Heroes on Horseback: My Lifelong Love Affair

I'm very happy to host the fabulous Kathleen Eagle today. She's talking about the wonderful world of horses, cowboys and the American West. Take it away, Kathleen.

Hello, Bandits!

I have a new book for you. And if you bear with me for a bit of book talk, maybe bare your soul a bit in a comment, we’ll enter you in a drawing for a chance to win one of the earlier books in my current series.

ONE BRAVE COWBOY (on sale 9/20 from Harlequin Silhouette) introduces another competitor for Mustang Sally’s Wild Horse Training Competition, a thread I’ve carried through four of the six books connected with my fictitious Double D Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota.

His name is Cougar, and he served in the Army with Mary Tutan (ONCE A FATHER). He’s a wounded warrior, but his worst scars are not visible. Newly released from a VA hospital, this Indian cowboy desperately needs to come to terms with his losses at home and on the battlefield. He came home from his first tour in the Middle East to find his girlfriend—the woman he’d planned to marry—with another man. During his second tour he was involved in an incident in which his best friend and several civilians were killed, and he blames himself. His hope for saving his sanity--the horses his brother was keeping for him--were sold during his absence. His entry into Mustang Sally’s Wild Horse Training Competition is the means he’s using to find his way among the living after pulling himself back from the brink of suicide.

Then he meets Celia Banyon and her young son, who was injured in an accident and whose worst scars are also not visible.

I’ve written lots of stories featuring Indian cowboys. To begin with, I’m married to one. We met during the summer I took off from working in the college library and headed west in search of adventure. I was a summer volunteer on a Dakota (North and South) reservation. I’d always been interested in American Indian culture, always loved Western movies, and always always loved horses. I’m not a natural athlete by any means, but I used part of my summer earnings to pay for riding lessons when I was in college. Horses are majestic and magical, sensitive and strong. From the moment I met the man who was to become my husband—a man whose world was quite different from mine—we had two key things in common. We loved books and horses. And I just love the smell of horse on a man.

My husband has a way with horses, and he’s tamed his share of them over the years. He speaks their language. Because horses are prey animals, they are extremely sensitive. They seem to connect with people who are wounded or hurting. I’ve known many people—particularly women—who find solace in the act of grooming a horse. Horse therapy has come into its own in recent years. Prisoners, troubled teens, abused women, special needs children—so many people turn to horses for renewal and healing. This is a theme that arises time after time in my Double D Wild Horse Sanctuary series. It’s a theme that complements the love story beautifully.

Let’s talk books, writing, or whatever else comes to mind. Have you ever had a moment when you connected in some mystical way with an animal, some kind of communication that surpasses human expectations?

One commenter will win her/his choice of one of these four books from Kathleen's backlist.

Kathleen Eagle visits the Lair, and brings some cowboys!

Hosted by Trish Milburn

I read a lot, but honestly I don't keep a ton of books once I've read them. I'd need a house just for my books! There are a few authors whose work does make it to my keeper shelf, however, because their stories and characters are so wonderful. Kathleen Eagle is one of those authors. So I jumped at the chance to host Kathleen in the Lair today.

Your new release, Cowboy, Take Me Away (and now I have the Dixie Chicks song in my head), out April 19 from Harlequin Special Edition, is part of your Wild Horse Sanctuary series. Can you tell us more about this series -- how many books so far, what it's about, and what we can expect in the future?

Cowboy, Take Me Away is the 5th book in the Wild Horse Sanctuary series, starting with One Cowboy, One Christmas and hero Zach Beaudry, who was mentioned in In Care of Sam Beaudry. I didn’t start out to write a series, but Sally Drexler from One Cowboy needed a book, and the series grew from there. One Brave Cowboy is scheduled for October. After that there’s at least one more.

Whose story is Cowboy, Take Me Away?

I think it’s Skyler Quinn’s story. She’s ripe for getting swept off her feet. She’s a widow—married an older man who started out as a father figure and ended up leaving her with a pile of debt and a stepson who refuses to grow up. When she runs into Trace Wolf Track—a younger man this time—she thinks she’s in for her very first weekend fling. You can read the first chapter at www.kathleeneagle.com.

I have long been a fan of yours and of stories with cowboys and Native Americans, tales of the west, both past and present. What draws you to write books about these types of characters and settings?

I’m an Eastern dude gone West, but I’ve always loved Westerns, and I’ve always been interested in American Indians. I graduated from college with a generation that truly wanted to save the world, and went straight to an Indian reservation to teach high school English. I had a lot to learn, but I’ve always been an eager student.

Are you also a fan of movie westerns? If so, which ones are your favorites?

I loved the new True Grit with Jeff Bridges. We still watch Lonesome Dove with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones periodically. Both movies are true to the books, and both books are terrific. Another favorite is The Outlaw Josey Wales with Clint Eastwood. Oh, and Two Mules For Sister Sarah. Oh, and....
I see on your website that you teach at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis . Can you tell us more about these classes and how you came to teach there?

The Loft has a wonderful reputation nationally, and for a long time the emphasis was on lit’rary. My friend Mary Bracho (aka Ana Seymour) and I were the first to be invited to teach a course in writing the Romance. We’ve been teaching there for more than 10 years, and we love it. Our “Book In a Month” class fills every time.

With a name like Romance Bandits, you know we love tales of romance here. Tell us how you met your husband, Clyde.

Ah, my favorite romance. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years in college in a volunteer program on a South Dakota Indian reservation. (Remember, I was out to save the world.) I was introduced to Clyde the day after I arrived. He was wearing a red Western shirt, cowboy hat, boots, and man, did he look good in those jeans. He was breaking a horse. I’m here to tell you, there’s no cowboy like an Indian cowboy.

You’ll find a picture of me and my cowboy the summer we met when you visit me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/kathleen.eagle1

We all have those keeper books that we've loved so much that we will never part with them. Your Sunrise Song is such a book for me. What are some of the books on your keeper shelf?

Well, first of all, thank you, Trish. I’m especially proud of Sunrise Song. I have tons of keepers. A few off the top of my head: Tales of Burning Love and almost everything else Louise Erdrich had written; Flowers From the Storm (Laura Kinsale); Silent In the Grave (Deanna Raybourn); Lightning That Lingers (Tom and Sharon Curtis)...oh, so many more!

Thanks for being here today, Kathleen. Kathleen will be giving away a copy of one of the earlier Wild Horse Sanctuary books (winner's choice!) to one lucky commenter today. So fire away with your questions for Kathleen.