Saturday, March 8, 2014

#SPeekSunday MUCH ADO ABOUT MARSHALS #romance #excerpt


Much Ado About Marshals
(Hearts of Owyhee series)

Thanks to Sara Walter Ellwood for organizing Sneak Peek Sunday.  Here's a little about my first go at this, and I'm taking the six paragraphs from Much Ado About Marshals, which kicks off the Hearts of Owyhee series.

In the sleepy western town:

A wannabe woman sleuth is determined to marry the recently-hired town marshal... But the man sworn in is wanted for bank robbery!  Then there's a real bank robber and the actual new marshal who both claim the job, too.

Alas, affairs of the heart mess up everything!

This book is a lighthearted look at what happens when you put an honest cowhand in a situation where if he tells the truth, he and his best friend could face hanging, but if he lies, he'll be sworn in as marshal. The kicker is that the mayor's daughter is bound and determined to marry the new marshal!

It's set in Oreana, which is in Owyhee County, Idaho (Territory, in 1885). My husband and I were driving around while we were visiting relatives — I grew up there. We stopped by the church in Oreana. Actually, the church is about the only thing there. It's an interesting building, built of stone. I was even more intrigued when I found out that the building was originally a general store. So there it was--my heroine's father owned that store!

I built a whole bustling town in my imagination, and that's how the setting for the story came about. Actually, there's not much there in real life. Certainly no marshal's office!

Sunday Snippet from
Much Ado About Marshals
(Hearts of Owyhee)
by Jacquie Rogers

Daisy realized Aunt Grace had spoken to her. "Pardon?"

"I said, all your hard work trying to get Oreana to hire a marshal paid off."

"It seemed ridiculous," Daisy glanced at her sister, who smiled back. "I mean, to build a jailhouse and not hire a marshal. Besides, it's too far from Silver City for the county sheriff to come for anything except major crimes, which I hope we never have." Daisy knew she'd lapsed into her campaign talk, but her mind kept wandering to the man on Doc's table.

"Well, then," her mother said, "you can get back to finding a husband. I heard the Stanton boys over in Henderson are looking for wives. Maybe you could snag one of them."

Daisy's stomach roiled, but she stifled any outward reaction. Not only did the Stantons live thirty miles from civilization, they were both short. She wanted to be a detective and solve crimes and to do that, she had to live in town. So she needed to be married to the marshal. The tall marshal.

"Now, Betsy." Aunt Grace patted her sister's hand. "There's no hurry for Daisy to marry."

"It certainly is time. We were both married and had babies by the time we were her age."
♥ ♥ ♥
And here's the video (with the print cover)

Visit Sneak Peek Sunday for more great excerpts!

1 comment:

Diane Burton said...

Good excerpt. Interesting to see if the new marshal meets her criteria.