The Wylder West

Belly up to the bar or hunker down near the campfire today with us! Authors and readers of the Wylder West Series will be chatting about upcoming releases, the books already in the series, the western frontier, and my favorite topic, cowboys! The graphic doesn't show all of the stories in the series...why not mosey over and find out what good news we've got up our sleeves?  We'd love to have you join us today from 2-4 on the Wylder West Facebook page. See you there! 

  The Gunslinger by Frederic Remington I could browse western art for hours. Sometimes, I do.  Admiring period art gives a glimpse at how life in the wild west was actually lived. Oh sure, there are lots of glossy, showy art pieces romanticizing the era and they're often attractive...but they're not my favorite.   The kind of art I lean toward is the pieces that don't gild the lily —they show  life as it was. Raw, gritty, often deadly, these renderings make me feel as if I'm stepping back in time — and I love every minute of it! My favorite western artist is Frederic Remington . His talents for painting, writing, and sculpting brought substance to his offerings. Perusing them, I feel the pulse of those days in its sweaty, difficult, dusty glory...and I yearn to somehow transport myself back to that time to experience a closer look at it all.  I love this time in our history for a lot of reasons. One of the most is that those who decided to head west were strong. They h

  The Road that Built the West By Laura Strickland   I’m sure there were many roads leading west, back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of them even had names, like the Oregon Trail, and the Santa Fe. Brave souls struck westward on the strength of their courage and faith, hoping for a better life, a measure of wealth, and freedom from oppression. It’s another road, though, that truly united this country, and allowed for true expansion—one built of wood and steel, and by the labor of many immigrants. This fact struck me forcibly when I was contemplating our little town of Wylder, and all the characters we, as writers, have brought to it. Sure, some—like the founding family, the Wylders—came by covered wagon. Some came to claim homesteads, settle ranches, or dirt farms. Later, some came by stage. But many of our heroes and heroines arrived in Wylder by choice or by happenstance, via the railroad. In Wyoming, it was the Union Pacific. It came to Wyoming in 1867,

       To manage my sensory processing disorder, I have a few tricks to quiet my distracting senses while I write. One is to light a scented candle which corresponds to the character narrating the scene I am writing. Nartan Sagebrush’s candle scent is “Tobacco” while Olive Muegge’s scent is “Orange Clove”. Another trick is to play the couple’s song on repeat while writing. It drowns out the birds outside my kitchen window and helps my mind focus on the core issues of the story. The core issue of Dance to a Wylder Beat is the need for community. Nartan’s secret Shamanic dancing and Olive’s paranormal secret keep them on the outskirts of Wylder society.                     Listen to this haunting song here - https://youtu.be/k750IIdKq08                 In the late 1870s, the Arapaho nation’s way of life was being destroyed by the Us Government. Their nomadic existence was at odds with the settlements, like Wylder, popping up along the railway line. The Arapaho followed the migratory her

                                                                                                                    The Rugged Side of Romance by Laura Strickland   Why do we love Western Romance? It isn’t always dressed up all pretty, like those Regencies, where even the rakish hero wears ruffles and diamonds. It isn’t particularly witty, like the dialogue in those Romantic Comedies, where the hero and heroine toss clever barbs at each other. It doesn’t always keep you guessing, like a Cozy Mystery. So why are we drawn again and again to a good tale from the west? I’m sure every reader (or writer) has her/his own reasons. But I’m here to propose that the love of the rugged has something to do with it. In a Western Romance, the setting is rugged—saloons instead of ballrooms, ranches instead of the townhouses. The wide-open prairie invites our hearts and our imaginations to expand all the way to the horizon. Life for our characters is hard, and as we immerse ourselves in their