Great Summer Reads Countdown Blitz Day Fourteen

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen name I use for my American historical romance novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West and Western Writers of America, and American Night Writers Association. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.”

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history.

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

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Roslyn Welsh is sent by stagecoach to Junction City to marry a man with whom her aunt and guardian, without Roslyn’s knowledge, had been corresponding. His requirements for a wife were that she must be at least twenty-one years of age with a family Bible for proof, and she must have no children. Only, Roslyn is not quite twenty-one, she has a baby, and her aunt has no intention of sending the family Bible with her. The marriage prospect turns into a disaster. Stuck in a strange town with no money, she is told there is no work for a decent woman with a baby. To allow herself time to figure what to do with her future, Roslyn accepts an offer to ride the stagecoach to the Ellsworth B.O.D. Stagecoach station to help the stationmaster’s wife.

        Elam Stewart survived the American Civil War, but his left leg from above the knee down did not. With no home to return to and realizing there are very few people willing to hire a man with only one good leg, he’s convinced he has no future. While working as a day laborer in the local Junction City livery, he becomes intrigued by a visitor named Ross who is anxious to spend time with the horses. Elam discovers Ross’s secret. Then he learns where Ross intends to seek work. Even though he does not have a future, he does have a Spencer repeating rifle. He can have a purpose.

        Roslyn and Elam ride the same stagecoach to the Ellsworth Station on the Kansas frontier. Between resentments among the stock tenders, difficulties with animals that pass through the station, and the threat of attacks by the Cheyenne Native Americans, is there a future for Roslyn and Elam at the station? Or will their future take them on another stagecoach ride away from Ellsworth?

        Please look for my other two books in the Widows, Brides & Secret Babies series, Mail Order Lorena and Mail Order Penelope, that will be published this summer. The three stories are related and part or all of them involve  the stagecoaches and stations on the Kansas frontier in the late 1860s.

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Snippet:

Ross laughed in response—a laugh Elam now recognized as being feminine.

“I see what you mean.” She reached for a bridle. “Will this do for Sadie?”

“Yes, ma…” Elam cleared his throat. Get ahold of yourself, Elam. You almost said “ma’am.” Don’t know her reason for passing herself off as male, but it ain’t up to you to go calling her on it. “Reckon that will be fine, Mr. Welsh. You wanting me to saddle this here horse for you?” Why did I offer? Because I know she’s a woman? She already done said she could saddle and tack her own horse.

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page 

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Valentine Countdown Blitz - Day 4

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen name I use for my American historical romance novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, and American Night Writers Association. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” 

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history. 

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

~ Facebook ~ Website ~
~ Amazon ~ Blog ~ 
~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads ~ 
 ~  Newsletter ~ Booklinker ~

Kendrick Denham left his family farm back east, fought in the war with Mexico, then answered gold’s call after it was discovered in California. In late 1852, when he reached Columbia, known as “The Gem of the Southern Mines,” he realized the easy-to-find placer gold was no longer that easy to find.  He decided he would do better providing fresh meat to the townspeople. With extremely few women in the region, and most of the respectable ones already married, Kendrick entertains no ambitions for a wife and family. Then the county sheriff rides over from Sonora. With a cryptic expression, he hands Kendrick a six-month-old baby girl. “The mother named you as the father.”

Now her late husband’s stepson, whom she finished raising, is of age to inherit the farm left to him by his birth father, Lydia Meyer and her two young sons have been forced out of her home of over ten years. She leaves Pennsylvania headed for the wild gold fields of Columbia, California. She dreads living off the charity of her older sister who is just as disagreeable and overbearing as their late mother had been. Warned that most of the miners in California, many of whom left families back east to seek their fortunes, tend to be unsettled, uncouth, and prone to drinking and gambling, she worries it may be impossible to find a good father for her children. Even if she weds again, will it be another loveless marriage like her first?

Then there is baby Madeline, who is cast adrift in the world, all alone, with no one to love her. What will become of her?

KENDRICK is a stand-alone sweet American historical romance that is part of the multi-author series, Bachelors & Babies. Under the sub-title, “Too Old for Babies,” it is also part of the author’s own series, Too Old in Columbia."

