Memories of Cowboys Past by Laura Strickland

 
When I grew up way, way back in the 1960s, Western programs dominated our TV screens. Shows like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, and Rawhide gave us a taste of the old West that lives on in my head till this day. Since TV time at our house in Buffalo, New York was family time, I have vivid memories of sitting with my parents and two older sisters to watch program after program. Mom would take us girls in turn to set our hair in rollers or pin curls, while we all absorbed the networks’ versions of what the West should be.

I guess I never realized just how many of those images and how much of that lore went into my head until I was offered a chance to write for The Wild Rose Press’s Wylder West series. I’d never before published a Western Romance, but I was game and plunged right in. The details of those long-ago cowboys, villains, sheriffs, and Western towns came flooding back. Oh, did they ever!

I found myself comfortable in the town of Wylder, Wyoming, a fictional place where the series stories take place. Echoes of programs long off the air reminded me of how a cowboy should talk. How he should walk. How he carried a gun and looked at a woman. There’s nothing quite like the way a cowboy looks at a woman—a little bit shy, a little bit bold. You just know there’s a whole lot of man simmering inside.

What do my memories tell me about what a cowboy should be? Oh, so many things. Hard-working, tough as boot leather, sparing with his words, and with a kind of honor that never bends. Even the gunslingers (whom I admit seduced me a little) had their own kind of honor that made them turn up for a shoot-out, even if the sheriff had the faster gun. In “my day” Rowdy Yates of Rawhide was the cowboy who set all the girls to sighing. No surprise, since he was played by Clint Eastwood at his youthful best!

Blurb:
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Newly retired, Earl Hanson wishes he felt happier about it. He's built a cabin up in the hills and has free time on his hands. He also has the most obnoxious widow in town eyeing him up as a possible husband. What's a beleaguered former sheriff to do?

Fleeing an ugly scandal, spinster Victoria Major takes a job playing piano at the Trail's End Saloon. But it's the roughest watering hole in Wylder, and when the customers turn rowdy, Earl Hanson steps in to protect her. In return, it seems only right she should shield him from the predatory widow, by pretending he's her beau. Of course, it's only make-believe…

Excerpt:
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She inspected this fellow in front of her, and wondered who he was. Not a young man, by any means, he wore a battered hat and had a gun strapped to his side. A heavy coat covered bulky shoulders, a strong figure of just above average height. His hair, gone to silver, matched a pair of lengthy sideburns and a fine moustache. He had a weathered face, and some of the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

“Well now.” He placed an elbow on top of the piano and leaned, effectively screening her from the room and affording a few minutes of blessed relief. “That would be a shame—you leavin’, I mean.”

“It would not. They hate my playing.” She gathered up a raft of music sheets in front of her. “That has been made abundantly clear. I’d better just admit it and—and slink away like a kicked dog.”

He cocked his head. “You the kind of woman who gives up easy?” The bright blue gaze slid over her face. “Got to admit, you don’t look it.”

“This stint has been anything but easy, Mr.—”

“Hanson. Earl Hanson.” He stuck out his hand. “And you are—?”

“Victoria Major.” She had no choice but to slip her fingers into his hand, which felt broad and horny. She wondered if he’d heard that cowhand call her a hag. The second time that had happened in the past five days. Then she wondered why she cared what he’d heard.
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Just another man in this accursed town. Did it matter what Earl Hanson thought of her?

Buy Links:
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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Wyld-Wylder-Laura-Strickland-ebook/dp/B098LXXZKK/ref=sr_1_1

​Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/forever-wyld-laura-strickland/1139794981?ean=2940162487999

​iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/forever-wyld/id1575104221

Author Bio:

Multi award-winning author Laura Strickland delights in time traveling to the past and searching out settings for her books, be they Historical Romance, Steampunk or something in between. Laura is intensely interested in animal welfare and has been privileged to mother a number of very special rescue dogs. Her love of animals and her lifelong interest in Celtic history, magic and music, are all reflected in her writing. Laura's mantra is Lore, Legend, Love, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

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