A MATCH MADE IN MONTANA – Release Day Blog Post Featuring Elsa Winckler

June 29, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Book cover of A Match Made in Montana by Elsa Winckler. Romantic couple smiling with Montana background.

If you’re a die hard romantic like me, you probably also love romantic comedies – whether it’s a book, a play or a movie. The laugh-out-loud ones but also the laugh-with-a-tear ones. I haven’t set out to write Annie’s and Craig’s story as a comedy, it just ended up that way. The basic plot for a romantic comedy, Google tells me is 1. Meet 2. Lose and 3. Get.

I love writing the meet-cute moment but because A Match Made in Montana is the second story in the Millers of Marietta series, Annie and Craig have already met so I had to find a way to have them “meet” in a cute way again – hence the first scene in the book where Annie is lying in a hammock and reading a very vivid description of a heroine’s bodily reaction to the hero in the story! 

Maybe it’s also because they have both been hurt before and are struggling to leave the past behind that I instinctively added more funny moments than what I usually do. The chances that they can have their happily ever after are slim, there are so many obstacles, but as we’ve come to realize by now, the magic of Marietta and Copper Mountain has a way of bringing lost souls together.

I’ve been writing romance since 2008 and I’ve discovered some characters are harder to forget than others. Annie Miller, the heroine in A Match Made in Montana is one of those characters that seems to be stuck in my mind. Maybe because she’s so different from most of the other feisty and more forceful heroines I’ve written. In contrast to most of her friends and her sister, Viv, Annie is a homebody. She’s a natural caretaker and nurturer. Nothing gives her more pleasure than to feed people and to see them enjoy the food she’s made – the reason why her fiancé dumped her weeks before their wedding. According to him, she’s not enough of a go-getter. 

The Irishman, as her brother Mitch calls Craig, has been in her mind since he’s hugged her goodbye during his first visit to Marietta. Now he’s back for his cousin Aiden’s and sister Vivian’s wedding and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to ignore the obvious spark between them. 

The more time she spends with the big red head, the more she likes him, but Annie is still bruised and unsure of herself. Why would a hot-shot marketing guru from Portland be interested in her?

Finding a happy-ever-after for Annie and Craig has been a challenge, there are so many obstacles in their way, but as we romance lovers know by now, never underestimate the magic of love. It will find a way.

To win an e-book copy of Book 1, My Montana Valentine, in the The Millers of Marietta series, tell us about your favorite Marietta couple! Or perhaps tell us what your favorite romantic comedy movie is?

I hope you enjoy Annie’s and Craig’s story! Thanks for stopping by.

About the author

Author Elsa Winckler headshotI have been reading love stories for as long as I can remember and when I ‘met’ the classic authors like Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry James The Brontë sisters, etc. during my Honours studies, I was hooked for life. 

I married my college boyfriend and soul mate and after 43 years, 3 interesting and wonderful children and 3 beautiful grandchildren, he still makes me weak in the knees. We are fortunate to live in the picturesque little seaside village of Betty’s Bay, South Africa with the ocean a block away and a beautiful mountain right behind us. And although life so far has not always been an easy ride, it has always been an exciting and interesting one! 

I like the heroines in my stories to be beautiful, feisty, independent and headstrong.  And the heroes must be strong but possess a generous amount of sensitivity. They are of course, also gorgeous!  My stories typically incorporate the family background of the characters to better understand where they come from and who they are when we meet them in the story. 

 

Tule’s 2023 Father’s Day Recommended Reads

June 16, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

In honor of Father’s Day, the Tule team has picked out some titles we know you, or a very special father-figure, will surely love. Whether you’re looking for sexy or sweet, you’ll be sure to find a special Father’s Day treat!

Montana Cowboy Baby Daddy by Jane Porter
Wyatt Brothers of Montana series, Book 3

Professional rodeo cowboy Billy Wyatt is in the prime of his career. He’s having a fantastic year on the circuit, earning big money and leading the standings. Too immersed in his success and enjoying bachelorhood, he’s not interested in getting serious. But when a woman he’s never seen before shows up with a baby she claims is his, Billy’s world is turned inside out.

Erika Baylor, a PhD grad student, never planned to be a single mom, but when her cousin dies in a car accident, orphaning her infant son, Erika steps forward. She’ll help to care for her 4-month-old nephew until the baby can be reunited with his dad. She doesn’t expect the dad to be cocky, infuriating, and utterly irresistible.

