Paty –
Please help me welcome award-winning author Danita Cahill to my blog today.
Danita’s talking about her newest release, First
Cowboy Kiss, the latest story in her Bellham Romance Series.
Danita – Hi everyone, and thanks for the warm welcome,
Paty! I’m so glad to be here.
Paty – Glad
to have you. So, tell us about the inspiration for First Cowboy Kiss.
Danita – It’s a funny story. Ideas for books often
arrive for me via dreams. First Cowboy
Kiss was no exception. I awakened with something a friend’s grandfather
used to say resonating in my head: “Never trust a man with little ears” (My
friend’s grandfather was a rather large-eared gentleman). The plot, and the
heroine’s memories of her late grandfather, came together with that initial
one-line, dream-induced prompt. I love it when that happens!
Paty – I
love it when that happens, too, though I rarely remember a dream. Tell us about the town of Bellham. And where
did you come up with that name?
Danita – The northwestern town was named Bell's Hamlet
after Paul and Maude Bell, original 1840 pioneer settlers. The name was later
shortened to Bellham.
It's a small, quaint, fictional ranching
community in Oregon's fertile and scenic Willamette Valley. Like small towns
everywhere, Bellham is filled with quirky characters – including the town
mascot, a friendly stray duck named Harvey. There’s also a real feel of
community in Bellham, and of the residents being in this life together, helping
one another through the rough, bumpy patches. Of course there's plenty of love
in each Bellham Romance Series book.
Paty –
What made you decide to set your series in a small town?
Danita - I’m a small-town country girl. And I spent a
couple of decades as a journalist, working for a dozen northwest newspapers, covering
news and events in small towns and rural communities. I've taken that
experience, and my love of all things rural, and rolled it all into little
Bellham.
Blurb:
Nothing is Sweeter than Love’s First Kiss…
FIRST COWBOY KISS is a sweet, tender,
“clean” novella of young love.
Bellham Romances all
interconnect through characters and location, but each can easily be read as a
stand-alone book, too.
Meet the Cowboy…
Mia Donovan is
lonely. So, her best friend sets her up to meet a cowboy at the local Rodeo.
But Mia is shy, and it takes all her courage to approach a good-looking cowboy
that may, or may not, be the right one.
Watch the Cowboy Ride…
Bareback bronc
rider, Tanner Michaels, is definitely interested in Mia. But first he has a
bucking horse to ride. He can’t afford to let thoughts of Mia fill his head
until those eight seconds are over.
Mia watches Tanner
ride. Her nerves twist in knots when he’s bucked off. How badly is he hurt?
Get Rescued by the Cowboy…
Later that day, it’s
Tanner’s turn to worry when Mia, who can’t swim, is knocked into the deep end
of a pool. Tanner jumps in and rescues her. But why isn’t she coming to?
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Never trust a man with little ears.
That idiosyncratic
bit of advice was one of many that Mia’s late grandfather left her with when he
passed away eleven months ago. Like this one, most of Papa Pete’s sayings were
endearing, if somewhat ridiculous. Funny one of his “wisdoms” should pop into Mia’s
head during Bellham, Oregon’s, Valley River Rodeo. At this very moment, too –
the exact moment she spotted the cowboy.
He was the cowboy
her best friend, Skye had told her about. Wasn’t he? Tall. Muscular build. Red
shirt.
It had to be him!
Didn’t it?
His forearms were
propped on the metal rail of a horse pen, one boot firmly planted behind him in
the dust, the leg nearest the rail bent and relaxed.
Papa Pete’s advice
might seem silly, but as Mia moved closer to the cowboy she couldn’t stop her
gaze from sliding along his firm backside, gliding over the powerful round of
his shoulder and up the side of his thick neck to land on his lobe – the only
part of his ear she could see. His white straw cowboy hat covered the rest.
Good guys wear white hats.
His earlobe was
decidedly full and thick. Mia let out a small sigh of relief and forced her new
boots to approach the rail and stand nearby. Bright August heat radiated off
the metal stock panels. She leaned her arms on one of the rails anyway and fought
the urge to jerk back from the scorch of hot steel against her bare skin.
The dense, sweet
scent of horse sweat permeated the air, blending agreeably with the
coconut-pineapple-scented sunscreen she’d slathered on that morning. Mia’s arms
absorbed, and adjusted, to the heat from the rail.
Always let the man speak first.
As antiquated as
that piece of Papa-Pete advice was, Mia took it anyway. She remained silent and
assessed the eleven broncs mulling about, scuffling and stirring up dust inside
the pen. Some were sleek, regal creatures, with the appearance of tame, honest
saddle horses – like Lady, the gentle palomino from her childhood. Others had
scarred, rough coats, and a rogue glint in their eyes, as though they’d just as
soon throw and stomp a rider as look at him.
If the cowboy
leaning on the rail beside her was a horse, Mia wondered which sort he’d be.
Judging from the shaggy, longish hair poking out from under his hat, the
scuffed boots, yet neatly ironed shirt, he’d be a mixture of both.
FIRST
COWBOY KISS is available
at Amazon as a Kindle Countdown Deal – only $0.99 January 3-9! Or enjoy it for
free through Kindle Unlimited or Kindle Owners Lending Library.
Scroll down for link to enter a Kindle Fire
6" HD giveaway.
About
the Author
Danita Cahill is an
award-winning writer and photographer. She lives in the Pacific NW on a small
Oregon farm with her husband, sons and their animals, including a horse and a
herd of 10 alpacas. Besides running children to and fro and caring for her
gardens, critters and family, Danita stays busy working on magazine assignments
and dreaming up love stories for her next books.
Visit Danita’s author page:
http://www.amazon.com/Danita-Cahill/e/B009NF74I4/
Find Danita on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanitaCahill?ref=stream
Follow Danita on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanitaCahill
Danita is sponsoring a Kindle Fire 6" HD giveaway
January 1-7, 2015. Click here: https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/new-year-kindle-fire-giveaway/ and
enter for a chance to win.
Good luck!
4 comments:
Fun to be here again, Paty! Thanks for hosting me.
Having Danita at Paty's blog is like having lunch with two friends again! I've downloaded this book and it waits on my growing to-be-read list. Though my reading time still seems sparse, I'm looking forward to reading this!
You're welcome here any time.
So great having "lunch" with you, too, Genene! Thanks for downloading First Cowboy Kiss.
The three of us should definitely do lunch for real, real soon.
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