September Reading – Historical Western Romances

By Kristy McCaffrey

September beckons us forward with the anticipation of fall leaves and crisp autumn air, and it’s the perfect time to settle in for some reading.

If you’re looking for an old west novel with a spunky heroine, a stalwart and somewhat brooding hero, three bumbling hooligans, a wolf named Bart, and the presence of a Navajo elder who may or may not be real, then please check out my full-length historical western romance INTO THE LAND OF SHADOWS.

Arizona Territory 1893

Kate Kinsella has no choice but to go after Charley Barstow and talk some sense into him. After all, he's skipped town, leaving a string of broken hearts and his pregnant fiancée, Agnes McPherson. But Kate didn't count on being kidnapped by a band of criminals along the way!

Ethan Barstow is hot on his younger brother's trail, too. He rescues Kate, believing her to be Charley's fiancée, and suggests they try to find him together. Kate's reluctance has him baffled.

All hell breaks loose when they discover Charley in search of a copper mine—not wishing to be found by anyone; certainly not Kate! But, then, Kate was always trouble—and now she's brought it to his doorstep, with tales of a pregnant fiancée and his brother Ethan, who he hasn't seen in five years.

Can Ethan and Kate ever find their own love and happiness with one another through the dark deception and hurt? Or will they both return INTO THE LAND OF SHADOWS...

Available at AMAZON

“With a vividly painted background, engaging and compelling characters and pages that just fly by, Into The Land Of Shadows is a superb read for any western or historical romance lover.”

            ~ Wendy, Romance Junkies

“…as if ‘Romancing The Stone’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and ‘Dances With Wolves’ got together and had a kid.” ~ Armenia, Reading Alley

A short excerpt from INTO THE LAND OF SHADOWS

“Smells like trouble, Whiskey.”

Ethan Barstow reined in his horse and the mare shook her head. From the cover of a band of pine trees, he had an open view of a clearing just below their hillside lunch break. A light breeze caressed the yellow tufts of grass and a startled coyote ran for cover in the distance.

Whiskey snorted and flattened her golden-brown ears. Ethan adjusted the brim of his hat and waited.

The distant sound of hoof beats became audible and a head bobbed into view over the crest of the open countryside. A torso soon appeared and then a donkey, toting the whole package and doing its best to move quickly.

Ethan frowned.

It was a woman. She wore a hat with a string cinched tight to her chin; her bouncing upper body was covered with a dark blouse and brown hair flowed behind her. She would have been a vision to behold if she hadn’t been moving up and down in the animal’s saddle like a woodpecker attacking a virgin tree.

The woman’s head whipped around to look behind her and Ethan followed her line of sight.

Three men on horseback materialized.

“Not a fair chase,” Ethan murmured.

If you’re more in the mood for a quick read, then check out these short novellas.

CANYON CROSSING

Grand Canyon 1898

In search of her brother, Annabel Cross enters Grand Canyon with a guide and a mule. When circumstances have her hanging from a cliff side, her rescue at the hands of U.S. Deputy Marshal Angus Docherty is fortuitous in more ways than one. He’s chasing the notorious Red Bandit, and it soon becomes clear that Annabel’s brother is mixed up with the criminal as well. While the marshal believes she may be in on a double-cross, she has a more pressing secret to hide. She can talk to deceased spirits, and she wonders whether to tell Angus about the old Apache ever near to him.

Available at AMAZON

LILY AND MESQUITE JOE

Arizona Territory 1872

Lily Kingston has long loved Mesquite Joe Riordan, but when he doesn’t step forward to protest her betrothal to another man—arranged by her papa—her heart breaks. When Joe is blamed for the murder of a ranch hand and disappears, Lily knows exactly where to find him. Facing the truth of his past will test her resolve, but only her stubbornness can win his heart.

Available at AMAZON

A WESTWARD ADVENTURE

Colorado 1888

When aspiring novelist Amelia Mercer travels from New York City to Colorado, the stagecoach is robbed and her luggage stolen. Bounty hunter Ned Waymire comes to her aid, seeking to impress the independent young woman.

Available at AMAZON

These stories are also available in Kindle Unlimited.

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The Steamboat Arabia

163 years ago on September 5, the Steamboat Arabia struck a submerged tree trunk and sank.

From the St. Louis Republican newspaper, September 9, 1856:  

"The officers of the LIghtning Line packet Cataract inform us of the sinking of the steamer Arabia in the Missouri River, one mile below Parkville [Missouri]. She went down in fifteen feet of water. The accident occurred on Friday evening at 8 o'clock. The Arabia was on her way to Council Bluffs and Omaha City with a good trip of freight and passengers. It is said the boat will be a total loss - some of the freight may be saved in a damaged condition. The Cataract went alongside the Arabia and took off some of the cabin furniture, and what freight was on the boiler deck, and put it off at Parkville. The Arabia was owned by Captain Terrell, her commander, and Mr. Boyd, clerk. She had been running several years and was probably worth $10,000. We presume she was insured, but have not learned to what amount." 

The Arabia was a typical western steamboat. A twin side-wheel steamer, she was built long and flat to carry maximum cargo. Measuring 171 feet long, with three decks and a wheelhouse above the water line, she plied the waters of the mighty Missouri River, pushing upstream at more than 5 miles per hour.

The 200 tons of supplies she carried were bound for general stores and pioneer settlements to the north and west.

On August 30, she left St. Louis headed for Sioux City, Iowa, by way of Kansas (present-day Kansas City, MO), Weston (MO), St. Joseph (MO), and Council Bluffs (IA).  The Missouri River was wide and shallow and her rushing muddy waters hid dangerous snags—tree trunks that had fallen into the water when the river undercut their roots. Going full steam upriver against the current the Arabia struck the trunk of a large submerged walnut tree that smashed her hull open. She sank fast, until only the wheelhouse was visible, and that quickly broke up in the current.

All the 130 passengers and crew got off safely, but the cargo was buried in sand and mud at the bottom of the Missouri. Over the years, the river changed course with the floods and dry times, layering the site of the wreck under successive years of dirt. When the Arabia was finally located in 1986, she lay in a farmer’s corn field half a mile from the current river’s course and under 45 feet of dirt—and below the water table.

It took 4 months and twenty (20) irrigation wells pumping out up to 20,000 gallons of water per minute to get to the Arabia. A team of family and friends brought up boxes, barrels and crates of frontier merchandise, both necessities and available luxuries, items meant for General Stores all along the river: castor oil, needles, nutmegs, windowpanes, brass and silver locks and keys, eyeglasses, syrup bottles, rubber overshoes and wedding bands; jars of pickles that were still edible (yes, one of the team tried one); French perfume that still held it’s scent thanks to the ambergris that was a main ingredient; carpenter’s tools; a Frozen Charlotte figurine; buttons and scissors; even over one million Venetian glass beads meant as trade goods.

Today, in Kansas City, Missouri, there is a unique museum, built to house the Arabia and the artifacts that have been recovered. Set as a cornerstone for the River Market—a gathering of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, seeds, hand-me-downs, bbq and some rather fine coffee—the Arabia Steamboat Museum offers a wonderful glimpse into life on the frontier in the middle of the 19^th century.

The museum was built specifically to house this collection and it's still a work in progress. Though there are thousands of items already cleaned and displayed, the lab runs almost daily, cleaning, preserving and cataloging the amazing number of artifacts. The latest estimate is another fifteen years of work await the lab techs on the Arabia’s cargo. And last year they found another steamboat buried in another farmer’s field.

You can watch as a boot is coated with preservative so it won’t dry out after a century under water. You can dab on a bit of the French perfume that their scientists recreated from the bottles found among the cargo (minus the ambergris, thank goodness).

Much of my River's Bend series came from my visit to the Steamboat Arabia Museum. If you’re ever in Kansas City, I highly recommend this museum. I know we’ll be returning soon—there was just too much to see in one visit.

