Cowboys Are Better Than Navy SEALS

Last month at the Lori Foster Readers and Authors Get Together, Sharon Hamilton and I wrangled over whether or not Cowboys or SEALS are better. Even a very cute young man took my side and told Sharon that Cowboys were better than SEALS. Then two weeks later I see Sharon had written a blog at Happy Ever After Blog listing the top 10 reasons why a Navy SEAL is better than a cowboy. 

She’s thrown down the gauntlet and the game is on…so just for fun, here are my 10 reasons why a Cowboy is better than a Navy SEAL:

10) Cowboys smell of leather and horse and a manly scent that makes you go awwww…Seals they’re all wet.

A New Love(s) @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #amwriting #Yellowstone #GrandTetons #MFRWorg

Last month, I fell in love.

With bears and moose, mountain bluebirds and coyotes, owls and bison.
To clarify, I fell in love with Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. While it was my husband’s third trip there, it was my first.

The above-mentioned wildlife were just a few of what we saw on our adventures in Wyoming. It ranks now as one of my top favorite vacations of all time (and I think I’ve mentioned a time or twelve how much I love Maine, right?). I’d move to Wyoming or Montana in a heartbeat.

It was a vacation that fed my soul. I got to be creative with photography, relax and look at beautiful countryside, and get inspiration for the Cowboy series I’m writing, which is set in Montana. (YES! We saw a real live cowboy rounding up cattle!)

I grew up surrounded by the Franklin mountains in El Paso, and have taken other vacations in and around mountains. The Grand Tetons are now my favorite of all. And I came up with an idea for a series set in that area! I think it has a bit of a unique twist. But I can’t say anything yet…

@sloanebcollins Writer's Block is an Evil Thing #amwriting #PlottingPrincesses #MFRWorg #writinglife #SullivansofMontana

I’ve been really stuck lately on my current work in progress.  Like STUCK, stuck.  I hit over the halfway mark, and I didn’t know what needed to happen next.  So I worked on editing the first half.  Searched Pinterest for more inspiration.  Tried writing just whatever, scenes that weren’t interesting.  Tried plotting an outline.   I even created book covers for all five in the series, hoping it would get me going (it did give me plots for books three and four!).  Worked on character development worksheets.

Etc., etc., etc. (said with Yul Brynner’s accent in “The King & I”.)

I had taken a brief hiatus from my French book sequel, and the prequel, because I had a dream about five cowboy ranching brothers, and they were clamoring for me to start writing their stories.  I’d hoped to enter it in a contest last year, but didn’t finish in time.  So with my Sullivans of Montana cowboy story, I wrote and wrote until I reached the point where the hero and heroine finally get together (you know what I mean). 

Then I got stuck.  In lava.  Which hardened until I couldn't write.

Coming Release -- Deadly: Lipstick and Lead Series Book 2

This Friday, the first full length novel Deadly, in my new series Lipstick and Lead comes out. The heroine in this story is one of my favorites and in fact all of the sisters in these books have been fun to write, but Meg has stayed with me.

We first met the sisters in the Novella, Desperate.

Meg's a woman forced by life to take over the care of her sisters, wear men’s clothes and when her father dies, she must find a way to save their family farm. After trying a typical job for a woman back in her time period, she and her sisters become bounty hunters like their father. It’s a profession they know, but they’re women chasing bad guys.

Only Meg has a dream. A dream of owning her own dress shop and dressing like a woman. And her hero…well let’s just say they have a past that involved her leaving him tied up and naked on main street.

Here’s an excerpt from Deadly: