Coming on the heels of Cheryl St. John and Elizabeth Lane, and their very prolific-ness, I feel compelled to introduce myself as one of Harlequin Historicals’ newer authors. Although Untamed Cowboy is my 9th book, my 5th for Harlequin with two more coming soon, I’ve only signed on with them in 2004. The line is thriving, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to continue my love for writing about the West.

Though the three of us pen western romances–Cheryl in her Americana style, and Elizabeth with her varied expertise, including Native American–our methods are very different. Reviewers have consistently labeled my work as ‘gritty’ or ‘intense’.

I prize those words.

Because the Old West was just that. Gritty and intense. And there was nothing more so than a cattle drive.

They’ve always fascinated me, that long arduous journey driving thousands of head of cattle in one lo-ong stream of cowhide. It was a journey that turned boys into men, cattlemen into wealthy barons, and gave Americans the beef they craved.

Writing Untamed Cowboy gave me the opportunity to bring a cattle drive to life. But I couldn’t resist adding something different to the rangeland–big city crime. Namely, counterfeiting and blackmail.

Penn McClure is my untamed cowboy–and a reluctant one. He’s followed his dream of leaving his cowboy life behind to live one more glamorous, as a Secret Service agent for the United States government. He’s found a beautiful woman to marry, and he’s determined to solve his counterfeiting case. But in moments, her betrayal shatters his perfect world, and he wants nothing more than to bring con-artist Rogan Webb to justice.

Ironically, Carina Lockett is all cowboy, or at least as much of one as a woman could be. As owner of the C Bar C Ranch, she doesn’t need a man at her side, and she’s driven to make the Lockett legacy something her young daughter, Callie Mae, will be proud of.

Except at ten years of age, Callie Mae has a few dreams of her own–and they have nothing to do with her mother’s. She easily escapes the C Bar C with her scheming grandmother. She doesn’t realize what Carina will give up to get her back again.

As Callie Mae’s estranged father, Rogan Webb is desperate to escape Penn McClure’s wrath, and he blackmails Carina for her precious cattle for the money he needs to survive. Carina has no choice but to ransom everything she’s ever worked for, and she needs to get to Dodge City in a hurry. She hires Penn McClure to get her there. He’s happy to oblige–to satisfy the revenge burning inside him.

And well, by the time the ink dries on the blackmail check, Carina discovers the joys of being a woman who needs a man, and Penn learns that being a cowboy is what he’s destined to be, after all.

Callie Mae will have her own story, which I’m writing now. Her book is scheduled for release sometime in late spring, 2008. Please check back on my website for details.