Keeper Tyree

I have followed Sandra Cox's blog for a number of years now.  She is an incredibly generous soul, and I count her as one of my friends.  She is also a prolific author.  When she asked for assistance in getting word out about her latest release I was more than happy to help.

Take it away Sandra.

 

 

 

Today’s Old West expression: Calico Queen

Like we do today, the cowboys of the old West used a good bit of slang. Calico Queen was used to describe a prostitute. He’d visited a calico queen last night.

~*~

 

 

Keeper Tyree is an aging bounty hunter who lives by his own set of rules. He’s a hard man, but he’s just, and his word is his bond. He’s a loner and likes it that way. Then Cathleen O’Donnell catapults into his life looking to hire his gun. Josiah Pardee has killed her boy and she’s out for vengeance. Somehow all his hard and fast rules, including working alone and minding his own business, crumbles in the face of the immovable widow he now works for. He finds himself rescuing soiled doves, a myopic bookworm more suited to city life than the Wild West, and an hombre being dragged to death by angry cardplayers as he tracks down the murdering sidewinder Josiah Pardee.

 

Excerpt

He threw his legs over the bed, held his head and groaned. At forty-six he was too damn old to be drinking that much rot gut. Ten years older than the average life span in his profession. Still and all it had paid off. Pardee, drunk on his ass to hear one of the saloon girls tell it, indulged in a little pillow talk. Pillow talk, that with a little sweet talk and a couple double eagles, she’d been happy to share. Pardee had headed for the Kansas Badlands until things cooled down. Apparently, the townspeople didn’t take kindly to a sixteen-year-old being gunned down, especially one that wasn’t even wearing a gun. It had happened when Keeper had been out of town and the news had moved on to the next scandal by the time he’d got back.

He pulled up tan canvas pants over long johns, shoved his feet into worn boots and strode to the window. A gold ball of glory flirted on the pink-colored horizon visible between the timber joists of a building going up across the street. The quiet of morning in direct contrast to the shootings and rabble rousting of last night. He splashed water in the basin and washed up, finished getting dressed then headed downstairs, a flask in his vest pocket. A little hair of the dog in his coffee would offset the hammers pounding at his skull.

He pulled out the hard-backed chair at his favorite table in the dining room and dropped down. From here he could see both the entryway and the kitchen. Part of the reason he was an aging gunman instead of a resident of Boot Hill was an abundance of caution.  Drink might slow him down but he could always function.

 

Bio

Sandra is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener, and also writes as S. Cox. She lives with her husband, their dog and cats in sunny North Carolina.

Her stories consist of all things Western and more. She is a category bestselling Amazon author, Eppie finalist and award winner.

 

 

Order link: https://tinyurl.com/KeeperTyree

Web link: http://sandracoxwriter.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Cox

 

 

Mateo's Law

MATEO’S LAW

The lovely and prolific Sandra Cox has yet another book out!!!

A modern day, shape-shifting sheriff.

He’s the sheriff of a sparsely populated county in Montana. His blood brother and childhood best friend is Chief of Police on the Blackfoot Reservation, but they no longer speak. His deputy is a Southern transplant with the body of a high-priced call girl, a voice of honey and a mouth of a trucker. And if that’s not enough, he’s got a secret that would stun those that know him best. Other than that, it’s business as usual for Sheriff Mateo Grey.

Excerpt:

She cleared her throat and asked what was on the forefront of her mind. “Do you think we can get the child back?”

His hands tightened on the wheel and he looked straight ahead.  “We’ll get her back.”

She nodded. In some it might sound like braggadocio. But not coming from Mateo Grey. No one tracked like the sheriff. Not even the residents of the Blackfeet Nation where they were headed. And they were no slouches in the tracking department. He was nineteen for nineteen and that was just since she’d worked for him.

“Tell me what you know about the girl’s disappearance.”

She told him what she knew which wasn’t that much. “They didn’t know the child was gone till this morning, when her mom went in to check on her.”

Leaned over the wheel, he straightened. His body language and his facial features changed, became sharper, more intense. His unusual amber eyes glittered. A fission of unease traveled up her spine and lodged at the base of her neck.  He looked angry and dangerous. Even though she knew it was directed at the situation not her, it shook her.  But she’d be damned twice over before she let her boss know she sometimes found him intimidating.

“It was down to twenty degrees last night. And in the mountains even colder.” He shifted restlessly in his seat. “Was she taken or just wandered off?”

She shrugged then realized he couldn’t see her.  “Don’t know.  There’s no indication she was taken or that anyone outside the family was in the house.”

They fell silent. Dark clouds traveling overhead made the indigo night darker. The barren trees along the road threw the sheriff’s face in and out of shadows adding to the eeriness of the drive. Her heart ached as she thought about a toddler alone in the cold and dark. Or was she?

Sandra is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener. She lives with her husband, their dog and cats in sunny North Carolina.

Her stories consist of all things western…and more. She is a category bestselling Amazon author, Eppie finalist and Golden Ankh Award winner.

