Can Throwback Thursday be applied to blogging?

A while ago, I joined a group called the Sisters of Suspense and (for 1 year) I posted a monthly blog with them. Why? Because I love suspense stories!

Keep reading and you’ll see just how suspenseful the Wild West can be. Below is the first blog post that I wrote with Sisters of Suspense...

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My name is Jacqui Nelson & I write Western historical romance adventures.

Why you might ask would a Western historical author join a group of Romantic Suspense authors? How much suspense is there in the Old West?

Let me introduce you to the Sin City of the 1870s, the Queen of Cattle Towns…DODGE CITY.

Greed & Money
During Dodge’s heyday, over 5 million head of longhorns were herded up the trail from Texas to Dodge’s rail depot (that would then take the cattle to Chicago’s stockyards). Prices varied from $6 to $15 per head which makes the grand total $30 million to $75 million.

Even today, that’s a lot of money…and if you have money, there’s always someone eager to take it from you.

Gambling & Prostitution
Gambling ranged from games of five cent “Chuck-aluck” to thousand dollar poker pots.

Saloons and brothels overflowed with gamblers and patrons of all sorts. The term “Red Light District” was coined in Dodge when the railroaders carried their red caboose lanterns to illuminate their nightly walks to the town’s brothels.

Gunfights & Legendary Lawmen
Town visitors were asked to leave their guns at a saloon, hotel or store and only retrieve their weapons when they were leaving the city limits. Did they listen?

Wyatt Earp was offered $250 per month to be a lawman in Dodge (while a cattle drover made $25 to $40 a month). You don’t pay someone that much if there isn’t a need.

In order to keep the law abiding citizens safe, the lawmen split the town in two with a “deadline.” On the north side of the line, carrying guns was forbidden. At times, a hundred six-shooters were held. Meanwhile on the south side of the deadline, the saloons and brothels that embraced lawlessness continued to operate as they liked…with frequent gunfights and fatalities.

Guffaws in the “Hell on the Plains”
In June 1879, the Ford County Globe reported: “The boys and girls across the deadline had a high old time last Friday. They sang and danced, and fought and bit, and cut and had a good time generally, making music for the entire settlement. Our reporter summed up five knockdowns, three broken heads, two cuts and several incidental bruises. Unfortunately none of the injuries will prove fatal.”

But another 1870s Kansas newspaper stated: “We have only room for one Dodge City; Dodge, a synonym for all that is wild, reckless, and violent; Hell on the Plains.”

What’s new in the Old West?
All of my stories are filled with history, romance, adventure and, oh yes, suspense. For example, one story takes place in this “Hell on the Plains” or Sin City of the 1870s. Let me introduce you to Sadie and Noah’s story (the cardsharp and the cattle drover)…

Between Love & Lies (Gambling Hearts, Book 1)

In a town ruled by sin, will he earn her love or her lies?

Dodge City, Kansas – 1877

Sadie Sullivan lost everything when a herd of longhorn cattle bound for Dodge City trampled and destroyed her farm. Now she works in Dodge—one of the most wicked and lawless towns in the West—at the Northern Star Saloon. But her survival in this new world of sin and violence depends on maintaining a lie so deadly it could end her life before the town of Dodge can.

The one man capable of unraveling all of Sadie’s secrets is Noah Ballantyne, the Texan rancher whose herd destroyed her home. Back in town and taking up the role of deputy alongside legendary lawman Bat Masterson, Noah vows he won’t leave until he’s made things right. But with the saloon’s madam unwilling to release Sadie and a rich cattle baron wanting her as well, the odds aren’t in favor of finding love…or leaving town alive.

Excerpt

South of Dodge City, Kansas—1876

They were destroying everything: the tiny apple tree she’d sheltered in the wagon during the long, sweltering journey from Virginia; the fence she’d devoted weeks to repairing over the winter with scraps of deadwood; the vegetable garden she’d sown during the first whisper of spring and painstakingly coaxed to life every heartbeat since.

All trampled, devoured, gone.

Sadie glared at the beasts, eyes burning with tears of hopeless rage. They were thin, ugly creatures, wielding heavy horns that stretched out of their skulls like spears. Texas longhorns, the Devil’s helpers. In the middle of them rode Lucifer himself, sent straight up from hell to torment her and tear away everything she’d slaved to build.

She tracked the long-legged, solid-built cowboy as he steered his horse through the milling animals, angling toward her and her father—and their sod house which, she realized with increasing dismay, was also in danger of being leveled by the heaving mass of cattle. The intruder, similar to all the other Texas drovers, was covered in a layer of trail dust so thick it hung on him like a second skin. But it was one of the only things he and the other men had in common.

While the rest hollered and cracked whips over the backs of the beasts in their charge—trying to persuade them to return to the trail—this man urged his charcoal-colored mount through the river of hide and horn, making a beeline for her.

His silence, along with his ability to guide his horse with remarkably little effort, infuriated her. As the distance between them shortened, unease crept up her spine. His gaze was unwavering, never leaving her.

She tightened her grip on the ancient shotgun clutched at her side, and concentrated on her anger and frustration, transferring them from the longhorns to settle solely on him. She did not want him to come any closer.

Yanking the shotgun up to her shoulder, she took aim.

The cowboy straightened in his saddle but otherwise did not acknowledge her hostile action. Nor did he slacken his pace; if anything, he bore down on her even faster.

Damn him to hell. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Something slammed down on her shotgun, pitching the rusted barrel earthward. The buckshot tore a savage gouge out of the clay in front of her and kicked up a cloud of dust. The blast forced her to stumble back.

Her father’s red face inserted itself between her and the cowboy. With a curse, he jerked the weapon from her grasp.

As she stood gawking at him, the cattle, spooked by the shotgun blast, bolted—fast and in every direction. Her father sprinted toward their lone plow horse, scrambled onto its back and galloped away from the cattle and her.

She shouldn’t have expected anything different. Still the hurt came. Sharp and deep. Once again he’d thought only of himself. He’d abandoned her in the center of the herd, alone and defenseless.

I’m going to be trampled, she realized. I’m going to die. 

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And now back today.

In honor of the Sisters of Suspense and Throwback Thursday, Between Love & Lies is FREE on Amazon today and tomorrow (August 3-4, 2017). If you haven’t downloaded the story already, I hope you will now.

– Kindle US: www.amazon.com/dp/B014BNUCKO
– Kindle UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014BNUCKO
– Kindle Canada: www.amazon.ca/dp/B014BNUCKO
– Kindle Australia: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B014BNUCKO

– Read for FREE any day on Kindle Unlimited

What do you love about Wild West?

I’d love to hear your comments. Got a favorite Western movie?

Mine is The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Is there an Old West town you’d like to visit?

Deadwood is on my list.

Who’s your favorite cowboy/gunfighter/marshal?

I love Bat Masterson & Wyatt Earp so I couldn’t resist including them in my book.