BookWenches

An Addiction ... To Cowboys

Hey y'all!
 
(Yep, I said y'all. I'm just preparing you for what's to come. *Grin*)
 
I'm BA Tortuga, and I write cowboy romances. Does that sound like an introduction to a twelve step meeting? It probably does, because Lord knows I'm an addict. 
 
I love cowboys. I do. I rodeo as many times as I can in a year, just to get my fix. I go to Rodeo Austin. I go to the Houston stock show. I go to Cheyenne. Some day I plan to head off to the Calgary Stampede, after which I might just be able to die happy.
 
My yoga instructor (I know, I know – rednecks doing yoga? It’s a fascinating thing. Let me just say that I’m the girl in class tonight who, when told to put my left hand on the other side of my right leg while raising said right leg into the air, said, “you want me to do what?”) asked me not long ago what I get out of rodeo. Oh, y'all… What's not to love? Wranglers. Chaps. A cowboy hat tilted just so to show off a strong jaw and a pair of pretty eyes. Wranglers. A tanned throat and a pair of broad shoulders. A narrow waist and a tiny cowboy butt. Wranglers. I can wax poetic for hours.
 
I like strong, scarred hands. I love the little scars on a cowboy's chin that come from roping and bullriding. They're like tiny badges of honor. I like the way the heels of a pair of cowboy boots tilt a man's pelvis to show off his bottom (in their old-school Wranglers).
 
I like it all.
 
Oh, there's a lot of other neat stuff at the rodeo. Funnel cake and corny dogs, shopping for clothes that have more bling than P Diddy (and let me tell you, I have some bling. The jackets with rhinestones, the jeans with rhinestones, the buttondowns. Me and my Bedazzler? We are friends.). The weird vendors – from Sham-Wow to tack, stuffed rideable armadillos to bronc rider teapots. The entertainment. I love the earthy smells and the cute/pretty/wild of the livestock. I love the music, and the excitement when the gate opens and a bucking bronc or bull busts out of the chute. The art – I tell you what, when the head of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Artist Association hugs you and offers to do a book cover for you?
 
Oh my god.
 
I cried.
 
Honestly. 
 
I stood there and burst into tears like a little girl, because, you know heroes are amazing things.
 
But mainly it's the cowboys. Stubborn, vain, often arrogant cowboys. That's what I know, and that's what I write. People often ask where I get my ideas, or what I do for inspiration. I tell you what; the rodeo is the best eight or ten or twelve dollars I can spend on getting all fired up to write my next book.
 
Or my next ten books.
 
Or twelve books.
 
They remind me of my daddy (a ranching cowboy), my brother (a bull rider), my grandpa (a Colorado cowboy), my nephew who is a junior bronc rider and my nieces the barrel racers. 
 
They remind me of home and, no matter what the story is, what the setting is, what kind of cowboy it is, really, I’m just hoping you might like to come home with me, enjoy the ride, and fall in love. 
 
Oh, and maybe spend a couple minutes drooling over Wrangler butts.
 
waves and kisses, y’all,
BA
 
http://www.batortuga.com/

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BA Tortuga writes romance, and she'll be the first to admit that her work runs the gamut between mainstream fiction, literary erotica, and just plain smut. Whether her characters are gay, lesbian, traditional, or even paranormal creatures of the night, she believes in falling in love, personal growth, and happily-ever-afters. And above all else, she loves her cowboys.

Find out more about BA and her work at her website and on her blog. You can also find her on Twitter if you look.

BA Tortuga - 08/06/10

Passion in Print editor Laura Garland - 07/23/10

Passion in Print senior editor Tess McCall - 07/16/10

Mary Calmes - 07/09/10

Jane Kent - 06/25/10

Victoria Blisse - 06/18/10

D.W. Marchwell - 06/11/10

Edward M. Erdelac - 06/04/10

Marianna Lauren - 01/29/10

Z.A. Maxfield - 01/22/10

Nancy J. Parra - 01/15/10

Aubrey Leatherwood - 01/08/10

Teel James Glenn - 01/01/10

Naima Simone - 12/25/09

Josh Lanyon - 12/18/09

G.A. Hauser - 12/11/09

D.W. Marchwell - 11/26/09

Gwen Williams - 11/20/09

Randall Lang - 11/13/09

D.M. Atkins - 11/06/09

Phyllis Campbell - 10/30/09

Ruth Sims - 10/23/09

Joseph R. G. DeMarco - 10/09/09

Lynne Connolly - 10/02/09

Carole Johnstone - 9/25/09

Jeanne Barrack - 9/18/09

Rowena Sudbury - 9/04/09

Claire Thompson - 8/29/09

Z.A. Maxfield - 8/21/09

Stephanie Draven - 8/14/09

Nika Dixon - 8/07/09

Amber Austin - 8/04/09