Tracy

Book review: Courting Anna by Cate Simon

Blurb:

Beautiful Anna Harrison has carved out her life as a small-town lawyer. Brilliantly intelligent and fiercely independent, a female attorney of her caliber is quite the oddity in 1880s Montana Territory! After losing her fiancé years before, she guards her heart as carefully as her treasured independence—until outlaw Jeremiah Brown comes into her life. Throwing caution to the wind is not in Anna—but what can one night with her handsome client hurt? He’s leaving town the next day…

Jeremiah Brown has been working hard to come clean and dodge bounty hunters who know him as Tommy Slade until the statute of limitations runs out on his past crimes. Though he’s irresistibly drawn to Anna, he’s well aware that sleeping with his beautiful attorney is a deadly game to play, even if it’s only “just” one night. Still, how can he resist?

But Fate has different plans for them, and they find themselves falling in love against their better judgment. How can they have a future with a price still on Jeremiah’s head? And how can Anna find happiness as a wife without losing her own hard-won independence? When circumstances spiral out of their control, they both discover that love is the most important thing of all.

In the courtroom, in the wilderness, and in the face of scandal, Jeremiah’s biggest challenge is Courting Anna.

My Review:

With engaging characters and terrific world building, Courting Anna quickly captured my attention and kept me coming back for more till I reached the last page.

I loved the presence Anna had - she knew her strengths and weaknesses, had confidence in herself, and embraced who she was, even as much as it went against the "norms of society" at that time. It was fun being in her shoes and facing some of her challenges.

Jeremiah Brown was appealing in his sense of honor, loyalty, and risk taking. He was immediately drawn to Anna but knew that no matter how much he may be intrigued by her, some things weren't meant to be. However, he's also a stubbornly determined man and decided she was worth the time and whatever risk to keep her in his life - I think he really liked the challenge in Anna.

The two complimented each other well with what they needed and gave to the other, and their unspoken deeper connection.  There were also several secondary characters who played significant rolls, growing along with the main characters and providing their own surprises, both for themselves and towards Anna and Jeremiah.

If you're looking for a book that features a strong heroine, a charming hero, a touch of mystery, a challenging relationship/setting, interesting drama and twists, and a happily-ever-after, this book will satisfy!

Purchase Links:

     

Internet Etiquette: “Netiquette” #MissMannersIsWatching

I grew up in a world without computers, cell phones, Internet of any kind unless you count short wave radio; not even calculators. We had telephones with long, curled wires to allow us to move around in the kitchen when we talked on the phone or, during my teenage years, a wire long enough to take the phone in the closet for private conversations away from the big ears of my parents. The only conference calls we had was on phone extensions if you lived in a house with more than one phone or had a phone with a party line (more than one household using the same line.) Etiquette was fairly easy back then: answer the phone politely, ask who is calling, whoever called was the one to end the call (etiquette according my dad) and too bad if they wanted to talk on and on, and ending a call was also to be polite. Some families answered the phone by a greeting and then announcing the surname of the family. (example: Hello, this is the McNeal Residence, may I help you?)

Well, things have changed. First there was e-mail. No one knew what the rules were in the beginning, so it was an anything goes situation. My first publisher was considered innovative for offering e-books. An author’s book had to make a certain sales amount before the book was published in paperback. There was no “Publish On Demand” back then so the publisher had to curtail the cost involved with paperbacks by selecting only those authors who had proven their worth. (I wasn’t one of them.) Keep in mind this was before Amazon changed the world with Kindle. Good luck finding anything to read those e-books from other than a computer. What a drag. Anyway, like most publishers there was a private e-mail line for authors and publishers. Since there was no established etiquette for e-mail, people said whatever they wanted. I remember the day some of the authors were perturbed with how the publisher was handling things and complained about the lack of communication between the authors and the publisher. Things got heated. When I say heated, I mean scorch your eyes out heated. The publisher was as rude and antagonistic as the authors. In the end, the authors left en mass demanding the rights to their work back. I was so disturbed by the way all of this was handled by the publisher on a public forum even though I did not participate, that I quietly waited for my contracts to end and snuck out the back door. The once reputable and innovative publisher still exists today, but is a tattered, pale relic of its former glory after this rude behavior on a public forum.

