Inspirations

Three to Ride

    I’ve often talked about how the town of South Fork, CO, inspired the setting of Bliss, CO, and I’ll talk more about that later. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever written about the inspiration for Three to Ride which led to creating Bliss. 

    When my daughter was eleven she wanted to take horseback riding lessons, so for Christmas her grandparents gave her riding lessons at a local horse farm. Despite the fact that we live in one of the largest metro areas in the country (DFW), there are pockets of “country” close.

    So I pack up my youngest, who was 18 months or so at the time, and we go out to watch Sissy and the horses. Well, there was this dog. He was the sweetest thing and Z (my youngest) fell madly in love. He was obsessed with sticks. I mean obsessed. The teacher told us as long as we would throw a stick, the dog—whose name was Quigley—would fetch. He was gentle around my baby and just a joy to be around. And was absolutely where I got the inspiration for Max and Rye’s dog. Though at the time I didn’t have Max and Rye, so you could say the dog came first.

   Later during her lessons while Z would play with Quigley, I would sit and watch Lindsey, aka Sissy, as she learned how to ride. I had finished writing Small Town Siren and really wanted to write another small-town series. Willow Fork was kind of the nightmare small town, and I wanted to show the other side. I knew I would use South Fork. It’s where my husband spent his summers growing up. But I didn’t have a name for the town, and I definitely didn’t have characters. 

    One day Lindsey’s lesson went a little late and the sun was starting to go down. I was standing at the fence line watching her ride and suddenly one of the men who worked there came in from the big pasture. I swear the light hit him just right and I saw Max Harper. Clear as day. I knew who he was in that moment. And that he had a brother. 

    So that is the story of how a cowboy in the HEB area of North Texas and a stick-chasing dog became the inspiration for one of my best-selling series. 

Book mentioned:

Three to Ride