Tag Archives: Anne McAllister

Chasing Bull Riders became essential for Anne McAllister’s THE EIGHT SECOND WEDDING

May 2, 2024 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Hi Everyone,

I’m just delighted to be here on Tule’s blog today to tell you a bit about my latest release, The Eight Second Wedding. I loved writing this book because of the characters, Chan Richardson and Madeleine Decker, who made showing up at the keyboard every morning pretty enjoyable most days, and also because doing research for the book was so much fun.

It was one of those “opposites attract” stories which allowed me to use a fair share of my husband’s academic years to provide Madeleine, a New York City based PhD candidate, with her world of higher education on the one hand, and made me find a bull rider who was happy to share his rough-and-tumble peripatetic life with Chan.

It also gave me a chance to do a riff on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice providing the reason that Chan and Madeleine’s lives crossed in the first place:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that, when it comes to their children’s happiness, mothers know best. And when the mothers come equipped with a PhD in genetics in one case, and a PhD and years of experience in anthropological fieldwork in the other, the truth has considerable clout.”

Madeleine’s mother Antonia, the anthropologist, and her best friend, Julia, the geneticist who married a Wyoming rancher, had determined back in graduate school that one of Madeleine’s children should marry one of Julia’s. Thus – in their estimation at least – they would have perfect grandchildren.

The trouble was Antonia had only one child, Madeleine, while Julia had four boys: Channing, Gardner, Mark and Trevor. It wasn’t a problem, Julia said. It just meant Madeleine could have her pick.

By the time Madeleine was old enough to pick, though, there was only one Richardson left unmarried: the oldest and least suitable, rodeo bull rider, Chan.

So, I had my character and I had my set-up and I had my years of living in academia, courtesy of Professor McAllister. I just needed a bull rider.

So I found one. It wasn’t difficult. I called him up. He answered the phone. Sure, he said. He’d be glad to help. We talked a bit in general, and I promised to have a series of questions ready the next time we talked. We couldn’t do it then because he was on his way to a doctor’s appointment.

No matter, I thought. I’ll get the questions ready and get to work on the part of the book that wasn’t specifically full of bull riding detail. A couple of weeks later, I called back. Went to voice mail which was full. I tried the land line. He was in Texas, his wife said, working on a movie. Right, I said. I’ll call back.

A few days later, I did. Voice mail again. Still full. I called the landline. Grandpa answered the phone. My bull rider consultant was somewhere in the Midwest teaching a bull riding school. Thanks, I said, and went back to writing the book.

A week after that there were fewer things that I could write without knowing what I was doing. I called again, talked to Grandma. Would you believe he was in Argentina? Time was getting short. He would be home on Tuesday, Grandma said.

I called back on Wednesday. Let the man get his bags unpacked, I thought. But he wasn’t there on Wednesday. He was in Hollywood, a younger man told me. “Can I help you?” he said.

And I said, “Do you ride bulls?”

Well, it turned out he did. And he wasn’t in Argentina or Texas or Hollywood or anywhere else. So that afternoon he and I and my list of questions spent a lot of time together. Chan and I breathed a sigh of relief. My new best friend was a great source of information and inspiration. He not only answered questions, he provided suggestions and details I hadn’t even known I needed.

Best of all, when we finished, he said, “Call me if you need anything else.” So a few days later, I did. One of the things I needed was a schedule. Chan and Madeleine decided the only thing their mothers understood was data. If they spent time together, went down the road from rodeo to rodeo together and, two months later, were still as incompatible as they were sure that they were, their mothers would have to stop interfering in their lives.

But, which rodeos? Where? When? Why those rodeos?

“I’ll make you a list,” he said.

So he did. And one night at midnight the phone rang. He was stranded in an airport due to fog, but he’d figured out the schedule, so he’d give it to me then. And yes, he could have — if I’d answered the phone. Even so, it was an entertaining voice mail to listen to in the morning.

Later that day when fog had permitted him to get home, he not only gave me Chan and Madeleine’s schedule for the summer, he provided the idea for Antonia and Julia’s middle- of-the-night-for-one-or-the-other of them international calls as they tried to keep up with Chan and Madeleine.

Meeting people who do far different things than I do has always been one of the great joys of writing books. I love visiting their worlds vicariously or in person. This time was no different. My bull rider resource for The Eight Second Wedding still makes me smile. Best of all, he made Chan Richardson’s world real.

I think he had a good time being an “expert resource,” too. He was eager to do it again, and even invited me to bull riding school!

I hope you’ll look out for The Eight Second Wedding and will join Chan and Madeleine going down the road!

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.

Unveiling Tule’s Romance Releases of the Month! (Plus a Giveaway!)

May 1, 2024 · Posted by Tule Publishing

GIVEAWAY: We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the May romance releases. Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Check out our new romance releases for May!

Happy Mother’s Day: A Bundle of Contemporary Small Town Romances
Featuring Stories By: C.J. Carmichael, Nan Reinhardt, Sinclair Jayne, E. Elizabeth Watson, Kris Bock and H L Marsay

The Eight Second Wedding by Anne McAllister
Cowboy, Come Home | Book 4

The Cowboy’s Mail-Order Bride by Megan Crane
The Careys of Cowboy Point | Book 1

When the Earl Desired Me by Lydia Lloyd
The Rake Chronicles | Book 3

Bayou Redemption by Susan Sands
Louisiana | Book 4

Enchanted by the Highlander by Gerri Russell
Guardians of the Isles | Book 6

Sworn to Honor by Charlee James
Sworn Navy SEALs | Book 2
The Cowboy’s Bride by Barbara Ankrum
The Hardestys of Montana | Book 1

Merriest Christmas Wishes from Author Anne McAllister.

December 20, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Remember the song, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas? I’m happy to say that it’s not looking like it around here — at least as far as dire winter temperatures and snow everywhere goes. Not a typical Montana Christmas at all.

Last year we had that Christmas look from the last week in October until the middle of May.

This year – grass!

Probably won’t last, but it’s made life a lot easier, the roads less icy, and dog walking less precarious. The skiers among us aren’t thrilled, but they remain philosophical. There’s still plenty to do.

Somehow, though, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time for writing. That’s probably just as well as I’m rewriting a scene set on a cruise ship in the middle of summer. The powers of imagination are getting a workout.

I remember it being that way when I was writing The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle, too. Something about the publishing industry lends itself to things being seasonally out of whack. Authors are forever writing winter scenes when it’s sweltering outside or beach scenes after we’ve just shoveled half a foot of snow off the walk.

I was thinking about that while I was walking the dog a little while ago. I was also thinking about how Christmas memories knit together over the years. My husband and I shared lunch this afternoon with one of our sons – the one who inspired a scene that gave rise to The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle.

Spoiler alert!

He was a year-and-a-half old that Christmas and as it was the first year he was really engaged in what was going on, he was amazed by and enchanted with the lights and the Christmas tree — so much so that a couple of days after we put it up and decorated it, I awoke in the middle of the night to discover a faint unexpected glow of light coming from the living room downstairs.