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Snippet:

Kendrick turned away from Jeb and started toward his meat counter on the chance the man had come to his shop to actually make a purchase, not to cause trouble. He cringed upon hearing the distinct sounds of a wagon and team pull to a stop in front of his store. His hands on the counter with his fingers of each hand pointing away from the other, through the glass of the small front window, he saw the bed of the stopped wagon.
Kendrick leaned forward and squinted. Was that a goat in the buckboard tied to the bench back? Several seconds passed before a young man he did not recognize walked to the street side long enough to lift a large trunk out of the back. Upon hearing the loud knock, he jerked his head and shifted his gaze to the door.
“Tuolumne County Sheriff. Open up, Kendrick Denham.”
After glancing at Jeb who stood within a few feet of the door and who wore a questioning expression, Kendrick nodded.
Jeb pulled the door open and stepped back into the shadows.
A man Kendrick vaguely recognized as the sheriff, only because the lawman had been called to Columbia on a few occasions to transport prisoners, strode into the butcher shop. In one hand, perched on his forearm, he carried a bundle with a soft yellow blanket draped over it. With the other, he held the rim of a large wicker basket. The braided edge, which appeared to hold the sides to the bottom, he braced against his hip. Kendrick glanced at the other man carrying the large trunk as he followed the sheriff inside.
As the sheriff approached, Kendrick noticed the bundle in his arm shifted. A high-pitched squeak followed.
Kendrick leaned his head back. What did the sheriff carry into his shop—a piglet? No, surely, a piglet would not allow itself to be hauled in a man’s arm all covered up with a blanket like that. If they were small enough, most people carried one with their hand supporting its belly and the animal tucked under their arms. Why would the sheriff be bringing him a piglet? Besides, a piglet did not explain the basket and trunk that came with it.
Movement outside the shop window distracted Kendrick from the puzzle of the piglet. He bunched his eyebrows together at the sight of two faces—one a young man probably in his teens and another definitely old enough to know to mind his own business—peering through the glass to see what took place inside the shop. The door cracked open a few inches, but no one entered.
The deputy’s question returned Kendrick’s attention to his visitors. “You want I should just drop this trunk here on the floor, sheriff?”
The sheriff kept his gaze focused on Kendrick as he spoke to the other man. “Go ahead, Josh. He can figure out where he wants it after we finish our business and get on out of here.”
Business? Don’t they have butchers in Sonora? Deciding it was better to play ignorant as long as possible, Kendrick cleared his throat. “Morning sheriff. What can I do for you today?”
The sheriff scowled. “It’s more like what I can do for you. I brought something that belongs to you.” The sheriff carefully set the basket on the counter and stepped back.
“Yep! You placed the order. Now, looks like it’s time for you to take delivery.”
Pushing back a burst of annoyance, Kendrick flicked his gaze in the direction of the deputy who had made the snarky remark. I didn’t order anything from Sonora. He returned his attention to the basket. He assumed there must be something important about it, otherwise, why would the sheriff bring it to him all the way from Sonora, five miles to the south? He lifted the basket by the handles on either end to make sure the section of counter underneath had been wiped clear of blood from his morning butchering. Although he knew he had not scrubbed his hardwood counter with lye soap yet, it appeared fairly clean.
Kendrick peered inside the basket long enough to see what appeared to be a pillow covered in a white linen case. In the event appearances were deceiving and something other than a pillow was concealed beneath. he poked the center with his forefinger. No, it was a pillow. If he had to take a guess, it was stuffed with feathers instead of straw.
Kendrick turned to the sheriff. “This isn’t my basket, Sheriff. It’s a nice one, something a woman might enjoy. Even if it was mine, as you claim, I can’t see where it’s valuable enough for you to take the trouble to tote it all the way here from Sonora.”
“Goes with what came with it. I ain’t no expert, but my guess is, she’s going to need something bigger to sleep in right quick. Your problem, not mine.”
She? Again, Kendrick wrinkled his forehead and shook his head. Pigs don’t sleep in baskets. His voice rose in volume, as if he hoped that, the louder he spoke, the more convincing his words might sound to the sheriff. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Hold it down, Mr. Denham. It took us half the ride up here to settle her to sleep.”
Just then, the bundle in the sheriff’s arms wiggled more strenuously and straightened, leaning away from the man’s chest. The sheriff quickly reached his now-free hand to grab the back of the bundle to prevent it from tumbling out of his arms. The blanket fell away revealing a small head covered in a yellow knit bonnet.

