Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. I’m very excited to report that I’m participating in a fun new multi-author project. As most of you know, in addition to Seekerville, I’m also the member of another author blog, Petticoats & Pistols. The authors on that blog specialize in Western and Americana romance novels.
Late last
summer we started kicking around the idea of doing a group of connected
stories. But there’s a lot of work that goes into setting up a project like this, especially when there are so many authors involved.
After some discussion to determine interest and availability a few of
the members took the lead in developing a suitable premise. There were several
iterations of this as the development team came back to the group with ideas
and continued to refine them until in the end I think we landed on a very fun
and exciting concept.
The series is
called The Pink Pistol Sisterhood and is
about – wait for it – a matchmaking pistol!
Here’s the setup for the series: A
one-of-a-kind pink-handled pistol is gifted to Annie Oakley. The pistol comes
with a legend, one promising that whoever possesses it will find true love.
Annie passes the gun on to one of her students and sets the whimsical journey
in motion as it passes from one heroine to another.
Once the concept was decided there were many other parts and pieces to take care of. One of the members took the lead on the artwork, including the series logo, cover concept and the development of most of the covers themselves. Another member volunteered to help with the book formatting so that we had consistency throughout. A release schedule was determined and then we all had to figure out where we plugged into that. And then there was brainstorming around promo and marketing, release venue and pricing as well as wordcount targets. But in the end it all came together, thanks in big part to our fabulous core team: Pam Crooks, Karen Witemeyer, Shanna Hatfield, Jessie Gussman and Kari Trumbo.
All told 11 of us were able to participate. All the books are sweet western romances, and they span the time period from 1893 to the current
day. Some of the stories are historical, some are set mid-century, and some are
contemporary, but the thread that binds them all together is the journey of the
pink pistol and the loves and lives of the women it touches.
The books will
release every ten days, starting on March 30th with Karen Witemeyer’s story In
Her Sights and wrapping up on July 10th with Jessie Gussman’s book Pistol
Perfect.
As a gift to our readers we’ve created set of magazines to go along
with the series. There will be four in total and each will contain excerpts,
puzzles, author interviews and lots of other fun content. Two of the magazines
are already available and can be acquired via the links below. And note, these
are free and you can absolutely rest assured that you are
NOT signing up for anyone’s list.
There is also a
facebook reader group where we post behind the scenes info, celebrate good
news, host release parties and just generally have fun. If you’re interested in
joining here’s the link: Pink Pistol Sisterhood Reader Group
The participating authors, in order of release date, are: Karen Witemeyer, Shanna Hatfield, Cheryl Pierson, Kit Morgan,
Kari Trumbo, yours truly, Linda Broday, Pam Crooks, Jeannie Watt, Julie Benson and Jessie Gussman
Mine is the
sixth book in the series, the exact middle. Here is a little bit about it:
DISARMING HIS HEART
A sharpshooter hiding her identity. A preacher
with a guilty past. Will secrets ruin their shot at
love?
Violet, who performs in a traveling show as the mysterious Masked
Marvel sharpshooter, has an accident that puts her arm in a sling. To maintain
the mystery of her identity she secretly swaps places with her identical twin, a “townie”
dressmaker, until it heals. Of course that means Violet also has to take on her sister’s
role as director of a children’s church program. Before slipping out of town, her
sister informs Violet that she’s sweet on Carson, the pastor and co-director of the children’s program,
so she’d appreciate it if Violet doesn’t mess anything up with him.
Carson became guardian to an orphaned eight-year-old six months
ago and to his frustration he hasn’t been able to make any progress in building
a relationship with the boy. It’s to the point where he’s begun to wonder if
he’s even fit to be a pastor.
As Violet and Carson work together on the children’s program the
attraction between them grows. But the knowledge of her sister’s feelings and guilt
over her deception hold Violet back.
Little does she know that Carson is harboring guilty secrets of his own…
My book isn’t yet available but I’ll be sure
to let you know when it is 😊
This series uses a unique object as a connecting thread – a pistol with a pink mother-of-pearl handle – that is passed on from one person to the next. Do you have a special keepsake that was passed on to you? Tell us about it in the comments along with a note about what meaning it holds for you and you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of my books. I’d also welcome any thoughts you might have on the Pink Pistol series itself.
