The Allure of Colorado
and the Front Range
I've lived in many places
around the US: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington state, Mississippi, New
York City—to name a few. But I do have to say that my years in Colorado were
very special.
Even as a child growing up in
the heart of LA, I loved the mountains and nature. I would wander my suburban
neighborhood of tightly packed houses and find footpaths that led up behind my
neighbors' property to grassy quiet hills and would spend hours pretending I
was alone in the wilderness.
I'd take a blank book and a
pen or pencil and draw and write poetry, coveting the tiny bit of nature around
me.
When I was a teen, I was so
blessed to be able to go to a summer camp way off in the Sierra Mountains of
northern California. I went to this camp every summer for eight years, staying
from four to eight weeks. When I total up the time I spent in Taylorsville, it
comes to almost a year of my life. One of my best "years."
It was a small camp on a
river, and my days were spent horseback riding thought apple orchards and
crossing creeks bareback and riding in the local Fourth of July parade. I hiked
mountains and valleys, explored nature, and swam in rivers. I jumped off high
rocks into cold pools in the Feather River, and I went on my first backpacking
trip in the wilds of Lassen National Park.
For a city girl, this was like
dying and going to heaven. I moved away from the city the moment I graduated
high school and headed for the country.
I'd met my husband in northern
California, near Eureka, and we lived many years on a cliff overlooking the
beautiful Pacific ocean. But when he wanted to go to grad school and voiced his
choices of locations, all it took was hearing "Colorado" to make up
my mind where we should go.
We spent a few years in
Colorado, and they were hard times. We were broke, both students, and we had a
new baby. Our old VW's heater didn't work, and that meant freezing in the car
during winter.
But despite all that, Colorado
loomed large in its sublime beauty. The seasons there are magnificent. Fall is
my favorite time of year, and there is nothing more wonderful than seeing and
hearing the golden aspen leaves chiming in the wind.
So when I decide to start
writing historical Western romance, I didn't hesitate a second to decide to set
my stories in Colorado.
I believe setting and locale
and so crucial in a novel. We are impacted by place. Where we are at any given
moment affects our mood, our outlook on life. Places trigger powerful memories
and emotions, and the best writers pay close attention to the sensory details
of place.
I love to immerse my readers
in my settings. I want them to feel as if they've been transported there. This
is why I love books by authors like Zane Grey. So much detail is paid to
bringing the place alive, and that's because the characters are grounded in
their setting.
Especially in eras past, place
was important. People, before all this advanced technology, lived close to the
land. They were strongly affected by the seasons and the terrain that they had
to deal with up close.
On occasion, a reviewer will
complain that I spend too much time talking about place. They just want the
romance. I'm glad, though, that so many of my readers comment how much they
love the details I bring out about place, about Colorado. They say they love
how my scenes transport them in way they can imagine being there, back in the
1870s.
While I can only do so much to
convey a place, for I don't want to bore readers with thousands of pages of
minute description, I do my best to bring alive the beauty and majesty of the
Front Range. I found Colorado to be a spectacular and magical place.
Even though some of it has
been built up and is full of malls and crowded housing, there is still plenty
of wide-open space that, to me, seems just as how it might have looked to those
living in the old West.
About the Author:
Charlene Whitman is the author of The Front Range Series of
heart-thumping romance. Colorado Hope is the second book in the series,
although the books can be read in any order. Get the thrilling prequel novella Wild
Horses, Wild Hearts for free when you sign up HERE
for Charlene’s mailing list. Learn all about the Front Range in the 1870s and
get deep into Charlene’s characters and plot. You’ll be the first to hear of
new books, as well as receive sneak peeks and insights into her riveting
stores. Don’t miss her new release! Get Wyoming
Tryst here!
The author of
"heart-thumping" Western romance, Charlene Whitman spent many years
living on Colorado's Front Range. She grew up riding and raising horses, and loves to read, write, and
hike the mountains. She attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins as an English major. She has two
daughters and is married to George "Dix" Whitman, her love of thirty
years.
The Front Range series of sweet historical Western romance novels (set in the 1870s) includes Wild Horses, Wild Hearts, set in Laporte and Greeley. Colorado Promise, set in Greeley, Colorado; Colorado Hope, set in Fort Collins; Wild Secret, Wild Longing, which takes readers up into the Rockies, Colorado Dream (Greeley), and Wyoming Tryst, set in Laramie, WY.
The Front Range series of sweet historical Western romance novels (set in the 1870s) includes Wild Horses, Wild Hearts, set in Laporte and Greeley. Colorado Promise, set in Greeley, Colorado; Colorado Hope, set in Fort Collins; Wild Secret, Wild Longing, which takes readers up into the Rockies, Colorado Dream (Greeley), and Wyoming Tryst, set in Laramie, WY.
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About the Book:
Two ranching tycoons. A
decades-old feud. A sheriff bent on ridding the town of lawlessness . . .
In the midst of the trouble
brewing in Laramie City in 1878, Julia Carson yearns to be free of her parents’
smothering and wonders whether she’ll ever find a man worthy to love in such a
violent
But when Robert Morrison sneaks
onto her ranch the night of her sixteenth birthday party, Cupid shoots his
arrows straight and true. Aware that their courtship would be anathema to their
fathers, who are sworn enemies, Robert and Julia arrange a tryst.
Yet, their clandestine
dalliance does not go unnoticed, and forces seek to destroy what little hope
their romance has to bloom. The star-crossed lovers face heartache and danger
as violence erupts. When all hope is lost, Joseph Tuttle, the new doctor at the
penitentiary, is given a letter and a glass vial from Cheyenne medicine woman Sarah Banks.
The way of escape poses deadly dangers, but it is the
only way for Robert and Julia to be together. It will take the greatest measure
of faith and courage to come through unscathed, but love always conquers fear.
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