Continuing my Winter blog Tour of Wild Rose Press historical authors, I have Caroline Clemmons here today.
Caroline Clemmons writes romance and adventures—although her earliest made up adventures featured her saving the West with Roy Rogers. Her career has included stay-at-home mom (her favorite job), newspaper reporter and featured columnist, assistant to the managing editor of a psychology journal, and bookkeeper. She and her husband live in rural North Central Texas with a menagerie of rescued pets. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, reading, travel, browsing antique malls and estate sales, and genealogy/family history. Her latest releases include THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE, OUT OF THE BLUE, and SNOWFIRES. Read about her at
www.carolineclemmons.com and
http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com. She loves to hear from readers at caroline@carolineclemmons.com
Paty, Thank you for having me as your guest today at this lovely blog.
How has your imagination helped you as a writer? All my life I’ve been a daydreamer with an overactive imagination. Don’t you think that’s a trait most writers share? Mine initially may have been because as a child I was ill a lot and confined to bed for days at a time. We owned only a couple of children’s books, so I made up my own stories. My mother liked movies, and I had seen on screen battles of right over wrong that I used as a basis for my imaginary characters and situations. Of course, I was always the star of these adventures and saved everyone except the bad guys.
Currently, this same visualization process fuels my characters. I see them as clearly as if I were at the movies. I suppose that’s why when people ask me which movie or TV star my hero or heroine are like, I can’t come up with a person. Each character exists only in my head and is not patterned after a real person or movie star. The two exceptions to this are: (1) the hero always has the qualities of my husband and are always tall like him, and (2) I always wanted to look like a young Maureen O’Hara, so many of my heroines look like her. Too many, I’m afraid, so I have to stop that!
What attracted you to writing westerns?Since I can remember, I have loved western movies. I also love western stories, and have read all of Louis L’Amour’s books except those he wrote as Hopalong Cassidy vehicles. As a child, I wanted to ride the range with Roy Rogers and save the West. Since I lived in Southern California at the time, I had no idea what “the real West” was like. Once we moved back to Texas just before I was eight, I was certain I was now a full-fledged cowgirl. For my eighth birthday, I asked for a Roy Rogers gun and holster instead of the doll my mom wanted for me. (Wish I’d kept that gun and holster, because now they are highly collectible.) My dad used to talk about his family coming to Texas from Georgia and their escapades. His stories fascinated me and enamored me with Texas history. I especially like the period between 1870 and 1899. So many important changes happened during that time. Not that I would like to live then, because I love my central heat and air, modern appliances, and today’s medical care. It is a romantic time, as in the romance of adventure. I love reading books set in those years, and love writing them. I’ve also written contemporary romance, but my heart is in western historical romances.
What are you working on now?Right now I’m working on a time travel in which a woman from 1896 comes forward to today. The heroine is named after my new sister-in-law, Penny, and is a fun heroine to write. Penny doesn’t look like Maureen O’Hara, but is a redhead because the real Penny has long red hair. Life has interfered with this book recently, but a couple of friends and I scheduled a book-in-a-month for February so we each can finish our WIP. As Larry the cable guy says, “We’re gonna git ‘er done.” We hope! After that, there are two more books in the time travel series, a brother and a cousin of the first book’s hero. All three will be fun books to write and, hopefully, to read. Don’t you enjoy series? I do.
Let me share some info about my current western historical romance, THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE, from The Wild Rose Press. I love this hero! Dallas McClintock is a fine man, filled with honor and loyalty. Don’t you love gamma heroes, the combination of an alpha and a beta hero? Dallas is gentle but powerful, a horse whisperer, as well as a rancher and horse breeder. The heroine, Cenora O’Neill, looks a lot like Maureen O’Hara. LOL Reviews for this book have been awesome. Here’s a blurb:
Cenora Rose O’Neill knows her father somehow arranged the trap for Dallas, but she agrees to wed the handsome stranger. She’d do anything to protect her family, and she wants to save herself from the bully Tom Williams. A fine settled man like Dallas will rid himself of her soon enough, but at least she and her family will be safely away from Tom Williams.
Texas rancher Dallas McClintock has no plans to wed for several years. Right now, he’s trying to establish himself as a successful horse breeder. Severely wounded rescuing Cenora from kidnappers, Dallas is taken to her family’s wagon to be tended. He is trapped into marrying Cenora, but he is not a man who goes back on his word. His wife has a silly superstition for everything, but passion-filled nights with her make up for everything—even when her wild, eccentric family drives him crazy.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Dallas and Cenora’s wedding celebration. Dallas has been severely wounded and sits leaning against a wagon and his new mother-in-law, Aoiffe, is with him:
Dallas raised his gaze where Aoife directed. Four girls danced, but only one drew his attention. Shoulders straight and feet flying, Cenora met his glance, then broke away from the other dancers to perform only a few yards from him.
Catcalls sounded nearby. She ignored them but gave a toss of her head. Her hair had come unbound, and her act sent her fiery hair awhirl. Light from the blazing campfire cast an aura-like radiance around her. Lantern glow overhead reflected her eyes sparked with merriment, challenge, and something mysterious he couldn’t name.
No longer the delicate china doll, her wild beauty called to him, mesmerized him. He visualized her brilliant tresses spread across a pillow, her milky skin bared only for him. His body responded, and savage desire shot through him. Surprised at the depth of his reaction, he wondered if her performance in bed would parallel the unbridled nature of her dance.
Good Lord, could this glorious woman truly be his wife? And if so, heaven help him, what on earth was he to do with her?
THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE is available from all the online sources, including the publisher’s website at
www.thewildrosepress.com/caroline-clemmons-m-638.html. After you read this book, please let me know how you liked it. My email is caroline@carolineclemmons.com
Here are some of my other contacts:
Website
www.carolineclemmons.comPersonal blog
http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.comTeam blog
http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.comFacebook www.Facebook.com/Caroline Clemmons
Twitter www.twitter.com/CarolinClemmons (no E in Caroline, no space)
I’m also on Goodreads and LinkedIn.
Paty, thanks for hosting me. Readers, thanks so much for reading my post.