Going down to investigate, I found him kneeling on the floor staring up in awe at the multi-colored lights on the Christmas tree – lights he’d managed to find and plug in by himself in the dark after having climbed out of his crib and coming downstairs to do so.

As long as I live, I will never forget the expression on his face.

He doesn’t remember doing it, of course. But he understands those sorts of memories now because he is a father himself.

If I go back today and re-read that scene, I experience all over again what it was like to see him as a small boy, to recall his expression of awe. I remember, too, the joy I got when I wrote the scene when Deke and Erin found Deke’s little son, Zack, doing the same thing in The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle.

Talking to my son about it today, we found ourselves reminiscing even more, weaving together other memories of Christmases past – like the one where we walked through snow past our knees to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and the one where dear friends gave the boys an ET sock-em inflatable that they absolutely loved, and the one where seven of us went to choose a Christmas tree, and all of us — amazingly — agreed it was perfect, only to carry it all the way home to discover it wouldn’t – couldn’t! – stand up! So we walked it back and traded it in on a short fat tree that resembled a cross between a furry green tumbleweed and a popcorn ball. Not all those memories made it into books. But the one that did brought back a host of other memories as well.

That’s the gift of writing – and reading – I think. We have the opportunity to remember, to reimagine, to retell stories, to reconnect the past and the present and so many moments and people in between.

When I wrote The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle, it connected me to memories of my children, and to my own childhood. Telling that story connected me, through Deke and his sisters and their relationship with their own dad, to family tensions that as a child I sometimes felt and didn’t understand.

Not everything is perfect all the time. Yes, holidays can bring a lot of joy. But they also have the potential to bring sadness, misunderstanding and hurt. Deke and his father caused a lot of that for each other over the years. They might have gone on doing it if they hadn’t faced the past – and each other — if they hadn’t dared to share more of themselves than they’d ever dared to share before. It wasn’t easy. I’m not sure they ever would have done it without Zack.

Christmas wasn’t easy for Erin, either. Widowed now, with three young kids, she had a lot on her plate. She brought a lot of memories back home that winter, most of them good. It wasn’t the past that was hurting Erin. It was the future that looked bleak.

Deke and Erin helped each other. Erin’s children and Zack helped them both.

Christmas is a time to look with awe and wonder at possibilities just as my son did all those years ago – just as Zack does in The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle. It’s a time to take a deep breath, to cut each other some slack, to smile more often, to wish each other joy, to remember the good things with gratitude, and to face the future with hope.

I wish you all the joys of the season however you celebrate. Thank you for sharing a few minutes of your day with me. If you exchange gifts, I hope you get lots of books, lots of happy endings, and lots of love!

-Anne McAllister

About the Author.

Meet Tule Publishing’s First 10 Brides as Part of our #Tule10 Anniversary!

November 18, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Tule Publishing has hit a milestone 10 years and we’re celebrating all month long with showcasing some of our first 10’s! Learn more about our first 10 authors, meet our first 10 cowboys and cowgirls, watch our first 10 films, and maybe find yourself wrapped up dreaming of the holidays with our first 10 Christmas stories!

We are so thankful for each of you for continuing to put your faith in us to continue bringing you amazing reads. You are a crucial part to our success and we couldn’t have made it to our 10th anniversary without you! We hope you stick around all month for more celebratory blogs and are looking forward to another 10 years – cheers!

Meet the First 10 Brides of Tule Publishing and Fall In Love with Their Stories:

Champion barrel-racer Tegan Ash has nothing left to go home to in her native Australia and every reason to stay in the USA. But her visa is about to expire, and her prospective groom has called off their green-card wedding.

Jamie MacCreadie doesn’t actually want to marry a woman he can’t stand, but his best friend and fellow rodeo rider Chet has just let her down and, somehow, he finds himself offering to do the deed instead.

There’s no chance it could turn into the real thing, because they have nothing in common… do they?

. . . . . . . . . .

What a bride wants…

Ella Grace Emerson adores her father, but he keeps trying to marry her off to every eligible rancher in Montana. When he puts an ad in the paper on her behalf – for a docile house-husband – Ella retaliates with one of her own, pinned to the noticeboard of the local saloon. No husband required, housebroken or otherwise. What she wants is the perfect lover.

What a bride needs…

Newcomer Cam Sawyer is perfectly willing to tear up the sheets with Ella and be her partner in chaos. She wants a bad boy and he’s had experience aplenty. But what she really needs is a strong and loving partner, and until Sawyer stops running from his past he can never be that.

Sawyer’s the one Ella wants. But can he be the man she needs?

. . . . . . . . . .

Scarlett Buck has always been flaky in comparison to her sensible twin sister Tara, so nobody is really surprised when Scarlett spends all her money on a one way ticket to Australia to be with the man she’s met on the Net. But she hasn’t reckoned on the guy already being married, or her mom getting sick, and now she needs money for a flight home to Marietta, MT—quick. Signing on with Bella’s Belles in Kalgoorlie isn’t be the proudest moment in her life but it will get her home fast. After all, it’s just sex. Or is it?

Mitch Bannister‘s ex is about to marry his best friend, and he could really do with a cold beer and a hot woman. But the cowgirl he takes a shine to at Bella’s is surprisingly skittish, and in the end he leaves without hooking up.

Later, when Mitch spies the cowgirl in the local pub begging for a job, he shrinks into the shadows–he’s not looking for complications, and something tells him that Scarlett Buck is a whole handful of them. But soon it’s clear she’s not just trouble, she’s in trouble, and like it or not, he’s not about to turn his back on this stray from the States. Especially if she can do him a favor in return. After all, it’s just a helping hand. Or is it?

. . . . . . . . . .

Tara Buck has always been the good sister, level-headed by comparison to Scarlett, her flaky, impulsive twin. But when Tara learns her fiancé has been cheating on her with one of his school students, the orderly world she’s created for herself suddenly feels as if it’s falling apart. For years she chose the safe option, but from now on she’s going to live a little, stretch her wings…be a little daring. And if that means acting on the long-suppressed feelings she’s always had for Reid Dalton, then so be it! Reid has wanted Tara from the moment he met her, but she’s always been out of bounds. Not only is she his patrol partner at the Bozeman PD, she’s also engaged. But then her relationship blows up, and Reid finds himself battling his own instinct to stake his claim with the finest, hottest woman he’s ever known.

Even if anything did happen between them, it would only ever be temporary – Reid’s a born wanderer, while Tara’s roots run deep in Marietta. So even if things are good between them, it seems their romance is destined to be short and sweet…

. . . . . . . . . .

Wanted: nanny. Needed: wife.

Laurent Fletcher has to admit his life would be a whole heap better if there was woman in it. His kids are running wild, and his dog is acting crazy; he’s been finding it tough to juggle everything since his wife died, and run his successful custom-built furniture business. But maybe there is a solution that won’t demand any emotional input from him: hire a female to whip his turbulent household back into shape.

Emma Peabody is a British nanny, looking for a new life in the New World. When she arrives at River Bend and finds two small motherless children, a miserable pet and a man who’s placed his emotions in the deep-freeze, she realizes she’s joined a broken family and it will be down to her to put it back together again.

