Author Spotlight: Cathy Shouse Is Here with Holiday Romance!
I do love spotlighting my fellow Midwest writers, so having my pal, author Cathy Shouse join me today is special treat!
Cathy Shouse writes inspirational cowboy romances. Her Fair Creek series features the Galloways of Galloway Sons Farm. Much like the characters in her stories, Cathy once lived on a farm in small-town Indiana, where she first fell in love with cowboys while visiting the rodeo every summer. With a degree in music (oboe) and business from Indiana University, she’s married to her real-life hero, and they call rural Indiana home. She corrals their two grown children to visit often, and they all travel together every chance they get.Website | Facebook | Instagram | BookBub | Goodreads
Thank you for the chance to visit again, Nan. It’s always fun to catch up with a fellow Hoosier! When I created my series, I made a list of what I love most. It turned out family, faith, community, and cowboys won out.
Book four is now available, Her Billionaire Cowboy’s Secret Heir: Christmas in Fair Creek.
A baby in need of a family intrigued me as the basis for a Christmas romance. But finding a creative way for a baby to end up with a cowboy who maybe didn’t know anything about babies? That had me a bit stumped, at first.
While I do some pre-planning for my stories before I write them, the details often come together along the way. I started writing about a couple who were separated, not enemies but their marriage had gotten derailed. They discover a surprise pregnancy. But the “meet cute” and “falling in love” feelings are my favorites. Miles and Abby being unhappy with one another in the beginning wasn’t fun for me.
I explored the Three Men and a Baby concept. But starting with a child in a basket on a doorstep didn’t fit my idea of a faith-based story. Plus, I really wanted both Miles and Abby to have some deep connection to the baby, but not to have had a relationship. Not asking much, right? I chatted with writer friends, tossed out two starts, and was getting a bit tense, with my deadline fast approaching. The book title and cover had been up online for months so there was no turning back.
That’s when I hit upon another theme, one my subconscious worked out–twins. I have twin cousins. My BFF in college was a twin. My grandma had twin siblings, and I’ve been close to two women friends with twins. Studies on twins fascinate me, how they are similar even if they aren’t raised together or don’t even know about each other.
So Willow, the baby whose parents pass away in a car accident, is sent to her mother’s twin, her Uncle Miles. Miles is a confirmed bachelor and a workaholic through and through. He also has a deep wound because of not staying in touch with Willow’s mama—and now it’s too late. The book nearly wrote itself (but not quite) when I settled on this idea. I felt so emotional for Miles losing his twin sister so young, and for Willow’s loss. I won’t give anymore away.
Be sure to visit my website for more information on discounts and new releases or to sign up for my newsletter. I love to stay in touch with readers.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and upcoming new year,
Cathy
Giveaway! To be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card, please leave a comment about twins you have known. Do you find them as fascinating as I do? We’ll draw a winner on Saturday morning.
Her Billionaire Cowboy’s Secret
He’s a businessman in town for his twin sister’s will, and a visit to the family farm. She’s a single mom running a music shop. Can the cheery musician who was his twin’s college best friend unearth the grumpy tech geek’s warmer side, or will they both be left broken-hearted this Christmas?Miles Galloway has been consumed by his business career for his entire life. His relationships, whether family, friendships, or romantically, have always taken the back burner. When his twin sister is killed in a car accident, her baby he didn’t know about was left in his care. He goes on a mission to find just the right family for his niece.
Abby Baker’s loved music her whole life and keeping her family’s music shop afloat is everything to her. With two young sons who feel the same, she’s pulled out all the stops this Christmas to celebrate music in the town of Fair Creek.
When Miles and Abby meet unexpectedly, they couldn’t be more different. But tending baby Willow becomes their shared commitment, since each loved her mother. Abby discovers she needs his help with her plans for the community music show. As they work together, their personality differences begin to fade. Miles wonders what it would be like to not only love his niece as his own, but also Abby Baker.
Will Abby agree to create the family she’s always wished for with Miles this Christmas?
13 Comments
Latesha B.
This story sounds so good. I have 2 sets of boy twin cousins who are the opposites of each other and a set of girl twin cousins who are very similar to each other. I had a student who was a twin and he and his brother, while looking alike, had different interests.
Cherie J
Considering I am a twin myself I have a great deal of personal experience with twins. My sister and I are identical twins born just one minute apart. She is my best friend because she understands me best. Twins run in my family, so we have a lot of experience with them.
cathy shouse
I appreciate your friendship and your hospitality on the blog today, Nan! Kind of hard to believe how long we’ve known one another. Hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Cathy Shouse
Thanks for your thoughts, Liz. I was hesitant to share the secret, honestly. Aren’t we just supposed to wake up from a dream and have the story drop onto our keyboards? I guess I missed that part. I wouldn’t want to have it any other way, either.
Roseann McGrath Brooks
Thanks for the info on the background struggle. I like the way Liz metaphored it as birthing a baby! When I was in high school, we held a world record for number of twins in a graduating class of its size. (I think we had 10 or 12 pairs.) I was fascinated by my twin friends, some who were very different from each other and some very much the same.
bn100
yes, they’re interesting
cathy
That’s neat that you saw so many twins. The studies say how similar they are, yet the ones I’ve known have also been quite different from one another. In the “Secret Heir” book, that twin situation starts out saying they’re different. But with a closer look, they have a lot in common.
Cathy Shouse
Glad I’m not the only one who finds twins interesting!! 🙂
Patty Duplechin
I have twin sons. They’re adults now. They were fraternal twins. One was calm, the other hyper. One was sicker than the other. They were premature. I wouldn’t change it for nothing. They didn’t sleep all night for their first five years. They’re great young men who works hard. Merry Christmas
Cathy Shouse
That’s so special to have twins, Patty. I have seen, close-up, how much effort it takes for their parents. But both the children and parents seemed to have a special bond. Merry Christmas to you!
Doris Lankford
My husband has a twin sister and they are nothing alike. He had twin aunts on his Mom’s side and they were alike in a lot of ways.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
cathy shouse
It’s so fun to have twins that run in families, Doris. But it does make the next generation of mothers a little nervous. The ones I know are always thinking, “What if . . .?”
Liz Flaherty
I love hearing how stories are born, especially when the delivery’s hard but followed by a beautiful, beloved book baby! Great job, Cathy!