IF I COULD WRITE A REVIEW....

 By Celia Yeary

I write romances under my real name--Celia Yeary. But I write a few reviews under a made-up name of Rising Star Reviews. I would love to write a review for the newest PRP Anthology, but one of the stories in the group is mine. That wouldn't be the right thing to do, would it? Write a Five Star Review for Cowboy Cravings and put it on Amazon when one of the stories belongs to me?

I thought not.

And so, I take this opportunity--since the co-owner of PRP, Cheryl Pierson, said I could blog about anything--to review the anthology.

Five authors wrote a short story about a man and a woman in the West and how they fell in love. This is the common theme required for a Western Romance. But within that theme, the stories are as varied as varieties of... Blue Bell Ice Cream--The Best Little Creamery in Texas with the slogan: "We eat all we can, and sell the rest."

So, here goes:

Blurb:

Craving a cowboy on these hot summer nights? Here are four stories that are sure to turn up the heat! If you love tall, dark, and handsome cowboys with a touch of danger thrown in, and the ladies that show them they've met their match, COWBOY CRAVINGS is a must have! Fast guns, smooth action, and hot love sizzle in one delicious recipe for these spicy stories! The summer has never been hotter in the old west than it is when you have to satisfy those COWBOY CRAVINGS!
 

HEARTS AND DIAMONDS—Cheryl Pierson

Revenge sets Nick Diamond after a bride, and nothing will stand in his way. But when that bride happens to be outspoken firebrand Liberty Blankenship, all bets are off. Anything can happen when Hearts and Diamonds collide!

~*~Five Bowls of TIN ROOF ICE CREAM describes Nick and Liberty--"When a tough nut to crack covered in a dark irresistible sweet covering collides with a wild rich fudge swirl, the combination is completely irresistible!"

STARR BRIGHT—Celia Yeary
A stubborn rancher, a Spanish beauty...and the Texas summer heats up.

~*~Five Bowls of ITALIAN CREAM CAKE ICE CREAM describes Conrad and Starr--"Looks smooth and cool, but inside, the Italian cream cake, coconut, roasted pecans, and cream cheese icing mix it up for a sensational taste!"

LILY AND MESQUITE JOE—Kristy McCaffrey
Lily Kingston has long loved Mesquite Joe Riordan. Facing the truth of his past will test her resolve, but only her stubbornness can win his heart.

~*~Five Bowls of ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM  says timeless like Lily's pure love for Joe--"Sweet, dark, with hard patches, but the white sweet moments mixed in make the wait worthwhile."
 
MAKING PEACE—Kathleen Rice Adams
A Confederate soldier. A Jayhawker’s widow. An accidental passion that could mend the wounds of war.

~*~Five Bowls of SOUTHERN BLACKBERRY COBBLER-"What could be more passionate and sweeter than the unexpected luscious blackberry flavor combined with pie crust pieces and a blackberry sauce swirl."

My goodness, I must have ice cream on the brain. It is summertime, after all, and all in my house absolutely love ice cream.

For this anthology titled Cowboy Cravings, I could think of no better way to describe how I loved these stories. Yes, mine is in there, too, but I don't mind saying I love my own story.

Shouldn't all authors feel the same way? You bet.

What flavor of ice cream is your favorite? Well, then go buy a carton, get Cowboy Cravings on your Kindle, kick back, and enjoy!

And here's where you can get your copy of Cowboy Cravings:

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Cravings-Cheryl-Pierson-ebook/dp/B00L2JF6HU/ref=sr_1_3_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404420227&sr=1-3&keywords=celia+yeary     

Adams and Jefferson: the End of an Era

By Kathleen Rice Adams

As the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence dawned on July 4, 1826, only three of the fifty-six signatories of the noble document still lived: John Adams (second president of the U.S.), Thomas Jefferson (third President of the U.S. and principal author of the Declaration), and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. By the end of the day, only Carroll remained.