The kids and the dog are easy—all they need are routines and love. Their father is something else. Laurent isn’t about to drop his guard and let Emma work her magic—and it doesn’t help that she finds this dark, brooding man incredibly attractive…

. . . . . . . . . .

Monty Davison is a man on a mission: he’s determined to track down his fiancée, Risa Grant. Why did she leave Vegas so suddenly and without telling him? Okay, perhaps their engagement was a little hasty—in between deployments to Afghanistan and wearied and changed by the horrors of war, he grabbed at the chances of real life and happiness that she seemed to offer, by proposing after only one week of knowing her. But he was sure she shared his feelings of hope and excitement. What was so scary about loving him that made her want to bolt?

Risa Grant has found sanctuary in Marietta, Montana, and the chance to heal. She’s opened a florist’s business and is settling down to life in the pretty, friendly western town, attempting to put the trauma of past behind her. Only she can’t erase the memory of Monty, the big, handsome, protective Marine who asked her to be his wife. She left without saying goodbye, without getting the chance to tell him what had happened, and now so much water has passed under their bridge that she doesn’t know if she ever can.

When Monty finally finds Risa outside Marietta one chilly April evening, stranded and needing help, his protective instinct kicks in: she’s still as feminine, vulnerable and pretty as ever, and as ex-military he’s trained to come to the rescue. But a knight in shining armor seems to be the last thing that Risa wants right now, so where does that leave him?

. . . . . . . . . .

Emmy Mathis is sure of three things:

1. Her sister Margery’s three-week wedding extravaganza at their grandmother’s Marietta, Montana home will be over-the-top ridiculous.

2. She’d much prefer to stay home in Atlanta in a pair of sweats.

3. And she absolutely, positively, won’t feel even a hint of a spark for Griffin Hyatt, grandson of her beloved grandmother’s best friend and the architect of the most embarrassing night of her life ten years ago.

But Emmy is dead wrong about number three. The moment she and Griffin lock eyes again, the passion that’s always smoldered between them flames. And they aren’t kids any more, so why should they deny the desire that sears through them both?

Is this no more than a wedding fling between two people with too much chemistry and an overload of history, or can Emmy try to build a new life from the ashes of their past? And if Griffin is truly really free of his fiance, why is he a finalist in the town’s Wedding Giveaway? Emmy can’t answer those questions, but she does know that Griffin has the power to burn her like no one else.

Still, how can Emmy walk away from the one man she’s always loved now that she knows what she’s been missing?

. . . . . . . . . .

Once upon a time, Marly Akers had believed that, for better or worse, people made their own luck…

Marly wonders how she could ever have believed it. Jilted and pregnant, she’s come back to Marietta with her tail between her legs, the blow to her ego huge as she begins working at her family’s small newspaper, the Copper Mountain Courier, and sharing a tiny apartment with her disapproving mom.

Things can’t get any worse. Or maybe they can. Drake Everett, who secretly captured her teenaged heart and then publicly trampled on it, decides to make her re-acquaintance. Though Drake isn’t the sharp, funny, cocky, arrogant rich boy of yore. These days he seems sharp, funny… and supportive and decent, and Marly realizes she could fall for him all over again… if she listens to her heart. But what about her reporter’s head, which has sniffed out a story that paints Drake as the sweet talker she’s always known?

. . . . . . . . . .

“It’s for the ranch. It’s your duty. A man does his duty, always.” His father Sam’s words were carved into Cole McCullough’s brain. His responsibilities lay with Rafter M Arrow, which had been in their family for over a hundred years. Even though they were fighting a losing battle to keep the place going.

The ranch always came first, over personal comfort, sometimes reason and definitely women. Sam had seen both his wives walk away, dismissing them as hot-house city girls who couldn’t survive the wilds of rural Montana. So how had Cole ended up making a spur-of-the-moment marriage last year in Reno to TV director Nell, who was as city as they came? Nell was prepared to give it all up to be with Cole. But he knew how it would end: as it had always ended before. It was time to stop living a pipe dream and sue for divorce.

But then Nell came back to Marietta with The Compatibility Game, a reality program, in which couples discovered what they were willing to do for love by living and working at Rafter M, and Cole found himself taking part too…

. . . . . . . . . .

A romantic honeymoon in Paris, with a sexy billionaire Russian groom…

There are only two problems. It’s a marriage of convenience. And, the virgin bride is frigid.

Kate Edwards has never embraced her sensuality, is terrified of intimacy, and the wedding night is a disaster. Instead of calling the whole thing off, Isaak Zaretsky listens to her and challenges her using his unashamedly sensual nature and superb bedroom skills. But can Kate really give herself without love?

. . . . . . . . . .

Thanks for stopping by to check out the first 10 Brides of Tule Publishing! Here’s to a great year of #Tule10!

THE GREAT MONTANA COWBOY AUCTION – Release Day Blog Post Featuring Author Anne McAllister!

July 27, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Talking About Secondary Characters

Hi Everyone,

It’s so nice to be back on Tule’s blog to visit with you and to share a bit about The Great Montana Cowboy Auction, the latest in a series I’ve been writing about — you guessed it — cowboys!

While it definitely features cowboys and is set in Elmer, Montana, this book has a broader scope than the earlier ones. Those focused on the relationship of a single couple. But in The Great Montana Cowboy Auction, while there is still a ‘focus’ couple – it’s more of an ‘ensemble piece.’

The main reason I’ve written romance novels over the years is because I love to explore relationships – and the relationship between two people that deepens and eventually encourages them to fall in love and become a couple is, to me, always fascinating.

But couples don’t live in isolation. They have family, friends, associates, neighbors. In another of my great loves – family history research – these people are called FANs, an acronym that the astute, well-respected genealogist, Elizabeth Shown Mills, coined from the initial letters (or should it be FFANs?) to describe the people who are part of the context of the focus person’s life. In novels we call them “secondary characters.”

Generally, no matter what book I’m writing, during the editing process I can almost always count on my editor (not just one editor, but all of my editors since the beginning of time!) saying, “You might want to think about cutting back on the secondary characters.”

Er, well, yes. But it’s a rare life that has just two people in it. We all exist in relationships beyond the one we create with our significant other – and characters in books are no different. And those FANs do their part in making the central characters who they are.

So, I love secondary characters – in my family history research, of course, but even more in the books I write. I learn about the people I’m researching in our family history by learning about the people who mattered to them, whose lives impacted theirs. And I learn about my main characters exactly the same way.

Polly McMaster, the main character of The Great Montana Cowboy Auction, jumped full-blown onto the page the minute I started the book. That was a surprise for me because, usually, my heroes are the ones threatening to take over on page one. And while Sloan Gallagher, cowboy-turned-actor-turned-Hollywood-star, is definitely capable of doing that, he meets his match in Polly.

Polly is the poster child for If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. It isn’t that she wants so much busyness in her life; she certainly doesn’t go looking for it. It’s just that so many things — and so many people – depend on her.