Yahoo groups were once very popular. Authors and readers gathered into these groups to share ideas and excerpts and converse. There were times when people behaved badly even though, by then, groups published rules for on line behavior. Some excerpts posted contained very descriptive sex scenes and covers that left nothing to the imagination. Yahoo has made it next to impossible to post covers other than in attachments and yahoo groups have given notice that all excerpts must have a rating. Good news since there are some young people in those groups.

Since Facebook made its way to the public it has become a great platform for writers, but once again, the lack of etiquette has caused some problems. We call them trolls, those anonymous people who join a conversation and feel free to say degrading and negative things, call people names, and then disappear. But there are other abuses to etiquette on Facebook mostly due to a lack of understanding the correct behavior in this public forum.

Have you ever had another author blatantly use your Facebook page to advertise their work? Usually they do this when they are either accepting a friend request or thanking you for accepting their friend request—and then you wish you hadn’t when the cover of their latest book and buy tags show up with that thank you. Then there are those who post a thank you sometimes with a giant picture on your post instead of using private messaging. This is particularly annoying if you’ve just posted something on your page. I don’t usually do anything about this kind of post because I don’t think it’s intentionally meant to cause discord. Friend requests are sometimes from people believing somehow that Facebook is a dating site. Ugh!

Twitter is popular, but I have noticed people are quite free with their rude and indelicate remarks on this platform, especially regarding politics and opinions. I’m still getting the hang of hash tags so I’m not a Twitter expert, but I still recognize bad behavior and etiquette. But from what I’ve seen, Twitter almost invites poor etiquette.


So what are some actual rules about etiquette, or I should say, Netiquette? I did some research and here are a few rules I found for proper behavior on line:

1.  Use simple electronic signatures are enough

2.  Do not cross post (post the same message over many channels)

3.  Stay on topic

4.  Do not hijack a thread (my pet peeve)

5.  Do not bash someone or start a flame war

6.  Try not to use all caps because it may look like you’re shouting

7.  Since expression and tone are absent, be sure you make your intent known. Use an emoticon to show your expression or intent or employ an abbreviation such as LOL (laugh out loud) or BRB (be right back), etc.

8.  Minor misspellings or mistakes do not need your comment. If it is a major error, make your comment using basic courtesy or by private message (which is what I would prefer.)

9.  This is a personal peeve of mine: when you make a friend request, please don’t let your next request be for them to like your page. It gives the impression it was your sole purpose for the friend request instead of a common interest or belief.

10.  Above all, be kind.

    

For further reading about Netiquette:

Zen and the Art of the Internet:

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_6.html#SEC44

Matthew Strawberg’s Webblog 2009  The rules of netiquette

Sarah J. McNeal

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The Many Faces of the Mistress.

The Many Faces of the Mistress

C.A. Asbrey 

"Who am I? I'm the Mistress of this ere 'ouse and this s the young Squire."

I'm speaking to the female readers here. What do they call you? What title do you like to use? Do you hide your marital status, or wear it proudly? I know someone who uses her maiden name with her title of doctor. When asked why she doesn't take his married name she says quite simply, "Because my husband doesn't have a medical degree." 

I use both my maiden and married names as it suits me. I always have. I see no contradiction in it as I can be different personas in different spheres. I performed different roles in both. I built up a reputation in work, using my maiden name, so I continued to use it there. Socially, I was quite happy to use my married name, as that reflected how people saw me in that world. I see no problem with it, and I didn't consider that it diminished my husband in any way. Nor did he. In many ways keeping my work life separate to my domestic life was a good thing. I didn't see that using my married name diminished me either, as I was quite happy to be identified as a married woman. I understand why some women think otherwise, and use only their own name at all times. That one-size-fits-all doesn't allow for individual expression, and I'm all for us accepting differences of opinion.  

