This week I’m hosting Alison Stone with Plain Pursuit (ebook US only), Linda White with Seeds of Evidence (US and Canada only), and Lori Copeland/Virginia Smith with A Cowboy at Heart (US only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (June 16th) evening.
Hero Interview from A Cowboy at Heart by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith:
1. Jesse Montgomery, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Thanks, ma’am. I appreciate the interview. My character came to life in the first two books of The Amish of Apple Grove, ( The Heart’s Frontier and A Plain and Simple Heart) a Harvest House series that isn’t necessarily Amish but more “Amish meets the Old West”. Ginny Smith and Lori Copeland co-author the series and both have a sense of humor seeded with first hand experiences of life’s mistakes. I found my way into this series as a wrangler, though I’m not your typical Christian hero, far from it but I am full of zest and vinegar water and the trait carried me straight into the arms of a drinking problem that threatened to destroy my life. I know with certainty that Ginny and Lori had some real reservations about my being the “hero” in A Cowboy at Heart, but by now I’d woven my way into their hearts and they were able to see the man that I could be, the misguided young buck whose heart longed for the Lord to intervene in his life, a life nearly lost until He worked a miracle.
2. What do you do for fun?
Drink. I’ve worked cows most of my life and after a long drive I head for the nearest saloon. I’m not proud of my ways, but somehow that first drink led to another and another and then all of a sudden liquor supplied a whole lot of my needs, made me feel real good. I liked the punch it gave me; the way problems never seemed as bad when I had ole Jack with me. My trail bosses never cared as long as my drinking didn’t interfere with my work. The only exception was my good friend Luke Carson. He hated the drinking, but he couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Luke and I have been good friends since boyhood. His pa had worked cattle all of his life and Luke always felt he needed to live up to his standards. I told him he needed to be his own man but Luke couldn’t see it until he met up with Emma Switzer. Now’s there’s a pretty little Amish gal– and the beginnings of a strange incident. This Amish family was headed for kin carrying this huge—and I mean monster of a hutch. Why the thing must have weighed the size of a prime bull. Anyhow, when the Switzer’s wagon ran afoul of rustlers Luke was the first to offer assistance. That whole thing turned into one big mess with Papa Switzer, Maummi, Emma and her little sister, Rebecca. I never saw life spiral so out of control because of one simple act of kindness—but you’ll have to read “The Heart’s Frontier” to see what I mean.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Well I’d have to say that’d be rolling out of the sack mornings. On the trail it’s not so bad; I’ve had a good night’s sleep and I’m raring to go but after a drive and I’m living it up it’s a mite hard to pull myself out of the bed after a long night of drinking and carousing. Luke claims it’s the liquor making me lazy and he could be right. I confess hang overs aren’t for sissies. I look at the other cowhands and wonder how do they make it through life without a bottle of rotgut? What do they have that I don’t? Sometimes I even prayed asking Ma if she has the answers? She died about a year after I left home. She’d always had solutions when I was a kid but she doesn’t anymore; just the memory of her hands, gently stroking my hair at night as I lay in my bed comes to mind. Pa drank. I found a bottle of Glen Grant scotch one day hidden in the barn but I didn’t associate my ma’s tears with the liquor until I was older and less likely to see what hard drinking does to a man’s life.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
That one day I’ll have to stop and take a close look at how I’m living. . But not now. Now I’m in my twenties and got a lot of life ahead of me. Someday, when the time is right I’ll look in the mirror and see exactly who and what kind of a man I am. If changes need to be made I’ll do it then.
For the time being, I’m just sowing my wild seed, enjoying life
5. What do you want out of life?
Never let myself think about it. When Pa took a stray bullet in a local gun fight I was left to look after Ma. That left me scared to death. How did a twelve year old look after his mother? I heard her crying the first night but from then on she never said a word about pa. I wanted to talk about him, to know how she felt about him being a good, hard-working man but come evening he’d start in drinking and there’d be cross words even shouts until ma sent him to bed. I understand how liquor made him feel better, makes the world look a little less troublesome so I don’t judge. But I wonder….
I suppose if I had to say one thing I wanted out of life would be security. I guess I’d like to just once feel like a twelve year old boy with nothing more worrying my mind than to go fishing on a hot summer day.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Again, I never think about it. What does it matter? I’m who I am and where I am for a reason, I suppose. According to Ma’s Bible its God’s job to run our lives and I guess I’m just letting Him do His thing. Right now, punching cows is the most important thing to me, that and the hours I spend under the stars with my loyal friend, Jack. Jack Daniel.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I can’t read that well. Ma tried to teach me and I was doing okay until pa died. Then she just quit schooling and I never had any real interest to pick it up again. Sometimes I regret that. Every now and then I walk past a mercantile and see something in the window that I’d like to read, but I can’t. For instance, there was a book on firearms there one day. Pa left several pistols behind; an 1836 Patterson Colt, and a right fine looking Double Barrel Derringer. I have a strange need to know what kind they are and when they were made. If I could read I could know where those guns likely came from.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Whew. This is serious stuff. One thing? Well I’ve just told you how much I liked liquor but there are times when I wished I didn’t let a “bottle” control me. That I could have one-two drinks and walk away. (Chuckle). Don’t reckon I’ve ever admitted that to anyone but here I am talking to you like a close friend. Don’t get me wrong; I probably could have just two drinks but why stop at two when four, five and six makes me feel…nothing. I like the sensation, and drinking is about my only downfall. I don’t womanize though I like women. Never gave one much thought until Katie came along and now it seems like she’s all I think about. I don’t cuss except when something really bad goes wrong. Church? I go on occasion when I’m off the trail. I sure believe there’s a God, but I don’t have much hope that He’s looking over me right now
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I had a rooster once. Me and Ole Red used to be inseparable until one day he spurred me real good. I hate to say this but we had Red with dumplings that night. I missed him for a time but then I turned sixteen and hit the trail. And there’s my horse, Rex. I attached to that animal—he’s been a good friend. Someday I’m going to get a hunting dog, if that helps answer your question.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
Whoa. You ask questions I’ve never given much thought. I wouldn’t want to go back to the Gladiators. Cavemen would be out of the question. Don’t have a hankering for violence so that French Revolution thing wouldn’t be for me.
Can’t honestly say that I’d want to live in any other time than the present. I hear folks say that someday we’ll all be driving those fancy “cars” and fly through the air in a machine. Now that would interest me though it’s a stretch of imagination.
Thanks for talking to us, Jesse. I guess we can learn more about you in the three Amish of Apple Grove books? “The Heart’s Frontier”, “A Plain and Simple Heart” and of course your story, “A Cowboy at Heart.
Yes ma’am and I want to thank you again for the time, and the reading fans for their support. Much obliged.