She is the widowed mother of four kids, a woman who holds two jobs – postmistress and mayor of Elmer, Montana – who takes part-time online university classes, who is the mainstay of not just her kids’ lives, but of also her widowed mother’s and her unmarried sister’s. So when local rancher Maddie Fletcher is in danger of losing her ranch to foreclosure and the community decides to have an auction to raise money to save it, guess who ends up in charge.

Of course, Polly can’t say no because it’s a Worthy Cause, and Polly believes in Worthy Causes. She was one, after all, when her husband Lew died and the locals all gathered round to care for her and her kids. Now — once again – it’s Polly’s turn. And in the course of getting the auction off the ground, Polly’s life – her past, her choices, her decisions — intersect with many others’. Her FANs have an impact on her — and, of course, vice versa.

One of those is Polly’s widowed mother, Joyce, who’s getting to grips with life on her own since the death of her rancher husband. She’s sold the ranch to the Nichols brothers, Mace and Shane (if you read A Cowboy’s Tears or The Cowboy Steals a Lady, you’ll have met them before they became “secondary characters”) and she’s moved to Elmer to live with Polly.

Joyce helps give structure to the family life Polly is holding together. She’s learning macrame and economics and Spanish and has recently taken a job as a hospital receptionist in Livingston because, unlike Polly, Joyce needs to be busier, to find a new purpose in her life. What she finds is nothing she expects. I was as surprised as Joyce was. Also, Joyce is the one who suggests an auction to raise money to help Maddie. So, basically, everything that happens after that, Polly can blame on her mother.

And then there’s Celie, Polly’s younger sister. Two sisters less alike could hardly be imagined (unless you knew my mother and her sister, and, yes, they were perhaps a bit of inspiration — sometimes art does imitate life!)

While Polly deals with reality here and now on a regular in-your-face basis, Celie takes her reality in bite-sized pieces. She has her reasons. But she has a fantasy life that is a whole lot more interesting and, she would say, saner than her sister’s real one.

Until it’s not.

When Celie’s fantasy collides with reality, she has some serious decisions to make. I thought Celie would be an interesting subplot – a foil for Polly, as it were. But Celie had no intention of being a subplot. She was tired of playing second fiddle. She had a story to tell – and by the time I got to 100,000 words I understood that all too well. I began to cut. And cut. Suffice it to say, Celie will have her own book coming out next spring.

And there’s Sara. Polly’s oldest daughter, at nineteen, is as structured and by-the-book as her mother is not. Sara was another surprise – to me and her mother both. I thought I understood Sara quite well until I got inside her head. There I found that Sara has hidden depths that probably surprise even Sara herself.

As in real life, each of these women’s lives weaves in and out of the others’. They are primary characters in their own stories, secondary in each other’s. They create a community – and a context – in which The Great Montana Cowboy Auction takes place.

If course, they are not the only ones who have an impact on each other’s lives. Every one of the characters matters. Some provide a reason for something to happen, some provide lenses through which to understand why someone behaves the way she does.

Surprisingly, to me at least, it’s a lot like family history. I’ve now spent nearly 40 years trying to understand the reasons my characters do what they do, what motivates them. And it turns out that both ancestors and characters in books respond to the other people in their lives. Those people matter. They have their own stories when we have the space to tell them.

And not one of them is really ‘secondary.’ But there are word count limits, so editors are sometimes compelled to tell us that they are!

About the author.

Tule Publishing July 2023 Releases (and Giveaway!)

July 1, 2023 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Read more about our new releases for July!

GIVEAWAY: We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the July releases. Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month.

Trivialized Pursuit by Mia Heintzelman (American Heart)

Release Date: July 6, 2023

Love and Games, Book 2

Trivia (n.) 1) little-known facts. 2) a quiz game that has Roxanne Sloane questioning everything.

Roxanne Sloane’s life runs on checklists. As co-owner of a game store fresh off the brink of closing, she’s focused on spreadsheets, market research, and keeping Love & Games in the public eye. When Rox agrees to a televised interview, she doesn’t expect to learn the store’s crowd-funding account was compromised or that the news station has arranged a complimentary audit. She definitely doesn’t expect comfort from her co-owner’s player brother.

Murphy Sikes is many things—a handsome doctor, an overprotective brother, and a serial dater. Beyond casual hookups, he can’t separate settling from settling down. So, when he visits the store and finds Rox with a smooth-talking auditor, Murph’s confused—his inconvenient attraction for his sister’s friend is joined by a not-at-all-brotherly tenderness. It’s definitely not jealousy when he invites her to trivia night…

With each battle of wits, their undeniable chemistry weakens their willpower to remain platonic. But Murph’s unconvinced he’ll check all her boxes, and Rox questions if he’ll ever settle down. Can they overcome their trivial hang-ups and finally win at love?

The Cowboy’s Word by Sinclair Jayne (Montana Born)

Release Date: July 11, 2023

The Coyote Cowboys of Montana, Book 1

The Coyote Cowboys each made a vow to a fallen comrade and have one year to carry out their task…

Local hero Remington Cross has only painful memories of Marietta, Montana. He may want ranch work, but he’ll take it anywhere but here. Still, loyalty brings Remy to Marietta determined to locate Jace’s godchild, ensure his physical and financial security, then close this chapter for good. But a smoldering encounter with a beautiful bartender threatens his timeline and heart, and when he discovers Jace’s godchild is at risk, he enlists the aid of the enigmatic beauty who’s more no-strings than he is.

Shane Knight is no stranger to secrets, and she can tell the haunted ex-soldier is hiding plenty. She’s finished trying to fix wounded bad boys, and after her broken engagement, her heart’s permanently off-limits. When Shane jumps boots first into a red-hot one-night stand, she never anticipates getting tangled up with a sexy cowboy and a child who needs them.

It’s a chance for love, family, and a fresh start for them both, but will secrets break the fragile thread of their new beginning?

The Fake Marriage Proposal by Susan Lute (American Heart)

Release Date: July 13, 2023

Angel Point, Book 5

When a fake marriage fails, what comes next?

Following a disastrous relationship, successful divorce attorney Wynne Olsen is ready to put her past firmly behind her and start fresh in sunny California. But first she’ll need to help plan her sister’s wedding and quit her new position as Angel Point’s city attorney. A local hero’s Nordic good looks are a distraction she doesn’t need at any time, much less when she’s tying up loose ends on her way to a better future.

Former marine and single dad Brett Macauley is focused on raising his daughter and opening a veterans village. There’s no time left for courting love, but when his daughter proposes a fake marriage between him and Wynne in order to adopt her best friend out of the foster system, Brett thinks that’s a worthy reason to pop the question. Especially since he’s realizing Wynne is quickly winning over his heart.

Another failed fake marriage isn’t what Wynne wants, but she does believe in Brett. Can Wynne finally say “I do” to a happy future…one with Brett in it?

Two Sides of a Secret by Kelly Cain (American Heart)

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Secret Ties, Book 2

Her family history has more thorns than roses…

Lauren Steele has always been grateful for her adoptive family’s love and support. So much so that she takes over the family floral business when her parents retire, despite her dreams of working on political campaigns. Instead of crafting clever speeches, she spends her days writing out romantic messages on behalf of her clients—a bittersweet reminder that she’s never been on the receiving end of one of these orders. She’s accepted her simple life, until the sexiest man she’s ever met walks into her shop looking for a job.

