Romance author Kaye Spencer - new to the Prairie Rose Publications family

I'm romance author Kaye Spencer. I've recently joined the sisterhood of western romance authors here at Prairie Rose Publications with a short story to be published in the Lassoing a Mail-Order Bride anthology this summer. The title of my story is A Permanent Woman.

Since today is the first of my regular blogging contributions for PRP, which will occur on the second Wednesday of each month, I thought it appropriate to share a little about myself and where my fascination with the American Old West came from.

I'm a native Coloradoan, and I also write under the pen name, A.L. Debran. I grew up on a cattle ranch in northeastern Colorado and, during those childhood and teenage years from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, I spent hour upon hour reading Louis L'Amour's westerns and listening to Marty Robbins' gunfighter ballads. I watched all the *classic* television westerns when they were the primetime shows, and I didn’t miss a western movie when it came to the downtown theater or to the double-feature drive-in.

I loved the Sons of Katie Elder so much (well, maybe I had a teensy-weensy crush on Dean Martin), that my grandfather carved a wooden pistol for me and carved in the name, Tom Elder. I had a bucking-barrel in my backyard so I could pretend to be a rodeo cowboy. I used my allowance to buy candy and gum cigarettes (and it didn’t influence me to become a ‘real’ smoker lol) and roll caps for my pistols and rifle so I could run around the yard on my stick horse pretending to be whichever Hollywood cowboy I was currently obsessed with. Once I was old enough to be turned loose on my own pony, my imagination found hooves, so-to-speak, and I the prairie was my domain.

My writing began when I needed a new storyline to act out in my sibling-less imagination. I wrote my own stories, even though they were clearly retellings of episodes of the Virginian, High Chaparral, or even Have Gun, Will Travel. I was Trampas, Uncle Buck, and Paladin. I believed early on in my life that I was born in the wrong century, and I wrote stories set in the Old West so I could escape to it in my own way.

I can, and often do, get lost in historical research of just about any time period, but it’s the Old West that I love the most—myths and truths alike.

My first novel, Lonely Places, published in June 2006,is a western romance that I started some 27 years before I finally decided to polish it up and submit it for publication. My western novella, Gunslingers & Ghostriders, followed in October. While my choice of story-writing genre is historical, particularly westerns, I’ve penned a vampire and a couple of contemporary stories—cowboys included.

 

I retired last June from a long career in public education that included teaching English and history, and I'm loving every writing minute of retirement. :-) I'm a review editor for the romance review site, Joyfully Reviewed, and I take on occasional manuscript editing projects.

Thank you, Cheryl and Livia, for inviting me to the western writing land of Prairie Rose Publications, not only for including my short story in the upcoming summer anthology release, but also for this opportunity to guest blog. I’m looking forward to sharing my love of the American Old West here on the second Wednesday of each month.

To read reviews of my books, watch my book videos, or download my old family recipes, visit my website and blog – http://www.kayespencer.com

You’ll find me on Twitter – @kayespencer – sharing daily history trivia.

Until next time,

Kaye

Fall in love…faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances