Western Romance, My First Reading Love

Well, westerns and time travel. The advantage of a time travel is that you can go anywhere you want and I do love the ones that take me back to my westerns. I was a little apprehensive when it came time to write my own, but I couldn't resist.

The idea of mail order brides intrigued me and I have a thing about law men...probably comes from dating a former Marine who became a U.S. Marshal.  Hmmm, ya think? But the idea intrigued me long before my own hottie came into my life.

A couple of years ago my thoughts wove around the idea of a mail order bride hiding from heinous crime and, since I love reading and writing romance, meeting the love of her life. That became Indentured Bride. Along the way of writing Brett and Jenna's story I "met" Brett's brothers and his best friend. Well it only made sense that Brett's brother, a Marshal, would be the one to bring the evidence to save his bride from the hangman's noose.

This week Mistaken Bride debuted at Awe-struck (http://www.awe-struck.net/)! Kendrick Parker, Brett's older brother begins his trek west with the evidence to clear Jenna. Along the way though, he encounters a woman he is sure is the devilish, perfectly evil Black Bette. Taking the woman who calls herself Amanda into custody he drags her along the trail. But as the wagon train makes way west, he begins to question the rightness of his decision.

Following that too potent kiss, even days later, each night Amanda, as she made up their bed, tried a different arrangement to keep Kendrick at a safe distance. She told herself she was relieved he rode out early each morning and kept away from the train during the day. He took his supper with the men and kept his distance while she taught the children each night. Oh she’d feel his gaze on her each night. But he never approached. When it was time to turn in he’d enter the wagon after she was snuggled under the blankets.


As usual, tonight, she told herself it was because he was a disreputable rogue that he had kidnapped her against her will and stolen her livelihood from her, not because she was starting to want more than those kisses, kisses she was finding herself missing. “Poor excuse for a gentleman,” she muttered under her breath. “I can’t wait to see his face when he finds out what a mistake he has made. Of course, brute that he is he probably won’t even apologize let alone make reparations.”

“You say something, Mandy?” he asked as he climbed up in the wagon and took in her latest design to keep her distance from him. He startled her because he entered before she had turned in.

“No. Until you listen to what I have to say about who I really am, I have nothing to say to you.”

“Fine. So, that line of pots gonna keep you warm when the chill sets in tonight?”

“What do you care if I’m warm or not?” She turned and in the soft glow saw he had shaved the beard that had been growing over the past few days. Whether it was for his own comfort or the fact that this morning, when she woke, chest to chest with him, she grumbled when his beard abraded her cheek she didn't know. And, she reminded herself, she didn't care. She was strong enough to admit to herself that the real reason she groused at the beard wasn’t so much because it scratched her. No, the problem was it felt good. Too good. His beard was soft and made her wonder what it would feel like to run her fingers through his hair and know she was doing it. Not the unconscious entwining she engaged in when he kissed her. She wanted the freedom to do it the way he often threaded his own fingers through it. The blond locks crested his collar—shorter than many men of her acquaintance wore. He also eschewed the thick sideburns most eastern men sported. Kendrick Parker was definitely his own man. A very potent man from what she’d observed as he rode, gathered wood for the fires and strode about the camp. Taller and broader than most, he was a force to be reckoned with.

And stubborn as a mule.

No. He was more stubborn than a mule. You could pull a mule or kick it in the posterior and it’d get moving. Kendrick Parker just dug in and stayed there till he was good and ready to move.

“I care. Don’t want you getting sick and holding things up or making anyone else ill.”

“You’re too kind. I’ll be just fine without you accosting me in my sleep.”

“I don’t,” he paused for emphasis, “accost you in your sleep.”

“You most certainly do.”

“Lady, I can’t stand what little touching I have to do for appearances. I’m not about to touch you when I don’t have to.”

“That’s why you constantly paw at me in public before you force your kisses on me.”

“I don’t paw at you. And if I do touch you, it’s purely for appearances.”

“Well good. Which side of the pots do you want?” She huffed, hands on her hips, her stance defiant. For all the good it did. The man still made her feel weak-kneed.

Lord help her if he ever realized how she would watch for him during the day, drinking in the sight of him mounted on his horse. Sometimes she imagined herself sitting between his thighs on the big stallion. He was always there to help out the other men on the trail setting up camp or bringing buckets of water for the women. When it came to the children, especially when one of the younger ones would get cranky after a long day on the trail, he always spoke to them with fondness in his tone. A few days out of St. Louis he had begun to allow one of the children to ride a bit with him while he rode scout. When it came to Amanda, at least outwardly he treated her as a gentleman would. It was becoming increasingly necessary for her to remind herself what a troublesome man he was.

Looking Back on My Love Affair With Historical Romance by Regan Taylor

This summer I decided to treat myself to something special that would last me all season long. Because of things going on I wanted something that would take me back to a simpler and happier time in my life. I wanted romance and passion and to be swept away. My answer came in the form of pulling out all my old Rosemary Rogers' books, starting with Sweet Savage Love.

Ask any long time romance reader and the two names they seem to always say started them on their romance reading career are Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss. For me, they set the bar in what a romance was. The genre has changed in the last forty years or so, but in terms of a timeless romance, I think most readers would agree, they are among the most memorable.

