This book started with an editor saying, “I’m looking for a Western romcom, maybe with a hero with kids.” I said, “What about a mail order bride?” She said, “Sure.”
So I wrote a few chapters, not sure I could even write a book set in old-timey times. Her reaction? “Where’s the rest?”
That was in mid-2020. The book probably would have come out sooner if I’d finished it that year, but life and pandemic and loss got in the way.
Some good things got in the way, though. My daughter said, “I was reading about divorce in the 1800’s…” and I instantly knew my heroine should be divorced. That meant I had to research divorce law, which was different in every state. I also learned about passenger pigeons and the Oregon trail, revolvers and cholera, and how gold was used as currency. (Sometimes gold dust was stored in goose quills.)
That’s all fun window dressing to a story about a grumpy hero who doesn’t know how to father his children, but learns to show the love he hides beneath his gruff manners. The heroine finds agency and acceptance among the colourful miners of the frontier and gets the family she always longed for along with a husband who really, truly loves her.
I’m so thrilled with how this book turned out. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
