Author Collaboration and a Sale by Paty Jager

 Lauri Robinson has a busy schedule this month and she asked me to re-post this from another blog.

© Can Stock Photo Inc. / pzAxe

Several years ago Lauri Robinson sent me an email asking if I'd like to write a book with her. She had an idea of a story that would be half one sister's point of view and half the other sister's. It sounded like a fun project, and we started connecting for live chats and sending emails back and forth giving the sisters a back story and discovering what each one of us would write about for our half of the book.
Here's a bit of our discussion via an online chat:

paty: I would think I get the Oregon sister.

lauri: I'm game for that. I'll take the Colorado gal. What ages do you think would work best. I was thinking old enough to really remember each other, but young enough that they couldn't be on their own. Hence the other families taking them in.

paty: Yeah, I'm thinking 10 and 12 or 11/13 but not much older or the oldest one could have actually been taken as a bride.

lauri: Right, and the gold rush in Co. was from 59-63. Loads of wagon trains flowed in during 61-62. So if we have the girls start looking for each other when they turn 16-18 it would put the stories in the late 70's. Gosh is my math right there?

lauri: Nope early 1870's.

paty: I was thinking maybe have a town somewhere in between where they end up as the place their family was heading and that could be where they meet at the end.

lauri: Oh! I like that--Montana?

lauri: Or when did Las Vegas come about?

paty: That would be out of the way. If you mean Las Vegas NV.

paty: There were gold rushes in Idaho and Montana in the 60's.

lauri: Either one sounds good.

paty: I'll have to look at maps and some history and get back to you on possibilities.

lauri: History on family...they were headed to Montana/Idaho..Why?

lauri: I'll check some history too.

paty: Either to start a business or after gold or ministry.

paty: They could have been headed to the Spaulding Mission in ID.

lauri: Ministry...Preacher's daughters always make good heroines. LOL

paty: Especially if the families they end up with are not as christian as it first seemed.

lauri: Oh, yes!

paty: I've got the info on the Spaulding mission tucked away here somewhere form an earlier book.

I have several pages of our conversations as we worked out all the logistics of the book. Here is a bit more just so you can see how writer's minds work and how we come up with books.

paty: So the adoptive father of Lorabeth would gamble away her locket without her permission and then the winner of the locket would end up in Oregon and Maggie would recognize it.

lauri: Oh, I know, mom's locket with the picture of the two of them in it. Maggie gives it to Lora Beth so she'll always be with her.

paty: I like that!

lauri: Yes, LoraBeth's family isn't very nice. Sad. Good thing they die so she can travel to Montana, or is it Idaho? I don't think I wrote that down. LOL

paty: LOL if we have Maggie backtracking with the gambler to get to Lorabeth and maybe Lorabeth getting someone to help her find the gambler to get the locket back. they would end up somewhere in between???

lauri: Yes, or following each others tracks across the states. Maggie goes to Co, but LoraBeth has already left for Oregon. The each turn around and end up in Lapwai Idaho.

paty: That would be too long of story- the backtracking.

lauri: True...I have to remember the length. But like the locket. LOL.

paty: Yes, I like that too. Just trying to figure out how they get together and keep the story sounding in sequence.

lauri: How about if the man helping LoraBeth is also looking for the gambler. Give him a reason for assisting her.

paty: That would be good. A debt to settle something like that. And what if Maggie become ill half way back to Co., That would stall their progress and when she is recuperating, the next story can take off and the ending is when Lorabeth finds her.

lauri: Yes, I like that. So, I will need to know your gambler's name. And figure out the debt...o

paty: Sheesh! Now you want to know my gambler too... LOL Hmmm, Okay, he looks like Deirks Bentley and his name is....

lauri: Deirks Bentley? You're going to make me go online and find a picture?? Sheesh! Back at you!

paty: LOL he's a country singer and man... he's good looking!!! It will be worth the search!

lauri: OH! GEEZ! Now I know who you mean. I was thinking of some actor named Deirks, or was that Dirk, about the McGiver time...

paty: Ty Bancroft is the gambler.

lauri: Anyway...Time of year...when do they meet so I can back track from there. Oh, I love the name Ty!...writing...

paty: It would need to be spring early summer to get them through mountains in decent weather- though I need to check on the RR in the early 1870's and the steam ships up the Columbia.

lauri: Early summer would work. I think mine are traveling by horse (trains didn't run north of Denver yet)

paty: It would all depend on where I have her ending up in Oregon. I'll have to do some research to get a trip planned out.

lauri: I think my hero is Sampson McDonald. Sounds like a wimp, might even look like one to some, but knows the mountains like the back of his hand. I'll have to search a map to find their way from Denver to Lapwai.

paty: We don't have to have them end up in Lapwai if we are using the locket to bring them together.

paty: I'll find a spot halfway in between.

I won't give you any more of the conversation because 1) it gives things away and 2) as always as we wrote the stories they strayed a bit from our conversations. 

We are both proud of this book and for a limited time have put the book on sale for $.99 so more readers
can enjoy and root for Loralei and Maggie as they journey to find one another.

Blurb For a Sister's Love

Lorelei and Maggie Holmes make a desperate vow to reunite after an Indian raid on their wagon train leaves them orphans. 

Lorelei’s adoptive father gambles away her birth mother’s locket and her only connection to her lost sister. Believing she needs the locket and to find Maggie, she sets out after the gambler and ends up in the company of a citified lawyer searching for the same man.

While cleaning a hotel room, Maggie discovers her mother’s locket in the possession of a gambler. Fear for her sister increases Maggie's determination.  Never one to give up, she dogs the gambler until he agrees to help her find her sister.

