Mary Connealy~Real Life Petticoat Ranch

Monday, June 16, 2008

First Interview online for Calico Canyon

If you're keeping score at home and, I know, you're not, this is the first interview for the upcoming release of

Calico Canyon.

The title of this post is a live link to purchase

Calico Canyon

on Amazon. Or wait two more weeks and find Calico Canyon in a bookstore near you.

Gina Conroy's blog; Portrait of a Writer Interrupted. Click here:

http://ginaconroy.com/ginablog/wordpress/

Sunday, June 15, 2008

This made me laugh

Two mispellings. I'm pretty sure it should be

MAY BE

ICY

AHEAD

It was funny enough that I remembered my camera and

pulled over on the very quiet stretch of rural blacktop to take the picture.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Cynthia Rutledge on Seekerville

Another fellow Nebraska author...did you know there were so many of them???????
Cynthia Rutledge is on Seekerville today.
Here's a link to Cynthia's website
http://www.cynthiarutledge.com/index.html

And the title of this blog post is a live link to Seekerville. Stop by and meet Cynthia.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Pam Crooks at Seekerville

Fellow Nebraska author Pam Crooks

is talking about improving your writing skills, today on Seekerville.

http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

One Ranger ~ One Riot

It's my day on Petticoats and Pistols. Today we take an intellectual look at comedy (nah, only kidding) today we look at Chuck Norris Jokes.

Stop by. The title of this blog post is a live link to Petticoats and Pistols, One Ranger ~ One Riot.

Friday, June 06, 2008

I'm the featured author on Barbour's Website!!

The title of this blog post is a link that'll take you there.

I'm on their home page.

The time is near for

Calico Canyon's release.

It's coming July 1st.

I've heard from the very first reviewers and I'm getting excited and scared to death.

I hope you all like it.

To find out more about

Calico Canyon

use the link in the title or go here:

http://www.barbourbooks.com/

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Finalist ~ Petticoat Ranch

At the RWA National Conference in San Francisco in July they will announce the winner of the IRCC--Inspirational Readers Choice Contest.

The Eighth Annual Faith, Hope and Love, RWA Chapter’s Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest For authors with novels and novellas published in 2007.

Petticoat Ranch

Nominated in the Long Historical category.

No, I will NOT be attending. You will note there are four finalists in my category...this leaves open the possibility for my to come in fourth in a contest with only three finalist spots. Which is better than coming in fifth in a contest with only three finalist spots I suppose.

FHL 2008 Inspirational Reader's Choice Contest finalists:
Long Contemporary:
Surrender Bay by Denise Hunter (Thomas Nelson)
Too Good To Be True by Trish Perry (Harvest House)
Taming Rafe by Susan May Warren (Tyndale House)
Long Historical: (3rd Place Tie)
Remembered by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House)
Petticoat Ranch by Mary Connealy (Barbour)
Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen (Bethany House)
Sarah, My Beloved by Sharlene MacLaren (Whitaker House)
Women's Fiction:
Let Them Eat Cake by Sandra Byrd (Waterbrook)
The Oak Leaves by Maureen Lang (Tyndale House)
Remember to Forget by Deborah Raney (Howard)
Short Contemporary:
Simple Gifts by Lori Copeland (Zondervan)
Forever Christmas by Christine Lynxwiler (Barbour)
Mom in the Middle by Mae Nunn (Steeple Hill)
Short Historical:
Bluebonnet Belle by Lori Copeland (Steeple Hill)
The Lumberjack's Lady by Susan Page Davis (Barbour)
The Bounty Hunter and the Bride by Vicki McDonough (Barbour)
Romantic Suspense:
Buried Secrets by Margaret Daley (Steeple Hill)
Nowhere to Hide by Debby Giusti (Steeple Hill)
Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace (Multnomah)
Novella:
Unwrapping Christmas by Lori Copeland (Zondervan)
The Spinster and the Lawyer by Jeri Odell (Barbour)
Moonlight and Mistletoe by Carrie Turansky (Barbour

Monday, June 02, 2008

Seekerville

It's my day on Seekerville. Today I'm writing about unkind judges comments. If I've ever gotten them...if I've ever given them.

Stop by and leave a comment. the title of this blog is a link or click here: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Calico Canyon ~ First Chapter On-line

I found a blog featuring the first chapter of Calico Canyon.

If you'd like to get a taste for what's in the book, the title of this post is a link that'll take you to

F.I.R.S.T.

Fiction In Rather Short Takes.

It's part of an alliance of over one hundred bloggers,

many of whom may feature Calico Canyon in the next couple of months as part of a Wild Card Tour.

http://firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com/2008/05/calico-canyon-by-mary-connealy.html

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The history of the gun

Sam Colt

Inventor of the Colt Revolver

“Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal.”

Winchester '73

The gun that won the west

I'm on Petticoats & Pistols today writing about the history of the gun.

This is a topic with so many details I could have written ten blogs. It's very interesting research subject.

If you'd like to read a quick overview of the history of the gun, click on the title to this post and it'll take you to Petticoats and Pistols. Or go here: http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2008/05/28/the-history-of-the-gun/

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Creeping Phlox

This is my favorite time of the year at my house. My creeping phlox are just gorgeous. I didn't plant them. A green thumb is so NOT my thing. But I have helped them spread and I haven't killed them. So I get some credit for that.

This house was built by my husband's grandfather about ninety years ago. So we live on the ancestral family home. that sound so much more grand than, we bought the only empty house near our farm, which is also true.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Buffalo Gal

Inspired by the Edit Cafe blog...the title of this post is a link that will take you there...I decided to do something I've been MEANING to do forever.
I drove over to a buffalo herd near me.

Yes, there's a buffalo herd near me.

And took some pictures.
I just love the way buffalo look and I've driven by them a zillion times and stare like crazy because I find them fascinating. But I never pull over and just take a real look.

I'm especially interested in them because I've got a book coming out in October called Buffalo Gal. In fact it might be the other way around. I think my fascination with those buffalo is what inspired the book. I just think they're the coolest, weirdest creatures. The longer you look at them the stranger they look. The way their heads are so huge and their back ends are so slender, completely at odds with their heads.

It's like God was just having a good old time when he created them.

Anyway, today I did it. Pulled over. This herd is just outside Winnebago, Nebraska on the Winnebago Indian Reservation.

Look how close this guy is to the fence. I could have gotten really close to them.

Instead I just used the zoom lens.

This fence looked pretty sturdy and there's an inner electric fence,

you can kind of make out the two thin strands of it.

I'm sure the whole time the buffalo was smashing through it he'd be going,

"Ouch, ouch, yowee, yikes, that smarts."

Then he'd be through and CHARGE!

I just kept flashing on a headline in the Omaha World Herald.

Woman gored to death by buffalo
Mary Connealy, while photographing a buffalo walked right up to it and it killed her. Duh! ***

Yes, the World Herald would put DUH in the headline.
You know they would.
How could they resist?
If the buffalo hadn't taken me out,

I'd personally insist they carve DUH on my tombstone.

EVERY PERSON who read that story would think....
"Good riddence, get someone that stupid out of the gene pool."

I WOULD THINK THAT, TOO! I ADMIT IT!!! So I hung back!!!

They might hunt down everyone related to me, just on principle.

***(Disclaimer...the above headline is fake. I am alive. The World Herald has never...to my knowledge mocked a person killed regardless of the stupidity of said dead person's actions)