This 1698 tax list from Shrewsbury records the most prominent persons in the district first: William Prince Esqr, Mm [Madam] Elizabeth Prince Wdd [widow], Mm Mary Prince Wdd, Ms [mistress] Mary her daughter, Mm Judeth Prince, Mr Philip Wingfield, and Ms Gertrude Wingfield [who is either the wife or the sister or the daughter of Mr Wingfield above]. The women who follow are recorded only by their first and last name, with no prefix. Ms is used here for an unmarried women (Mary Prince) and for a woman whose marital status is unspecified (Gertrude Wingfield). Madam appears to be used here for married or widowed women of social standing.

With so many opinions we now have so many options, but it was it really so simple in the past? There is a belief in some quarters that women have always taken their husband's name, and that unmarried women were identified by the title of miss. But the truth is way more complex, and also depends on the country. I am Scottish. To this very day Scottish women legally retain their own name for life. Marriages are entered on legal documents as an alias. For instance my character's name of Mrs. Quinn would be written in Scotland as Abigail MacKay alias Stewart alias Quinn. Stewart was the name of her first husband who died, and the aliases are legally posted in order. 

Missus, abbreviated to Mrs., was originally a term for a woman who was your social superior. It was the female version of master, and did not reflect marital status in any way. Right up to the 18th century it could mean a married or unmarried woman. True to the misogyny of the time, it could also reflect a woman of dubious sexual character, depending on context. Many insults aimed specifically at women were designed to keep her in her place, but derive from perfectly innocent titles. For example, hussy, was a diminutive of housewife. Dame, queen, madam, and even girl, can all be used to diminish a woman  or act as a warning not to get above herself. Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1755,  captured this duality when he defined mistress as: “1. A woman who governs; correlative to subject or servant; 2 A woman skilled in anything; 3. A woman teacher; 4. A woman beloved and courted; 5. A term of contemptuous address; 6. A whore or concubine.”

Many women called themselves 'Missus' simply because they ran a home, or staff. It was customary for the woman running the kitchen of a large home to be called 'Missus' as a work title right into the 20th century. It had no bearing on their marital status.

Historians generally agree that the usage of 'Miss' became a way to identify marriageable females, not because it was forced on them by men. Socially ambitious society ladies had to find an easy way to communicate quickly and easily that they were available. They also wanted to be different to the businesswomen, and the upper servants, who used the title 'Missus'. This trend was both fuelled by, and reflected by, the novels of the 1740s onwards which featured young gentry 'Misses' and upper (single) servants titled 'Mrs.'. The boundaries remained blurry right up to the 20th century. 'Mrs.' did not definitively mean a married woman until around 1900.  Married women being called by their husband's full name was also to reflect status – as in Mrs John Dashwood (Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, 1811). It was used, particularly by upper class women, to establish seniority among women who shared the same surname. England in the early 19th century was the only place in Europe where a woman took her husband’s surname. As I pointed out earlier, it was not even routine throughout all of the British Isles.   

   

Over the 19th century, this method of referring to women gradually extended to all married women, as both Mr and Mrs were gradually used to people of every social class. Mrs progressively lost its usage to distinguish social standing until only its marital meaning remained. By the 20th Century. only upper servants still used the nomenclature of Mrs when unmarried.

Titles of any sort were an indication of social status until at least the middle of 19th century. Most women had no prefix at all, and were simply called by their name. Those at the bottom of the servant's pecking order were even lucky to to be called their name. Quite often they were referred to by their position, such as 'Tweenie' (a between maid) or  'Stoorie' (an under maid - stoor being an old word for dust - indicating that they got all the dirtiest jobs). The housemaids would be 'Maggie' or 'Betty' or whatever their name was, while the housekeeper got to be called Missus. The woman of the house was referred to by her social title, and her married name changed to that of her husband.  

Today it is often assumed that women taking the man's full name is a remnant of centuries of subjugation. It wasn't, but it was already meeting challenges by the 1840s, only 40 years after the fashion began. Throughout the 20th century it got a much more hostile reaction when it was seen an oppressive removal of a woman's identity. By the 21st century, it has all but gone.