Ben Specter fixes problems for a living, and he’s been hired to investigate Lauren. His client is a wealthy, powerfully connected man running for governor, and Ben’s research unearthed a massive skeleton in the man’s closet—a secret older sister that his mother never mentioned. Getting closer to Lauren is strictly business, but the more time Ben spends with her, the more the lines between work and pleasure blur.

But when his deception is revealed, will Lauren be able to trust Ben and believe that what they shared was real?

Until I Met You by Lara Van Hulzen (American Heart)

Release Date: July 20, 2023

The Endicotts of Silver Bay, Book 3

When his parents move to Silver Bay, California, Dominic Endicott, ever the dutiful son, packs up his life and heads to the small town. He sees it as temporary, appeasing his mother and making sure his dad’s health is stable while Dominic keeps the family business running. Dominic planned on keeping his head down, focused only on working and spending time with his family. Until a beautiful brunette forces him to look up.

Local Chaplain and community center employee Rachel Anderson loves her little town that she’s called home for the past year. Silver Bay is a far cry from her life growing up in LA, and that’s perfectly fine with her. When she mistakes newcomer Dominic for her friend, Chet, her simple, curated life becomes complicated.

Thrown together to work on raising money for the town’s community center, the sparks between Rachel and Dominic are too strong to ignore. But Dominic represents everything Rachel has been running from, while Rachel has Dominic rethinking his entire life plan. Can these two bridge the gap between their worlds and give love a chance?

Blink Twice if You Love Me by Laurie Beach (Southern Born)

Release Date: July 25, 2023

Crickley Creek, Book 2

She’s determined for her rags to riches story to have a fairy tale happy ending.

Krista Hassell might be a member of the poorest, least respected family in Crickley Creek, South Carolina, but she believes deep in her soul that character counts. She’s finally curated the perfect plan—and boyfriend—that, together, will save her societal standing and rewrite her future. That is, until a family tragedy strikes and her mother goes off the rails…again. If only Krista could show her community who she really is beyond her old, crumbling shack on the marsh, she could find the inner peace she yearns for.

Army veteran Johnny Merrick came to Crickley Creek for a wedding and decided to extend his stay in the quaint town, renting the small house next door to Krista for the summer. As their friendship grows, Krista is forced to rethink the very relationships her plan needs to succeed—and yet it might be exactly what she needs to fully embrace what fills her soul most: the marsh she’s trying to escape.

But only if she makes her move before the fireflies disappear for the season…

The Great Montana Cowboy Auction by Anne McAllister (Montana Born)

Release Date: July 27, 2023

Cowboy, Come Home, Book 2

Montana cowboy turned Hollywood heartthrob.

The last time Polly McMaster missed a meeting, she got elected mayor of Elmer, Montana. This time, she gets to organize a cowboy auction to save a neighbor’s ranch—bringing her face-to-face with the one man she never wanted to see again.

Former local cowboy turned Hollywood star Sloan Gallagher, with his roguish grin, easy charm, and to-die-for good looks, is every woman’s dream. But he’s Polly’s nightmare. Now a widowed mom of four juggling two jobs, a daydreaming sister, a mother at loose ends, and way too many rabbits, for once Polly is grateful for all the distractions. Besides, Sloan won’t remember her anyway.

Forget Polly McMaster? Not a chance. Polly was Sloan’s teenage dream. Of course, he’s moved on now. Seeing Polly again will let him finally shut the door on the past…right?

When the bidding is over and the auction has ended, will they be able to turn their backs on each other? Or can love conquer the obstacles between them?

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

Tule Author Q&A: Anne McAllister loves a classic cowboy romance!

November 17, 2022 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Anne McAllister stopped by the Tule blog to discuss the fourth book in The Cowboy’s Code series, A Cowboy’s Gift!

Where did you get the inspiration for A Cowboy’s Gift?

Like most inspiration, it didn’t come cut from whole cloth, as they say. I love Christmas – and Christmas stories – and I remember well the Christmas programs we did when I was a child, so the inspiration for that part of the book came from my own memories. The footloose rodeo cowboy who became Gus was inspired by a footloose nineteen-year-old rodeo cowboy I was related to who was no more ready to settle down than a five-year-old. Even I knew that, and I was barely more than five myself at the time. He was equal parts tough and sweet and smitten, but he had the staying power of a gnat. About like Gus at nineteen. He grew up to be a great guy – tough and sweet and smitten still, but eventually responsible, mature and steady as a rock. I suspected my Gus could be that sort of guy. Gus’s name – well, I owe that to several generations of misguided parents in my dad’s family who named their little boys the same name that Gus got. No wonder they were all called Gus! Mary’s willingness to be a surrogate, carrying the baby her sister couldn’t, came from a friend who did exactly that for her own sister. I was struck by what a gift she had given her sister and brother-in-law, and Mary seemed to me to be the sort of person who would be willing to give that sort of gift.

This is a heartwarming second chance romance. What drew you to this trope? What’s your favorite trope to write?

I like the trope for a couple of reasons. From a writer’s standpoint, given a short format of about 50,000 words, not having to spend a lot of time on the “getting to know you” phase of a relationship is a plus. You can just sort of dive right in and let the characters deal with the issues they already have with each other. Conflict is easier to come by because they’ve already screwed things up once! And that the second reason, really: I think, especially when people are young, like Gus and Mary, they don’t get it right the first time, and then they have regrets. This is a way of giving them a second chance. Wouldn’t we all, now and then, appreciate a second chance? I don’t know that it’s my favorite trope, but it’s fun to write because there is always conflict built in – something to build on, to straighten out, something for my characters to tackle.

You’re no stranger to a classic cowboy romance. What do you think it is about these stories that have you (and readers!) coming back for more time and time again?

Well, they’re not billionaires (usually) so for me they’re more relatable. I understand the appeal of the billionaire hero because he can provide security (obviously he’s a success), but the cowboy does a pretty good job of that, in his own way, too. He’s the master of Getting It Done. Someone said the other day they loved ‘competency porn.’ Sorry, I can’t remember who it was or I’d give their books a plug. But I thought, yes, competent heroes are, down to the ground, appealing. There’s an old western saying about a good hand being one you wanted to “ride the river with.” But the appeal goes beyond competence, of course. A cowboy who’s a hero is an honorable man. He’s reliable (eventually, even if not at nineteen!), trustworthy, he cares for women and children and animals, and he’s a good friend (I just checked the Gene Autry Code of the West mug I gave my dad years ago and which I now have back – and Gene agrees). So he’s all that – and he looks pretty damn fine in Wranglers, long-sleeved shirts, boots and chaps!

Do you have any favorite Christmas or holiday traditions?

We must have – we’ve been celebrating it as a family for a long, long time, and many things stay mostly the same, but there are usually variations on the themes of spirituality (which takes a variety of forms), and family (which gets more extended and wonderful every year) and celebration – always.

