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Dear Reader,
Today's guest author, USA Today bestseller novelist Rosanne Bittner, is known as the "Queen of Western Historical Romance" for her thrilling love stories and historical authenticity. Her epic romances span the West and are often based on her personal visits to each setting. Her latest book, Do Not Forsake Me, is the long-awaited sequel to her beloved title Outlaw Hearts, which was published more than 20 years ago. Rosanne lives in Coloma, Michigan, with her husband and two sons.
Rosanne has five copies of her book Do Not Forsake Me to giveaway to book club readers. Email: rbamericanhistory@parrett.net (Please put DearReader on the subject line.)
Welcome to the book club Rosanne Bittner...
My Love for Westerns by Rosanne Bittner
My love for westerns began at a very young age, when my grandmother lived in an old converted shed and we listened to radio programs. I loved staying with my (maternal) grandmother and felt like a pioneer there because before she got electricity she cooked on a wood-burning cook stove and used an ice box. I remember the ice man coming to deliver those big blocks of ice. I slept on a feather mattress and light came from oil lamps. When Grandma finally got electricity we would sit and listen to "stories" on the radio, and just like on TV now, there were series-type programs on the radio.
My favorite radio program was Gunsmoke with the now-famous Marshal Matt Dillon. What an absolute iconic western. I can't remember how I pictured Matt then, but when Gunsmoke was created for TV and James Arness came on the (then "little") screen, I had a crush on Marshal Dillon from day-one. I was probably around 12 years old. When other teens had Elvis Presley and Pat Boone pictures in their bedrooms, I had James Arness pictures. I almost never missed a Saturday-night episode of Gunsmoke. And today I still watch them, even though I've seen most of them several times over. There is something about that particular TV western that ran truer than Roy Rogers or Gene Autry or The Lone Ranger. Those programs were too "put-on" and they tried in silly ways to make heroes out of the stars. But Matt Dillon was just a regular man doing his job and he never tried to be a hero. I think Gunsmoke was one of the first westerns to try being more realistic of how life really was back then.
Of course after that, television was saturated with westerns for several years--The Big Valley, Wyatt Earp, Cheyenne, The Rifleman, Bonanza, Have Gun-Will Travel and so many others. I grew up on those westerns, as well as the epic John Wayne movies and of course the icon of westerns, Clint Eastwood. Though I've always lived in Michigan, those programs planted a love of the West in my soul that has never left me. I've traveled pretty much the entire West and I am soon making yet another trip to the grand Rocky Mountains and the Sierras. The landscape doesn't get much more spectacular than the four most beautiful western states--Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. The magnificent West, to me, represents all that is brave and beautiful about those who settled America!
--Rosanne Bittner
Email: rbamericanhistory@parrett.net to enter the book drawing. (Please put DearReader on the subject line.)
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: PLAY FOR ME (Fiction) by Celine Keating
A mid-life coming of age story that's part romance and part classic road-trip tale as a motif for self-discovery, turning one woman's mid-life crisis into a universal story underscored by the themes of motherhood, music, fidelity, and creative fulfillment.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on PLAY FOR ME to find out more about the book and the author, Celine Keating. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.
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