Backlist Boogie--Installment 2--Pickup Man

Last week I told you all about my first Amber Heat release and my gradual slide into writing erotic romance as I adjusted to losing my life and writing partner. We only really did one book together but my husband had been my first reader and critique partner and my tech adviser on military, law enforcement, outdoor action and many other aspects that appeared in the bulk of my works. I had to break some new ground to continue to write.

Still, for my second erotic romance release which came out later in 2004, I went back to a familiar and comfortable contemporary environment, an imaginary mid-sized town in Arizona. This story was Pickup Man, the first of my Rodeo Girls trilogy. It began as a stand alone story but I soon recognized that its heroine's friends had to have their own tales told. They came out a few months later as Portrait of a Cowboy and Cowboy First Aid.

Since I grew up training horses and mules and dealing on a daily basis with all kinds of "cowboys", rodeo had been part of my life for years. I knew about the buckle bunnies and other levels of fans who make rock stars of the top rodeo competitors. Great place to set a sexy story! And, as I have often done, I reflected the U.S. southwest's ethnic and racial diversity in these stories. That's me below as a teen with some of the cowboys we worked with,(not too glamorous!) and I think we were about to head to a rodeo!

Jana, the heroine is white but the hero, Tyler, is at least half Native American. There are quite a few Indian cowboys as well as Latinos and African Americans. Bulls, broncs and the other stock don't see color or race at all. They just respect the toughest and most determined riders. I agree with that myself!

The premise of Pickup Man is that Jana's friends worry about her shy and single life and challenge her to pick up a cowboy during the midnight rodeo parts of the town's annual celebration. So she goes to the main bar where the rodeo crowd parties and sets her sights on a cowboy who has had a bad day...

Pickup Man by Deirdre O'Dare, http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/699-Pickup-Man.aspx  See the next post for the blurb and an excerpt.