Thrilled to introduce a new Anthology "Passion's Prize" and its wonderful authors!

I have been eagerly looking forward to introducing this wonderful Anthology called "Passion’s Prize" to my blog friends. We have a treat lined up for you. Each day, we'll meet one of the three authors who worked together to produce this book. I don't know about you romance readers, but personally, I have always enjoyed love stories set in the Wild West. Having three of them under one cover is fantastic!!


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Today, we begin a special series of interviews with E.E. Burke, Jennifer Jakes and Jacqui Nelson, three award-winning authors whose fascination with the TV series “Hell on Wheels” led to a historical romance anthology they wrote together.


Thank you, Mimi, for hosting us and letting us share about our new release, Passion’s Prize. We’re calling it an anthology, but it’s actually three interlinked novellas that revolve around a historic railroad race across the Kansas plains in 1870. Passion’s Prize is the first release in the series, Steam! Romance and Rails, which will feature stories from America’s golden age of steam railroads.
  How did you decide to work together on this anthology?

 Elisabeth: It was almost accidental, or maybe I should say, pre-ordained. Last year, I saw Jennifer at a conference and we were commiserating about how publishers claimed there wasn’t a market for American historical romances. We’d both made the finals of the RWA Golden Heart contest in 2010 with Western romances. And Jacqui had won that year with a Western romance. I remarked, “We ought to write a book together and just put it out there. Find our audience.”

 Jennifer:  And I said, “Yeah! Writing with other Western authors would be great. Let’s do it.”

 Elisabeth: Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I told her I’d been watching a Western series on television, AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Why not create something like that?
 

Jennifer:  I laughed. Because Hell on Wheels is one of my favorite shows. It’s like a required “course” for Western Historical writers. So I was all about using the HOW era as a base idea.
  Elizabeth: I also mentioned I’d done a lot of research on the railroads for another story I was working on and we could use this.
 

Jacqui: I love it when someone’s done a lot of research and I can just build on their knowledge. And I was thrilled when Elisabeth and Jennifer contacted me after that conference and asked if I would join them on this project. 
 Elisabeth: We wanted to create stories within a story, using characters with their own arcs impacted by an overarching plot line that drives much of the action. Some brainstorming sessions led to three story ideas and our anthology was born.”

 Why railroads?

Elisabeth: Something about railroads calls to my romantic nature. Maybe it’s the passion and excitement of a long-ago era when America expanded its boundaries as fast as men could lay track. I wanted to give readers a glimpse into that exciting time period.

Jacqui: Jennifer and Elisabeth had me onboard at Hello.  And after watching season one of Hell on Wheels at Jennifer and Elisabeth’s urging, I was even more hooked on writing a railroad story. The Hell on Wheels characters are amazing, compelling, tortured, passionate, determined and multi-dimensional. Everything a writer dreams about.
 Jenn: In my Golden Heart book, Rafe’s Redemption, I had touched upon the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and in doing the research on that, it sparked my interest in the expansion of the railways. When Leigh mentioned the Katy, I thought it was very cool since the Katy Trail (the old rail bed) is now a biking/hiking trail and my family and I have gone for bike rides there.
 

What have you enjoyed the most about working together?
 Elisabeth: The opportunity to work with incredibly talented writers who are as jazzed up as I am about Western romance. We feed on each other’s ideas and enthusiasm. I’d gotten very beaten down and had even contemplated throwing in the towel. But coming together with these wonderful friends and fellow writers to publish the kind of fiction we love has revived me and given me back my energy and excitement.

  Jacqui: After working on our anthology for several months, it was a blast to finally meet Elisabeth and Jennifer in person once more at an RWA conference. I felt even more connected to them because of our experiences working together on such an interesting writing project.

  Jenn: I think the accountability of pressing forward with chapters. Yes, I’m a procrastinator and knowing Jacqui and Leigh depended on me to write helped me get my pages done. LOL
 

Tell us a little about the story of Passion’s Prize.
 




Passion’s Prize is based on an actual construction race between two railroads with very long names that were dubbed The Border Tier and The Katy. The race took place primarily in 1870, when both lines were laying track through Kansas as fast as they could to be first to reach the border of Indian Territory (modern day Oklahoma). Congress had promised the winning line free land and the exclusive right to pass through Cherokee lands into cattle-rich Texas. 
 The railroad owners were ambitious men willing to do just about anything to secure the prize. Their henchmen hired spies, saboteurs and even outlaws to disrupt the competition.

 Our stories revolve around three women—a spy, a madam and a railroad heiress—whose lives hinge on the outcome of this race.


Adella’s Enemy by Jacqui Nelson

The race heats up as former Rebel spy Adella Willows receives her mission from a Washington senator—play havoc with the Katy and derail its bid to win the race. The senator craves wealth. Adella craves revenge against the man responsible for her brother’s death. But her plans crumble into chaos when she matches wits with the railroad’s foreman, a handsome Irishman torn between two desires: winning the race or winning Adella’s heart.
 Eden’s Sin by Jennifer Jakes

Passions rise when a beautiful madam must rely on an Army major for help. Eden Gabrielli lives by three rules: Never trust the wealthy, do whatever it takes to survive, and never again believe a decent man could love a whore. But when a blackmailer threatens, she will do anything to protect her sister—even if that means deceiving the handsome and determined Major Bradford, the one man who tempts her to break her rules.
  Kate’s Outlaw by E.E. Burke.

Fortunes fall as the Katy Railroad battles the Cherokee Nation over land rights. With bankruptcy looming, railroad heiress Kate Parsons takes negotiations into her own hands. Her plans go awry when she’s abducted, and worse, finds herself attracted to one of her Cherokee captors, a man so sinfully handsome he could steal more than her fortune if she doesn’t escape. t.
 Rather than share an excerpt—because how could we possibly choose one excerpt from an anthology written by three people? —we’d like to share a small sample of each of our novellas…


Our Opening Paragraphs



 Adella’s Enemy by Jacqui Nelson:

Standing on the fringe of a courtyard full of women, Adella Willows waited to make a bargain with the Devil. Not that the Devil himself was coming to meet her. He was sending a fat, yellow-bellied Yankee senator dressed in a suit as fine as President Grant’s.
 Eden’s Sin by Jennifer Jakes

Rain, rain, rain. Eden Gabrielli stared out the saloon window. The droning downpour seemed never ending. Memories flooded as fast as the creek south of town. Memories swirled in her mind—good, bad. Happy. Sad.
  Kate’s Outlaw by E.E. Burke.

"The Indians call it a smoking dragon.” Kate’s father gestured to a framed image of a locomotive hanging in his private railcar.

Passion’s Prize has just been released and those who are interested can purchase it from Amazon as an ebook or paperback. It will also be available at B&N Nook store and the Apple iStore.


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