Two sisters, two adventures, will they find one another or will the men helping them be their destinies?

Buy Links: 

Amazon / Nook / Apple / Kobo / Windtree Press

Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it. All Paty’s work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Her penchant for research takes her on side trips that eventually turn into yet another story.

www.patyjager.net

Writing into the Sunset 

THE PERFECT FOOTWEAR - THE COWBOY BOOT

By Guest, Lauri Robinson

Hello Sweethearts, and thank you for inviting me over for a visit today! I am so honored. While stacking wood in the woodshed yesterday, I was wondering what I should write about for my guest post, and, well, low and behold, the answer came when I returned to the house and took off my boots.

Fall brings changes, one of those, for me anyway, is to put away the capris, shorts, and sandals and pull out the jeans, sweatshirts, and my Double-H Ropers. I love these boots. Then again, besides being sturdy, comfortable, and versatile, (I’ve been known to shine them up and wear them to weddings and christenings) I believe cowboy boots are the most romantic footwear every created—for both men and women—and have always loved them.



Lauri in her red and white boots with
brother Jeff and unidentified cat

 I was only three in this picture, (that’s my younger brother beside me) yet I remember the boots I have on as clearly as yesterday. They were red and white, and though I don’t remember it, my mother claimed I’d have slept in them if she’d have let me.



Lace-up Roper

 My lace-up Ropers would not have been considered a ‘cowboy boot’ by "Big Daddy Joe" Justin, or his eldest daughter Enid who carried on the family business. The ‘Ropers’ didn’t come about until the mid 20^th century, namely for rodeo riders.

The original cowboy boot was perfected, and made famous, because of the protection they provided. Every part had a purpose. A slip-on boot with a narrow, rounded toe (the extremely pointed toe became ‘fashionable’ in the 1940’s) allowed a cowboy to slip the footwear off quickly if he was unseated and a boot became hung up in the stirrup. The underslung heel was designed to ‘lock’ the foot in the stirrup, minimizing the chances of the foot sliding all the way through and unseating the rider while on rough terrain and/or riding an unpredictable horse, and the soles were thick and made to last. Another form of protection or prevention is the tall and wide upper shaft. This warded off water while crossing rivers, brush and thorns, and snakes—they’d get a mouth full of leather instead of the cowboy’s leg. For any of you who’ve heard the old story about a rattlesnake fang embedded in a boot that killed two or three generations of men, it’s a myth—probably one of the oldest ‘urban legends’. It was first mentioned in a book printed in 1782.

It’s been said that Genghis Khan wore boots similar to the cowboy boot, and a calf-length boot with a low heel was named after the Duke of Wellington in the early 1800’s. These "Wellingtons" were preferred by soldiers in the Civil War, and the simple construction made them easy to mass produce. The ‘boys’ took their boots with them when the war ended, and discovered the boots to be perfect for ranching and cattle drives. Boot makers in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas soon perfected the style, making them taller and the heel deeper, and hence—The Cowboy Boot was born. Original boot makers still have highly guarded trade secrets about the actual construction of their boots, and it was Annie Justin, "Big Daddy Joe’s" wife that created a way for cowboys to measure their own feet and receive a perfectly fitted pair of ‘Justins’ in the mail.

Cowboy boots remained a trusted work boot, but also became stylish fashion when Hollywood jazzed them up. Along with Cowboy Heroes came their hand tooled, embossed, silver-tipped and rhinestone-studded footwear. An early American Cowboy would probably drop dead at the sight of some of today’s boots made from exotic skins—shark, stingray, alligator, ostrich, snake, etc.—and at the price.



Son Daniel, Lauri, and
granddaughter Karlee

 This summer my husband and I traveled a circle of states from Minnesota to Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and back home to Minnesota. It was a fabulous trip and we stopped and visited several museums. Our oldest son and his family joined us for part of the trip and our step-grandson bought a cowboy hat in Telluride, Colorado. In one store, a pair of boots caught the attention of my daughter-in-law and I, and all we could do was laugh at the price. Four digits, (not including cents) and, per the clerk, that was a ‘reasonably’ priced pair. (The covered wagon in the picture was the ‘lawn art’ at our hotel in Cortez, and that me with grandson and granddaughter.)

During the trip, someone asked the meaning of old boots on top of fence posts. We passed them by the dozens in every state, but they’ve also been in cartoons and movies, yet none of us knew why. At the hotel that night I started searching for the answer.

Well…
The top five answers I found include:

1. To signal the family/farmer/rancher was home. (Really? And he walked back to his house barefoot.)
2. Initially created for a picture/photo op. (There are plenty of pictures of them.)
3. To protect the wood of the fence post from rotting. (What about the metal and sandstone posts?)
4. The smell of ‘human’ on the boots keeps coyotes away. (No boot that old still has a scent.)
5. A sign of respect that the rancher/farmer had passed away. (So a mile of boots means?)

Since then I’ve asked some cowboy friends, and their answers have been relatively the same: "What else are you gonna do with old boots?"

Needless to say, I still don’t know. If any of you do, I’d love to hear it!

Thanks again, Sweethearts, for inviting me over! My latest release, "For a Sister’s Love" is a book I co-wrote with fellow ‘sweetheart’ Paty Jager. She and I would love to give away a copy of this book. A name will be randomly selected from all those who leave a comment on this post between now and Halloween. Please be sure to leave an email address!



Comment to enter a giveaway!

 In 2012, I’ll have four books released from Harlequin and one from The Wild Rose Press. The only dates I know right now are January 1^st and February 1^st for a duet of Undones (titles still to be determined). Other dates and titles will be posted on my blog, www.laurirobinson.blogspot.com as soon as I learn of them.