Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Aloha to Jodi Thomas and RANSOM CANYON


In the new series I’m writing, RANSOM CANYON, I blended the beauty of the canyons on West Texas into my stories. Once, when flying into Amarillo, the lady next to me looked out at the flat land and said, “Why would anyone want to live in Texas? I just smiled wishing she could see the beauty of it like I did. The red mud of the Red River, the sunsets that run on forever, the ribbons of layers of the earth dancing along the canyons. In this series, I invite the world into my world. So, pull on your boots and step into a town you’ll enjoy filled with people you’ll consider family before the series is over.

I knew I had to open RANSOM CANYON with Staten Kirkland. He is a well-respected rancher who believes he needs to work harder than any hand he hires. He’s strong and honest and broken inside by the death of his only love, his wife. When his son is killed during a storm a few years later, Staten runs to a quiet woman who has been his friend since grade school and his wife’s best friend. Shy Quinn asks nothing of him. She offers understanding amid the storm of his life.

Their friendship develops into a gentle, loving affair that grows to rock both them with its depth. Staten will have to learn to love again and Quinn will have to open up to someone. The whole town watches the birth of passion and love as Staten stands beside her letting her be strong, and quiet Quinn discovers one man’s love can wash away all the pain in her past. Through storms, cattle rustlers, and facing Quinn’s greatest fear, they fight for each other as the whole town stands behind them.

Readers will feel, not like they came to visit, Crossroads, Texas, on the edge of Ransom Canyon, but the town will start to feel like home. My goal as a writer is to keep you up late reading because you have to know what happens next.

So, saddle up with me and step into RANSOM CANYON.

Jodi Thomas
jodithomas.com
facebook.com/jodithomasauthor



WINTER'S CAMP, the prequel to RANSOM CANYON, is free to readers through August 31:

A wanderer’s life was all James Randall Kirkland had known since he was an orphaned boy in San Antonio. And while years of adventure had satisfied his younger self, now he’s longing to put down roots of his own and is prepared to go it alone. But when he sees the Apache slave woman with the startling blue eyes, the course of his journey is changed forever.

Ever since the Comanche raided her village and took her for their own, Millie hasn’t known any kind of freedom. After years of being outcast, beaten and traded from tribe to tribe, she’s unprepared for James’s patient tone and gentle ways. Still, as her handsome savior slowly earns her trust, Millie struggles between desire and fear, sure it’s just a matter of time before James tires of her and her burgeoning feelings are nothing but another wasted memory.


Winter's Camp (Ransom Canyon, #0.5)

I am giving away a print copy of RANSOM CANYON to one randomly selected commenter:

Rancher Staten Kirkland, the last descendant of Ransom Canyon's founding father, is rugged and practical to the last. No one knows that when his troubling memories threaten to overwhelm him, he runs to lovely, reclusive Quinn O'Grady…or that she has her own secret that no one living knows.

Young Lucas Reyes has his eye on the prize—college, and the chance to become something more than a ranch hand's son. But one night, one wrong decision, will set his life on a course even he hadn't imagined.

Yancy Grey is running hard from his troubled past. He doesn't plan to stick around Ransom Canyon, just long enough to learn the town's weaknesses and how to use them for personal gain. Only Yancy, a common criminal since he was old enough to reach a car's pedals, isn't prepared for what he encounters.

To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about Texas - have you visited the Lone Star State?  I enjoyed San Antonio last summer (link).

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, August 29, 10 pm in Baltimore. 

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, August 30.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore
Aloha  Spirit in Charm City



18 comments:

  1. I've never visited Texas but one day I will.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm afraid I never head but I've read a lot of stories set in Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I visited San Antonio for a conference and loved the River Walk.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Staten Kirkland, eh? Could be related? lol

    I've never been to Texas..it's hotter there than it is here in Vegas.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I came to Texas for a temporary job assignment 24 years ago and fell in love with my husband and the state! I live on the edge of the hill country with farmland to the east. Texas has piney woodland, coastal islands and beaches, mountains, plains and canyons, hill country farmland, and more. There's something for everyone as long as you can tolerate the heat of summers. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. We have been to Texas twice. In 2009, our Air Force unit had their reunion in Dallas-Ft. Worth. We saw some of the sites there and then went to the Austin and San Antonio area and did a little site seeing. We were there a week, but will have to go back since we missed so much. This May I went to RT in Dallas. My husband joined me there and we went on vacation. The first leg of the trip was to Big Bend National Park. We spent 3 nights there. Great place. Would like to go back and do more hiking when it isn't 105 in the shade. From there we went to Ft. Davis and the McDonald Observatory. Too short a visit. The observatory was literally fogged in the day we went. We stayed at the historic Lodge at the park, very nice. The Fort restoration is progressing nicely and is well done. We could have spent more time there. There is much more to the state I would like to see, so I can predict more trips in the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We will likely be going to the Corpus Christi area next year. My daughter's stepson and his wife live there and they are expecting a baby in December. Good grief, I will be a great grandmother. Not ready for that honor.

      Delete
  7. I'm not a native Texan, but as we love to say in the Lone Star State, "I got here as fast as I could." We enjoy living here. But August is no one's favorite month, because of the heat!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have only been to the airports in Texas, traveling through on trips throughout the years. I would like to visit Austin and San Antonio sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've never been but it's on my wish list of places to visit :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. just once years ago - I'd love to see more

    ReplyDelete
  11. Never been. Hear River Walk is great.
    LADbookfan

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jodi Thomas has the ability to layer her stories in segments that provide information on several people in one book. Later when she picks up the characters who were background you're familiar with them and enjoy learning more about them. Using the same technique in Ransom Canyon, she delivers the story of Staten and Quinn, while providing information on upcoming characters.

    ReplyDelete