Thomas Jefferson
(portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1800)

Jefferson, whose health had been deteriorating since July the previous year, was confined to his bed at Monticello in June 1826, felled by a combination of kidney failure and penumonia. In the evening on July 3, he spoke his last words: "Is it the fourth yet?" His grandson and his doctor assured him the fourth was only hours away. Seventeen hours later, at 1 p.m. July 4, 1826, Jefferson passed away at the age of 83.

John Adams
(portrait by Asher B. Durand, c. 1800)

Adams, who maintained a close friendship with Jefferson until the vicious politics of the 1800 presidential election drove a wedge between them, had reconciled with Jefferson in 1812. The two men corresponded frequently and were well aware of one another's ill health. On July 4, 1826, at his home in Braintree, Massachusetts, Adams gave a toast to the country he helped found: "Independence forever." Later that evening, after suffering a heart attack and unaware his friend had died several hours earlier, 91-year-old Adams breathed his last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives."

The nearly concurrent deaths of two Founding Fathers on such a momentous day seemed preordained and fitting. Carroll survived for another six years, closing the book on an extraordinary chapter in history with his death at age 95 on Nov. 14, 1832.

The Declaration of Independence

Fifty-six remarkable men from thirteen disparate, but united, colonies signed a document that indicted them as traitors and changed the course of history:

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. 

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled. 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these states:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,

• New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
• Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
• Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
• Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
• New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
• New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
• Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
• Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean
• Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
• Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
• North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
• South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
• Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Fireworks at the Washington Monument, Washington D.C., July 4, 1986
(courtesy U.S. Air Force)

New TAP Release-- Echoes in the Night by B. J. Betts -- Giveaway

B.J. Betts will be giving away one free ecopy to one person who comments.

When Marcus and Matthew Manning are drafted after graduation, they are sent to the jungles of Viet Nam.  But they’ve both left some unfinished business back home in Iowa.

Matt’s fiancée takes up with his best friend, and Marcus’s girlfriend sends word that she’s expecting a baby, conceived on prom night. For the first time in their lives, the twins don’t share everything—even in the heated war zone of Viet Nam.

When Marcus is killed in the heavy fighting at Hamburger Hill, Matt must unravel the mystery of what came between his brother and the young woman who bore his child—and he suspects an old flame of Marcus’s is to blame for the heartache he uncovers.

On the verge of finally laying his personal demons to rest over his guilt about Marcus’s death, Matt finds his own love—sweet and unexpected. But what would his brother think if he knew Matt had fallen for the mother of Marcus’s child?

Bio

B.J. Betts. was born and raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She married her high school sweetheart Don Betts. They did therapeutic foster care for years and adopted the last four placements which increased their number of children to 7. Over the years with marriages and children being born they had more than a full house.

B.J. has been an avid reader her whole life. Where other women would go shopping for a new dress or a pair of shoes, she headed to the book sections.

Her first book, Saigon Moon, will be re-released this coming August through Tornado Alley Publications. Her grandson had enlisted in the Army with a promise from his recruiter he would never be sent to Iraq. He did two tours and B.J. and her husband are so proud of him for serving. But memories of being a teenager during the Vietnam War whirled through B.J.’s mind. She sat down and wrote Saigon Moon. Echoes in the Night was inspired by a photo of a man carrying a fellow soldier on his back away from a battlefield.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Romance Authors of the Heartland.

Excerpt

    The June air was balmy as Matthew Manning stepped out of the Eppley Airport terminal. He hefted his duffle bag up on his shoulder as he whistled and yelled, “Taxi!”

    A yellow cab rushed to the curb. The cabbie stepped from the cab and took the bag, stowing it into the trunk.

    “Where to, Mack?” he asked as he slid into the front seat of the cab. He peered into the rear view mirror at the soldier sitting in the back seat.

    “330 Manning Lane.”

