Have you ever started a book and then it ends up changing directions in the middle or ends different from what you expected?
I have this habit of trying to predict what I think will happen in a book, and it’s fun when the author proves me wrong. There are so many things that can happen in a book, so many choices the characters can make. And as an author, I like to blame my characters for a lot of what happens. They are the personality making the choice, so even if I am the author, it’s their story. That has taken me a while to figure out, since sometimes I can’t understand why a character acts a certain way.
Recently, I had this happen in a whole new way. You see, I’m plotting a new cowboy book. Well…I was. I had every intention of it being one book. That’s all I needed for this year was one book so I would have something ready to publish this year. My male and female main characters were easy to identify. But then it got tricky. As I delved into who they were as people, I found out the male main character had four brothers and one sister.
And then, chaos.
Because all of a sudden, all of those siblings wanted a story too.
We are all characters in our own stories, and God is the author of our path. Sometimes, our stories go off track and we end up lost and wandering while trying to make our way back to our story.
I think that’s why I love the messy choices made by some characters as they navigate their fictional stories. It depicts real life and all its messiness.
That is the kind of broken beauty that I hope to portray in this new series of The Cowboy Craze. We’ll see if all the characters cooperate.
Keep reading, friends! And send me ALL of the cowboy books that you think I should read.
Tabitha Bouldin has a bachelor's degree in creative writing/English from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and has been writing since 2015. When she's not homeschooling her kids, you'll find her curled up with a book. Tabitha's genre of choice is Contemporary Christian Romance which she describes as: Adventure with heart.
Your characters sound great fun!
I enjoy cowboy books by Valerie Comer, Alexa Verde and Jessie Gussman.
I write cowboy books so of course I love them :)
Tina Radcliffe writes good ones!
Oh, this sounds like a great series! I’m going to say cowboy books by Alexa Verde, Mandi Blake, Valerie Comer, Jessie Gussman, Jo Grafford, and Heather Blanton.
Hi Tabitha, your book and God willing series sounds Great!! I have heard before that the characters know Best and that authors need to listen to them. :) Looking forward to your great sounding books and the great characters you have listened to. Have a great day and a great weekend. God Bless you and your family.
I would concur with recommending Jessie Gussman, Mandi Blake, and Alexa Verde! I would add Brenda Minton’s Love Inspired cowboy books. I read them using Hoopla through my local library. There are a lot available there and they are free!
Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
I have loved cowboy/cowgirl books from a young age. I am sure it helped that I 1) lived on a farm and was a cowgirl myself and 2) mom got me started reading Zane Grey. When I was married a friend introduced me to Christian Westerns. Now that fit into my life and I felt so much better about what I was reading. And I could share with my children and not feel bad about what I was reading. turns out neither now read cowboys but I still do. Richard reads factual books on subjects he loves (like dinosaurs, reenacting, etc) and Heather loves to read hard core (no romance) Mysteries and Thrillers and Suspense.
Sounds like you need to do a bit of wrangling of the characters in your books.
I don’t have any authors to add that haven’t already been mentioned, though my grandmother had shelves of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour books that my grandfather loved to read before he passed away.
Thanks for the interesting post. God bless!