinking SPRING!

So… Cowboy lovers, what is your favorite springtime pleasure? Is it frolicking in the bluebells with your lover? Or is it rolling in the fresh hay with that cowboy after a long ride over the countryside? You tell me, because without a doubt there’s nothing like springtime in the country…

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My Country Springtime Memories

I LOVE Spring. It’s my favorite season and in my contemporary western romance Gambling On A Secret, I really got the chance to explore what goes on during the spring on a working ranch.

Spring is the season when crops are planted—corn, soybean, and even hay (such as alfalfa and some grasses can be planted in the early spring). This is also the time of year most horses foal and cows calve. If a farmer or rancher buys caves, they do so in the spring. Fences are also mended in the spring. I used all of these elements in Gambling On A Secret to give it a “real” feel.

Charli buys a ranch that had not been worked for five years. She has to start from the ground up if she wants this place to be a working and productive ranch. I show her doing these things—with the help of her ruggedly handsome, ex-Special Forces Commander ranch manager.

When I wrote Gambling On A Secret, I drew on my memories of what springtime was like when I was a kid. I grew up on a farm. It wasn’t a ranch nor was it even in the West—unless you can count West Central Pennsylvania as the west. >grin< But some things are the same no matter what part of the US you are in. Growing up, spring was a time of constant activity. We didn’t have horses (much to my ever eternal disappointment), but we did have cows. My grandma raised Herefords and black Angus. She’d breed the cows in the summer and the calves would be born sometime between late February to early April.

We also raised chickens—both for meat and for eggs for our families (mine, Grandma and my aunt’s) to eat and to sell. Every April Grandma would get a hundred or so peeps. She’d keep them in a big wooden box on her built-in porch where she could keep them warm for about 2 weeks. Then once they started to get their wing and tail feathers, she’d put them in a coop. We also had ducks—I’ll never forget the one that thought I was his momma and followed me around from the day I helped him out of his shell in April to late summer when he decided to go on his own. Or the big ole tom turkey that liked to boss the chickens and ducks around at feeding time and was my best friend when I was little. Who needs dogs and cats when they have a turkey?

But the animals, wasn’t the only thing we raised. We also ran a small truck farm so this was the season of planting. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, several kinds of beans and cucumbers made up most of our crops. There was always an excitement in the air as mid-May rolled around and planting time began. The harvests we shared among ourselves (my mom, Grandma and my aunt) for canning and freezing and sold what we didn’t use.

These are my treasured memories of Spingtime in the Country… What do you love about the springtime whether it’s in the country or not?

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Re-released by Kensington Publishing/Lyrical Press imprint at new lower price!

*For excerpts and reviews, click on the title links*

Gambling On A Secret

Book 1 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

When Charli bets everything on a secret, will she find the deck stacked against her?

Former runaway-turned heiress Charli Monroe is hiding her sordid past and planning a future in Colton, Texas. Attending the local college for a degree in social work, she intends to raise cattle on her newly purchased ranch, which she plans to open as a home for troubled teens. Only a few glitches—the Victorian mansion is crumbling, the barn needs a roof, and her oilman neighbor wants more than friendship. When she meets Dylan Quinn, Charli is willing to take a chance on the town drunk to help her rebuild the rundown ranch.

Dylan has his demons, too. The former Special Forces commander can’t get past his ex-wife’s betrayal and the botched mission that left him with much more than a bad limp. Certain the greedy oilman next door to Charli wants much more than just her heart, Dylan’s even willing to stop drinking in order to protect her.

When things get dangerous and secrets of the past are revealed, is he only looking out for his new employer, or is she the new start he so desperately needs?

$2.99 at these retailers:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Gambling On A Heart

Book 2 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

She once lost his heart on a bluff. Will she risk everything to win it back?

Beautician Tracy Quinn spends her days making the women of Colton, Texas beautiful, while living down the nickname of Olive Oyl, given to her by the only man she has ever loved—Zack Cartwright. She spends her nights alone, despite what her ex husband wants their friends and neighbors to think.

