I’m giving away one copy of Montana Rose. Just leave a comment and a way to get in contact with you. You have one week to enter the drawing. I’ll draw a name on August 24th. And don’t forget to check out my review of Montana Rose.

Now, here’s Mary.

1.) Give us a brief synopsis of Montana Rose.

Left pregnant and widowed in the unforgiving west, Cassie is forced into an unwanted marriage to rancher Red Dawson.

No decent man could turn away from Cassie and leave her to the rough men in Divide, Montana. Red Dawson can’t turn his back on the spoiled, snooty, beautiful woman. Now he’s got himself a wife he’s sure God never intended. And when he informs her there’ll be no more silk dresses and she has to do some work around the ranch he’s surprised she immediately tries to help with everything. Too bad she’s a walking disaster. His ranch may not survive her efforts to pitch in.
Now, instead of a spoiled wife he’s got himself an overly obedient and badly incompetent one, and poor Red is so charmed by her he can’t bear to scold. He’s not much for bossing people around, anyway.
While Red tries to survive Cassie’s help and Cassie tries to use her own mind instead of meekly obeying for the first time in her life, an obsessed man plots to make Cassie his own, something he can’t do as long as Red lives.

Montana Rose was actually inspired by Janette Oke’s beautiful classic novel Love Comes Softly. Of course, I’m not Janette Oke (yeah, there’s been a LOT of confusion) and my novel has taken an alarming turn to romantic comedy, suspense and chaos. I think of it as Love Comes Loudly.

2.) In the book, Cassie has to learn what she was told about submission isn’t what God had designed between a husband and wife. While at that time in our history, women had little to no say in what happened to their lives. Do you see this same sense of warped thinking in today’s women? How do women counteract on this?

Here’s the thing, Winter. My mother-in-law is 90. She got married before electricity. I love listening to her talk about that time and here’s the thing. She worked HARD. To run a house, care for children, feed the family, she worked so hard all day every day. She had to HEAT WATER over a wood burning stove in her kitchen to do launder. They had indoor running water, but no water heater. Yes, that includes August. And she had two babies in the dead of summer.

She baked bread twice a week. . .or they had no bread. She did laundry with a washboard, sewed clothes or they had none. She’s fond of saying, “I could take three live chickens at 10 o’clock and have friend chicken for dinner.” She didn’t grow a garden for the love of succulent fresh tomatoes. She grew a garden so they could eat, that means canning. . .on a woodburning stove. . .in August. . .because that’s when tomatoes ripen.

My point is, submission means something different now than it did then, I think. Marybelle, my mother-in-law was a full working partner to keep that family clothed and fed. I suppose her husband may have been head of the house in a spiritual sense but there was no one anywhere saying she wasn’t a vital part of that family.

And people bought their bread in town. And a stove turned hot in two minutes and the air conditioner just kicked up higher to keep the house pleasant. And then women went to work and the world started fighting over stay-at-home moms, when mom’s had been working their fingers to the bone without a lot of time for child enrichment beyond, “Get outside and stay there.”

I think true, Biblical submission demands more of the husband than it does of the wife. There are three verses in Ephesians 5 telling wives to submit to their husbands and eight telling husband how to love their wives sacrificially as Christ loved the church. If a husband lives up to his end of the biblical bargain, no wife would ever protest holding up her end.

3.) Despite all the mishaps Cassie brought on his ranch, Red learned it wasn’t that she was clumsy, it was because no one had taught her properly. What can men learn from Red?

One of the things my editor said about Red was that he had no conflict. . .no flaws. . .no real strong character growth. He was in fact, the perfect man. He had a few little things, including guilt because he didn’t think he should marry a woman when he didn’t know about her faith. But I just couldn’t stand to have Red be real troubled because Cassie needed him to be kind to her so badly. So men can learn to be perfect from Red. And they can learn it RIGHT NOW!

4.) Describe your perfect day.

Reading, snacks, cheerful husband. I don’t ask for much.

I love when my children gather around or we can go see them-which we do often. I’ve got four grown daughters, such wonderful young women, two married, one grandbaby. I like it if I can hang around with them.

5.) You recently became a grandma. Tell us how different it is between being a mother and grandma.

It’s the BEST. I can’t even explain why I love that little girl like I do. First of all, of course, I don’t have to get up in the night with her. That alone fills my heart with joy. But there’s just a purity to the love a grandma feels. Yes, I worry. The world’s a scary place. But that’s really mostly my daughter’s job. I’m just there to try and bribe her into adoring me. I’m working hard at that task. She’s six months old so I need to be diligent.

6.) You’ve got an hour on your hand, what do you do?

Sit down. Read. Sorry. Boring.

7.) What’s up for you next book wise?

Cowboy Christmas is coming out in September. It’s NOT part of the Montana Marriages series. Book two in the Montana Marriages series is The Husband Tree coming in January. In the meantime, Barbour let me write a Christmas book and I had such fun. I just this week got my hands on it. Barbour Publishing always sends out a single authors copy as soon as they’re available. Here’s a little bit about Cowboy Christmas.

Elijah Walker’s lost his father at the hands of a deceitful woman. The one thing he can’t abide is lies. Citified Annette Talbot is on the run from something and Eli knows a liar when he sees one.

After a lifetime of being a good girl who does what she’s told, Annette’s obedient nature has led her straight into danger. She’s determined to live more bravely and she’s planning to start just as soon as she can be brave from behind her tough Wyoming rancher father. Her father fails her but Elijah can’t ignore a damsel in distress. He’s powerfully drawn to the little liar. In self-defense he turns his back on her. That leaves Annette her first perfect chance to stand up and face trouble. She almost dies running away.

Walker can’t help protecting her, especially since God pretty much dropped Annette straight into his unwilling arms. But helping her isn’t the same as trusting her, and that he will never do. As Annette and Walker fight their attraction and danger draws near, Christmas approaches. The bickering twosome will get one special chance to heal old heartbreaks and follow their own star.

8.) Any parting words?

I’ll stop in through the day so if anyone wants to leave a question I can give you bad advice and lead you terribly astray. And you can find me giving undesirable advice all over the internet. . .it’s like a sickness!
http://www.maryconnealy.com/
http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/
http://petticoatsandpistols.com/