'Ms.' is hated by some, but it's much older than people think. It was first proposed in a US newspaper editorial in 1901 to solve the problem of not knowing how to address a woman because of not knowing her marital status. It never really caught on until the 1960s and 1970s, when more and more women didn't want to be identified by the man in their life, or by the lack of one 

It's more than a little ironic that 'Ms.' restored the original function of 'Mrs.' – and that it's just one of the many 17th-century abbreviations for Mistress. We appear to have come full circle.

  

Innocent Bystander EXCERPT

A vacant-looking man with prominent yellow teeth walked into her field of vision, striding beyond the blinding sun and dragged her roughly from the horse. She had expected to be searched and had ruthlessly bound her body with bandages to try to flatten and conceal her breasts, but the man merely patted down her sides before turning his attentions to her jacket. He pulled out the pistol which had been loosely placed in her pocket and slapped his way down her legs. She was instantly glad she had foregone the Derringer she usually wore at her ankle. A concealed weapon was too risky.

“He’s clean.”

“Well, boy. It seems like you’re gonna get your wish, but if you’ve been messin’ with us and you ain’t Quinn’s kin, you’re gonna regret it. He don’t like to be messed with.”

Abigail felt her arms grabbed as she was roughly turned around and her carefully dirtied hands were bound behind her back, the rope biting deeply into her skin as it was pulled tight. They must have seen her wince as it provoked a chorus of laughter which rang in her ears.

“Looks like this life’s a bit too rough for you, sonny.”

 A thick, smelly bag was thrust over her head, obliterating the world, before she was lifted back onto her little colt and she felt herself led off to face the rest of the gang.

           

    

JASPER, BANFF AND CP HOTELS: PART TWO  by Elizabeth Clements

After a fun week of exploring, hiking and seeing the world from the top of a mountain, we’ve packed up and Jasper is now fading in our rear-view mirror as we head south towards the Athabasca Falls.

These falls aren’t as high as others in Jasper National Park, just 23m high and 18m wide, but flow from the same river that streamed past our cabin. It’s a popular tourist spot, visited by thousands annually. I don’t mean to be morbid, but over the years a few daring individuals have disregarded the posted danger signs to stay on the trails and have climbed over the fence to have their picture taken, slipped on the spray-slicked rocks, and fallen to their death. We learned of one such tragedy after we arrived home. For more pictures please check out this link:

http://www.albertawow.com/hikes/Athabasca_Falls/Athabasca_Falls.htm

The next major stop for us is the Columbia Icefields about an hour’s drive south from Jasper. 

 It’s the largest icefield in the Canadian Rockies and it is shocking how much the glaciers have receded since I first saw them as a teen. We never booked an explorer bus guided tour on the ice, but we did venture onto the edge of the ice in a previous trip.  Sadly, it’s predicted the Columbia Icefields glacier could be gone in possibly another hundred years.

https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2008/02/10/the_alarming_redefinition_of_glacial.html

At last, after another hour or so on the road, enjoying vistas of lakes and tumbling streams, we arrive at world-famous Lake Louise, often called the “jewel of the Rockies”. 

Now known as Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, it has been a vacation mecca for over a hundred years. Somewhere I have pics of teenage me sitting on the lawn in front of the chateau, surrounded by orange and yellow Iceland poppies, the chateau a white palace of elegance and beauty of a bygone age.

https://pixabay.com/images/search/lake%20louise/

In 1882, while delivering supplies to the construction crews for the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.), Thomas Wilson was escorted on horseback by guides to what the Stoney Indians called the “snow mountains above the lake of little fishes”.  He was so in awe of the beauty and color of the lake that he called it Emerald Lake. (This was later renamed to Lake Louise in honor of Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.

Several years later, Cornelius Van Horne, general manager of the C.P.R., fulfilled a vision of providing lodgings for a few outdoor adventurers by building a modest, one-story cabin on the shore of Lake Louise.

“The original Chalet Lake Louise hosted visitors from different dining stations along the railway line as well as day visitors from its elegant sister, the Banff Springs Hotel.  While only 50 guests registered at the chalet in 1890, by 1912, 50,000 guests had already slept here…
Through two early fires and four architects, this small, summer cabin would evolve to become today's Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.”

