Fun Friday - Meet Linda LaRoque & Giveaway!

Please help my welcome author Linda LaRoque! And not only has she brought A MARSHAL OF HER OWN for a giveaway, but leaving a comment will enter you in the drawing for a KINDLE she will hold on Dec. 18!!!
You can learn more about Linda and all her wonderful work at http://www.lindalaroque.com/
But come on back and visit.
And good luck in the drawings!

Thanks for being my guest, Linda :)





Thanks for having me, Jennifer. Today I wanted to talk about 

Life in the Old West - Cooking in the Victorian Kitchen

 

When writing My Heart Will Find Yours I learned a lot about nineteenth-century kitchens.

Very few homes had an ice box, the kind where a block of ice was delivered to sit in an insulated reservoir in the top of the wooden structure. They were invented for home use in the 1840s, but it wasn't until the 1870s that the U.S. had ice plants that produced artificial ice. In the model seen here, the block would go in the unopened door to the left. As the ice melted the cold water flowed down the sides and kept the contents inside cool. Note the pan on the floor. Of course, in hot weather, the ice didn't last more than a couple of days. Owners had a sign with 25 lbs, 50 lbs, 75 lbs, and 100 lbs on each side. You'd prop the side up with the amount you needed out front so when the iceman came by he'd know what size block to bring in for you. This picture can be found in an online article titled Early Days of Refrigeration at www.lclark.edu/

I found an advertisement for a model almost identical to this one. No date was given but the price was $16.98.

My mother-in-law said that even in the early thirties they kept their perishables in a spring house, a small shed built over a spring. Food was covered with dish towels or cheese cloth to keep out flies and other pests, and the flowing water kept the room cool. Some homes had a larder which was a room on the coolest side of the house or in the cellar. None of these solutions would make modern homemakers happy, but folks back then didn't know any difference and the system worked for them.

No kitchen was complete without a cupboard or Hoosier. Here kitchen utensils were stored. Many had a flour bin (see above right in cabinet), a built-in sifter, a granite or tin top for rolling pie crusts and biscuit dough, and drawers for storage. Note the meat grinder attached to the left and the butter churn on the floor to the right with a wash board behind. Hopefully the homemaker had a sink with a hand pump with room to the side to stack clean dishes to dry. A shelf below would hold pails and a dish pan.

This picture was taken at the East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore, Texas, and dates somewhere around the 1920s or 1930s. The design in these cupboards didn't change much over time so earlier models looked much like this one. Today cupboards or Hoosiers have become popular decorative additions to modern kitchens, as have old ice boxes. I'd love to have one but my kitchen is too small.

Last, but not least, in importance to the homemaker was the
wood cook stove. Before the cast iron kitchen stove was invented, women cooked over hearths with ovens built into the wall, if they were well-off, or outside in a fire pit. Both methods were hard on the back due to bending over to stir food in pots suspended from iron hooks. Cast iron pot bellied stoves, used mainly for heat, could be used for some cooking, but lucky was the woman who had a genuine kitchen cook stove like the one pictured here.

This is a restored model pictured at http://www.bryantstove.com/ Many models such as this one had a copper lined reservoir on the side to keep water warm for beverages, dishwater, or bathing. In my reading I noticed some even had a kick plate to open the oven door when hands were full. Some of these models were designed to use either wood or coal oil. Restored wood stoves are popular and being added to homes of individuals who like antiques and love to cook. They aren't for the person who wants to pop something in the oven and go about their business as the product must be watched carefully to make sure oven temperature is maintained. Also, they're quite expensive, between two and three thousand dollars.

Managing a house hold during this era wasn't for the weak. Just lifting those iron cooking vessels took a strength many modern women don't possess. But, I guess carrying buckets of milk from the barn, doing the wash in the yard using a scrub board, and their other daily chores built muscles.

My time travel heroines face multiple challenges when learning to live and take care of a home in the nineteenth century. Though it’s never easy, their love for their hero gives them the perseverance to adjust to a past way of life.

Marshal of Her Own – Blurb and Excerpt

Blurb:

Despite rumors of “strange doings” at a cabin in Fredericksburg, investigative reporter Dessa Wade books the cottage from which lawyer, Charity Dawson, disappeared in 2008. Dessa is intent on solving the mystery. Instead, she is caught in the mystery that surrounds the cabin and finds herself in 1890 in a shootout between the Faraday Gang and a US Marshal.