I read and re-read and re-read Sweet Savage Love again and again for years, often switching it off with Ashes in the Wind.  Cole and Alana in Ashes in the Wind were the perfect balance with the tempestuous relationship Ginny had with Steve in the Morgan series. I hadn't read either book in at least a dozen years and thought I remembered them in precise detail. When I began to read Ginny and Steve's story once again, some parts came back to me right away and others I'd forgotten. Some of the forgotten parts rewoke memories of not only the story for me, but what I was doing during the years I read the book, finished it and began it again.

As a reader I never noticed things like point of view or subtle references to events and incidents that caught my attention with this most recent reading. Maturing and learning a bit more of the world also clarified some things that I noticed in the early readings but wasn't quite so sure about. Now I get those things. Ms. Rogers shaped my romance life as a reader. I can clearly see her influence on some of my writing. And I can see something that would not only send some editors running screaming, but would probably have the book sent back to her for some re-writing. I could almost see a few places where perhaps Ms. Rogers earlier books would not have seen the light of day. I for one am glad they did.

It wasn't until this summer I actually looked Rosemary Rogers up as an author. I devoured her books as a reader, but until recently didn't consider the person behind the books. Her characters were so vivid, so full of life, I didn't need to know about her. With a new book due out this October I knew I hard to learn more about the person behind these well-loved characters. She truly is a self-made woman and she definitely rose about trying circumstances in her own life. Her biography is an amazing tale of a talented woman with the determination to succeed. Not at all unlike Ginny Morgan.

Based on the books I see today and have experienced myself, chances are Sweet Savage Love would probably not be published today, at least as it is. My most recent copy (I re-read it so many times that this is my fourth copy of it) is a bit over 600 pages and with very fine print. If normal 12 pitch were used I imagine it would be close to 800 pages. More likely than not, someone along the way would suggest separating it into two books, breaking the story perhaps after Ginny's marriage to Steve and picking up after their dual arrests. That wouldn't be an issue; after all, it is a series that takes you through their lifetime together through the other books in the series.

I've never been a point of view purist and in reading this book I can see perhaps why. As I said, she shaped my view of romance reading and to a point, my own writing. There are any number of places where there are dual points of view in one sentence, let alone in one paragraph. Each character's point of view, their thoughts, feelings, needs and desires, are offered one right after the other, most of the time in separate paragraphs. I personally like that. I don't want to have to wait for a new chapter to find out what the hero thought when the heroine engaged in a certain behaviors or activities -- and I don't necessarily want her impression of what she thinks he felt. I can see why it was such a struggle for me to comply with the rigorous one point of view per scene rules we have these days. I grew up with books that offered the fuller perspective of all of the characters in a scene contributing their thoughts -- and it didn't confuse me.

Ginny begins as a wily nilly flirt who's main concern is what dress she is going to wear on a given day. As the story unfolds her own innate strength begins to come through and she survives some of the most horrific experiences a woman can go through. While some may see her as the poster girl for Stockholm Syndrome, without naming this modern day emotional reaction, she herself wonders why she has such tender feelings for Steve. In the end, it is her own self-learned strength that puts her on the path to winning the man she loves. I felt the horror when she is brutally attacked again and again. I wanted to clap when she kills one of her antagonists.

If Steve Morgan walked the streets today, doing what he did in the book, he'd be arrested as a sexual predator if not a serial rapist. Yet by the end of the book he, himself, comes to terms with why he has been so careless with Ginny's life, physically, emotionally and mentally. He too has his moment of epiphany.

There were parts, as I said, when I first read the book that I thought maybe I got, but wasn't too sure. Dr. Cabrillo was one of those characters. If Sweet Savage Love were written today, more likely than not he would have forced Steve to comply, not at all unlike the way man after man raped Ginny. I kind of missed the innocence I had the first times I read the book; but applauded how Ms. Rogers' handled not only the scenes with Steve and Dr. Cabrillo, but how Steve confronted his own demons about what the man did to him in retaliation for his refusal to submit.

Steve's return to the prison where he almost died was another eye opener for the more mature me -- having a masters in counseling, living my own life experiences and being more worldly in general I could appreciate his reactions going back down into that dark world that almost ate him alive.

For me, the story brought to life a period of time I didn't know much about. We didn't learn about Juarez and Porifino Diaz where I went to school. I don't even remember even a passing mention of the events taking place in Mexico after our own civil war in the United States.

It is fiction with the embellisments you expect from a fictional account. Yet the story brings the time to life as well as the changes and growth each of the characters experiences. Neither Ginny nor Steve would fit in our modern world and their story could not be told with as much passion and enduring love if anyone tried. She would be in counseling and he would be in prison. They are characters for the turbulent time which were created for. A time long past for us modern readers and writers. Yet we as writers can evoke the same intense emotions be it in historical, contemporary or futuristic tales as these women who shaped our genre did. Both characters surmount their own internal demons as well as those they evoked in each other. They blazed a path for us to push our boundaries, to explore the what if's of our chosen periods, to tell our stories.

Sweet Savage Love, as well as the other books in Ms. Rogers' series and later Ashes in the Wind, set the tone for me as to what a historical romance should be. I may never write a saga such as the Morgan books, but I aspire to evoke the emotions in my readers Ms. Rogers has long evoked in me.

What romance was your first?

Does it still set the tone for you in what a romance should be?

Did it set the bar for what all other romances should be?

As an author, did it give you a goal to aspire to?