Over the years,this gobally-famous chalet has hosted kings and queens, movie stars and sports events. Several films have been made hee because of the breathtaking scenery.

https://www.fairmont.com/lake-louise/hotelhistory/

Be it summer of winter, there are all kinds of activities to enjoy while staying at this elegant CP hotel. A few years ago hubby and I celebrated our anniversary by revisiting Banff (where we’d spent our weekend honeymoon). When we arrived at Lake Louise, we were surprised to discover the lake was still frozen in mid-May! And what a chill radiating off the ice. Only a few feet had thawed, lapping along the shoreline. So, we simply strolled the perimeter of the lake front, took a few pictures, and headed back to Calgary. Anyone wanting to take a canoe trip across the lake, would be best advised to wait until summer.

Speaking of summer, I have to share this little tidbit about Lake Louise. When Calgary held the Winter Olympic Games in 1988, several events were held in Banff and Lake Louise. The following year, Alberta Tourism ran the most amazing advertising campaign---it showed Lake Louise covered in snow and ice, then there was a slow-motion segue from frozen, snow-covered lake to sparkling aquamarine water and Iceland poppies bobbing in the breeze…and the caption read something like this:  Come back to see what lies beneath the snow. Makes me think of that song, The Rose sung by Bette Midler. Genius advertising and unforgettable for me, even 30 years later.

Now, after I stop smiling about that commercial, let’s motor onward to Banff, approximately half an hour’s drive away from Lake Louise . You cannot see everything that needs to be seen in Banff in a day, or Banff National Park in a week or even a month. Just be prepared for people. Lots of people. Parking spots are hard to find. (On our latest trip there, I couldn’t even get to browse in my favorite shop, the year-round Christmas Store on the main thoroughfare because of the parking problem. Hence the quick trip to Lake Louise.

Back in 1883, while the CPR railroad was built through the mountains to complete connecting Canada’s east and west coasts, some CPR workers saw steam rising from crack at the base of a mountain. They thought this would make a great money-making venture. Spas were all the rage in Europe, so why not have this attraction here? They climbed down through an opening to the pool, built a cabin nearby and invited people to take “the healing waters”. In 1885 a tunnel was dug for easy access to the basin. Disputes over several claims filed in the area caused the government to take notice and declared the area a park.

The government encouraged the CPR to build a hotel there and thus began the reign of elegant, European-style CP hotels out West, many still popular to this day. As the townsite grew, the park was renamed Banff in honor of William Davidson, the area’s first European settler who had grown up near the town of Banff in Scotland. This became Canada’s first national park.

There are so many places to visit in Banff. The Cave and Basin—(remember those CPR workers’ dream??) is no longer used as a spa; it is now a museum with tours through the tunnel to the cavern basin. For those wanting to bathe in the mineral waters, they can do so at the Banff Upper Hot Springs. Another popular spa is a few miles away at Radium Hot Springs.

We spent hours driving on narrow paved roads through the mountains, visiting beautiful lakes, such as Peyto Lake, which is world-famous for its shape and color. One has to drive carefully because of the roaming wildlife. At our condo unit, we saw deer meandering on the grass. They were so used to humans that they’d come right up to our sliding glass door, curious to touch hands in search of food. They eagerly accepted chunks of bread. We later learned that a deer’s stomach does not tolerate bread well, so when they say, don’t feed the animals, they’re right. Even little creatures, like squirrels can lose the urge to forage in the wild when they’re fed by humans. They can end up starving if they haven’t stored up food for the winter.

https://banff.ca/DocumentCenter/View/784/Walking-Through-Banffs-History?bidId=

By Kimpayant - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21700549

Banff’s most famous landmark can also be credited to the vision of the founder of Chateau Lake Louise with this quote:  "Since we can't export the scenery, we'll have to import the tourists." - William Cornelius Van Horne  Castle of the Rockies is another name for the Banff Springs Hotel (renamed Fairmont Banff Springs in 2001). “In 1886 William Cornelius Van Horne had a vision to bring the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains to the rest of the world. He commissioned blueprints for an impressive hotel to be built at the convergence of the Bow and Spray River, in what is now known as Canada’s first National Park. Construction began in 1887 and the hotel publically opened in 1888 on June 1.”

