Guest Blogger: Lynn Cahoon

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IN NAME ONLY.

:::

I've known Lynn Cahoon for about a year now. She's a versatile author who appears to have cracked the code for short stories at Woman's World. I hope you'll give her lots of support. And check out her book, too. I tried to find a saddle to hang in the corner, since her book is about cowboys; but the closest I could come was a new life ring. You'll see it hanging on the on the post over there by the crab pot - it says S.S. Minnow, which is no reflection whatsoever on the ... hmmmm endowments of the The Bull Rider's Brother :)

Thank you for inviting me to Under the Tiki Hut. As my blog tour for The Bull Rider’s Brother is winding down, I’m ready for a beach vacation. But my beach is just a little different.

I’m an Oregon Coast junkie. The coast is rocky, the water cold, and the views, amazing. When I was a teenager, my family took a vacation from our small rural farm to camp on the Oregon coast. We hunted for mussels on the rocky shore. When my sister and I went wading on sandy beach, a large wave crested. Since we had my miniature poodle in the water as well, I reached down to pick her up. The wave knocked my sister over instead.

The family story about how I saved the dog over my sister is still told over Sunday barbeques.

No matter how many times I tell them that the dog would have drowned.

Family.

This piece of family lore has me thinking about my Shawnee based stories. Three friends and a tagalong little brother have one goal, to escape the little town as soon as possible. Graduation, can’t come soon enough. But even then, one friend goes off to college, but two, James and Lizzie, stay behind – just for a year, waiting for Jesse, the little brother, to graduate.

And then the world changes.

The wave comes and James has to choose who to save. And like me, he chose to save the one that the wave would drown – his little brother. And so, the wave envelops Lizzie, and she’s left behind.

And a new piece of family lore is built.

Since I’m a few thousand miles away from the rocky beach I love, I’ll have to settle for the gentle beaches and high cliffs of the Mississippi river that runs through the little historical town I now call home.

So now that I’ve told my embarrassing family story, how about you? What stories do your families tell that make you cringe?

Growing up in the middle of cowboy country, Lynn Cahoon was destined to fall in love with a tall, cool glass of water. Now, she enjoys writing about small town America, the cowboys who ride the range, and the women who love them.

Contact Lynn at her website – www.lynncahoon.wordpress.com






The Bull Rider’s Brother

Rodeo weekend is the start of the summer for the entire town of Shawnee, Idaho. On a girl's night out, Lizzie Hudson finds herself comparing her life as a single mom with her best friend's successful career when James Sullivan, the cowboy who got away, walks his Justin Ropers back into her life. Seeing him shakes Lizzie's world but James is in for an even more eventful weekend, learning he has a son. James has enough on his plate trying to manage his brother's bull riding career.

When James Sullivan comes back for the town’s rodeo weekend and finds out that his high school sweetheart had his child, six years ago, Lizzie’s world is thrown into turmoil and she must decide if safety and certainty are worth giving up on a chance for love. A love that an emotionally damaged James may never be able to return, breaking her and her son’s heart in the process.

Buy link: www.amazon.com/The-Bull-Riders-Brother-ebook/dp/B008195C2I (also available at Barnes and Noble and iTunes.)