Book Tour for Wyoming Heather by DeAnn Smallwood (GIVEAWAY)

Today I'm bringing you a new-to-me author and her entertaining historical read, Wyoming Heather by DeAnn Smallwood.  Keep reading to learn about what women went through during these earlier times along with getting a tantalizing taste of it too.  Make sure to leave a comment telling us what you'd hate about living back then for the chance to win a $25 BN GC!

Wyoming Heather is set in the untamed Wyoming west, mid 1800’s. Heather is a strong woman trying to
maintain a ranch left to her by her parents.  The reality is she’s alone, totally alone doing a man’s job.
During this time period, women had very few avenues open to earn a living. They could be shopkeepers, take in laundry, cook, bake, or teach school. But, being the ‘weaker’ sex, it was highly unlikely a woman would take on the overwhelming job of ranching. Heather does just that. She doesn’t hesitate to throw and brand a calf, using her horse as her partner. She runs the risk of being hurt with no one being there to hear a cry for help. In the first few years of ranching by herself, Heather comes across many obstacles that she has no idea how to handle.   Here’s an excerpt from Wyoming Heather showing how Heather reacts to one of her first encounters............
A memory of one of her first “challenges” had surfaced. She went back to the window, cup in hand, and looked out. This time she wasn’t seeing the new hay field, she was remembering this particularly challenging problem, one that had reduced her to tears and left her doubting her ability to exist in a man’s world.
Thinking back now, she could laugh at the situation. Laugh and wonder why it had presented itself as such a catastrophe. In the whole scheme of things, it was a minor incident certainly not worthy of the heavy darkness of spirit it produced. If she had known then that there would be others much more demanding of her ability and wisdom, others much more threatening, she wondered if she would have gone on.
Yes, she would have. Even in retrospect, the thought made her back straighten and her chin tilt up. Of course, she would have gone on. There was never any question of that. She had gone on to meet each day’s challenge, and she would continue to do so. And the challenge of being so alone, well, she would meet that one too.
Then there’s the loneliness. No one to share a problem with. No one to ask for help or advice. No one to cuddle with on a cold winter night. And what about friends? Other women rarely understood her independence. They relied on their husbands for everything and to put it simply, thought Heather an oddity. Men wanted to tame a strong woman alone.
Even Whip Johnson.  Here’s an example from this story:
A low growl and a few choice words rent the air. “If you were mine…”
“Aaah, but there’s the difference, Mr. Johnson. “I’m not yours.”
Heather did sell milk and eggs whenever she had them and could get them to the general store. But a woman alone had to rely on herself to provide food and shelter and to store enough to get her and any animals through the winter.
When Whip and Heather first meet on the banks of the Powder River, Whip reacts much like any man would when encountering such a feisty, independent woman.
“Who are you, lady? You dress like a man, you talk like a man, and if you just hadn’t had a bath in that river, I’d bet you’d smell like a man.”
If I had to use one word to describe the reality of being a woman alone during this time period, I’d use the word strong for that’s what she had to be. Strong enough to meet all the challenges of working and living alone. Strong enough to endure the loneliness. Strong enough to do the manual labor and smart enough to find ways of making it easier. Strong to hold her head high no matter the whispers. But most of all, strong enough to reach for love and blend it and the man’s strength with hers.

Heather is a spirited, independent woman living alone on a ranch left to her by her parents. She is also a healer of animals, domestic and wild. A woman doing a man's work, running a ranch that everyone said couldn't be done, not in this untamed, vastly unsettled land, in the mid 1800's. The ranch had everything she needed except water. She stole that from a neighboring abandoned ranch watched over by a lonely cabin and a grave.

He rode alone, coming back after five years to an empty cabin, a run-down ranch, and a grave on a hill. A former Texas Ranger burnt out on life and afraid to love. Whip had spent five years hunting the man that took his wife's life and left him to die.
Whip and Heather meet in an explosive moment on the banks of the Powder River. Both lonely, both drawn to one another, and both stubbornly fighting the attraction.
Whip vowed he would take up his dream abandoned five years ago and make his beloved ranch profit and to put aside the sweet linger of all memories shared by him and his wife. The ranch would be a jealous mistress occupying his every thought and every minute. He had no time or desire for a woman much less a pair of runaways from The Orphan Train, stowaways in Whip’s wagon and onto the Powder River Ranch.
But fate heeds no one or no thing. The criminal from Whip’s past reemerges in the present. Now, Heather is in danger and Whip stand, once again on the cusp of loss. Fate shows a strong, willful woman, full of love and compassion, just what she’s been missing in her life. And it shows a calloused Texas Ranger that Heather and love does flourish on the Wyoming plains.

EXCERPT:

Her mouth was dry, her clothes filthy. She was wearing not only the dust of the land, but hair and blood from the calves she’d spent the morning branding. Hair, blood, and dust.
Some perfume, she thought with disdain. I’m a real lady.

BUY AT AMAZON here.

AUTHOR INFO:

I live in Colorado with my husband and my two Yorkie kid dogs: Stormy, four pounds, and Eli, six pounds. I’m a native of Colorado, but I lived several years in Wyoming and Montana.  I draw from these beautiful states for much of my material. My historical romances are: Montana Star, Sapphire Blue, Unconquerable Callie, and Wyoming Heather.  Tears In The Wind is a contemporary romance. Then I changed genres from my beloved romances and wrote, under the pen name of D. M. Woods, my first suspense/thriller: Death Crosses The Finish Line. The second book in this ‘death’ series, Death Is A Habit, will be out later this year. Truly, I mean it when I say my greatest pleasure next to writing is having my books read and enjoyed. There are many more stories just waiting to be written and enjoyed.

FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/DeAnn-Smallwood-also-writing-as-DM-Woods/366637150050917

WEBSITE:  http://www.deannsmallwood.com/

**********GIVEAWAY**********

DeAnn will be awarding a $25 BN gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

-To be entered, LEAVE A COMMENT TELLING US WHAT YOU'D HATE ABOUT LIVING IN THIS PAST WESTERN HISTORICAL PERIOD, along with your email addy (no email=no entry).

-Winners will be chosen randomly from all comments made throughout the tour, so the more you comment the greater your chances of winning.  A list of all participating blogs can be found here.

-Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM CST on 2/19!