Once a Cowgirl Always a Cowgirl

 

Hello Readers,

          Loretta Rogers here sending special greetings to all of you. 

When I was a little girl my grandmother nicknamed me Cowboy Girl. Whether it was a carousel horse, a wild horse, or a plow horse, if it had four legs and a tail, you could bet your boots, I was going to ride it. I’ve worked cows, ridden in parades; barrel raced, and won a couple of ribbons participating in twenty-five mile endurance trials.  Although I hung up my spurs years ago, I’ve never outgrown my love for horses or the Old West.

September is not only my birthday month but, but how fitting is it that September is also National Cowgirl month. Just exactly what defines a cowgirl? “Cowgirl" is an attitude really; a pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head-on, lives by her own rules, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands; they speak up. They defend things they hold dear.

National Cowgirl month isn’t as widely known as some holidays, however, it’s very simple, and powerful. Women for years have made many historical contributions to the west and the cowboy culture. Some famous cowgirls include: Sandra Day O’Connor, before becoming a Supreme Court Justice, she was a little girl who rode horses, shot guns and grew up on her family’s generational Lazy B Ranch in Arizona. Phoebe Ann Moses Butler became known as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley. More famously known as “Wild Horse Annie,” Velma Johnston spent decades of her life fighting to protect wild horses.

Written under my pseudonym L.W. Rogers, in my historical western mystery novel, Cowgirl Courage, Jenny Irene Morriston, lived up to the cowgirl code. At the age of eleven, Jenny executed the death-defying feat of breaking her father out of jail after he was wrongly accused of murder. Now, at the age of twenty-one, she has her mind set on an even more dangerous plan.

Just helping her father slip the hangman’s noose wasn’t enough: Jenny still has to clear his good name. So with newly short hair covered by a sweat-stained Stetson and a silver-inlaid gun belt wrapped around her waist, Jenny rides back to Rio Hondo, Texas…disguised as young gunslinger Jim Morris. Every breath, every movement, every word threatens to unmask her—and put a noose around her neck. Jenny’s only chance of discovering the true murderer and staying alive long enough to see justice done is to maintain her disguise. Her sole ally is her childhood friend Lucas. No matter how much it pains her, she must guard her identity even from him.

The closer Jenny gets to the truth, the riskier her charade becomes…until the only thing she can rely on is her courage.

While Cowgirl Courage is fiction, I hope you enjoy Jenny's perilous journey, and the emotions and fears she experienced because the tough-as-nails demeanor that each true western cowgirl possessed has laid the way for generations of cowgirls and women in general to emulate.

         Available in print and Ebook: https://amzn.to/2JId244

        www.lorettacrogersnovels.com

HAPPY READING!