Interview & Giveaway – Too Far Down – Mary Connealy

28 Comments

I have found, by running this sight, that I really like lantern’s on covers. I don’t know why, but they draw me, and today’s giveaway book has a lantern on it! Bonus points. Plus it’s Mary Connealy, so it’s going to be a fun book, I’m certain!

New Mexico , 1880s , 1880-1900 (US Turn of Century) , Cowboy/Ranching, Mining , Gender NonConformists , Connealy-Mary

Too Far Down

When an explosion kills men and damages the CR Mining Company, the Bodens realize their troubles are not behind them as they thought. Shadowy forces are still working against them.

Cole Boden finds himself caught between missing his time back East and all that New Mexico offers. Sure he fights with his siblings now and then, but he does care for them. He enjoys running the mine and, when he’s honest, he admits that Melanie Blake captures his interest in a way no other woman ever has.

Melanie has been a friend to the Bodens forever. A cowgirl who is more comfortable with horses and lassoes than people, she never expected to find herself falling for someone. Particularly for refined Cole Boden, a Harvard graduate who may not stay long at the ranch. She’s determined, however, to help the Bodens finally put an end to the danger that’s threatened all of them. But will putting herself in harm’s way be more dangerous than anyone expected?

Mary’s Website

Others in this series: First one is FREE!

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Questions about Mary’s Story

What character in your book turned out to be your favorite?

I loved Cole Boden, the hero of Too Far Down, which is book #3 in the series. He is in the prequel, The Boden Birthright, right now free as an ebook and available in print in a collection called All For Love which will release next May. He was a little child in The Boden Birthright and saving Cole was almost all the focus of that book, though it led to romance and his father’s marriage and general mayhem. So, I loved writing this book. I’ve been eager to tell Cole’s story.

If you could be one of your characters, who would you choose to be and why?

Oh no contest. I’d want to be Mel (Call-Me-Melanie-and-I’ll-Kill-You) Blake. Melanie, the tough frontier cowgirl heroine of Too Far Down, is the kind of character I love writing. Tough, smart, hard working. She doesn’t back down for anyone and she always says exactly what she means. This could not be more exactly the opposite of me. I am non-confrontational to an alarming degree. I keep my mouth shut and think long and hard before I say anything that could upset anyone. My humor is mostly self-deprecating because at least I won’t be mad at myself, right? And then I go home and I write books and shoot people in them. It’s a nice safe outlet.

Did you include a real historical character or incident in your story?

I did. I based this story on a land grant conflict that was real life. Where an American changed his citizenship to Mexican to earn a land grant, then the border changed and suddenly his land grant is in America. and he changed his citizenship back to American. The New Mexico territorial government started rescinding these massive, million acre land grants and this American/Mexican/American guy wasn’t quite American enough, so he had his daughter marry a for-sure American and he managed to save his land grant. Anyway, research was fun and the story is outlandish and yet based on truth, it’s called the Maxwell Land Grant.

Why did you choose the year your book is set?

Heath Kincaid was a child in my Kincaid Brides Series. I’ve been dying to give him his own love story and he needed to grow up. That helped set me in time because I needed it to be at least ten years after Heath appeared as a ten-year-old in Over the Edge.

What research did you have to look up to make your character’s professional decisions authentic?

It’s so fun to do research because you end up on rabbit trails, looking up one thing, and that leads to something else. The research I enjoyed the most was when I found a bunch of old Indian fables to explain the ruins on top of some New Mexican mesas. Very fascinating to read and compare the story to reality and see the seeds of truth in them. For this specific book I found the Philmont Ranch—now owned by the Boy Scouts of America. And the gold mines on the top of Mt. Baldy…part of which is on the Philmont Ranch. That set me on the path to use those mines as a setting for my story.

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Questions about Mary’s Reading

Those below are FREE!

What other Christian Historical Novels are similar to yours in setting or storyline?

Lori Copeland’s Men of the Saddle and Brides of the West series. Regina Jennings novels are favorites of mine. Everything by Karen Witemeyer. Margaret Brownley does work that reminds me of mine. I love Melissa Jagears work. Jen Turano has humor in her books and I’m always looking for that. I shouldn’t have started because I’m leaving people out. Cowboys are hot right now!

What Christian Historical Novel did you reread last, and why did you reread it?

Well, oddly enough, I just ‘sort of’ re-read my Wild at Heart series. I had eye surgery recently for a detatched retina…and part of the aftermath of that is the doctor requiring me to lie face down for TEN DAYS! Yes, I was under Doctor’s orders to smother myself. So I needed books on tape and the one My Cowboy got me from the local library was my Wild at Heart series. I honestly really enjoyed it and it saved my sanity.

