Yvonne Lindsay's Lists of Lists!

I'm getting ready to travel back up the US for the Romance Writers of America conference. It's an exciting time but oh, the lists...and the lists of lists of things to do before I go.

Yesterday, I crossed off the two biggies--see my accountant to sign off on tax returns and annual accounts and FINISH THE DARN BOOK! Oh, the relief. I never realise how much tension I carry in my shoulders while I'm working until I actually stop.

But I can't afford to stop. I still have those lists of lists to attend to. Little things for the most part, but vital to my peace of mind so when I leave my family I can jet away with a clear conscience.

I discovered yesterday, on thinking about all of this, that I never really allow myself time to anticipate a trip like this one which, while work related, is the fun side of my work. It's the face to face meetings with editors, meeting readers at signings, mixing with fellow authors who I normally only get to interact with online through email and Facebook and meeting my writing idols. Usually, I arrive at these things still flustered from ticking off all the bullet points on my lists of lists and finishing a book and it takes me a good couple of days to wind down so I can appreciate it all.

I have lists of things to do while I'm in the States, including getting a SIM card for my phone with data so I can celebrate my next release (on 25 July, just in case you're wondering) of FOR LOVE OF A COWBOY. It's my first novella with Tule Publishing's Montana Born Books series and I am so excited to see how it fares with readers. I absolutely loved writing this story. I may even have to add having a glass of champagne to celebrate its release to one of my lists!

Tell me, are you a just-in-time-and-arrive-exhausted person like me, or are you more measured in your planning? If you're the latter, I'd love to know how you do it!

My Cowboy Crush

By Bronwyn Jameson

I’m currently immersed in cowboys.  Over the past month I’ve watched movies, read non-fiction about ranch life and training trail horses and the cowboy way, as well as fiction set in the American west.  I’m listening to country music. I’ve started watching the first season of Nashville.

None of this has been a hardship.  In fact, it’s fun and ridiculously addictive... partly because this is quite a switch from the rich, cosmopolitan worlds I’ve most recently been obsessed with.  I’d forgotten how much I love a good western...and a good—or wickedly bad—cowboy. 

John Wayne. Gary Cooper. Clint Eastwood. Bonanza. Rawhide. F Troop J.  I adored Anne McAllister’s Code of the West series for Silhouette and the western historicals of Maggie Osborne and Jo Goodman and Johanna Lindsey. (Does anyone else love her Angel as much as I do?)

 So when I was invited to write a novella for Montana Born Books, I jumped at the chance to create my very own cowboy story. There will be horses, of course, and barn cats and a country band that plays covers of Lady Antebellum and Sara Evans and Keith Urban. There will be work-roughened hands and leather chaps and boot-cut jeans that fit just so. 

There will be a little loping, some sauntering and that slanted look from beneath the brim of a big black hat.

Those are the superficial things. Window-dressing, if you will. Dig deeper beneath the romanticised mystique and you’ll find the real cowboy. He is a hard worker, often in uncompromising environments.  The cowboy is capable, self-reliant, tough.  A simple man whose word is his bond, who doesn’t conform to trends, who lives by his own set of values. The strong, stoic type who is inclined to let his actions do the talking.

Do you have a favourite western? A favourite cowboy depiction? What do you find most attractive about the cowboy way?