Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Guest Blogger, R.C. Ryan

I’m please to welcome New York Times bestselling author R.C. Ryan back to Thoughts in Progress today as the special guest blogger on her blog tour with the next installment in her series.

MONTANA DESTINY is the second installment in the McCord trilogy featuring three rugged, sexy cowboy cousins. MONTANA LEGACY was the first book in the series.

Thanks to R.C., Anna and the folks at the Hachette Book Group, I have five copies of MONTANA DESTINY to give away. Please see the giveaway details at the end of her post.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the latest book, “Emergency medic Marilee Trainor likes her freedom and lives for trouble. But when she stumbles upon a clue to the legendary McCord gold, she 's suddenly in a mysterious killer's sights--and the arms of irresistible playboy Wyatt McCord. This McCord cousin has been everywhere, yet the ranch is the only place he feels at home. Now Marilee's courage and independence make him want to protect her, win her heart, and finally settle down. But trust is the one thing Wyatt and Marilee can't easily give. And their survival and everything they cherish depends on whether they can surrender to each other--to fight for their…”

R.C. stopped by today to talk about her western romance series. During a BlogTalk radio interview on her first tour I asked why she made the McCords cousins instead of brothers. For this tour I asked why one of the cousins wasn’t a female.

I enjoy writing series about families. Most of them are brothers and
sisters. But in this particular series I felt that cousins worked better than brothers, since they would bring diverse backgrounds and family histories with them. 

Brothers wouldn't have been separated at such a young age, wouldn't have had different sets of parents, and such different life experiences. I thought those different backgrounds would add color and flavor to my characters. 
 
I've been asked why I don't have a female cousin in this mix. One of the cousins could have been female. That would have worked as well as three male cousins. 

Honestly, I just didn't think of it at the time. In my mind, I saw them as a band of brothers, only closer. Best friends, raised in the same household until their separation, and forced to work very hard at re-establishing that old bond now that they were reunited as adults.
 
These three, with such very different backgrounds and temperaments, just worked well for me. I had such a great time telling their stories. I hope all of you had as much pleasure reading about them.

R.C., thanks so much for guest blogging here today. I can see where cousins work better than brothers would have. Looking forward to seeing what’s next for the McCords.

Now for the giveaway, I have five copies of MONTANA DESTINY (ISBN: 9780446548632) to giveaway. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only and no post office box addresses can be accepted. The deadline for entering the giveaway is 8 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, May 25. To enter, send me an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with “Win Destiny” in the subject line and include your name and address in the body of the e-mail.



15 comments:

  1. Mason - Thanks so much for having R.C. back again.

    R.C. - I think it's so interesting that we have mental pictures of what our characters will be like when we write. Then, when people read, they have such different mental representations. I always find that fascinating.

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  2. Mason - Thanks so much for sharing this.
    It was great reading how these characters were created and the process that was used.

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  3. Mason, as always thank you for sharing these writers.

    RC, Interpretation from others of storylines and characters are always interesting to me.

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  4. It's interesting how using all male characters might put such a different spin on the story than even adding one female perspective to the mix. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I like the way you thought the relationships in this story through...realizing that a sibling relationship wouldn't work as well as one between cousins. Good job adapting!

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

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  6. R.C., thanks so much for guest blogging today. Always interesting in learning more about the McCords.

    Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by today and commenting. Hope ya'll have a great day.

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  7. I enjoyed hearing how you had a certain vision of your characters. They were so real to you that you never considered another option.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

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  8. I enjoy reading about the process that writers use to come up with their characters. This sounds like an interesting series that I need to add to my want-to-read list.

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  9. Thank you Mason and RC Ryan! Always interesting to get to know writer's process.

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  10. Interesting the way RC goes about developing characters. Thanks for this feature post, both of you!

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  11. Sounds like a fun series - cowboys and romance are always a good mix! :)

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  12. Thanks everyone for dropping by today. Cowboys and romance with a little suspense on the side is a good thing.

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  13. No need to enter me, babe. I'm dropping in to say thanks for the e-mail. I've got this posted at Win a Book for you.

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  14. Please enter me in contest. Thank you. Tore923@aol.com

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  15. I have Montana Legacy and look forward in continuing this series.

    Thanks,
    Tracey D

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's post. Thanks for dropping by.