When Home for a Cowboy first released in June, I had written a blog post about my inspiration behind the story. But with everything that was going on with Black Lives Matter at the time, it never got posted.
But some of you might be curious, so I thought it was time to share how Marco and Lassiter came to be.
If you’ve read my books, you might know me as the author of the Stick Side series, which currently sits at three books with book four coming in September. Stick Side is a hockey romance series, with nary a horse, ranch, or cowboy hat in sight.
So what brought me from hockey players to cowboys?
In the summer of 2019, a call went out for short stories that would be included in a charity anthology releasing in the spring of 2020. It called for a springtime new adult romance, which got my creative juices thinking: which one of my college-aged side characters could use their own story?
Enter Marco, a side character from my novel On the Ice, who I never intended to write a novel for. But who was Marco? And who would be his love interest?
Cue me watching a Hallmark movie set in the mountains of British Columbia that got me thinking of cowboys, starry skies, and beautiful mountains. From there, the Windsor Ranch was born, as was Lassiter Windsor-March.
But I still didn’t know who either Marco or Las were as individuals. And more importantly, how would I get them from college in Vermont to the Windsor Ranch in Wyoming, and, ultimately, to each other?
Even though I didn’t end up participating in the anthology, I did write the short story in order to get my creative juices flowing. And boy, did it work! From that short story Las became the guy who knew exactly what he wanted and where his future would lie—at his family’s ranch. Marco, conversely, became the guy who had no idea where he’d end up after graduation. Until Las invites him to work at his family’s ranch for the summer.
Home for a Cowboy was born out of that short story, eventually becoming more than just an opposites attract romance. It’s a story about finding romance when you least expect it and discovering who you are, and where you truly belong.
I hope you’ll give it a read and fall in love with Marco and Las, just like I did. And if you’re looking for that short story you can find it by signing up for my newsletter.
Buy Home for a Cowboy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Paperback