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page 

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Christmas Countdown Blitz

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen name I use for my American historical romance novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, and American Night Writers Association. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.”

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history.

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

~ Facebook ~ Website ~
~ Amazon ~ Blog ~ 
~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads ~ 
 ~  Newsletter ~ Booklinker ~

Annie Flanagan happily moves to Jubilee Springs to work as a maid for Delly Nighy, the daughter of her former New York City employer. For one thing, very few know that her next younger sister, Kate, has signed up with the Colorado Bridal Agency and started writing to an Irish miner, Michael O’Hare, in the same town. Both Annie and her mother back in New York grow concerned when the second man the bridal agency puts Kate in contact with is a miner in Central City. He’s not Irish—and he’s not Catholic. What is worse, she seems to prefer him over Michael.

Kate Flanagan, working as a scullery maid to help support her family, desperately desires to escape the dead-end poverty allotted to Irish women living in the lower east side of Manhattan in New York. Anxious to find a husband out west, she signs up with the bridal agency suggested by her sister. After living with her alcoholic father, she is leery of choosing Irishman Michael O’Hare for a husband. As much as she wants to live near her sister, dare she take the chance Michael O’Hare will not turn out like her da?

Annie and Michael grow closer as they work together in order to persuade Kate to come to Jubilee Springs. She needs to come soon—before winter sets in and disrupts the railroad service that will bring her to the high mountain mining community. Kate agrees to travel to Jubilee Springs before Christmas, but several factors, including the train, threaten to derail this romance.

Michael knows what he promised. He knows what he wants. In the end, will he marry the bride who has captured his heart?

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Top Ten List:

Ten Fun Christmas Facts about Zina Abbott

1.  My favorite Christmas carol is O Holy Night.

2.  My favorite Christmas decoration is a nativity scene including angel, shepherd, and three wise men.

3.  In second grade I made a lamb tree ornament out of a paper background, crayon eyes, nose, mouth, and hooves, and small cotton balls glued all over the body. This was before commercial cotton balls were sold. We used bulk cotton and rolled the small balls by hand. The paper and cotton are now yellowed with age, but I still have that ornament.

4.  I prefer green over red.

5.  As a child, each Christmas Eve my brother, sister, and I prepared a Christmas program we performed for our parents. We read the Luke 2 story of the birth of Christ, recited “’Twas the Night before Christmas,” maybe share some other short poems and stories, and we sang Christmas songs. We used our raised hearth as our stage. After, we had refreshments my mother had prepared and opened one Christmas gift each which she picked out for us—usually pajamas or slippers.

6.  When I started getting too much “give me, give me—I want” from my teenage children, I switched to blue, gold, and silver and put more focus on the birth of Christ instead of the red and green Santa ho-ho part of the holiday. (Please don’t send me articles about how red, green and other things we associate with Santa Claus, et al, have religious symbolism. I’ve read them.) The one non-nativity decoration my children asked me to bring back was a Christmas tree, which I did.

7.  I learned once my children became teenagers, the best gift in the world for them was gift cards. I took them shopping at the after-Christmas sales. The stuff they bought was always the right style, size, and color because they picked it out.

8.  When I was about two or three, my father, a very talented wood craftsman, built a wooden clothes rack in the shape of a giraffe for me that Christmas. He painted it white with yellow spots, although I recall the body, which was a flat bench/shelf, was brown. The horns were clothes hooks. We called it Jo-Jo Giraffe. It probably was only about four to five feet high, but to me at the time, it was HUGH!

9.  For many years, my favorite Christmas music album was The Messiah by Handel.

10.  Before that, I was rather fond of a Christmas album performed by Elvis Presley.

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page Part 1 
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Valentine Countdown Blitz - Day 7

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen I use for my historical novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West and Western Writers of America. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.”

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history.

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

~ Facebook ~ Website ~
~ Amazon ~ Blog ~ 
~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads ~ 
~ Google+ ~  Newsletter ~ Booklinker ~

Prequel to the Atwell Kin series:

Charlie, it would be easier to stop the flow of the great Missouri and Kansas Rivers than to prevent the Americans from coming to Kansas. 