Billy never thought he wanted to be a father, but looking into the eyes of the baby who is supposedly his—and whose blue eyes mirror his own—he’s hooked. But he’s hooked on the woman who’s holding the baby too…


The Matchmaker’s Match by Nicole Flockton
Man’s Best Friend series, Book 3

Could the best man be her best option?

The last person Meredith Turner expects to see at her best friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner is the guy she had a one night stand with. What’s worse, Lincoln Forrest is the best man and as maid of honor, her partner. To add insult to injury, she has to leave the rehearsal dinner early, and Lincoln is the one to help her with a deeply personal problem. The aftermath of that night brings big changes for them both.

Lincoln Forrest has helped his best friend meet the woman of his dreams, but recently he’s made a series of bad decisions, the biggest being leaving his career with the Army. Now the former K-9 handler is looking for a new career and trying to get his life back on track. Helping Meredith in her time of need connects her to him more than he expected. On a mission to right the wrong he created, Linc will do whatever is needed. But when the attraction that first drew them together flares to life again, will the obstacles between them be too much to overcome? Or has the matchmaker met his match?

The Texas Cowboy’s Proposal by Debra Holt
Texas Heritage series, Book 1

They had a foolproof plan…until one little girl got involved.

Sammi Jo Burkitt’s formidable grandmother’s will is pushing Sammi Jo to the brink. Yes, the feisty cowgirl can keep the ranching empire known as Aces High, which has been the family birthright for two centuries, but she must marry her rival and stay married for three years as part of the deal. Say no, and Aces High goes on the auction block.

Beaudry Hawkes wants nothing to do with the high and mighty Burkitts. Until the day Sammi Jo shows up on his doorstep with a proposition no one in their right mind would refuse: wear her ring, then accept thousands of acres of rich ranch land and a tidy sum of three million dollars when they part ways. The windfall could change everything for his daughter’s future.

But eight-year-old Lacy is becoming attached to the idea of one happy family. Nothing short of a true marriage between the two can make her dreams come true. Can Sammi Jo and Beaudry find their freedom and love too?

Lola and the Single Dad by Kelly Hunter
Outback Babies series, book 4

When love comes to town…

Artisan blacksmith Ned Harrow lost his wife and gained a son, all in the space of a day. Since then, he’s been caring for his son, Ollie, and working to rebuild his business. When his neighbour’s visiting goddaughter offers to help, she’s a lifeline and so much more. Ned knows the beautiful and fun-loving Lola isn’t staying long, but she’s impossible to resist and his heart is cracking wide open.

Actress Lola Darcy has never hit the big time and she’s beginning to wonder if she ever will. She’s in-between auditions when she visits her godmother in Wirralong. The country life and adorable baby she can sing to is a balm to her heart that’s been wounded by so many rejections. Lola loves caring for the sweet babe next door, and his eye candy father makes the visit even better.

As Lola and Ned become friends and perhaps more, the part of a lifetime beckons. Should she follow her dream or create new ones in Wirralong?


A Nanny Called Alice by Barbara Hannay
Outback Brides Return to Wirralong, book 4

She’s thousands of miles from home and intent on proving her independence…

When Alice Trembath is mugged in the stark Australian outback, she has two choices: return to the US with an “I told you so” from her conservative parents and join the family business, or take a job as a nanny on a nearby cattle station. Despite being wildly unqualified, she accepts the position. She’s a fast learner and besides, she needs the money.

Hotshot businessman Tom Braydon is juggling huge responsibilities. After the death of his brother, Tom took in his orphaned nieces and managed his brother’s cattle station, while simultaneously running his own thriving business in Sydney. Tom desperately needs Alice’s help, even though she has zero experience looking after children or living in the outback. He has plenty on his plate, he doesn’t need the distraction of a romance.

But while Alice and Tom strive to ignore the chemistry sizzling between them and focus on their separate goals, love clearly has other plans.

A COWBOY’S PROMISE: Release Day Blog Post featuring Anne McAllister! (and Giveaway!)

June 8, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Piecing Together Stories and Visions

Writers are often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”  It’s a fair question because most people who have not struggled through writing a book beginning to end (never just once, but countless times) logically seem to expect that a book comes from a single particular idea, and then the next book comes from another one.

The truth, for me,  is that a book cobbles itself together from lots of ideas the same way dreams do. I snatch one bit from this location, another from that memory, a third from something my dad said, or my cousins told me, or from watching a film or sitting in a hospital waiting room.  And then there’s research – the bits I don’t know yet, but someone else does and has kindly written about or is willing to talk about, that will help me vicariously live in the fictional world that is gradually taking shape.  Finally, then, it coalesces (not without revisions!) into a book.  

