SAGEBRUSH KINIGHTS - Erica Vetsch - One Free Book

Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and reading, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical fiction set in the American West. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul-mate, and avid museum patron.

Welcome back, Erica. What are some of the spiritual themes you like to write about?

I tend to have recurring threads of forgiveness and letting go of the past. I’m not sure what this says about me, except I have been forgiven much. Forgiveness is such a beautiful gift.

What other books of yours are coming out soon?

I don’t have anything currently on the radar, though I have a couple of projects out to publishers. Hopefully, I’ll hear something soon. Until then, I’ll keep working on the next novel. I’m currently writing a story set in post-Civil-War Kansas at Fort Larned. My heroine wants custody of her orphaned niece and nephew, but they are currently in the care of the post physician who isn’t of a mind to give them up.

If you could spend an evening with one contemporary person (not a family member of yours), who would it be and why?

I would fly to Boston to visit a dear friend. We have only met in person one time, but we communicate frequently. I would love to see her home, her family, her state. There is so much I would love to experience. I’ve never been to New England, and I’d love to explore the history of that region with my good friend.

What historical person would you like to meet (besides Jesus) and why?

Winston Churchill. He’s fascinating, and his life spanned so much interesting history and world-changing events. I would love to sit down to dinner with him and just listen.

How can you encourage authors who have been receiving only rejections from publishers?

Ah, rejection. In the beginning it hurts so much because we pour so much of ourselves into our work without really understanding how the business end of publishing works. We take those rejections of our work as rejections of ourselves. All I can say is, as you continue in the business, those rejections will become somewhat easier. Not that they aren’t still disappointing, but they aren’t personal. Remember that rejections are about the work, not about you.

Tell us about the featured book.

Sagebrush Knights is a novella collection, four mail-order bride stories that I just love.

Journey along with the four Gerhard sisters as they head to Wyoming Territory in search of husbands and discover that happy endings are not ready-made. Evelyn arrives in Wyoming with a secret and a grudge, only to find her prospective groom holds a secret, too. Jane vies for the attention of her workaholic husband who is bent on saving his ranch even if it means losing love. Gwendolyn’s would-be husband dies, leaving her to the will of another man. And Emmeline’s knight-in-shining-armor herds sheep instead of cattle. Will love prevail, or will their journeys have not so happy endings?

Please give us the first page of the book.

Prologue:

Four sisters, Christian, 18-28, seek matrimony with four God-fearing men as soon as possible. Must live in close proximity. Apply: Matrimonial News, #278.

The final eviction notice and the marriage proposals arrived in the same post. Though she couldn’t help but wince at the comedown in their circumstances to be driven to posting an advertisement for husbands, Evelyn Gerhard Stanford couldn’t cavil at the timing of the response.

Evelyn presented these missives to her sisters as matter-of-factly as possible, but inside, insecurities and doubts roiled. The advertisement had been her idea, after all, arrived at after many a sleepless, prayer-filled night.

            With each of her three younger sisters looking to her for guidance and assurance that they were making the correct—the only—decision they could, she kept her fears to herself and put on a brave front. All through the packing, the leave-taking, and the jolting journey via hissing, sooty train and bone-jarring stagecoach, she maintained her calm, controlled demeanor.

            She could do this. She could get her family across more than half this continent and see them safely ensconced in new homes with new husbands. She would meet every crisis and obstacle with determination, intelligence, and fortitude. And try to pretend she wasn’t scared out of her mind at the unknown racing toward them all.

Evelyn clutched her reticule, crackling the papers inside. Two letters, the only communication she’d had with her prospective groom, one Gareth Kittrick. Not much to build a marriage on, two single-sheet missives. The first was from the Matrimonial News, passing along the marriage proposals of four men from the town of Sagebrush in Wyoming Territory to advertisement #278. The second was from Mr. Kittrick himself and contained tickets for the journey and a few lines about himself and his ranch. A widower—that thought gave her some solace, being a widow herself—looking for a kind woman to grace his home.

With the eviction notice hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles, she’d expedited their departure from Seabury. They’d barely had time to think. But now, as mile after mile rolled under the train and stagecoach wheels, doubts and fears ran rampant.

Glancing down, she touched the thin, gold circle on her left ring finger. A lump formed in her throat as she slipped it off and moved it to her right hand. For more than ten years, she’d worn Jamison’s ring, though she’d been widowed nearly all that time. Still, it would be bad form to show up in Sagebrush to meet her new husband while still wearing her first wedding band.

Not that Mr. Kittrick would need that reminder of her previous marriage. No, the permanent reminder lay on the seat beside her with his head pillowed on her lap. She stroked his sable curls. Guilt chased anxiety and fear through a twisting maze in her head.

In her brief and hurried communication with her intended husband, she’d neglected to mention she had a son.

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Thank you so much, Erica, for sharing this collection with us.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

Sagebrush Knights (Romancing America) - paperback
Sagebrush Knights (Romancing America) - Kindle


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