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard which is fun so far. It’s my first book by her. I’m enjoying it. I like heroes named Jack, so that makes it even better. I’m also reading Tangible Things by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich which complements an EdX course I’m taking from Harvard University’s online offerings. It’s about looking closely and thinking broadly and learning what tangible things can tell us about life that is not just on the surface. One of my class assignments was to pick an item and really examine it in every way I could think of; I chose a teacup, part of a set that had been in my family for 150 years at least. Really contemplating it – reflecting on all the people who had used it, the people who had made it, the process of getting the raw materials, the small line of gold leaf on the cup’s rim, the transportation that brought the cup to America from England in 1892, and why it had mattered more than other things that could have come instead – all of that made for a fascinating experience. The book calls for the same attentiveness. It’s a thought-provoking read.

About the Author

Tule Publishing November/December 2022 Releases

November 1, 2022 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Read more about our new releases for November and December!

GIVEAWAY: We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the November/December releases. Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month.

A Bayou Christmas by Susan Sands (Southern Born)

Release Date: November 1, 2022

Louisiana, Book 3

It’s her first Christmas with her birth family…

Thanks to a bone marrow donation from her newly discovered sister, interior designer Allison Miers has just beat cancer and has been welcomed into her new family, the Bertrands of Cypress Bayou. She’s been curious about her birth family for years, and it seems they’re all trying to make amends for her mother abandoning her—even offering a trust fund if she’ll stay a year and give the town a chance.

As Allison arrives in town amidst preparations for the Cypress Bayou Christmas Festival, she’s quickly overwhelmed by the drama and competition between both sides of her birth families. Local mechanic Nick Landry is the most normal person she’s met so far, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s also handsome and friendly. Just as Allison starts to wonder if she’s finally found a new home, family, and a man to love, she discovers that Nick—just like both sides of her family—has been keeping his own secrets.

Family is all Allison has ever wanted, but should she listen to her head or her heart this unforgettable Christmas?

A Santa Stabbing by Geri Krotow (Tule Mystery)

Release Date: November 2, 2022

Shop ‘Round the World, Book 1

She didn’t realize she’d traded “Naval Aviator” for “amateur sleuth”…

Retired Navy pilot Angel Warren’s new life awaits in Stonebridge, Pennsylvania, where she’s opening Shop ‘Round the World, her travel-inspired gift and novelty shop. A newly empty nester and longtime widow, she’s looking forward to leaving her flying career and its many life-or-death decisions behind and reconnecting with family and friends. Right now, Angel’s biggest challenge is getting the shop ready for its grand opening just weeks before Christmas.

Until she finds a dead body in the shop murdered with one of her specialty Santa figurines. Even worse, Angel’s fingerprints are on the “weapon” and she’s a prime suspect. It doesn’t help that the deceased is an old friend who’s collected a long list of enemies as a cut-throat real estate agent. And then there’s the Stonebridge Chief of Police—and Angel’s high school BFF—who brings her in for questioning.

If Angel wants to clear her name before the Christmas rush, she’s going to need to do some sleuthing on her own—and with the help of her stressed out parrot, Ralph.

Above the Mistletoe by Michele Arris (American Heart)

Release Date: November 3, 2022

Haven Creek, Book 1

Sometimes, it takes more than mistletoe to find true love.

Reyna Star, owner of North Star Private Car, is drawn to Hawk Swan’s rugged good looks when she picks him up for his holiday party weekend, but she knows his type, and she’s not interested. However, she does pocket more than a generous tip from her passenger—when one of Hawk’s companions mentions the Berkshires as the perfect place to go skiing, Reyna decides to spend Christmas there with her teenage daughter, Lily, and rebuild their bond.

Custom woodcrafter, Julian “Hawk” Swan is tired of the single life and wants to settle down. When Reyna arrives in Haven Creek, he seizes the chance to fix her first impression of him. Attraction burns bright between them, but there are those not warming up to their relationship—Lily is acting out, Hawk’s cousin worries about potential hardships in their romance, and even Reyna’s ex is too close for comfort. Plus there’s Reyna’s business, firmly entrenched in Miami.

This Christmas, can Reyna and Hawk rise above these holiday hurdles and build a lasting future?

Grinch Girl by Michelle Dayton (American Heart)

Release Date: November 7, 2022

Tech-nically Love, Book 4

Sometimes, the real story isn’t the beautiful city girl returning to her small town to save Christmas—it’s the townie chick who never left.

Jane Zielinski has her hands full this December, working three jobs and directing a homemade reality dating web series, Single Bells, as a stunt to keep her small town competitive with the ritzy resort towns luring tourists. Then the gorgeous Bella Bradley, Jane’s childhood BFF who had no qualms about skipping town when times got tough, returns with handfuls of cash and her smoking-hot business partner Nate Wright on her arm.

Jane can’t believe she’s being upstaged again, especially when Bella uses the Single Bells activities to rekindle a romance with her high school boyfriend—the man Jane had envisioned her future with. So if a little competition could convince Bella to leave town—again—Jane is ready to take the mittens off. And she’s not above sabotage, cheating, or flirting with Nate to win.

These childhood friends turned rivals may have more in common than they thought. Let the reindeer games begin…

The Billionaire Cowboy’s Christmas by Kris Bock (Texas Born)

Release Date: November 8, 2022

The Accidental Billionaire Cowboys, Book 1

He has everything this Christmas, but all he wants is the quiet ranch life he’s losing…

When Josh Tomlinson’s Texas ranching family wins a fortune in the lottery, the formerly tight-knit family is suddenly on edge. Seeking advice, Josh reluctantly contacts family friend and now attorney, Carly Garza. His business is serious, yet he can’t believe Carly’s morphed from a long-legged colt of a girl to a sophisticated woman. Besides, he knows the intelligent Carly has no interest in a quiet, rugged cowboy like him.

Carly’s crushed on Josh for years, and she plans to ask him out now that she’s back in Last Stand. She’s hoping he’ll finally see her as someone other than his younger brother’s middle school girlfriend. But when Josh needs advice on how to handle his family’s lottery win, his client and billionaire statuses put him firmly out of reach. If only her heart could ignore the sparks that flare between them.

They’re already keeping the family’s lottery win a secret from the town. Can they also hide their budding romance during the most magical time of year?

Christmas with the Cowboy by Jeannie Watt (Montana Born)

Release Date: November 9, 2022

Return to Keller Ranch, Book 1

This Christmas, it’s time to rebuild bridges…

Hard-living cowboy Reed Keller is returning home to the same ranch his father kicked him off of fifteen years ago. He knows he’s in for some battles with his headstrong dad, but his dad needs help and Reed needs a place to raise his daughter, Lex. Reed’s determined to put the past behind him and concentrate on being the best father he can be, especially with Christmas around the corner. Also around the corner? The woman he’s never been able to forget.

Trenna Hunt has finally broken free of her controlling father to pursue her own goals, but she never would have accepted the temporary job at the Keller Ranch helping to compile the family’s history if she knew the sexy, reckless cowboy Reed would come home. They’ve both changed, but Reed’s still as impossible to resist as when they were teenagers.