Marshal Cole Jeffers doesn’t believe Miss Wade is a time traveler. He admits she’s innocent of being an outlaw, but thinks she knows more about the gang than she’s telling. When she’s kidnapped by Zeke Faraday, Cole is determined to rescue her. He’s longed for a woman of his own, and Dessa Wade just might be the one—if she’ll commit to the past.

Excerpt:

Dessa stood still and watched as they conversed. Something stank to high heaven about this entire situation. Why were the cops chasing robbers on horseback? It’s not like Fredericksburg was that isolated. She glanced at the captured men. The boy moaned, and she made a step to go over and help him. The Marshal spun, and the expression in his eye froze her in place.

 “He needs first aid.”

 “He’s fine. The Doc will tend to him when we get to the jail.”

  “You could at least call 911 and let them patch him up for you.” She nodded to the man lying so still with his eyes closed. “Your other prisoner doesn’t look so good. He’s going to die on you if you don’t start CPR or get him some help.”

 “Lady, no one is going to hear a yell from out here. Never heard of any 911 or CPR.” He propped the hand not holding the shotgun on his hip and threw her a disgusted look. “Are you blind? That man is dead, shot through the heart.”

Her head swam for a moment, and she struggled not to give in to the sensation and faint. She drew in deep gulps of air. “Well...well..., what about the coroner and the meat wagon, not to mention the CSI folks? If you don’t get them to record the scene, how are you going to cover your butt? The authorities might say you shot him in cold blood.”

He looked at her like she’d sprouted an extra head. “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about woman. No one will question my authority. I’m the law in this county. Now, be quiet, or I’m going to gag you.”

A Marshal of Her Own will be available now at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and other online book stores. It is the sequel to A Law of Her Own available at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com and other online book stores. I’m awaiting a release date for A Love of His Own, the third story in the Prairie, Texas series.

My release contest for A Marshal of Her Own began November 9th. I’ll be giving away this vintage rhinestone typewriter pin. To enter the drawing, go to my website or blog and sign up for my newsletter. Don’t forget to verify your email address. If you already receive it, email me at linda@lindalaroque.com with A Marshal of Her Own contest in the subject line. Contest ends December 15, 2011.

Leave me a comment or ask a question today and you’ll be entered into a drawing for an ecopy of A Law of Her Own.

Also, today’s blog post is part of 2 blog tours—this one for A Marshal of Her Own and starting December 4^th, one for Born in Ice. Follow along each day and leave a comment to be entered into the grand prize drawing and learn about my Born in Ice contest. 

The Blog Tour schedule will be posted on my blog and website. It will last 25 days and the Grand Prize is a Kindle. Leave a comment each day and your name will be entered 25 times. Pretty good odds, huh?

Thank you for having me on your blog today, Jennifer!

Tomorrow, Dec. 10th, I’ll be on Allison Knight’s blog at http://www.allisonknight.blogspot.com/ sharing an excerpt from Born in Ice, my futuristic romantic suspense.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda LaRoque

Writing Romance With a Twist in Time

www.lindalaroque.com

http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tinyman#!/linda.laroque

http://twitter.com/#!/LindaLaRoque

 Linda LaRoque is a Texas girl, but the first time she got on a horse, it tossed her in the road dislocating her right shoulder. Forty years passed before she got on another, but it was older, slower, and she was wiser. Plus, her students looked on and it was important to save face.

A retired teacher who loves West Texas, its flora and fauna, and its people, Linda’s stories paint pictures of life, love, and learning set against the raw landscape of ranches and rural communities in Texas and the Midwest. She is a member of RWA, her local chapter of HOTRWA, NTRWA and Texas Mountain Trail Writers.

Free For All Friday -- Meet Author Alison Henderson!

By now all of you know how much I love hosting my "western" girls! Today I'm pleased to have Alison Henderson as my guest. She shares my love for old Westerns - a common trait for those of us writing the genre;)

Alison is published with The Wild Rose Press. Her wonderful story, HARVEST OF DREAMS, is available now, http://www.thewildrosepress.com/, and her next novel, A MAN LIKE THAT, is coming soon!

You can visit Alison at: www.alisonhenderson.com, then come on back and we'll talk with Alison about my favorite topic, western heroes;)

Take it away, Alison!

