Hello!

I hope you enjoy the story of how The Untold Story of Carol Bingley has traveled around with us for the last eight months.

Only three people knew I had written a book. My husband, one of our daughters, and myself.

My novel had the working title of How To Make a Town Gossip. Because that was who Carol was, the town gossip of Marietta, Montana. I submitted a finished manuscript of 78,000 Tule Publishing on the 27^th of October, 2022.

On the 27^th of January 2023, I received an email telling me that although they liked my book Carol’s story had been rejected by Tule for breach of copyright. I knew nothing about copywriting except that you cannot reproduce anything out of a book. I didn’t realize that characters in books belong to their authors. So that was that. I set about rewriting my manuscript without Marietta, Montana, or Carol Bingley.

On the 19^th of January 2023, my husband and I were in Tamworth NSW for Australia’s largest country music festival when I received an email from Tule Publishing to see if my manuscript for How to Make a Town Gossip was still available. We were 1119 kilometers from home. As you can imagine I read and reread the email and then started a happy dance up the street. There was plenty of music to dance to with all the buskers in Peel Street in Tamworth.

By the 8^th of February, I had signed a contract with Tule for Carol. I was officially a Tule author!

On the 18^th of February 2023, I received my welcome pack from Tule. Time was ticking by on the 1^st of March and I got my first round of edits from Jane Porter Tule’s founding author.

On the 7^th of March, I received my cover artwork and totally loved it. During March there was a book bio to write, and publicity shoots taken. For someone who is excellent at staying in the background, this was an awful lot of change for me to be front and center.

The next lot of edits came through as we reached in Broken Hill, 1149 Kilometers from home. Instead of a couple of days in Broken Hill, we stayed for four nights as we knew I wouldn’t have reliable internet where we were headed.

Silverton is about 11 kilometers from Broken Hill, and if you are a Mad Max film fan, this is where Mad Max 2 was made.

On the 1^st of June, it was time for a blurb to be written up.

Then I got this amazing email on the 8^th of August while in Sydney, 722 kilometers from home.

So as you can see, The Untold Story of Carol Bingley has traveled around a lot. Carol has been a constant in my life for eighteen months or more. I don’t remember the date

I started to write about Carol, but it has opened a space in me I didn’t know existed. I’m typing furiously to get more books out, so you can read them as well.

Thank you and PLEASE let me know what you think of The Untold Stroy of Carol Bingley.

Take care, Jane Hartley

About the Author.

Jane lives in a seaside town in Victoria, Australia. She married her childhood sweetheart over 40 years ago. They have three married children and six delicious grandbabies. When the COVID-19 lockdowns came, Jane started writing and didn’t stop. Writing was another outlet for her creative side. She is also the sewer of pretty dresses.

Ten years. That’s how long Tule Publishing has been in business. I feel fortunate to be one of the “founding” authors for this business. My involvement dates back to a phone call from Jane Porter when she asked if I would have any interest in writing a book for this new company she was thinking of starting. We agreed to meet at my cabin in Montana and brainstorm some ideas. The guest list grew to include Megan Crane and Lillian Darcy—two talented authors who I was soon going to get to know very well!

The four of us talked characters and stories; we cannon-balled off the dock into “refreshing” Flathead Lake, and then started drawing a map of our fictional town. Lillian christened our town “Marietta” and we baked luscious cherry crisp to celebrate. Once we had the concept for our 75th Copper Mountain Rodeo stories down, we hit the road, challenging the capacity of my medium-sized sedan’s trunk. 

We drove through Missoula, then Butte and Bozeman, until reaching Livingston, the approximate location we wanted for our fictional town. We took dozens of photographs of things that inspired us. Historic homes, traditional barns, beautiful horses and majestic mountains. As we cut through scenic Paradise Valley we mentally created ranches and legacies, family conflicts and tragedies, world-building for the stories to come.

This trip did more than cement friendships and create memories that I’ll cherish all my life. It also inspired books which became the foundation of a new publishing company.

With Tule Publishing I’ve had the creative freedom to write books on my own terms, the kind of books that I longed for as a reader. Over the past ten years I’ve written seven stories in my Carrigans of the Circle C series, two stories in the multi-author Love at the Chocolate Shop series, and four stories in the Bitter Root Mystery series. I’ve also re-published four titles that I previously published with Harlequin.

Now, with the publication of Promise Me Please, Cowboy, I want to thank Jane Porter for including me on this amazing journey of hers. Thanks for that phone call Jane! And here’s to the next ten years for Tule Publishing!

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author C. J. Carmichael has written over 45 novels in her favorite genres of romance and mystery. She has been nominated twice for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, as well as RT Bookclub’s Career Achievement in Romantic Suspense award, and the Bookseller’s Best honor.

She gave up the thrills of income tax forms and double entry book-keeping in 1998 when she sold her first book to Harlequin Super-romance. Since then she has published over 35 novels with Harlequin and is currently working on a series of western romances with Tule Publishing. In addition C. J. Carmichael has published several cozy mystery series as an Indie author.

When not writing C. J. enjoys family time with her grown daughters and her husband. Family dinners are great. Even better are the times they spend hiking in the Rocky Mountains around their home in Calgary, and relaxing at their cottage on Flathead Lake, Montana. Visit C.J.’s website at http://CJCarmichael.com

Happy September Tuligans!

Fall is my favorite season (pumpkin-spice!), but September is my favorite month because as a student and then a teacher I was heading back to school and now it’s my daughter’s birthday month. I’ve been crazy anticipating this September because it’s Tule Publishing’s 10th birthday. I know tin or aluminum is considered traditional to celebrate the 10-year-anniversary, and while that may not sound exciting or romantic, those materials are known to be resilient, and Tule Publishing has definitely been resilient this past productive decade. 

Tule Publishing is the brain-child of author and publisher Jane Porter and her author friends and fellow creative geniuses Megan Crane, CJ Carmichael and Lilian Darcy. The four of them roadtripped through Montana and inspired by their friendship, the gorgeous scenery, and desire to support other authors’ creative visions, they created the town of Marietta, Montana in Paradise Valley. Ten years later, Marietta is still going strong (and the Tule world has grown far outside Montana) as evidenced by how we decided to celebrate.

The first Marietta series included four romance novellas playing out during the (invented) 75th Copper Mountain Rodeo. Take Me Cowboy by Jane Porter, Tempt Me Cowboy by Megan Crane, Marry Me Cowboy by Lilian Darcy and Promise Me Cowboy by CJ Carmichael. To celebrate we decided to attend the 85th Copper Mountain rodeo, and lucky me, Jane Porter, Megan Crane and CJ Carmichael invited on their adventure. 

CJ hosted us in Canmore in Alberta, Canada (in January—brrrr)  where we laughed, walked, savored the scenery and occasionally plotted and created our cowboys. I’ve been an editor at Tule for about nine and a half years, and I have seen Marietta grow and thrive, and I’m thrilled to once again be a part of Marietta and the Copper Mountain Rodeo. 

Marry Me Please, Cowboy was such a fun book to write because…cowboy, barrel racing cowgirl, secret baby, jilted bride, former special forces soldier, and a “death bed” vow to a best friend. I loved being back in Marietta, and once again obsessing over bull and bronc riders on YouTube. While my book is part of Tule’s Ten Year Anniversary 85th Copper Mountain Rodeo, it’s also going to spin out from the birthday celebration in October to become book two in my Coyote Cowboys of Montana series—yes, also set in Marietta, of course.

For an autographed copy of book one in the Montana Coyote Cowboy’s series—the Cowboy’s Word and some Montana and cowboy reader swag, tell me where you would want to go on a retreat with a group of friends—what would you do there…maybe start your own town?

Marry Me Please, Cowboy releases September 19th, and I will be hanging out with Tuligans in the Tule Book Group at 4 pm (PST) on my release date.

Happy September and happier reading—Sinclair Jayne. 

About the Author.

Sinclair Sawhney is a former journalist and middle school teacher who holds a BA in Political Science and K-8 teaching certificate from the University of California, Irvine and a MS in Education with an emphasis in teaching writing from the University of Washington. She has worked as Senior Editor with Tule Publishing for over nine years. Writing as Sinclair Jayne she’s published fifteen short contemporary romances with Tule Publishing with another four books being released in 2021. Married for over twenty-four years, she has two children, and when she isn’t writing or editing, she and her husband, Deepak, are hosting wine tastings of their pinot noir and pinot noir rose at their vineyard Roshni, which is a Hindi word for light-filled, located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Shaandaar!