And now for something I need to do more of…
Giving my fellow scribes a chance at some promotion.
With multiple novels, novellas and and anthologies under her belt, Starla Kaye knows how to bring on the sexy. Her latest release, Cowboys in Charge, is a Christmas anthology chuck full o’ cowboy hawtness. You might say that the cowboy on the cover is a metaphor for the anthology’s theme: the cowboy’s tangled lasso represents the complexities of communication in a relationship. Or … you could just stare at the pretty, pretty cowboy. As Diana Ross might sing, “I want muscles!”
Thanks, Starla, for providing today’s blog!
Men and Women Driving Each Other Crazy by Starla Kaye
I love writing about a strong male hero, especially one who has a soft center he carefully guards. In my new Christmas anthology release from Black Velvet Seductions, Cowboys in Charge, I have seven cowboys who fit this kind of man.
The men around me in real life love their women. Most of them are also fairly dense about sharing their feelings or showing their love beyond the bedroom, or they assume they have said something. Ryan, my bad-ass bull rider in “All I Want for Christmas (Biggest Prize Ever),” is just such a man. He thinks he has made it clear to Krystal that she is his one and only and that they will marry…when he is ready to settle down. Can I say “numbnuts” here? Women need the words actually said, and so does Krystal. Some men have to learn the hard way.
My husband is one of these dense men. But he is good at saying the words “I love you,” but beyond that he doesn’t understand the whole touchy/feely stuff that women like. Nor does he have a clue about what I want most as a gift. Christmas time, in particular, is when his totally clueless skills excel.
I collect dozens of things (more than I should), yet he doesn’t seem to notice any of those collections around the house. I’m a sentimental sap and have always kept cards and stupid mementos (from long ago boyfriends and my husband). I’m happy just getting a semi-personalized card that he has added even two or three words to along with his signature. But I rarely get those anymore. My gifts usually consist of gift cards because he believes that is safer. I see them as impersonal…yet I accept them and use them. Jason, my most intense cowboy hero in “Cowboys and Their Toys,” is like my husband. He just can’t figure out what to get his wife, Jennifer, for Christmas. When he talks with some friends and one of them mentions that he got his wife something she collected (okay, he had help from his mother-in-law), Jason wonders if Jennifer collects anything. The man can’t open his eyes and actually look around their house?
To be fair, I know I drive my husband nuts at times, too. Many of my heroines share some of my personality quirks. I can be extremely independent…and get annoyed sometimes when my man gives me too much freedom. I start thinking he doesn’t want to spend time with me, when he is really giving me the time alone that he thought I wanted. Sometimes we both go our separate ways too often and that habit is hard to break. Amber and Adam in “For the Love of His Cowgirl,” have run into this problem. Suddenly they are too busy for steamy sex or anything else. Can she entice him back and rekindle the fading fire of their love?
And Joshua and Christina in “A Special Gift for Her Cowboy,” also struggle with finding time to be together. She, too, is determined to get her husband’s attention focused back on her and their marriage.
There are three other stories in this anthology with husbands and wives struggling to find their way back together for various reasons. I want to make it clear that though these men might be a little dense in some ways, they love their women. And they show it. You will need to read the stories to find out how each of these strong men did something very special to prove their love.
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Title: Cowboys in Charge
Author: Starla Kaye
Genre: Contemporary Western, Erotic Romance, BDSM elements
Length: 37,000 words anthology, 7 stories
Release Date: 12-1-11
ISBN: 978-1-936556-13-7
Publisher: Black Velvet Seductions
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Thanks for having me here today and giving me a chance to talk about my love of cowboys. Happy holidays to one and all!
Great post Starla! I enjoyed hearing that you and your husband share the same challenges with gift giving that the rest of us have.
In our family I think the opposite is true–though hubby might disagree. I think I’m the easy one to buy for…he’s downright DIFFICULT! Part of it for him is that when he wants something — usually a computer part or a tool for some project — he buys it. Then come Christmas, Valentines Day, his birthday, he has everything he wants.
One of the things I like about Cowboys in Charge besides the “hawtness” of the cowboys is how “normal” the characters in your stories are. They suffer the same kind of marital challenges that the rest of us do. Not necessarily huge problems…but small things that mount up. I like the poignancy with which the stories are written. I like erotic stories that make me laugh, smile, cry…and yours always do. I’d challenge anyone to read the first story in the book – Snowed in with Her Cowboy — without getting teary-eyed.
The first story – Snowed in with Her Cowboy is available in pdf download at: http://tinyurl.com/ck8n827 for those who want to see if they can read it without getting a tear in their eye.
Hi, Laurie,
Oh, boy can I relate. I have the same issue. My husband is the ultimate handyman, and like yours, if he wants something, he usually just goes out and buys it.
OTOH, I have a rather male approach to relationships, while my husband is the sensitive attentive one.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Okay, I have to take some of the dense, non-sentimental part about my husband back. We were out driving the other day and passed this local lake that I go by all the time. Anyway, he suddenly said, “I remember proposing to you here.” Eeeks… I had forgotten that.
And he is impossible to buy for. He collects NOTHING, doesn’t read normal books anymore. Everything is on his iPad now. He has no hobbies. Mainly he gets gift cards now days. Except for last year when I did an art quilt wall hanging that showed lots of different elements of him being an accountant and his career. He definitely did not expect that! Clients love to see it in the hallway at our office. He is okay with it. Whatever.
I totally suck as remembering dates. We have a little framed picture with our wedding anniversary date on it in the main hallway. Which … is how I remember anniversary.
Unfortunately, that still doesn’t clear up the matter of what to get him as a gift. Men are hard to shop for.
Those cowboys sound like some of the men I know.
All the best!