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

I grew up watching cowboys on TV.  That might date me, but why try to hide it?  When I was growing up, my siblings and I watched Roy Rogers every Saturday morning at my grandmother’s house.  It was a huge treat for us (and for my mother, although I didn’t recognize it at the time).  For years, we never missed an episode of Bonanza.  Maverick?  The Rifleman?  Rawhide?  I loved them all.  To this day, I have a friend who still idolizes Paladin of Have Gun, Will Travel (you know who you are, Liz).  Something about those Western heroes resonated with me as a young girl and still does.

The concept of “The West” has stirred the American imagination since we first became a nation.  The West was a wide open place full of limitless possibilities—a place where a person could invent, or reinvent, himself.  For better or worse, the realities of life on the frontier stripped away the veneer of civilization and exposed a man for who he really was.

The icon of the West in nineteenth century journalism and literature was the cowboy—lawmen and outlaws are just variations.  These men were portrayed as stalwart, courageous, and true to their own code of honor, whether that code fell within the law or not.  They were taciturn and independent to a fault.  What a challenge for a strong woman!

Hollywood has brought us some of the best examples of the Western hero, but to appreciate the archetype you have to look back before the anti-hero of recent Western movies to the golden era of the ‘forties and ‘fifties.  When you think “Western hero”, most people think of John Wayne, and many film critics have rated The Searchers as the greatest Western of all time. 

But I never cared for the tortured character of Ethan Edwards.  I much prefer the Duke in an earlier, lesser known film, Angel and the Badman, in which he plays a gunslinger who is nursed back to health by a Quaker girl and is ultimately forced to choose between the violence of his old life and his burgeoning love for her.  It’s definitely the stuff of which great romance novels are made.    

However, my nomination for the ultimate Western hero is Gary Cooper as Sheriff Will Kane in High Noon.  A man who has vowed to kill Kane is scheduled to arrive on the noon train.  Tension mounts as Sheriff Kane tries to find someone in town to stand up with him against the outlaw, but one after another the townspeople fail him.  Everyone tries to convince him to run away, including his lovely bride, Amy (played by Grace Kelly), but Kane refuses.  We see the sheriff’s growing fear as the hours count down toward noon, but he refuses to give in.  Will Kane is the embodiment of true courage—not the lack of fear but standing resolute in the face of it.  And in the end, he’s saved by the courage of the woman who loves him.   Amy conquers her own fears and acts against deeply held beliefs to save her man.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.        

Real Western heroes are strong, brave, and selfless.  They’re grown-ups.  Now I love charming rogues as much as the next woman, but when it comes to a hero, isn’t that what we really want?  Whether your hero is a vampire, a cop, or a spy, there are few things sexier than a man doing what a man’s got to do.

What do you look for in a hero?

My latest release, Harvest of Dreams, explores many of these themes, and I think my hero can hold his own with the best of them.  Here’s a brief blurb:

Alone on her farm in the middle of a blizzard, young widow Lisa McAllister labors to give birth to her first child.  Help arrives in the strong hands of a stranger wearing a six-gun.  Lisa has no reason to trust this man who makes a living by violence, even if he is on the right side of the law.  Men and their guns have already claimed the lives of her father, brother, and husband, and she’s determined to protect her son at any cost. 

Jared Tanner, a security agent for the stagecoach, has been on his own since he was twelve.  Against his better judgment, his feelings of protectiveness toward Lisa and her baby turn to something deeper, and he is tempted by the possibility of a family of his own. Can their tender new love survive when an act of ultimate violence threatens to tear them apart?

Thanks for joining me today, and I invite you to visit me on the web at www.alisonhenderson.com. 

# # #

Alison grew up in Kansas City on the edge of the prairie.  One of her favorite memories is of the fringed turquoise cowgirl outfit she received for her fifth Christmas.  She went off to New York to study art history at Vassar College but never lost her admiration for the fortitude of the pioneers who settled the American West.  She began writing when her daughter entered pre-school and was quickly captivated by the creative process.

Although she has traveled the world from Japan to Tunisia, Alison has never strayed far from her Midwestern roots.  She and her husband are empty-nesters living in Minnesota, and their daughter is a graduate student in Chicago.

 

Thanks so much for being my guest today, Alison!