That was certainly true of A Cowboy’s Promise.  

The hero, Charlie Seeks Elk, was born in an earlier book of mine called Gifts of the Spirit where he was a troubled teenager. I have known several of those.  Once upon a time when we were in grad school, my husband and I house-dog-and-teenager-sat for a semester. Plenty of things we experienced then were grist for the mill of Charlie’s teenage years. 

He needed a role model then, and the hero of that earlier book, Chase Whitelaw, reluctantly stepped up. Chase’s experience bridging life between his own urban Los Angeles and his father’s Navajo reservation owe more than a nod to my dad’s and his uncle’s experiences.  They gained opportunities. They lost connections.  They sought a future. They lost a past.

There were a lot of other ‘ideas’ that meshed when Charlie Seeks Elk came face-to-face with what eternity was all about after he was shot in a crossfire halfway round the world (I give thanks that I have no firsthand experience with that).  And when those things came together, I finally had a focus – what Charlie didn’t have was the one person he needed most – Cait.  And what Cait meant to Charlie was home.

She was the one who touched his heart, who made him whole.  She was the one who mattered — too much — more than he dared let her.  He knew how to be rootless.  He didn’t know how to connect.  It was safer not to. But facing eternity, Charlie had second thoughts.  

Cait Blasingame was the embodiment of home.  She might have seen lots of the world. She might have fallen in love with the wrong man.  But when she goes back to Montana after years abroad as a nurse, she knows who she is, what she values, where she belongs. She isn’t prepared for Charlie reappearing in her life.  

When my editor and I were looking for a series title for A Cowboy’s Promise and the other books that will follow it this year, home was a theme that underpinned all of them, so “Cowboy, Come Home” seemed a perfect choice. 

In a way, it turns the iconic American image of the cowboy riding off alone into the sunset on its head.  That cowboy doesn’t go home. He doesn’t have a home. Charlie wants nothing less.

The other two books coming later this year, The Great Montana Cowboy Auction and A Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle, also look at home, each in a different way.  If you would like to win a copy of one of my earlier Tule releases, please tell me what is most important to you when you think about “home.” One or two commenters will be chosen randomly by the Tule staff and will receive a copy of the book they choose.

About the Author

Years ago someone told Anne McAllister that the recipe for happiness was a good man, a big old house, a bunch of kids and dogs, and a job you loved that allows you to read.  And write.  She totally agrees.
Now, one good man, one big old house (since traded for a slightly smaller house. Look, no attic!) a bunch of kids (and even more grandkids) and dogs (and one bionic cat) and seventy books, she’s still reading.  And writing.  And happier than ever.
Over thirty plus years Anne has written long and short contemporary romances, single titles and series, novellas and a time-travel for Harlequin Mills & Boon and for Tule Publishing. She’s had two RITA winning books and nine more RITA finalists as well as awards from Romantic Times and Midwest Fiction Writers. One of the joys of writing is that sometimes, when she can’t go back in person, she can go back in her mind and her heart and her books.

WRITE THE WORLD YOU WANT TO LIVE IN, THEY SAY – a few words of writing consideration from Author Kelly Hunter

November 17, 2021 · Posted by Tule Publishing

WRITE THE WORLD YOU WANT TO LIVE IN, THEY SAY

But for me this was bad writing advice.

I’d just bought and taken possession of a little cabin on the outskirts of a sweet country town. Not the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, but let’s just say it needed far more work than I thought it would. A five month wait on heating components and building materials. A twelve month wait for tradesmen.

Was it any wonder that my heroine stumbled across a God with a Hammer who was better than Thor? No story tension or conflict, mind—he simply did whatever my needy heroine told him to do at the end she got a very nice house out of it and he stayed on because he was handy to have around. My fantasy! Better than Thor.

But not a romance. At all.

So I put the story away, and fixed the cabin as best I could, and only once my real-life desire for competent tradesmen waned did I take to the story again. Because while I’m altogether on board with wrapping the end of a story up in a perfection covered bow, the journey to get to that point shouldn’t be a mellow stroll through a perfect world. If it’s too perfect, I’ll get bored writing it and you’ll fall asleep reading it and that won’t do at all.

Must Love Christmas isn’t boring anymore. It’s stuffed with hopes and dreams, and hearts that clamor for love, and a heroine taking her first wobbly steps toward confidence and self-respect. My Christmas gift to her. Merry Christmas, Madeline and Seth. Have a good one.

You can find the story here.

But if you know of any tradesmen looking for work, give me a call.

