The Hero Who Never Was

I am wondering how many writers besides me live with a particular hero in their heads but never tell his story. I have lived with and loved Ben Colter for a good 20 years now. He’s the hero from the contemporary I have never written because I don’t feel confident writing contemporaries. More than that, though, it’s because I can’t pin the man down as far as who he really is. He is this “being” that haunts me almost constantly, asking me to tell his story, yet I don’t know what that story is, and this character is so special that I don’t want to mess things up by getting his story wrong.

E-Book Specials - January 5, 2014 Only!

Tomorrow, July 5th Only!
Wildest Dreams and Thunder on the Plains e-Books will $1.99 

The Writing Slut

Yes, that’s what I am. When it comes to writing, I’m a slut – I can’t get enough of writing itself, I can’t get enough of the genre I write – the Old West and its magnificent landscape and explosive growth – the Native American – the iconic cowboy - and I can’t get enough of my heroes. I am crazy about the mega-alpha hero, which is why I enjoy writing historicals because there were places and time periods wherein men could be men and reap their own vengeance, which is crucial to my heroes.

The Power Of The Alpha Hero And Falling In Love With Him

My Savage Destiny series (7 books) will soon be available as e-books for ALL types of e-readers. Up to now they were only available for Kindle. Well, that means proofing the books all over again, because a different conversion program is used when converting a book for all types of reading devices.


Oh, my! Believe it or not, I didn’t want to have to read these books all over again because they are so emotionally draining for me. They were when I wrote them – when I proofed them the first time 30 years ago – when I had to re-read them in order to write the 7th book in ’96 – when I read them again for the Kindle conversion – and now I have to read them again.

The Perils of Heroines and Due Dates

Blogging about writing today. I am ¾ finished with my latest book, DESPERATE HEARTS, and now I can’t decide what will happen next – plus there about 3 different ways this story could end. I have a hundred other things to do this holiday season, so too many distractions. I will never time a due date that is close to the holidays again. And right after the holidays my husband and I head west for several weeks, so I have no choice but to get this book done SOON. Actually, it’s due now, but publishers usually don’t mind if an author takes a couple of extra weeks to turn in a book. They just don’t want it to take a couple of extra MONTHS.

Places We Hold Sacred

I was recently looking at our Rand McNally maps to check out the surroundings of the town that is the setting for my current work in progress, set in Alder, Montana, just west of Virginia City. That led me to the location of the Crow Indian reservation … and that led to seeing the Little Big Horn River … and that led to finding the Custer Battlefield on the map, which lies within the Crow reservation. I’ve been to that battlefield, and finding it on the map brought it all back, and my chest actually hurt at the memory.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side!

I wonder how many of you remember and still listen to Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band – big in the 70’s – great old-fashioned rock & roll – the kind of music that makes you want to jump on the back of a Harley and take off across the country with a burly, bearded biker. Yes, I, Rosanne Bittner, actually said that! Don’t most of us have that bit of a wild side way down inside that dreams about letting loose sometimes? Seger’s song “Roll Me Away” always wakes up that side of me. I close my eyes, put my head back, and I’m winding through the Rockies on a Harley, drinking in the awesome landscape and leaving all my cares behind me. If you’ve never heard that song, download it to your phone or MP3 or however you listen to music. Another good one is “Like A Rock,” where a man reminisces about when he was young and strong and feared nothing. Heck, all of Seger’s songs bring back memories of being young and wild – like his song about climbing into the back seat of a Chevy to make out.

The Joy Of Life … And Change …

The weather is changing. I “feel” it and I can even “smell” it. Still nice and warm today, but a crispiness to the air, a bluer sky, cold mornings, and wind. I love the wind. Even that sounds different, has kind of a howl to it that you don’t hear in summer. The leaves rattle more because they are getting very dry, even though most of them are still green. 

Western Romance - The "Cowboy" Hero Lives On!

My latest book, PARADISE VALLEY (July 2013) is another western historical romance, and (as some tell me) written only as Rosanne Bittner can write the “American West.” It is my 58th published book over the past 30 years, and 95% of those have been western historical romance, my favorite, favorite subject. The rest are also American historicals, some about the French & Indian wars, the American Revolution and the Civil War. But I dearly love America’s Old West! As my title states, no matter which genre is currently popular, the cowboy hero never dies and is always in demand. My husband and I have traveled the western terrain for over 30 years now, visiting just about every location in my books. And because I love the western landscape so dearly, you will always find vivid descriptions of some of the most beautiful places in this country, from the magnificent Rocky Mountains, to the endless horizon of plains and prairie. I have visited the ancient stone medicine wheel on top of Medicine Mountain in northern Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains twice. It’s fascinating to see, and the medicine wheel is the key theme in my Mystic Indian trilogy (MYSTIC DREAMERS, MYSTIC VISIONS and MYSTIC WARRIORS).

History – Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow

I have started my “next” book (#59) – DESPERATE HEARTS – a western romance set in a little gold town in 1880’s Montana. People ask me how I come up with so many ideas, and I just tell them that so much happened in the early years of America’s growth that it all provides an unending supply of food for plot. The gradual growth from Jamestown to California; the political upheavals (especially when the Civil War divided us); the era of carpetbaggers; the great discoveries (gold, silver, oil and more); the transportation advances (first the journeys by riverboat and covered wagons; then the Pony Express; then the telegraph; then the Transcontinental Railroad); the gradual change from lawless places to civil towns with schools and churches; years and years of wars with Native Americans and how our growth affected them; the gradual changes in women’s rights; the Emancipation Proclamation; the list goes on and on.