Leah Braemel, author of "Texas Tangle"


Thanks to Jenny for inviting me to play on her blog today. *checks self to see if she’s upside down and going counter-clockwise—nope, I look just the same.*

Wow, it’s cool being on an Australian blog. I’m probably at the antipodes of where you are, Jenny—I’m from Southern Ontario, Canada. I know you’re in your winter while we’re at the start of our summer—it came early this year, thankfully. (Isn’t the internet fascinating that it can make the world so small and accessible?) If you ever want to see what it looks like in my part of the world, just rent the movie “Fly Away Home” with Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin. It was filmed about five miles from my parents’ farm, and even features my sister’s house in one of the fly-over shots.

Enough about me. Sort of. Jenny invited me to here today to talk about my newest novel, Texas Tangle, that will be released from Harlequin’s new Carina Press on June 28th.

“Texas,” you gasp (don’t I have great hearing to hear you all the way around the world?) “What the heck is a Canuck”–yes, it’s okay to call us that these days, though it used to be offensive—“doing writing a western set in Texas? Don’t you have your own cowboys?”

Good point. We do have cowboys up in Canada, though they tend to congregate out west (imagine that!) in Alberta. But I was inspired to write Texas Tangle after visiting my critique partner’s horse farm in Texas back in 2007. Sue breeds Arabian BLUES—horses whose bloodline can be traced back to the Bedouin tribes. She took me riding and even taught me how to shoot a Colt 45. (Was that ever a blast!)

While I’d grown up beside a horse farm here in Ontario, her land was so different than mine that I couldn’t help but be inspired. We don’t have prickly pear cactuses up here. Or roadrunners (other than the cartoon version.) And as much as I hate to admit it, they don’t get the snow we do. (Although, I was surprised to learn, it DOES snow down there, just not in the same volume. And theirs doesn’t stay for six months. Sorry to disappoint you, but despite the photo, we don’t have snow right now, that picture just happens to be the only one I have of the farm beside my parents’.)

But people are the same no matter where you go (even if we do talk with a different accent—I don’t say “aboot” for “about”, I swear!)

People fall in love—or lust—and hearts get broken no matter where you live in the world. Could Texas Tangle have been written so it was “Calgary Confusion” or “Difficult Decisions in Darwin”? (Yes, I admit it, I have an obsession with alliteration, don’t I?)

Probably. But it helped that I’d actually been to a farm in Texas – experienced the heat, fed the horses (and been bitten by one too), and sighed at the slow and easy Texas twangs. (Of course, if someone down there wants to invite me to go riding on your ranches, maybe I’ll be writing about the “Pleasure of Perth” next.)

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki’s life, but he’s determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki’s heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?

And since Jenny’s been so gracious in turning her webpage over to me, I’m going to give you a sneak peek of a trailer for Texas Tangle. This is Dillon’s story. In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting more videos—one from Brett’s POV and one for Nikki too. (And thanks to my youngest son who did all the work pulling them together on my Mac for me.)

If you want to read more about Leah’s Texas Tangle, visit her website or her blog (which you should visit anyway since Jenny’s there today!) You can also follow Leah on Twitter or Facebook.


10 responses to “Leah Braemel, author of "Texas Tangle"”

  1. For what it's worth (me being tech-challenged) I don't think there's anything wrong with "comments". I sure hope not since I'm running a comment-based contest.

  2. Maybe my tech jinx has been joined by a comment-gobbling goblin? Hope not. Glad you checked back Leah 🙂 and thanks for the congrats! Just to be sure I'll pop over and check Blogger Help in case there are gremlins in the comment section.

  3. Hmm, I could have sworn I'd answered these — maybe blogger ate my post. Anyway, Host, I'm not sure if the horses like the snow or not, but they sure are pretty hauling a sleigh. (Rats, now I have a Christmas song going through my head. In June.)Donna — you are a true member of the Alliterative Society! Simmering, sizzling and sexy too (that could be a great tag line.)FL! Hey, nice to see you over here. Or is it down here? Or maybe to Jenny, it's up here and we're down…It's confusing. Jenny, thanks so much for hosting me. And congratulations on your release!

  4. Simmering, sizzling and sexy–hot enough to melt all that Canadian snow? I love the photos Leah brought along.Thanks for visiting and commenting 🙂

  5. Hi, Leah! Hi, Jenny! Gorgeous post, Leah–lovely to see some of photos and hear more about Texas Tangle–it's on the TBB!

  6. Hi Leah! I can't wait to read Texas Tangle. Your other books are sensational and it looks as though this one will be simmering, sizzling, and sexy, too. How's that for alliteration?

  7. Hey Lea! Nice post and I love the pictures 🙂 they have my two favourite things in them: snow and horses.

  8. Thanks for having me, Jenny! I had a lot of fun with this post ;)Yours will go live at midnight ET or -5 GMT, or oh heck in a couple hours!

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