I met Gloria Doty a couple of years ago at my very first writers conference, Write to Publish. It’s the perfect place to get your feet wet meeting publishers and have your writing critiqued. Oh my, what a wonderful, supportive group of people. My best-blogger-friend, Kim Sullivan told me about Write to Publish, and I jumped in feet first with her, not knowing it was also a Christian writers conference.
Gloria and I have some things in common. We’re about the same age, she’s a blogger, ≈we both have a special needs daughter, and we both write books.
BRING A COWBOY HOME is Gloria’s third book! It’s a Christian romance, and it’s about a “woman of a certain age” falling in love, plus there’s a bit of intrigue. Do those three things really go together? Gloria thinks so. And I do too. BRING A COWBOY HOME is a delightful, breezy read. Gloria agreed to give two copies away to my readers. Just enter a comment below and let me know whether you prefer an electronic copy or a paperback.
Gloria won the Write to Publish’s 2014 “Writer of the Year Award” for her book about her special needs daughter, NOT DIFFERENT ENOUGH. Next she co-authored A BOUQUET OF DEVOTIONS with sister, Jeanette Dall. They paired 50 common flowers with 50 devotions. Gloria says she’s always loved to write. But she never wrote fiction. “I Didn’t think I could do it,” she told me.
A friend asked her to go to a Christian Writers Luncheon. “The speaker inspired me. I came home with a book in mind,” she explained. “Really, it was inspired by God. That’s the only way I can explain it.”
A close friend inspired the title of Gloria’s book. As Gloria was about to board a flight to Texas her friend ribbed her, “Bring a cowboy home.” That’s was back in the day when friends could go with you to the gate. And, Gloria started with the last line of the book. The whole store came from the cover and the ending! “I just had to fill in the rest of book,” she told me, as if that made the whole process easy-peasy.
“I wanted to write about romance, where the main character is a mature woman,” Gloria said. She went on to say that she knows from talking to the 30 and under crowd, that younger people can’t get their heads around the idea that the 60+ crowd do fall in love, have sex, get married. “But the millions of baby boomers know it happens!”
“I give people a different flavor in a romance novel,” said Gloria. “I want to push people over that cliff. It’s okay.”
[tweetthis]If you like prayer, romance, Texas, guns, grandchildren, and intrigue, you will love BRING A COWBOY HOME.[/tweetthis] Even if you don’t like any of those thing, and you will want to see how a gifted author weaves those components together in a delightful story.
You can buy any of Gloria’s books by clicking on the titles above, which will take you to Amazon. Or, enter a comment below and get a chance to win a copy. Oh, and Gloria liked her character so much, that she wrote two more novels following the characters’ adventures. “I just had to see what happened to these characters next,” Gloria told me. “You know, when you write, sometimes the characters take you in an unexpected direction.” You’re so right, Gloria.