Rosanne Bittner's Paradise Valley (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Today I would like to welcome historical author, Rosanne Bittner who is joining us with her recent western historical romance release of Paradise Valley. Find out more about the book and it's setting below!

Hello, fellow bloggers – and I love the name of your blog!  I actually live right next door to a beautiful winery called Contessa Winery, and from my home, which sits high on a hill, I can see another winery, calledCarma Vista, that sits on an even higher hill about ½ mile away.  Another business neighbor is Vineyards Gourmet Chocolates, so I am encircled by wine and chocolate, grape fields and orchards!  What better surroundings for a romance writer?  My home is a Spanish design, so in the summer I feel like I’m in California … but then comes a Michigan winter and I am reminded I don’t live anywhere near there!  Still, that’s just another wonderful surrounding, because only 10 minutes away is beautiful Lake Michigan, and we own property on a small inland lake called Little Paw Paw Lake.  I feel blessed to live in such a lovely area!

I am here to tell you about my newest publication, book #58 (after 30 years of writing).  It’s called PARADISE VALLEY, and is being published by Sourcebooks in print and as an e-book.  PARADISE VALLEY is a western historical romance, which is all I write.  I love 1800’s American history and have written just about every subject involving that history over these many years.  I work very hard on research and have a vast library of my own and have traveled west for years to visit just about every location I write about.  Set in Wyoming along the famed Outlaw Trail, PARADISE VALLEY takes a young woman and a rugged ranch owner on a journey in search of outlaws who wronged both of them.  Along the way they fall in love, but the dangers they face and secrets they hold could destroy their relationship.  Their journey leads them back to the hero’s ranch, called Paradise Valley, where final decisions must be made that will affect their future together.  The story is filled with adventure and romance as well as vivid descriptions of the magnificent Wyoming landscape.

In the post to me from Reading Between the Wines, I was asked what might be found along the Outlaw Trail (which really exists – think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and asked about my personal experiences in Wyoming.  The best description you can find about the landscape of the Outlaw Trail is in a hard cover, full color book by Robert Redford, called just that – THE OUTLAW TRAIL.  Inside are wonderful pictures and interviews that Redford himself took on his own journey through some of the most rugged country Wyoming has to offer.  My own personal experiences in Wyoming are traveling to the top of a mountain in the Big Horns (twice) to take a look at an ancient stone “medicine wheel” built by our Native Americans – something I used as a theme in my trilogy I call my Mystic Indian trilogy (published by Tor Books).  I remember being up there in September once (the road up is terrifyingly dangerous) and when we came down it was already blizzarding in the mountains.  I remember that it’s almost always windy in Wyoming, something I mention in PARADISE VALLEY – and of course in western Wyoming is Yellowstone Park – probably the most beautiful landscape in the country.  My husband and I have been there twice.

I can’t totally explain my own love for the American West as far as “why” I love it so.  I grew up on TV westerns and of course back then there were tons of western movies, mostly starring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.  I love the “cowboy” hero – as well as the dark danger of a Native American warrior, and I am totally fascinated by how fast the West grew from virtually nothing to the West we know today.  That growth was so fast that even today our Native Americans feel the after effects and trauma of that growth.  I am in awe of the courage and stamina it took for the miners and pioneers to go into that dangerous country and settle there.  Most of all I simply love the dramatic landscape that compares to nothing else in this country, as far as I’m concerned.  It truly is “big” country that must be experienced personally to appreciate its beauty and vastness.

I hope you will look for PARADISE VALLEY, on book shelves soon and already available from Sourcebooks.com and from Amazon.com.  To learn more about my writing, visit my web site at www.rosannebittner.com and my blog at www.rosannebittner.blogspot.com.  Also, be sure to attend my on-line party at http://rosannebittnerbookparty.blogspot.com/ and find out how you can win some wonderful prizes!  This virtual party is in celebration of the publication of PARADISE VALLEY.  

Thanks so much for inviting me to your blog, and have a great summer!   
Rosanne Bittner

Paradise Valley
by Rosanne Bittner 
Paperback, 352 pages
Published July 2nd 2013 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
original titleParadise Valley
ISBN 1402280971
Goodreads

Maggie Tucker's life is forever changed when outlaws murder her husband, leaving her alone and lost in the wilds of the Wyoming Territory. She vows to find the men who killed him and who tried to destroy her spirit.
Sage Lightfoot, owner of a ranch called Paradise Valley, is hunting for three men who murdered his best ranch hand. When he finds Maggie collapsed beside an open grave, they embark on a life-changing journey along the famed Outlaw Trail. But a secret Maggie carries and a woman from Sage's past could destroy their fragile love...

~*GIVEAWAY*~

Sourcebooks is giving away one copy of this title to one reader. US and Canada only please. To enter, just leave a question or comment for Rosanne on this post and then fill out the rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway