Real Western history is woven into almost every page of my books—from the weather my characters battle to the reasons they come west and the towns they call home.
Why History Matters in My Stories
When you open one of my Western romances, you are not just stepping into a love story—you are stepping into a version of the West that could have existed. The dust, the storms, the small towns, and the risks my characters face grow out of real history, not just imagination.
That grounding in true events and everyday frontier life is part of why the stories feel so vivid. When characters finally earn their happily‑ever‑after, you know they have survived the same kinds of challenges real people faced on the frontier.
Family Stories and Texas Roots
I did not discover the Old West in a textbook first—I grew up hearing family stories about coming to Texas in the late 1800s. I loved hearing the stories my Daddy told me about his family. Those tales of long journeys, hard years, and occasional miracles shape the way sI write about ranches, towns, and families starting over.
When you meet a determined heroine or a stubborn Texas rancher in her books, there is often a thread that leads back to those early family memories. The sense that “someone like this really lived here” comes directly from the people my relatives told me about.
Research That Brings the West to Life
Family stories are only the beginning. I also spend time reading about frontier life, Texas history, weather records, and how people actually traveled, worked, and celebrated in the 1800s. I know many of my readers love history, so I works hard to keep the details believable. I read old settler diaries, histories, and contemporary writing from the regions I write about.
That research shows up in small moments you might not even notice: how long a stagecoach trip takes, what a general store really stocked, or which tools and weapons would be available in a certain decade. It also shapes larger events, like how a town grows when the railroad arrives or what happens when a bad drought hits ranchers.
Weather as a Real Threat
In my stories, weather is never just wallpaper behind the characters. My family were farmers and knew how important the weather really was. On the real frontier, storms, droughts, blizzards, and flash floods could ruin crops or cost lives, and that reality threads through my books.
Frontier weather in my fiction draws on actual accounts of Texas heat waves, sudden cold snaps, and dangerous storms. When you read about a hero fighting to get cattle to safety ahead of a storm or a heroine snowed in far from town, those scenes echo the kinds of hardships real people faced.
Life After the Civil War
Many of my stories take place after the Civil War, when the country was full of people trying to rebuild. Historical accounts show former soldiers, widows, and families with ruined farms heading west in search of land, work, and a fresh start.
That is why you so often meet characters in my books who arrive in Texas with secrets, grief, or a past they would rather not discuss. Their choices—marriages of convenience, risky journeys, new businesses—mirror the real choices people made when they decided the only way forward was to go somewhere new.
Real and Imagined Western Towns
Some of the places in my books are drawn from real Texas landscapes and towns; others are invented, but built from real‑world details. Streets, churches, saloons, ranches, and rivers are all placed the way they would have been for a frontier community trying to survive.
My posts about Western settings and frontier life hint at the research behind those towns: how a community springs up around a river crossing or a rail line, where a livery or mercantile would sit, and how far people might ride to attend church or a dance. When you read about one of my fictional towns, it is meant to feel like a place that could show up on a real 1880s map.
True Events Hidden Inside Fiction
Sometimes a whole novel starts with a tiny piece of history—a line in an old article, a local story, or something from my own family. For example, one of my early books grew from a brief mention of a girl in her grandmother’s town whose life took a difficult turn.
I do not retell those stories exactly. Instead, I take the emotion—a sense of injustice, danger, courage, or loss—and spins a new story around it, giving fictional characters a chance at love and safety that many real people never received.
Everyday Frontier Life on the Page
Frontier life was made up of small, constant challenges: hauling water, cooking from scratch, caring for animals, mending clothes, and coping with illness when doctors were far away. Those details appear throughout my books, giving you glimpses of how people actually lived between the big dramatic scenes.
When a heroine keeps a household running during a storm, or a neighbor rides miles to help after an accident, those moments come from real patterns of community life in the 19th‑century West. They show the daily courage and kindness that made survival—and love—possible.
How Real History Makes the Romance Stronger
All of this history—family stories, research, weather, war, and everyday work—exists so that the love stories feel deeper and more satisfying. When characters fall in love in my books, they are doing it while facing the same kinds of risks and responsibilities real people faced.
That is one reason the endings feel earned instead of easy. When you close one of hmy novels, you have not just watched two people meet and marry; you have walked with them through a West shaped by real history, and seen them choose each other in spite of everything.
I hope you enjoy reading my books and the real details of the time and place in which they are set.