What Christian Historical Novel taught you something about the craft of writing because it was so well done?

And tell us a bit about what it taught you. When I read Francine River’s Mark of the Lion trilogy I felt like I really realized the power of word. The way she created that world, 1st century Rome, and then pulled me into it. Absolutely brilliant.

Mary is giving away a copy paperback (usa only) and I’m giving away winner’s choice of ebook of any of the books mentioned above. Enter the Rafflecopter below!

**If you don’t want to enter Rafflecopter, tell me in a comment below: “I’m not entering the rafflecopter, but please throw me in the hat” so I can manually put you in there for a chance.**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

28 Comments

In my family of orientation, I was the bossy big sister but since we moved to different states and had our own families I became one of the crowd.
My three sons are all close. Thanks to text messages they communicate
with each other almost on a daily basis so distance between them means
nothing. I am not into all this texting but I am always included in recent pics
taken. It is great they are so close to each other even if it is by iPhones.

Carol, isn’t Texting weird. It is now a substitute for talking on the phone.
My kids all much prefer texting.
In fact my daughter told me her phone rang the other day and her two-year-old looked at it and said, “Grandma?”
Apparently I’m the only one who still PHONES!
But they take my calls, bless them. Or at least eventually return them!

I come from a family of 9 children–7 girls, 2 boys. I’m the second oldest. My older sister is bossy, as is my youngest sister, but I’m definitely not. We are all very close to each other. We all live fairly close and see each other quite often–not as often as when my parents were alive, but we all communicate with each other. I have 5 children that are all married, 16 grandchildren, and 1 great-granddaughter. We are all very close and like to get together often.

Winnie, I’m from a family of eight. 5 girls and three boys. It was the baby boom…these things happened. 🙂
I’m third born. You think that’s why I don’t like confrontation?
I’m not sure what ‘birth order’ is exactly in a family this large. Probably all rules are different.

I have one brother who is 13 months younger. He might call be his bossy sister but we are fairly close.

13 months! Can you imagine how tired your mom was?
My mother-in-law managed to have two in eleven months.
She doesn’t remember much of it. 🙂

I am the oppressed middle child–balanced out by being the only girl. My older brother and I fought a lot until he graduated and moved out, at which point I discovered that maybe he wasn’t actually put on this earth to plague my existence. Now we get along great (so long as we don’t have to live together) and talk a lot more than we ever did growing up. We both have generally gotten along well with our younger brother (though I had a rough year when he passed me up in height).

Rachael, LOL on the little brother getting taller than you.
I grew up in a three bedroom farmhouse with eight brothers and sisters, plus Mom and Dad.
I for years shared a bedroom with my two older sisters. We were three years in a row so very close in age. I spent a whole lot of my time with the neighbor girl across the road who was one year younger than me. Like I needed more people! She was from a family of nine!

I’m the oldest of four but we aren’t very close. My brother is 10 years younger. My sisters are 13 months youngercand 4 years younger. We live far away from each other and don’t really have similar tastes anymore. So I can’t be bossy anymore.

Paula I hope you get it out of your system when they were growing up. 🙂

Unfortunately my family isn’t all that close. We all just kinda do our own thing. I guess growing up I would have been known as the annoying little sister =)

I have one brother who moved a long way away but the rest of us are within about 90 minutes of each other. My mom’s 89 and still going fairly strong. She’s no fast but she’s steady. 🙂 And I’m the one who lives near her, which is a blessing. So when the brothers and sisters come to see her I get to see them too. They come at random times, besides for bigger get togethers.

I’m close to my parents and my three siblings, but my sisters are both bossy and my brother is moody. I love them anyway… I talk to my parents several times a day. I talk to one sister daily, and talk to my other sister and brother weekly or more often.

Lucy that sounds great. I talk to my mom at lease once a day, and have lunch with her after church on Sunday. I see my other brothers and sisters enough, but I’m much busier with grandchildren and children these days and they’re my priority

My family has always been very close. I am the third child and always the family confidante. It was sometimes hard to remember which secrets belonged to which sibling ! My brother was always the privileged one and there was a LOT of jealousy amongst the rest of us in our younger years. It was, of course, because he was the oldest and the only boy, with six younger sisters. I suppose I can see why he was given special privileges. Of all the sisters, my brother was closest to me, often asking me to watch movies, play games, and do things with him. My older sister and I did everything together when we were little and I’ve shared a room with her my whole life, up until just three months ago. My brother and older sister were both bossy and it led to a LOT of fighting between them! As I got older, my first younger sister and I got much closer, as we developed the same taste in enjoyment, opinion, and even book preference, though we’re polar opposites in disposition! Our personality differences have never caused problems between us, though. In fact, they’ve made our bond stronger, as they complement each other much better than similar personalities which (as I’ve witnessed personally!) often clash and turn ugly. We’re frequently mistaken for twins, as we look alike (though four years apart), even sharing the same closet and clothing for a time before our taste in clothing began to differ (I’m the plain to her flashy, lol). Since my brother married and moved out, and my great-grandmother moved in, we’ve become somewhat of a trio, as my next younger sister enjoys more of the same things as us than she used to, though I don’t believe I’ll ever find another person in the world who thinks so much like me as my “twin” sister. It’s very easy for the three of us to confide in one another and we do it frequently. At lease once, every other month or so, we have a “sisters-therapy” (lol) where we stay up very late, relieving the frustrations that have been building up. Surprisingly, it usually turns out that we’ve all been having the same frustrations. And that somehow makes it better, knowing you’re not the only one feeling this way. My two youngest sisters are still very young and not quite old enough to have their own opinions, lol. We all love them to pieces!

Elly this makes me lonely for my sisters.
I just saw two of them, but the other two…it’s been awhile.
I need a sister therapy lunch!

You should! Not only is it a relief to frustrations, but it makes me feel much closer to my sisters, each of us knowing how the others feel.

I am the oldest. I have a brother five years younger. We’ve never been particularly close. We have too many differences.

Gail, five years is like a cut off separation imho. You’re never in high school together, you’re going to school right when he’s born. You’re out of college (if you go) before he starts.
My youngest daughter is 5 years younger than the next youngest and it’s always been harder for them to be close. But now, they are all adults and out of the house and they seem to have found a nice adult relationship.

I am the oldest of three. My brother is 9 years younger and my sister almost 11 years. Our family and extended family has always been close and stuck by each other, we will fiercely protect our own but fight among ourselves. I’ve always wondered why that is…lol!

Fun interview Mary! Thanks so much for chatting about your life & writing 🙂

Wow, Trixi that’s a big gap between kids. You had the whole place and all parental attention to yourself for a long time. WTG!!!

There were 6 of us, I have two halfs in my family, both older, but we all treated each other as if we were full blooded siblings. We are close knit, love to have family gatherings whenever we can but hit most of the main holidays. If someone needs something we are there for each other. I have a twin and we are the youngest but I seem to be the one everyone turns to.

I’m the bossy sister and my younger brother and family live close by. I need to make more time for them since they’re not too far.

I’m the second of four sisters. We have good relationships, even though the distance between us prevents seeing each other more than once or twice a year. My older sister was the sweetest, I was the quiet one (which I eventually outgrew), my younger sister was the sassy one, and the youngest was the baby that we all loved to spoil until we and she outgrew it. I always loved the story Little Women because of the celebration of sisters!

I have been enjoying reading this series and seeing the family dynamics. Unfortunately, I have no siblings for comment/comparison.

I’m the big sister. My brother and I have never been close. I’m excited to read Mary’s series!

Our family is not what I’d call close but don’t let anyone offend one of us as we are all there for each other. As far as girls or boys being closer, I was closer to my one ‘full’ brother, lol, yes I have/had two half-brothers, two half-sisters, a step-brother and two step-sisters. My ‘brother’ sometimes talked a lot, other times not so much as when we got older I lived in FL and he lived in MI, he passed at the young age of 58 and luckily I had called him the night before, after not talking to him in quite a while, the next night after going to be I got the call that he had passed with congestive heart failure. To this day I still have trouble with his death, don’t get me wrong I had many things to be thankful for, he had gotten home (he sold foundry equipment and was on the road the night before) and didn’t die on the road and maybe cause an accident with other injuries or deaths and two he was no longer suffering with his health problems.

wfnren at aol dot com

I am the mother of 12 children in 18 years. My oldest is now 25 and youngest is 6. I had Irish twins in 2005, for those of you that don’t know what that is it’s 2 babies, not twins born in the same year. One was born February 5th and the other December 27th. The boy was born first then the girl. I have 7 sons and 5 daughters. I am an avid reader and post reviews for everything I read.

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Interview & Giveaway – Too Far Down – Mary Connealy