Tag: Lone Star

#NewRelease – A Cowboy of Legend @LBroday @WesternRomance #Giveaway

Published on by Jan Sikes72 Comments

I am thrilled to announce the winner of the giveaway!!

Congratulations, Parris Afton Bonds!

You have won A Cowboy of Legend!

PURCHASE LINK

Thank you for having me, Jan. I’m so excited to be here talking about my new book.

Excuse me, what’s Your Name?

This question wasn’t asked much on the American frontier and if you were so bold, you were liable to get shot. The old West offered men (and women) a multitude of places to disappear into and leave behind whatever trouble he/she found themselves in.

No telephone. No internet. No Social Security numbers. Nothing. It was perfect.

There were probably hundreds of men back then looking to change their identities and disappear, and did. Outlaws checked into hotels and boardinghouses under an alias as did most politicians and famous people and still do today. In fact, in the 1800s it was such a common practice that, when introduced, people naturally assumed that the name was fake.

Elvis Presley used Jon Burrows when he sought anonymity. Frank Sinatra became Frankie Satin. Marilyn Monroe was Zelda Zonk.

In 1974, a singer/songwriter named Connie Converse told her family and friends that she’d had enough and was going to disappear. She packed up her Volkswagen Beetle and drove away. No one ever heard from her again despite many searches.

In my upcoming release, A Cowboy of Legend, Deacon Brannock has taken a fake name in order to disappear. All is well and good until firebrand Grace Legend marches into Hell’s Half Acre with burning determination to shut down his saloon, The Three Deuces. She’s a member of the Temperance Society and hellbent on running him out of business. All her life, she’s taken up one cause after another but this one springs from her heart and is what she’s most passionate about.

But here’s the thing…Grace is also a reporter and writes a weekly column under her own alias in an attempt to hide it from her family. Like a bloodhound, she discovers that Deacon Brannock is hiding a humdinger of a juicy secret. Oh, I love it!

A Cowboy of Legend contains a lot of secrets. Writing about secrets is fun for an author. Where there are secrets there’s conflict and those are what drives a story. I just love it when a book contains mysteries. I can’t turn the pages fast enough.

You can find an excerpt on my webpage: https://lindabroday.com/books/lone-star-legends/a-cowboy-of-legend-1-lone-star-legends/

This is Book 1 of a new series called Lone Star Legends and released April 27th. Book 2 – A Cowboy Christmas Legend – follows in September.

My question: If you could change your identity and disappear, would you? My generation really overdid the Lindas and I’ve hated my name so I think I’d chose to be Sierra or maybe Summer or Sapphire. What new name would you choose if you were going to disappear?

I’m giving away an autographed copy (either print or ebook) so I wish you luck!

PURCHASE LINKS:

AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE APPLE KOBO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Linda Broday

I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical western romance books and short stories. Here in the Texas Panhandle, I reside on ancient land that carries the voices of those who’ve gone before on the wind. If I close my eyes and get real still, I often hear them whispering stories in my ear.

My love of history and the Old West was born from watching TV westerns and visiting museums and libraries. I’ve always been an avid reader and books opened up entirely new exciting worlds that seemed limited only by my imagination.

Cowboys have always fascinated me and I often think I was born 150 years too late. I love writing about those men, their ladies, and the struggles they endure in trying to carve out a small place to call home. Western romance is my passion and I feel truly blessed. Humble roots and the love of family have become focal points in my stories. I sincerely hope readers enjoy what I strive to bring to life on the printed page.

I’m a mother, grandmother, and now a great grandmother. In my family, I’m the storyteller and the one who records our history. I come from a long line of poor but prideful people. That’s okay. I’m happy with that. This is my legacy.

FOLLOW LINDA:

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New Release from Author, Linda Broday

Published on by Jan Sikes13 Comments

texas-ranger-final  THE MEN OF LEGEND SERIES – BOOK 1

NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Linda Broday releases the first book in THE MEN OF LEGEND series. Some Legends are made and some are born! 

The state of Texas has 268,597 square miles so it’s no wonder we have huge ranches to match the size. Some are simply too enormous to comprehend. So I had no trouble setting a big ranch here for my latest Men of Legend series. I wanted it as big and bold as the father and sons who own it, so Texas certainly filled the bill. (It’s rumored that the state produces people with big personalities.) Strictly rumor of course. I’m laughing here.

My fictional Lone Star Ranch is a little on the puny side at 480,000 acres. I modeled it to some degree after the Waggoner Ranch which was 510,000 acres in 1954. When it sold in 2016, it had grown even larger. The Waggoner Ranch also fit the location of mine in North Texas, not far from the Red River.

The largest ranch in the world in 1880 was the XIT Ranch (stands for Ten in Texas) at a whopping three million acres and covered practically all of West Texas and the Panhandle. To put this in perspective, that’s roughly 4,687 square miles. Just think how long it would take to ride over it by horseback. All that land was owned by a syndicate of English investors. It was simply too large for words.

The mighty King Ranch down at the far end of the state was and still is one of the largest ranches in the world. It has well over a million acres. It was established in 1854 by partners Richard King and Gideon Lewis.

North Texas certainly has a lion’s share of ranch land. That’s mostly because the rugged, rocky, dry landscape is fit for little else. The Matador Land and Cattle Company (purchased by Scottish investors) is another large one at a million and half acres in the beginning. It has shrunk now but still going strong.

The 6666 Ranch is an interesting one that keeps on thriving. Captain Samuel Burk Burnett bought 350,000 acres in 1868 and started raising cattle. Rumors have swirled for decades that he named it this unusual name because he won it in a poker game with a hand of four sixes. Descendants swear that’s not true. It’s still a huge ranch at 275,000 acres. I always love driving past it and looking at the large herds of horses. Their buildings are always pristine and they even have an airstrip. It’s pretty.

Okay, back to my Lone Star Ranch. The patriarch, Stoker Legend, acquired roughly 1200 acres as payment for fighting in the Texas War for Independence. Everyone scoffed and said he had little chance of making the ranch thrive what with Indians, outlaws, drought, and the fact the land was extremely inhospitable. He paid them no mind and carved out the mighty ranch that serves as a legacy for his sons—Sam, Houston, and Luke.

Book #1 of this Men of Legend series is TO LOVE A TEXAS RANGER. Sam Legend joined the Texas Rangers as soon as he could because ranching just doesn’t interest him in the least little bit. He has restless feet and is driven with a burning need to see what’s over the next hill. Sam runs across a desperate woman named Sierra Hunt who has been dragged from pillar to post all her life. She dreams of permanence—a little white house with a picket fence around it, flowers in front and a garden in back where she can put down deep roots. She’s not going to settle for anything less…not even for Sam.

There are lots of twists and turns in this story as they seek to find common ground and protect the fragile love that forms as they run from a ruthless band of outlaws.

Think the old TV western series Bonanza. This Legend family is every bit as big and bold as the Cartwrights. I’ve enjoying writing this so much.

There are still one million acre (and larger) ranches today across the United States. What do you think the biggest challenge would be to owning such a huge amount of land?

LEAVE A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY  OR E-BOOK OF TO LOVE A TEXAS RANGER!

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