Ex-rodeo cowboy. Ex-bad-boy. Ex-Marine. Widower and single dad Sheriff Zack Cartwright can describe his life in exes. One ex in particular reminds him of what’s missing in his workaholic life: Tracy Quinn. For years since she broke his heart, he’s practically made avoiding her a second job. He still wants her, but can never go after her.

When cattle rustlers target her brother’s ranch, Tracy and Zack are stuck working together. Her son could use a positive male role model, and his daughter is wild for a chance at a “substitute” mom. But Tracy’s ex threatens to sue if she lets Zack near her son, and the Colton grapevine is abuzz with rumors about their past relationship. Is it worth the gamble to see if what they have is more than lust?

$2.99 at these retailers:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Heartstrings

Blurb:

He’s determined to set things right, no matter the cost.

The last person Abby Crawford wants to face down is country music superstar Seth Kendall. Last time she did, she flat-out lied so he’d go to Nashville without her. She’s never understood why their mutual best friend proposed, but she went with it so her baby wouldn’t be fatherless. Now she’s a divorced mother of a teenager, and secretly Seth’s biggest fan.

Seth is home in McAllister, Texas for his father’s funeral…and a chance to meet the daughter he’s never known. He’s willing to face the music of his own making and admit he’s known about his little girl all along. For fifteen years he’s kept his distance because Abby told him to follow his dreams without her, insisting she didn’t love him. But now he won’t leave until he knows his daughter and she knows him, even if it means facing the woman who broke his heart for good.

Confessing she’s lied about her daughter’s paternity all these years won’t be easy for Abby, especially with her ex blackmailing her to keep the secret. And Seth doesn’t know the hardest truth of all: Every love song he plays on his guitar still plucks her heartstrings.

$3.99 at these retailers:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barns and Noble | iTunes | Kobo .

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BLOG HOP GRAND PRIZE

$100 Gift Card to either Amazon or B&N (winner’s choice)

To enter in this prize, click HERE for the Rafflecopter to enter. 

OPEN TO BOTH US and INTERNATIONAL COMMENTERS. Must be 18 years old or older eligible. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. See the Rafflecopter for all terms/conditions.

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MY PRIZE

Treasure Box containing a $10 Gift Card for Subway, Beaded Watch custom made by me, Journal Notebook, Magnet Calendar, and an e-copy of my novella The Birthday Fantasy.

Total prize worth $35

To enter for this drawing, click for the Rafflecopter HERE. 

 OPEN TO US CITIZENS ONLY. Must be 18 years old or older eligible. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. See the Rafflecopter or Giveaway Rules for all terms/conditions.

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Please Visit all 33 Participating Bloggers

1. Sara Walter Ellwood	2. Tera Shanley	3. Krista Ames
4. Gladiator’s Pen	5. Journey where the path leads@ Dorothy Bell’s blog	6. Aileen Fish, Love as Old as Time
7. D’Ann Lindun	8. Liberty Ann’s SnifferWalk Books	9. Harlie Williams, Writer
10. Lorraine Paton	11. Mary M. Forbes – Cowboys and Romance	12. Sarah Kades
13. Riding into the Sunset	14. Musings From the Keyboard	15. Kristina Knight, Romance Author
16. Bound By Passion	17. Savannah Young’s Wilde Riders	18. Andrea Downing: My World, My Word, My Work
19. Kathleen Ball Western Romance	20. Randi Alexander	21. Romancing The West with Jacquie Rogers
22. Jeanine McAdam	23. Lily Graison	24. Words, Words, Words ~ Margo Bond Collins
25. Lynn Cahoon	26. Some Like It Hotter	27. Shanna Hatfield
28. Charlene Raddon’s Chatterblog	29. ActuallyAlethea	30. Bucket List
31. Gem Sivad	32. Savanna Kougar	33. Abigail Sharpe