You can find her HERE.

Her twitter handle: Sandra_Cox

Her Amazon Page: http://tinyurl.com/SandraAtAmz

Order Link: https://tinyurl.com/MateosLaw

Her latest book sounds like fun, doesn't it?  I bought my copy early this week and hope to get to it soon.

Sandra also posed a question:

If you were a shapeshifter and had the choice, what animal would you be? Would you choose a secluded or highly populated area to live in? Got a place in mind?

I would be a dragon.  I would choose a highly populated area, because in my eyes a dragon NEEDS easy access to a library (preferably several libraries).  Whether it remains highly populated is another question...

Sunday Selections #463

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.
  
The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle.
 
The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
I usually run with a theme.

This week I received a treat in the mail.  The lovely Sandra Cox despite the sadness and worry in her own life sent me a book.  One of her books.  Flower Power spoke to my garden obsessed self.  For a slim volume it contains a lot to absorb.  Planting by colour, planting for sun/shade, the meaning of flowers, plants which are dangerous to animals, planting tips, aromatherapy, floroscopes...  I can see me dipping into this gem often.  Thank you Sandra.

Her very generous gift encouraged me to focus on the garden this week in Sunday Selections.

It is still very dry.  Fires still burn.  Dangerously so.  Homes and lives continue to be lost.  I weep and my heart aches.  Just the same, this fire related image made me smile.  I have showed you 'A Delicate Moment' by Suzie Bleach and Andy Townsend before.

The air quality is my city is still hazardous.  Masks are in short supply.  I think it says a lot about how her community values her that the statue was given a mask, and also that no-one has nicked it.  The sculptors' home town was hit hard (and repeatedly) by recent fires so I suspect they would appreciate the image too.

Cover Reveal - TumbleStar

Another book from the talented and prolific Sandra Cox is about to come out.  Sandra writes fiction, non-fiction and across a wide genre range.  Her latest, TumbleStar will be available from the 14th of this month - and can be pre-ordered now.

Warning. Besides hand-tooled boots, content contains: a big-hearted, hasty-tempered cowboy, a homeless young woman, an orphaned little girl and a wild white stallion.

Blurb. Coop Malloy receives a telegram that his sister and brother-in-law have died and Kallie, his ten-year-old niece, is on her way to Texas to live with him.

Still reeling from the loss of his sister, he receives another shock when his childhood friend Randa Lockhart steps off the stage with Kallie. He’s stunned to see that the little pigtailed nuisance that tagged after him and his best friend years ago has turned into a beautiful young woman.

Randa and Kallie have barely settled in when Coop finds buffalo hunter Marvin Doolin beating the local blacksmith within an inch of his life for laming his horse. Coop steps in and when the buffalo hunter tries to kill him, he shoots him. Now Doolin’s four brothers are out to even the score.

When they go after Randa, they cross the line. They’re about to find out that’s there’s nothing Coop won’t do, and no one he won’t track down to protect the two females that have burrowed hard and fast into his heart.

Excerpt

A cacophony of bird song interspersed with the lowing of cattle and a nicker from a horse, woke Randa.

She blinked, disoriented, waiting to hear the jingle of harnesses, the rambunctious voices of vendors and neighbors calling from cobblestoned streets and the full-throated honks of paddleboats in the distance. She stretched, opened her eyes then shot up as she stared at strange surroundings. Instead of lavender scented sheets she smelled soap. A simple blue coverlet replaced her worn, multi-colored quilt. Her gaze swerved to her dresser which should have been covered with a fancy doily, mementos and knickknacks.  In their place sat a plain white basin and a pitcher with a chip in it.

Her body went slack as relief surged through her. They were at Coop’s ranch. She rolled over and looked into a big jug of Indian blankets, with coarsely toothed leaves, sitting on the nightstand. Moisture pricked behind her eyes at the thoughtful gesture. He must have picked them at the crack of dawn. 

What would she have done if he hadn’t come back for her? The close call made her belly flop. She sat up, straightening her spine and her resolve. There was no point thinking about that now. Hopping up, she trotted to the window. Dawn approached, in all her glory, the sky tinged with pinks and grays.

Curious, she glanced around the room.  It was bare but clean. The walls white. The dresser, her bed and nightstand were the only things that broke the even symmetry of the room.  That was all right. It was hers.

Throwing open the window, she leaned out to absorb the sounds, scents and sights around her. Fresh earth and sunshine filled her senses. Red, orange and yellow pinwheels of color blazed against lush stalks of grass spreading as far as the eye could see. Cattle grazed in the distance along with a dozen or so horses. Something inside her swelled, warmed then settled.

Sandra is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener.  She lives with her husband, their dog and several cats in sunny North Carolina.

Besides western and western romance, Sandra also write time-travel, paranormal and regency romance, young adult fantasy and non-fiction.  She is a category bestselling Amazon author, Eppie finalist and Golden Ankh Award winner.

You can order (or pre-order) Sandra's latest work here.