Rebel Yell
My very first novel idea came to me many years ago after a long, hot day at the barn. I wanted something new and exciting with the old mantra ‘write what you know’ thrown in. I had just finished reading the phenomenal book Water for Elephants and liked the idea and setting at the circus: it was very new and very exciting. What could I do?
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Experience! I’ve always had this crazy love for history and it threw in plenty of what I know: horses! I started researching and writing that night my first middle grade fiction book. It was bad…very bad. The idea behind it was the only redeeming quality.
That was nine middle grade novels ago and the story has been nagging me through every single novel. Somehow the story of the most incredible year (in my opinion) of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Experience needed to be told – 1886 – the year both Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull joined the troupe as well as their journey across the ocean for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. What a fantastic time in history – but would kids find it as fascinating as I did? Probably not.
So the idea simmered until it hit me – Rebel Yell needs to be a historical romance, not middle grade fiction! So, stripping everything away but the bare bones, I went to work and it’s nearly done!
I’ve picked out the cover (which I love and can’t wait to reveal) but it needs the back blurb – which is where you, dear reader, come in. Tell me your thoughts (positive and not so positive) as well as any questions that come up that you want answered…Here’s what I have so far:
A gunshot in Kentucky changes Bess’s life forever. A misfired gun in New Orleans allows her to take it back.
In 1886, Bess joins up with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Experience – throwing the small town girl into a world of cowboys, Indians, and wild horses. Running from her past, she has no idea what to expect when she joins the troupe. In the very first week she’s stabbed, thrown from a wild horse, and falls in love with a rugged cowboy, Eli.
Will she be able to survive the second week?