 

About the Author

Accidentally educated in the sciences, Kelly Hunter didn’t think to start writing romances until she was surrounded by the jungles of Malaysia for a year and didn’t have anything to read. Eventually she decided that writing romance suited her far better than throwing sterile screw-worm flies out of airplane windows, and changed careers. Kelly now lives in Australia, surrounded by lush farmland and family, 2 dogs, 3 miniature cows, a miniature pig, a 3-legged cat and a small flock of curious chickens. There are still flies, but their maggots don’t feed on flesh. Bargain. Kelly is a USA Today bestselling author, a three-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and loves writing to the short contemporary romance form.

Tule Author Q&A: Megan Ryder talks relaxing & redemption

September 24, 2019 · Posted by @jennysilver

Tule author Megan Ryder sat down to discuss her second book in the Redemption Ranch series, Coming Home to the Cowboy.

Chase seems to have developed a defense mechanism with his personality. When did he start to hide behind humor?
Chase learned very young that humor made people like him more and hide his pain. He learned this as a very young child, particularly in school when the other kids liked him and making jokes allowed him to pretend that he didn’t care that he didn’t have what other kids had – birthday parties, people who cared, a family. Also, making jokes and being funny allowed him to build quick connections for a kid who changed schools often and had to go one of two ways – be strong and dominant or be funny and liked. Despite the humor making him likeable, he didn’t have a lot of close friends. He kept to himself, preferring not to create bonds knowing that he would probably be moving on soon and didn’t want to lose those friends. So he became an island until he came to Redemption Ranch and Douglas told him no matter what, he was there to stay. Adam was an easy-going guy and persistent, keeping at Chase until he let him in. They remained friends until Adam’s death, which put Hailey permanently out of reach for Chase, until she came back.

 

How does Hailey like to unwind?
Like many single mothers with young, active sons, it’s hard to find time to herself. But Hailey likes to read and do any activity that she can in quick, little bursts. As she settles in at Redemption Ranch and has more time, she’ll take up more hobbies and crafts to fill the creative well inside her, including quilting and knitting with Tara. But prior to coming home, she mainly read.

 

How does Chase initially interact with Hailey’s son?
Chase wasn’t quite sure how to interact with AJ, Hailey’s son. He had never saw himself as a father or a father-figure. He always thought there was something wrong with him, since no one ever adopted him or kept him around for long after he was abandoned. Now, there is this little, inquisitive six-year-old asking a lot of questions (as only little boys can do) and following him around, and he has no idea how to handle it. He makes mistakes, as everyone does, and Hailey is a bit overprotective, which is also natural, and he retreats. But then he finds parenting books and early-readers books for AJ at the local bookstore to help him connect with AJ, and AJ’s father’s old pony to help them bond and the connection is complete. Building that relationship between the two characters – a boy who never knew his father and was desperate for a father-figure, and a man who never expected to have children and had no clue how to handle him – was one of the hardest and best parts of this book for me.

 

What first drew Chase to bull riding?
Initially, Chase loved the adrenaline rush. He loved the action, the risk, and the reward. High risk, high reward. But he also loved the money that he could earn, once he proved that he had talent, and he was able to help the ranch out with his winnings. He felt like he could do more for the ranch by competing and sending money home, than by riding the range and herding cattle. Also, it allowed him to not get too close to the ranch in case it was ever taken away. His biggest fear was losing his home and ranching is risky business. By not getting too close, he wasn’t risking the bonds of home and family, the two things he desperately wanted. He said he wanted to travel and see the world, but the reality was, he was running away.

 

What is next for Redemption Ranch?
We have one more brother, Ty Evans, who needs his own happily ever after. Ty thinks he’s happy. He works the ranch, content to ride the range, play his guitar on Saturday nights at the local bar, and have a home, especially after his home and family was so cruelly ripped away from him. He has no need to go wandering or find anyone. He knows what it’s like to have it all and have it taken away. But he is missing something. So, when Tara and West are getting married, he is going to be confronted with his missing piece and the one ambition he had suppressed forever. Let’s see if he is man enough to go for it, or if he decides to stay on his butt on the ranch forever.

 

About the Author
Ever since Megan Ryder discovered Jude Deveraux and Judith McNaught while sneaking around the “forbidden” romance section of the library one day after school, she has been voraciously devouring romance novels of all types. Now a romance author in her own right, Megan pens sexy contemporary novels all about family and hot lovin’ with the boy next door. She lives in Connecticut, spending her days as a technical writer and her spare time divided between her addiction to knitting and reading.