Reed knows he needs to keep his focus on his daughter and building their future, but he can’t help longing to keep Trenna in it. Will she trust him enough this time to stay?

Texas Christmas Magic by Katherine Garbera (Texas Born)

Release Date: November 10, 2022

The Rossis of Whiskey River, Book 3

Sometimes a fresh start requires a Christmas miracle…

Angelica Rossi moved to Whiskey River, Texas, for a true second chance. As Christmas approaches, she’s ready to rebuild her reputation and help her community by launching a nonprofit aimed at providing resources to the town’s underserved residents. To pull off this miracle, she’ll need to grab the attention of billionaire Max Parrish who’s offering business grants. How? By crashing his holiday party.

Max Parrish is a successful entrepreneur who prides himself on seeing through people’s characters and ulterior motives. When Angelica approaches him during his business Christmas party, he knows she’s not on his carefully curated guest list. Still, he lets her make her pitch. Her beauty and confidence intrigue him, and her proposal is nearly as tempting as she is. Max knows firsthand how important second chances are, so he agrees to fund Angelica’s grant with strings…him.

Max and Angelica find themselves collaborating over her business plan during the town’s festive holiday traditions. But Max has been fooled before. Will Angelica’s good intentions last beyond the holiday?

Texas Christmas Baby Bargain by Eve Gaddy (Texas Born)

Release Date: November 14, 2022

Texas True, Book 6

This Christmas, a baby is on her wish list…

Art gallery owner Micki Kennedy loves her new home in Whiskey River, but she yearns for a baby. Seeing the Christmas lights and happy families only makes her more determined to have a child of her own, but her divorce has made her wary of relationships. She wants a baby, not a baby daddy. Footloose Cole Walker seems like the perfect person to ask for help.

Cole Walker thought he had plenty of time to settle down, but a near-death experience has him questioning his single status. He heads back to Whiskey River for Christmas determined to find a woman he can spend his life with. But the first person he sees when he arrives in town is the woman who dumped him years ago to marry her ex-boyfriend.

Cole can’t believe Micki would ask him to father her child and walk away. But can he risk heartbreak again to court her and try to father her child the old-fashioned way—and build a family of their own?

A Cowboy for Merry by Jamie K. Schmidt (Texas Born)

Release Date: November 15, 2022

Three Sisters Ranch, Book 6

Ten years turned her into a champion and him into a cowboy looking for a fresh start.

Roped in by her sisters, Merry Grayson is home in Last Stand, Texas, for Christmas and a charity event at the Three Sisters Ranch. She’s shocked to run into her bad boy ex-boyfriend. She thought he was still in prison, and if he’d ratted her out all those years ago, she would’ve done time too. Instead, Merry had seized her second chance and made a career in rodeo—trying to forget her rebel past and the boy who stole her heart.

Simon Reynolds is determined to move on. He never regretted protecting Merry when his Robin Hood heist failed. After his father had hung him out to dry, the thought of her warmth and beauty kept him going. Simon knows he needs to let go of his past, but the sparks and chemistry are as volatile as ever and he feels himself being pulled back in.

Christmas is a time for miracles. Is asking Santa for a second chance at love too much?

The Christmas Clues by Scarlet Wilson (American Heart)

Release Date: November 16, 2022

What is Christmas without some healthy competition?

When successful Chicago sports journalist Dawson McLeod and botanist Piper Davis receive a mysterious summons to an attorney’s office, they learn they are the potential benefactors to a famous and reclusive author’s historic estate—including her mansion, famous gardens, greenhouses, and more. Neither of them has had any contact with the author of their favorite Christmas book since they were both scheduled to interview her as children. But only Piper, who arrived early, succeeded, much to Dawson’s envy.

Both Piper and Dawson have ideas for how they plan to benefit the community with their potential winnings, but the legacy has strings. The author has left them a series of clues to be solved around the city starting twenty days before Christmas. Once childhood rivals and now strangers, Dawson and Piper must work together to uncover the clues by Christmas if they want either of their dreams to come true.

Will working together during the most magical time of year open their hearts, or will their lingering feud get in the way?

A Cowboy’s Gift by Anne McAllister (Montana Born)

Release Date: November 17, 2022

The Cowboy’s Code, Book 4

He’s ready to settle down this Christmas…

Montana rodeo bronc rider Gus Holt has made a career out of eight-second commitments. He’s intuitive, instinctive, and impulsive. And then he moves on. He’s never done forever, and a dozen years ago, he even backed out of his own wedding! But Gus isn’t nineteen anymore, and when Mary McLean, the bride he left behind, turns up pregnant, on her own, and as lovely as ever, Gus knows he wants a second chance. He won’t squander it this time.

Trust Gus Holt? Not likely. Mary’s been there, done that—and has the failed wedding to prove it. Now she’s the surrogate mother to her sister’s child—as close as she’ll get to a family of her own. This time Mary’s determined to resist Gus’s advances.

But Gus isn’t giving up. He believes they have a future, that they can have forever. After all, Christmas is a time of hope and new beginnings. But can he convince Mary to give their love another shot?

Christmas Cakes and Kisses by Lara Van Hulzen (American Heart)

Release Date: November 29, 2022

The Endicotts of Silver Bay, Book 2

Eva Endicott comes to Silver Bay to prove to her family that she can make it on her own. Working in the local bakery, she’s determined to save enough to open her own cake decorating business. Winning an upcoming Christmas cake competition is the key to her dream, so Eva has no time for distractions, especially not devastatingly handsome ones that make her heart skip a beat.

Tyler Vance is the personal trainer for professional baseball pitcher, Drew MacIntyre. After following a retired Drew to Silver Bay, Tyler’s own future is uncertain. Things become more unsettled when a beautiful baker enters his world. Eva fascinates Tyler and as he gets to know her better, he considers planting his roots in Silver Bay. But when the location Tyler chooses for his training facility is the same one Eva wants for her bakery, something has to give.

With the contest deadline looming, Eva can barely think about Tyler. Until a blinding moment finally reveals her true feelings.

Is it too late? Or will a Christmas miracle give them both more than they ever dreamed?

Home for Hanukkah by Rebecca Crowley (American Heart)

Release Date: December 1, 2022

Orchard Hill, Book 4

He’s looking for one last miracle…

Zach Strauss may be down, but he’s not out. His Bay Area biotech start-up has crashed, leaving him broke, but it’s only temporary until he can raise more money—or so he tells himself. Failure isn’t an option, and Zach’s always been able to sell anyone on anything. But back in his hometown, he finds himself in the unfamiliar position of needing a job.

After a childhood of instability, Noa Jacob purchased Second Chance, a thrift store-turned-boutique in Orchard Hill, and is determined to put down the roots she never had. Running her own business is more challenging than she’d imagined, and she’s in danger of losing it all—until a handsome stranger bursting with ideas walks in looking for work.

Noa only has ten days to turn Second Chance around, but Zach is confident that’s plenty. Together they create a successful Hanukkah Miracle Market that draws in families looking for something other than the Christmas cheer. But as the balance sheet ticks up, Noa wonders if instead of losing her business, she risks losing her heart.