    Even to his own ears, the address sounded foreign to him. It had been so long since he’d said it out loud.

The taxi wove in and out of the five o’clock rush hour traffic. Matthew sat silently in the back seat, looking out of the passenger side window. Nothing much had changed, he thought as the cabbie drove over the bridge into Council Bluffs, Iowa.

    The taxi continued down Broadway, passing all the fa-miliar sights. He looked a little closer as they passed Ewald’s Drive-In, hoping to catch a glimpse of a face he might recognize as the carhops walked out in their short shorts to deliver an order to the waiting cars. But he didn’t know any of the girls.

    Memories of being a kid and watching westerns with his twin brother, Marcus, flashed through his mind as they passed the Strand Theater. John Wayne movies had been their favorites while growing up. You knew the good guys were always going to win in the end. He shook his head sadly. If only that were true in real life…

Links

B&N Nook     Smashwords

Blunders in Research

Sarah McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery, Victory Tales Press, Prairie Rose Publications and Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press, imprints of Prairie Rose Publications. 

RESEARCH BLUNDERS

Everything I know about the Midwest I learned in my short period of living in Nebraska and Texas. Luckily, I did explore and traveled extensively in the two years I spent living out west. But there is so much I don’t know and research is the only thing that helps me fine tune my stories set in Wyoming and give them a feeling of accuracy. Without proper research, a story could derail with inaccurate details. Just recently I almost ran aground assuming things that were not true while writing my story for the Halloween anthology for Prairie Rose Publications.

Wyoming does not have a zoo—not a single one.

HISTORY OF THE HENRY DOORLY ZOO

The Henry Doorly Zoo, established in 1894 and located in Omaha, Nebraska, was originally named the Riverview Park Zoo until the 1950’s a huge donation of $750,000 was given by the widow of Henry Doorly with the request that the name be changed to honor her late husband.

As the years passed, the zoo expanded its exhibits to include a giraffe complex, an aviary, a large salt-water aquarium, a large plaza called World-Herald Square, Bear Canyon and Wolf Woods. A petting zoo for kids was added in 1990 and more modern attractions such as an IMAX theater, the world’s first test tube gorilla, a Wildlife Safari, and a Center for Conservation and Research were added in 1995.

In recent years, the zoo also created new exhibits and added more near-endangered animal species which includes a rare okapi. A beautiful “Desert Dome” has been constructed, along with the Hubbard Gorilla Valley and Orangutan Forest. They also added additional guest services buildings, restaurants and a gift shop.

                                                    THE DESERT DOME

After the acquisition of nearby land, the zoo will add a 2,000 car capacity parking lot and a number of new attractions, from an Arctic exhibit to an Australian outback area. Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is nationally renowned for its leadership in animal conservation and research. It features the largest cat complex in North America, "Kingdoms of the Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp, the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforests, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert, as well as the largest glazed geodesic dome in the world. The Zoo is Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.

Zoo history timeline

The following is a selected list of when buildings and exhibits were created:

