Book of the Month, part 2. Talking about my first published novel, The Cowboy’s Baby. Loosely wrapped around the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, this contemporary Texas romance has a baby of a different sort as well. Took me a long time to figure it out. And I do mean long.

The original cover to The Cowboy’s Baby

This was the original cover for The Cowboy’s Baby. Photo is by my sister Roxanne from a local site in between Lockhart and Martindale, and the design is by me and a friend who helped us out. We liked it a lot back then, but it really didn’t say anything about the story other than it’s set in Central Texas.

We’ve still got two copies left of the original. Anyone interested in buying one of them before I sell them locally?

I patterned the setting of the book after Hide-Away Lake in Texas where my parents lived. Golf course and cemetery, all real.

Not anything like the small cemetery in the story.

But when I relocated to Central Texas, I took the setting down here with me. Wish I’d placed it right outside Kyle or Buda, but I made up a name instead.

And here’s the revised cover by Streetlight Graphics. See the golf clubs? See the golf course flag?

A contemporary romantic comedy

Originally The Cowboy’s Baby had a prologue. I thought it was damned good, too. Right now I’m wondering if I still have it in my files. (Just looked. Yes, I do. Maybe I’ll put it up here for everyone to read next week.) Anyway, I took it out because the tone of the prologue was nothing like the tone of the book.

You can find The Cowboy’s Baby and my other work at http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix and http://barnesandnoble.com/c/gretchen-rix and  http://smashwords.com/books/view/79235

Photos by Roxanne Rix

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Come To Grief by Dick Francis.  Never Go Back by Lee Child.

THE COWBOY’S BABY

A contemporary romantic comedy

The Cowboy’s Baby isn’t the first book I wrote. It is the first book I published. It continues to be the book that sells the most and keeps on selling. The sequel The Cowboy’s Baby Goes To Heaven is probably a much better book, but it’s the original everyone goes for.

Is it the cover?

The title?

I’ll tell you a story. I wrote this fairy tale-related romantic comedy completely from the title on out. I started with the concept of “cowboy” and ended several years later when I finally got my mind wrapped around the quirky concept I came up with for the “baby” part. What fairy tale, you ask? Sleeping Beauty.

Not the same old baby! One reader reviewing the book said that about it. She’s right. There are numerous other romance novels with the same title, and I’ll bet you none of them has a baby like this one.

The cover is a collaboration between Streetlight Graphics and my sister Roxanne and myself. We made the suggestions, Streetlight Graphics made it come true.

If you’ve got a Kindle, find TCB at http://amzn.com/B003UYUVZC.

If you prefer to read off your phone, http://smashwords.com/books/view/79235

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: Peril by Thomas H. Cook.  Starbase Human by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane.