Behind the Scenes of A COWBOY FOR KATIE, by Debra Clopton

This week The Borrowed Book is spotlighting Four Weddings and a Kiss, a collection of new Western Bride novellas by Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, Mary Conneally, and Robin Lee Hatcher. Today, Debra Clopton talks to us about her contribution to the work.

Writing this novella, A COWBOY FOR KATIE, was such a joy. I absolutely fell in love with Crazy Katie Pearl’s fighting spirit after the tragedy of being trapped beneath her home after a tornado destroys it and kills her Pa. She had me hooked from the first moment as I began her story. And Treb Rayburn was such a hero to me as he developed through the story. This is only my second historical western but this and my other novella An Ever After Summer were both such delights to write that I’m sure I’ll be doing more of them when I find time between deadlines writing my contemporary novels.

Katie Pearl came to me as a full blown character. She popped into my head talking to herself and her old horse Myrtle May. And the fact that she was thinking about shooting a cowboy if she needed to totally had my fingers flying across the keyboard because I had to find out why she was acting and thinking the way she was. I don’t want to give too much away about the story and hope you’ll grab a copy and join in on the journey Crazy Katie Pearl took me on through this novella. Deciding to write about a crazy heroine was a challenge for me, but like I said, she came to me the instant I decided to do just that.

                 

I’m a pantser. That means I pretty much create the story as I go, literally my brain and imagination become one with my fingers when my fingertips touch the keyboard. This also means that the creation of the story is as much an adventure for me as it is for you as you read it. I do guide the story as I learn more and more about my hero and heroine and their past, so I do take control of the story at a point. This enables me to create more conflict for the characters which produces the sparks that I love to create between my hero and heroine and the conflict that drives the story forward.

What I knew going into this story was that I needed a bride who would be considered an unlikely bride.  I had gone through my possible reasons why a bride would be considered unlikely and being too independent hit me instantly. But then I thought of Crazy Cora from the movie Quigley Down Under. Now, I have always loved that movie and both Cora’s character and Tom Selleck’s character. Thinking about it I knew I wanted to write a story with a heroine who everyone believed was crazy…even she believes it to some degree. That’s when Katie came to me and took over. I believe everyone would be really shaken up if they went through what she had gone through and that it would take a while to regain their bearings. Katie turned out to be one of the most courageous characters I’ve ever written.

                 

So that was a sneak peek at the behind the scenes of A COWBOY FOR KATIE. It was a delight to write and I so hope readers will embrace it and love it too.   

Debra Clopton is an award winning author of sweet, heartfelt, western romance that face life with a smile. With over 2 million books in print, Debra's first book-to-movie aired on ABC Family and starred LeAnn Rimes.

Make sure you stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of Four Weddings and a Kiss!