It is 1856, and the United States opened Kansas Territory to American settlement two years before. Land belonging to the once-powerful Kansa tribe, known to the whites as the Kaw, was sold by treaty to the Americans a generation earlier.

His Kansa mother died from smallpox while Charlie was young. He lives with his American father who owns a trading post in Bonner Springs near the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. A child of two nations, Charlie learns through harsh experience he is not always accepted, including by the father of the pretty redhead who has caught his eye. The arrival of thousands of white settlers makes matters worse.

Frustrated, Charlie visits his Kansa uncle to learn the tribal ways, travel the Kaw Trail to their buffalo hunting grounds, and become a warrior with a warrior’s name. Once he knows both worlds, he will decide which will best serve him in the future.

Meadowlark’s traditional father wishes her to marry Broken Wing, a highly-respected full-blood Kansa warrior close to his own age. Meadowlark rejects being the junior wife under a dying oldest wife and a wolverine of a second wife. Once she learns her childhood friend who left the tribe years earlier has returned to the Kansa, she seeks him out. Even if he does consider her for a wife, can she persuade her father to allow him enough time to prove himself as a warrior? Will her father accept him for her husband in spite of his mixed ancestry?

Will Charlie decide on a future with the white Americans, or will he fight the coming of the Americans by clinging to the past with the Kansa? Will he try to straddle both worlds? What will Charlie choose?

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Top Ten List:

Zina Abbott Ten Top Favorite Things:

1.  My faith and attending Church

2.  My family

3.  Writing

4.  Reading books

5.  Dark chocolate (There is a symbiotic relationship between 3, 4, & 5)

6.  Road trips with my husband

7.  Attending writing conventions (6 & 7 are also related)

8.  Quilting

9.  Digital photo-editing

10.  Genealogy

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page Part 1 
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GSR Countdown Blitz - Day 1

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen I use for my historical novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West and Western Writers of America. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.”

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history.

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

~ Facebook ~ Website ~
~ Amazon ~ Blog ~ 
~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads ~ 
~ Google+ ~  Newsletter ~ Booklinker ~

Zina Abbott's first three books in the multi-author series, 

Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs.

Book 3 - Aaron's Annulment Bride:

Andrea married Aaron so he could get his mining company house, but now she wants an annulment.

Book 6 - Cat's Meow:

Catherine immediately falls in love with tall, hunky miner, Harold. She wants to marry him, but there is one "meowly" little problem.

Book 7 - Bargain Bessie:

Brought to Jubilee Springs after the death of her mother, Bessie, a confirmed spinster meets Zeb, a decisive, impatient rancher who is NOT pushing forty.

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Author Interview:

What is your favorite book that is not yours?

            There are too many to mention. I like to read a full series of books. One book I really enjoyed was Shanna Hatfield’s Garden of her Heart. Another was Jane Kirkpatrick’s All She Left Behind. I also love any books by Sandra Dallas.

Do you write in multiple genres? Which genre is your favorite to write?

            I write variations of historical fiction. In addition to American Historical Romance, which is my favorite, I have written World War II fiction and a contemporary three generation book that went back to the Vietnam War. Under my real name I have written time travel fiction and some contemporary.

How young were you when you started writing?

            When I was about 11 or 12, instead of watching television with the rest of the family, I stayed down in what my mother called my ‘dungeon,’ my downstairs bedroom, and wrote stories. I started writing novels and short stories on and off through the years, but seriously started publishing novels in 2012.

If you could meet any author, past or present, who would it be and why?

            Thanks to my membership in writing organizations I have met many great authors. As far as authors from the past, I would like to have met Juanita Brooks and Helen Hunt Jackson. They both wrote of conditions of their times that affected women.

How long does it take you to write a book, and what was your fastest book

to write?

            My first book, including research, took me a year to write. I usually need two to three months for a book between 30K and 50K words.

            My fastest book to write was Dead Set Delphinia. I had a five week deadline, a title (originally Determined Delia) and mention of her character having been made in one of the books in the collection I am featuring today. Most of my novellas in this series ran 25K to 38K words. Dead Set Delphinia ended up being almost 67K words. One day alone I wrote over 13K words. They were not all keepers, but it got the story on the page to be edited.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summertime?

            I love to visit historical state and national parks including their books stores, and museums. I’m big on ghost towns and old frontier forts.

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