It cost $250,000 to build it, a lot of money even then in today’s currency. The workers made a mistake and had the hotel positioned at the wrong angle, thus giving the kitchen staff the scenic view. Mr. Van  Horne was furious when he visited in 1887. He quickly drew up plans and expanded  the hotel so when it opened the next year, the guests could enjoy the scenic Mount Rundle view from their bedroom windows as originally intended.

With the onward western expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, communities sprang up around the winter stations for the crews. But it isn’t just the West that can boast about these elegant, chateau-style hotels. To name just a few of the famous ones: Chateau Frontenac (Quebec City), Royal York (Toronto), Chateau Laurier (Ottawa), Hotel Macdonald (Edmonton),Palsier (Calgary), The Empress  Hotel (Victoria), Hotel Vancouver (Vancouver).

How can you tell I love these wonderful queens of the railroad? Space doesn’t allow me to expand on my love of these hotels which reminds us of a more elegant age. I hope when you visit Canada, you’ll have a chance to stay at one of these beautiful, historic hotels and enjoy the elegance of a bygone age. If you share my interest, please visit this excellent link for pictures and a bit of information about these hotels:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%27s_grand_railway_hotels

And as you enjoy a virtual stroll through these elegant rooms, I hope you’ll share your experience at a favorite hotel or resort you’ve stayed in.

Is it any wonder then, that I had to write a story set in the beautiful area I just talked about? Originally Diamond Jack’s angel was set in the Crowsnest Pass, not too far from Banff. In the original story, Angela had accepted an invitation to sing at the newly opened Banff Springs Hotel in the summer of 1888. Well, that book is hibernating somewhere in a box, so in order to have my story included in the Hot Western Nights anthology this summer, I resurrected that story from memory, cut a lot of the story and moved it to Colorado’s equally beautiful mountain scenery.

Here is a brief excerpt from Diamond Jack’s Angel in Hot Western Nights:

Jack thought he’d died and gone to heaven. A few days ago, Angela had been as cool as a mountain lake, and now this incredible woman was kissing him with a passion he’d dreamed of for months.

 Elated, he carried her to the sofa, unable to let her go, and kissed her cheeks, her eyes, brushed aside her silky hair and trailed more kisses along her neck. He knew he was moving too fast, but her whimpers drove him wild with need to touch her. When her fingers tunneled through his hair to hold him close, he dipped his head and kissed the creamy flesh rising from her bodice. Ever since their kiss the other night on the piano bench, he’d barely thought of anything else but kissing her…making love with her.

 “Marry me,” he whispered against the enticing swell of her breast.

“Oh, yes,” she murmured on a breathless sigh.

Half-leaning over her, Jack slid to his knees on the carpet and stared at her, hoping he’d heard right. “You will?”

“Will what?” she murmured, her eyes dreamy.

“Marry me.”

“I will? Why?”

“Because you love me.”

She gazed at him, a frown forming between her eyes. “I do?”

Desperate to recapture the passionate mood of moments before, Jack clasped her hand and held it against his lips, kissing her fingers. “Yes, you love me.”

She pushed herself upright, unaware of the pressure that put on her barely confined breasts and Jack’s willpower. “But…but that’s impossible. We barely know each other.”

 “We have the rest of our lives to do that.”

She sat there in a puff of blue skirts, her golden hair in disarray, looking so adorably puzzled that he couldn’t resist leaning forward and kissing her parted lips again. “Lil’s right. You’re beautiful in blue.”

Link for Diamond Jack’s Angel/Hot Western Nights

 Anthologyhttps://www.amazon.com/Western-Nights-Karen-Michelle-Nutt-ebook/dp/B07T9F21B5/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_3?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.clements.549

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17898781.Elizabeth_Clements

https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Horse-Thief-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07BHQNBDW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?

https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Fugitive-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07SZ4LHVS

Beneath A Horse Thief Moon: http://amzn.to/2FVunRW

Beneath A Fugitive Moon: https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Fugitive-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07SZ4LHVS