• 1894: Riverview Park Opens
• 1898: By this date the park has a varied animal population of over 120 animals
• 1920's : Gould Dietz donates cat cages.
• 1930's : WPA builds cat and bear exhibits
• 1952: Omaha Zoological Society was organized for the improvement and administration of the zoo
• 1963: Margaret Hitchcock Doorly donated $750,000 to the Zoo with the stipulation that the Zoo be named after her late husband Henry Doorly
• 1965: Omaha Zoological Society was reorganized as a non-profit organization and the dedication of the first phase of the zoo which included bear grottos, gorilla, orangutan buildings and Ak-sar-ben Nature Kingdom
• 1968: Inaugural run of Omaha Zoo Railroad in July, Eugene C. Eppley Pachyderm Hill opened in November on the old baseball diamond site
• 1972: Ak-Sar-Ben waterfall was constructed, In August the Owen Sea Lion Pavilion opened complete with a new concession building, public restrooms and a gazebo where an old public swimming pool was
• 1973: Owen Swan Valley and the Primate Research Building were completed
• 1974: New diet kitchen and educational classrooms were completed
• 1977: Cat Complex
• 1979: Hospital and nursery opened
• 1981: Giraffe and hoofstock complex opened
• 1983: Lee G. Simmons Free-Flight Aviary
• 1984: 70,000-US-gallon (260,000 l; 58,000 imp gal) saltwater aquarium opened in what had been the museum
• 1985: Gorilla and orangutan buildings completely renovated and named in honor of the Owen Family, Richard Simmons cuts ribbon
• 1986: World-Herald Square was completed, First Tier Wolf Woods, Maintenance building and haybarn were relocated to the northeast
• 1987: Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom Pavilion, the visitor services area US West Plaza, new main entrance
• 1988: Construction began Lied Jungle, Zoo was selected for the endangered black-footed ferret breeding program, Zoo’s greenhouse was built near the maintenance shop.
• 1989: Durham Family's Bear Canyon, Doorly’s Pride a heroic bronze sculpture of a pride of 12 lions was installed in the entry plaza area, Zoo received the prestigious AAZPA Bean Award for its long-term gaur propagation efforts, black-footed ferret building constructed
• 1990: Dairy World featuring a children’s petting zoo, educational exhibits and concession area, world’s first test-tube tiger was born at the Zoo
• 1991: Birthday House for children’s birthday parties and education classes, world’s first artificially-inseminated tiger was born at the Zoo
• 1992: Lied Jungle, Durham's TreeTops Restaurant, Education Center, Simmons Plaza near the main entrance
• 1993: Old aquarium was closed and construction of the new aquarium began, Zoo received two AAZPA awards: the Conservation Award for its black-footed ferret management program and the Significant Achievement Award for the Lied Jungle, world’s first artificially-inseminated gaur calf was born at the Zoo
• 1994: Union Pacific Engine House for the Omaha Zoo Railroad
• 1995: Walter and Suzanne Scott Kingdoms of the Seas Aquarium, Zoo had more than 1.6 million visitors, land was acquired for an off-site breeding facility and drive-through park, construction began on the IMAX 3D Theater, Zoo participated in the propagation of the world’s first test-tube gorilla birth (Timu was born at the Cincinnati Zoo)
• 1996: Bill and Berniece Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research, Timu the world’s first test-tube gorilla moved to Omaha’s Zoo.
• 1997: Lozier IMAX theater
• 1998: Garden of the Senses, Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari 22 miles (35 km) west of Omaha’s Zoo at Nebraska’s 1-80 Exit 426, new diet kitchen was completed, construction began on a new pathology lab and keepers lounge
• 1999: Sue's Carousel, construction began on the world's largest Desert Dome, Zoo hosted a temporary Komodo Dragon exhibit
• 2000: New North Entrance Plaza was completed featuring a new gift shop, warehouse, entrance plaza and visitor gazebo. Joined the Okapi Species Survival Program, allowed the Zoo to be one of only 14 zoos in North America to display rare okapi, traveling koala exhibit visited the Zoo
• 2001: Cheetah Valley, New bongo and new tree kangaroo exhibits were constructed, Zoo hosted a traveling white alligator exhibit
• 2002: Desert Dome, construction began on Hubbard Gorilla Valley
• 2003: Kingdoms of the Night
• 2004: April 8 Hubbard Gorilla Valley, tower with two high capacity elevators to take visitors from the main level of the Zoo near the Desert Dome down 44' to Hubbard Gorilla Valley
• 2005: Hubbard Orangutan Forest in two phased May and August, giraffe feeding station in the spring, construction began on an addition to the Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research
• 2006: New Guest Services building and two additional gates at the main entrance, Hubbard Research wing expansion to the Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research in July, Budgie Encounter
• 2007: Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Pavilion is transformed into the Exploration Station, construction on the Butterfly and Insect Pavilion begins
• 2008: Berniece Grewcockn Butterfly and Insect Pavilion, construction on a Madagascar exhibit begins
• 2009: Skyfari. Construction continues on the Madagascar exhibit.
• 2010: Expedition Madagascar opened
• 2012: Scott Aquarium is reopened after renovations and the zoo is official renamed Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
• 2013: A new gift shop opens, the IMAX facility is remodeled, and Gateway to the Wild exhibit is completed.

