Too Rich for a Bride Pinwords

INTERVIEW WITH IDA SINCLAIR OF TOO RICH FOR A BRIDE

“Ah! A book I’ve been waiting for. Too Rich for a Bride by Mona Hodgson will charm your socks off. All the ups and downs of a romance with a delightful dose of history and characters who will sneak into your heart and take up residence. More, more, we want more.” —Lauraine Snelling author of No Distance Too Far and …

Bob’s Corner Glen Eyrie Bob

Bob’s Corner: Headframes and Cable Hoist

The pursuit of riches drew tens of thousands of colorful characters to Cripple Creek in the 1890s. The boom town provided me a canvas on which to draw my stories in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series. Good news! My hubby Bob agreed to flesh out the workings of a gold mining camp in that era for us. Headframes and Cable Hoists …

Two Brides Too Many Slanted

Checkers, Anyone?

A checkered board with rounded game pieces—here in the United States, we know it as checkers, a timeless table game. While waiting to be seated at a restaurant in Phoenix, I watched a family of five gathered around a table. A father and daughter were engaged in a playful, but intense game of checkers. The opponent’s game pieces were being …

DrQuinn

Dr. Quinn Inspiration

Remaining true to our annual tradition, the summer of 1996, my friend Shirley and I loaded the back of my Jeep and headed to a cabin in Northern Arizona. I would write and she would work on her music. That year, however, we encountered a big problem. No, it wasn’t a bear on the trail, the squirrels in the attic, …

Heroes: Matt Dillon Style

Any Gunsmoke fans out there? James Arness played Matt Dillon in the longstanding TV series Gunsmoke. Marshal Matt Dillon’s larger-than-life persona kept me on the edge of the couch rooting for him. Apparently, I was one viewer among a throng who favored the Dodge City drama because Gunsmoke ran for twenty years with a whopping 635 episodes. The appeal of …

Slide Rock, Oak Creek Canyon

10 PLACES TO SEE IN CENTRAL ARIZONA

My Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek populate Colorado, but I make my home in Arizona. Central Arizona boasts a lot of family-friendly attractions and historic destinations. I thought it’d be fun to give you a peek at a few of them. If you’re heat-sensitive, I’d recommend you plan your Arizona family vacation or getaway for the more temperate months—mid-October to …

letter

Wanted: Mail-Order Bride Stories

I had great fun living the life of a mail-order bride. Vicariously, that is, through the harrowing, humorous, and heart-warming experiences of Kat Sinclair and her sister Nell. Two sisters, two missing misters, and a shocking welcome to the Wild West. What pulls you and I toward such an outrageous scenario as a woman leaving what she knows to step …

Cripple Creek

Denver and Colorado Springs were popular towns in Colorado Territory, and have remained so since Colorado received statehood in 1876. Although Cripple Creek is often overlooked, the gold mining camp’s footprint is deep and widespread in Colorado’s historical soil. Cripple Creek, nestled in a saddle valley on the southwestern slopes of Pikes Peak, became a booming gold mining camp in …

Flying W 60 Years-800

The Flying W Ranch

Twenty-two years ago, Bob and I went with my folks to Colorado. One of the highlights of the trip was our time at The Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs. The Old West town setting, the cowboy grub, and the western show was a feast for the eyes, the stomach, and the heart. My dad’s joy was infectious as his …