Tule Q&A: Anne McAllister’s newest story is an opposites attract romance!

October 20, 2022 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Anne McAllister stopped by the Tule blog to discuss the third book in The Cowboy’s Code series, A Cowboy’s Secret!

Where did you get the inspiration for A Cowboy’s Secret?

I met both J.D. and Lydia first in my book, Cowboy on the Run. J.D. is the foreman of Trey Phillips’ ranch, but he lives on the much smaller spread he grew up on, a ranch Trey now owns. And Lydia is Rance’s law partner. She’s whip-smart, very verbal, law-school-educated, and beautiful, to boot. I thought she’d make a good counterpart to J.D.’s stoic, silent, school-of-hard-knocks-educated cowboy. It was sort of opposites attract, which isn’t something I’ve written a lot, but which appealed to me when I met them. I thought Lydia would admire the physical J.D. – and she did. She also admired his competence. I didn’t know what on earth J.D. was going to think of Lydia. She seemed a long way out of his comfort zone. But it became clear pretty quickly that J.D. had issues beyond his thoughts about Lydia. None of us – not me, not Lydia, not even J.D. himself – knew that J.D. had issues that went beyond even what he imagined they were! That was a revelation. A Cowboy’s Secret was a fun book to write because getting into J.D.’s head was such a challenge. He was pretty much determined to be a closed book. We had a lot of staring contests – me and J.D., me and the blank page he wasn’t contributing to. But at last we got a book out of him. I’d like to think I wore him down, but I suspect it was Lydia who finally managed to do that!

How is J.D. different from your other Cowboy’s Code heroes, Riley, Rance, and soon Gus? How is he the same?

J.D. is a salt of the earth kind of guy. He’s someone you can depend on absolutely – one of those cowboys that tradition says you can “ride the river with.” But he is by no means perfect – and he knows it. In fact he knows his major flaws better than anyone. He has a secret which he’s determined that no one will learn. But it’s hard to keep a secret when it comes up and bites him at the most inopportune times – like when the book begins and he finds out that Trey Phillips has sold the ranch that he’d been hoping to buy. He feels furious and betrayed. But he feels even worse when he figures out that he can’t really blame Trey. He has to blame himself. That personal frustration is not one that Riley or Rance or Gus experiences. Riley is probably closest to J.D. in that they are both basically close-mouthed, hard-edged, responsible, honorable men who are doing what needs to be done. Rance is, in some ways, the least like J.D. In J.D.’s estimation, Rance is everything that he is not – worldly, ambitious, clever, well-educated – all the while managing to deal with having Trey, his father, pushing at him and trying to manipulate him. It’s a situation J.D. couldn’t have tolerated in a million years. And Gus – well, Gus is J.D.’s brother, but they are definitely not cut from the same cloth. Gus is like a sparkler – flashy, fun, life of the party. At least he always has been. That’s why Gus hasn’t been able to settle down. There were always places to go, broncs to ride. That was why he’d broken things off with Mary. J.D. had no such desire to wander. He would settle down if he could. He can’t because the one woman who tempts him is Lydia Cochrane – and there is no way on earth a brainy, beautiful lawyer like Lydia will look twice at a stubborn silent cowpoke like him.

If you could spend the day with J.D. or Lydia, who would you choose and what would you do?

I’d spend a day with J.D. because I’d rather be on a ranch than in a law office! I suppose, if he asked, I’d be willing to do whatever jobs he was doing that day, though he’s certainly more fit than I am — and younger, too. So I don’t know that I would be able to keep up! But if the fictional ‘me’ got to go out with him on the ranch, that would be great. And besides spending a day working with him on the ranch, I would also enjoy watching him work with horses where I’d see J.D. at his quiet competent best. Whatever we did, though, I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t be having any long discussions. J.D. is not a talker. Even when we were working on his book, he played his cards very close to his chest. No chatter for that man! But watching him in action would be a treat. I’d love that.

Did you need to do any research for this story? If so, what?

I had to learn about what Lydia would do in her law practice. I spent long hours on the phone with one of my husband’s cousins, a lawyer in Pennsylvania, who talked me through a lot of the details that Lydia would be dealing with. We had a good time batting around what I wanted Lydia to have to contend with. I think my lawyer in-law enjoyed it as much as I did. She had already talked me through some of Rance’s lawyerly dealings in Cowboy on the Run, so she knew what she was getting into. I’m extremely grateful to her for having taken the time not only instructing me in the life in a legal practice, but mostly in telling me how lawyers think. It’s not the way I think, believe me.

What are you currently reading?

I have three books that I am in various stages of reading. The first is The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. As an introvert I don’t get energized by meetings and group activities as a whole, but I do find gathering with others can sometimes provide wonderful and stimulating experiences. I want to know more about what goes into conscious gathering to facilitate that happening when I’m part of a group. I’m not very far into the book right now, but I am finding it thought-provoking. I’ll be interested to see what my take on it is once I’ve finished it. The second is Pippa Grant’s new rom-com, Irresistible Trouble. I have enjoyed lots of Pippa’s books over the past couple of years (she had a considerable back list by the time I discovered her, so I got to do a lot of catching up), and I’ve found them fun and charming and very often they make me reflect on relationships in ways I have not considered them before. Irresistible Trouble is doing that because charming, handsome, fun baseball player Cooper Rock, who has been in a number of her books, always with a good prank at hand, has met his match in pop star sensation, Waverly Sweet, a young woman who is doing even better at making the world a better place than he is. Cooper is the anti-grump in a world filled with grumpy heroes, and while I like a grumpy hero as well as the next romance reader, I have been charmed by what Pippa has done with Cooper and Waverly. I’m not at the end yet. I’m getting there, and I should stop writing this so I can go finish it and find out how on earth they’re going to resolve their overly busy lives to be together. But if you’re in the market for a fun, sometimes over-the-top read, give it a try. And then there’s Float Plan by Trish Doller, which I just finished last night . I found it at my library and picked it up because the heroine was going to sail through the Bahamas, and I’m a sucker for sailing books because I get so deathly seasick that about the only way I can ‘sail’ is virtually on the pages of a book. While I have written sailing books in my life, I give credit to Peggy Nicholson and Antoinette Stockenberg, sailors and writers both, who have talked my characters through many times at sea. They did for sailing in my books what my lawyer cousin-in-law did for Lydia’s legal chops. Anyway, Float Plan was a lovely book, by turns making me smile and feel sad as the heroine took off to sail her way through the Caribbean as a way of coming to terms with her fiancé’s suicide. It sounds grim. But with the sadness comes determination and despair and inklings of hope and satisfaction and, ultimately, joy that learns to live with that piece of sadness alongside. Trish Doller made it a voyage I was glad I took. Going on Anna’s journey from grief to a new stage of life (never forgetting the man who left her behind even as she learned how to move beyond where she’d been left) was believable and rewarding. Float Plan is the first of three books with related characters, Anna’s sister, and the Irish sailor Keane’s brother, are protagonists in the next two. I’m looking forward to them both.

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