My second mistake in research was to place a passenger train in Wyoming. There isn’t one. Wyoming has never had a passenger train. Once there was a train from Wyoming that connected to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad at Clearmont, specifically for coal, but it only lasted a short period of time and only ran 28.53 miles between the towns of Clearmont and Buffalo Wyoming.

The Wyoming Railway, now defunct, was an American railroad built and operated between the towns of Clearmont and Buffalo, Wyoming, a distance of 28.53 miles. The railroad provided Buffalo with a link to the national railway network via a connection with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad at Clearmont. When the coal ran out, so did the railroad.

New interests purchased the Wyoming Railway 1946. In July 1948, the Company filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission to petition to the United States District Court of Wyoming under Section 77 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Act, which asked that the company be reorganized. R. E. McNally was appointed trustee by The ICC after C. Porter Dickson, President of the Wyoming Railway Company, could not meet his mortgage obligation. The Trustee ultimately filed with the ICC to abandon the railroad and, as it usually did, the ICC approved the abandonment, effective March 30, 1952. The Wyoming Railway Company owed 3 steam locomotives, 2 passenger cars, 5 freight cars (reportedly not interchangeable), and 1 service car. In its final years the railroad usually employed 17 people. The principal traffic of the Wyoming Railway was coal from affiliated mines near Buffalo and with their demise the railroad lost its principal traffic.

With these facts glaring at me, I had to change my mode of transportation in my story. It would have been easier if there had been a zoo in Wyoming and a railroad, but real facts changed easy to interesting.

I will confess that one of my books from the Wildings did have a train it it—For Love of Banjo, but I have to say that the story had to have a train or it would have killed a very dramatic scene. I didn’t realize Wyoming had no passenger trains when I wrote it. I hope readers will forgive my little blunder in real facts with that story. Now, of course, I know the truth and there will be no further blunders regarding trains in the fictional town of  Hazard, Wyoming.

 Resources:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5206556_history-henry-doorly-zoo.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Doorly_Zoo

                                                   FOR LOVE OF BANJO

Deceit stands between Banjo Wilding’s love for Maggie O’Leary and his search for the father he never knew.

Blurb:

Banjo Wilding wears a borrowed name and bears the scars and reputation of a lurid past.  To earn the right to ask for Margaret O’Leary’s hand, he must find his father and make something of himself.

Margaret O’Leary has loved Banjo since she was ten years old but standing between her and Banjo is pride, Banjo’s mysterious father and the Great War.

    

Excerpt:

In one graceful movement, he dismounted the pinto then stepped to the porch where Maggie stood with unrestrained tears that flowed down her cheeks.  Banjo swept her into his arms and kissed her.  The kiss wasn’t his brotherly, friendly peck on the cheek.  He kissed her with a slow burning need and ran his tongue along the groove of her lips then slipped inside. 

He tasted of coffee and mint.  Maggie reached up to weave her arms around his neck.  She stepped on her tiptoes to better reach him and taste him.  Her heart raced and heat rushed hungry waves of yearning into places in her body she never knew existed as she responded to his explorations with her own.  If only she could slip into his pocket and follow him wherever he went.  She wanted to become the marrow in his bones, to always be a part of him.

Just when she thought he would take her to her room and make love to her as she had asked, the kiss ended.  Banjo bent his head his rough cheek rasped against hers.  The fragrance of him, a combination of horse, pine and crisp snow, caressed her senses.  He slipped his hand into her hair and gently rubbed the tender skin of her neck where her blood pulsed beneath his thumb.

His mouth so close to her ear she felt the warm moisture of his breath as he spoke his last words.  She would never forget them, not as long as she lived.  Breathless from the kiss, he said, “Don’t forget me.  Write to me every day and I’ll write back.  You are the star in my sky and my compass home.  I’ll come back, if it’s the last thing I do, I will come back.  I swear it.”

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Laws as Unique as Texas!

Being born and raised in Texas, there’s just so much I take for granted, so I thought I’d share with you all a few Texisums and some laws that you might be interested to know about when you do come to the bigger than life state of Texas.

“You all” is both singular and plural.

 

“Y’all come back, you hear.” A Texan isn’t particularly expecting an answer and we’re inviting you or you and all of your friends back. Thus it can be singular or plural.

“All you all” is definitely plural. It means each and every one of you, while “you all’s” can be singular possessive or plural possessive. But “all you all’s” is definitely plural possessive.

• Mosey:  Means both “to move quickly” and “to move slowly”.  A 2,000 pound Brahma bull moseys pretty dern slow, while a cowboy moseying toward a honky tonk for a cold beer would mosey rather quickly.

• Fixin’ is an interesting word, not unlike “you all”.  It can be a verb, adverb or a noun, depending on how it’s being used.  Here’s an interesting quote from the dictionary.  “Regional Note: “Fixin’ to” ranks with y’all as one of the best known markers of Southern dialect, although it seems to be making its way into the informal speech and writing of non-Southerners.”  Here in Texas you’ll hear us say  something like, “I’m fixin’ to leave for the grocery store to get the fixin’s to fix dinner with.”

• A couple of things only a true Texan would know. The difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit and the general direction of cattywumpus.

Here are a few Texas laws that are still on the books.

1. Temple: Cattle thieves may be hanged on the spot. No one may ride a horse and buggy through the town square, but they can ride their horse in the saloon.
2. Austin: Wire cutters cannot be carried in your pocket.  
3. San Antonio: It is illegal for both sexes to flirt or respond to flirtation using the eyes and/or hands. It is also illegal to urinate on the Alamo.
4. Texarkana: Owners of horses may not ride them at night without tail lights.
5. It is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
6. It’s illegal to milk another’s cow.
7. In Kingsville, there is a law against two pigs having sex on the city’s airport property. Why just the city’s airport property? Don’t ask me!
8. Up here in the Panhandle it’s against the law to throw confetti, rubber balls, feather dusters, whips or quirts and explosive firecrackers of any kind.  Also, it’s illegal to dust any public building with a feather duster.
9. Lubbock:  It is illegal to drive within an arm’s length of alcohol, including alcohol in someone else’s blood stream.
10. In El Paso, churches, hotels, halls of assembly, stores, markets, banking rooms, railroad depots, and saloons are required to provide spittoons “of a kind and number to efficiently contain expectorations into them.”   
11. In other parts of Texas you can’t land an airplane on the beach, throw trash from an airplane, or inhale fumes from model glue, not to mention you must obtain permission from the director of parks and recreation before getting drunk in any city park.
12. Texas is a common law state, so you can be legally married by publicly introducing a person as your husband or wife three times.
13. Port Arthur:  Obnoxious odors may not be emitted while in an elevator.

Some of these laws have been changed or strengthened, especially involving drinking and driving, while some like having wire cutters in your pocket or shooting buffalo from a second floor window of a hotel remains in full force and effect. So every time I look at the new Marriott being built, I wonder if they’ll add that law to the notice they put on the inside of your hotel room?  I might just have to call them and find out.

But the best law of all, states that you cannot tuck your pants into one boot unless you own ten or more head of cattle.  I have no idea what the purpose of this law might have been. Do you?

Are there any old laws that are unique to your part of the country that you’d like to share with us today?

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