JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROTE A GRITTY WESTERN

THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROTE A GRITTY WESTERN

Some folk may say that anyone from the UK, let alone a granny, couldn't possibly want to write a gritty, no holds barred western in which the hero is a woman. Well, I wanted to and I had to. The story is very exciting, and the story of the story is convoluted and lengthy. Simply put, during my teens I was evolving a fascination for the wild west, particularly the gun totin', cheroot chompin' wild westerner women. As I say, rather intriguing for a cute UK granny, wouldn't you say? It must be in my genes/jeans. I was also growing irritated and frustrated by the lack of decent roles for women in westerns at the time - the 1960s - so I created my own. Jeannie Morgan was well ahead of her time then, and almost as much now, although films such as Sharon Stone's The Quick and the Dead are becoming more popular. She's my closest role model by the way.

I began writing Jeannie's story after my daughter was born, forty years ago. Yes, it's been a looong, looong time in the writing. I wanted to get the plot right - reasonably credible, Jeannie herself right, and descriptive passages right.

Eventually I discovered I'd written a trilogy! We hired an editor, who was the first professional to assure me that my writing was quality - 24 carat writing she said. We hired a cover designer and I collaborated with him to produce covers 1 and 2, based on images I'd created years ago.

It's been a couple of years since publishing Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! on Amazon two summers ago. A year later we launched Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return. Book 3 will be launched this year. I've accrued well over one thousand, three hundred readers and five star ratings and reviews, plus many readers on Kindle Unlimited steam through Book 1 like a railroad train then immediately order Book 2.

Just to prove the cute and fun lovin' aspect of this granny, however, I shared this post after a Cobbles & Clogs Steampunk event at Basingstoke's Milestones Museum in Hampshire UK. Enormous fun! Loads of stalls, music and everyone dressed wild west steampunk, fairies, military, medieval, you-name-it...

Hubby and I dressed to the proverbial nines - hubby as a military sergeant in frilled shirt, peaked cap, medals and goggles and me as glam pirate Kitty Le Roy complete with small flintlock pistol. When I'm not Kitty Le Roy I'm that gun totin', cheroot chompin' wild westerner woman.

Milestones Museum is an indoor Victorian town open to customers all year to wander shop and factory settings. One of the pavements boasts

'chalked' hopscotch squares. Naturally we have to hop. Hubby is tall and drainpipe skinny, and he's good at hopping. I ain't. I used to be slim and beautiful but now I'm Rubenesque and beautiful. I've never hopped well although I'm great on a bike and striding briskly. So I sorta hopped on and off, huffing and puffing. Hubby hopped like a good 'un, and we videod one another. Brilliant. Hop scotching steampunk style. As you do.

Now, if you want to see the thing being done properly, here you are:

DRIVING OUR NARROWBOAT

DOTTEREL OUT

OF A LOCK NEAR RUGBY

And yes, I love tillering our narrowboat. I was born next to water, so learned to row as soon as I could utter 'Land ahoy!. We also own a traditional Canadian canoe which lies on our back lawn.

TO PROVE EVEN MORE
MY CUTENESS,
HERE ARE PIG AND MONKEY -
THEY KEEP HUBBY & ME SANE

So this fun loving, hopscotching cute Gran (so my teenage granddaughters say, and who am I to dispute that?) wrote that gritty, sometimes dark and violent western trilogy? There are humorous sides to the story to add a bit of texture and to tone down the dark side.

There are two sides of me. The dark side who suffers from depression and the goofy, creative side. The goofy artistic side is dominant, thank goodness, but the dark side, when the mood strikes, comes crashing in.

Jeannie herself is powerful. Magnetic. Charismatic, funny, scary. Terrifying. The fastest gun. A great fighter. Tremendously dapper in male clothing. Sexy as hell. Tomboy beautiful. OTT. Irresistible. She's bisexual. All things to everyone. I was horrendously embarrassed about her during the years I was developing her, which made things even harder. Toning her down didn't work, so finding just how much people appreciate her has been a huge relief, and sharing illustrations and stories about her no longer terrifies me.

I wanted to be like her to make up for my largely alone, neglected and unappreciated position within my biological family. Having children made matters harder and my mental health, exacerbated by childbirth and post-natal depression, suffered, along with the drip-drip of biological family pressures and opinions.

That's why I wanted to be Jeannie. That's why I needed to write her story and 'get her out there'. That's why I have two sides. 😄

Finally, here's Jeannie's storyline:

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is tomboy beautiful and the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. Her extraordinary sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey, and men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.

Jeannie must navigate the grit and sweat of the wild frontier and face her desires and identity through deadly confrontations as she seeks acceptance in this big, bad world and kill or be killed. She takes on roles deemed only suitable for men, but her powerful persona and lethal gun make her the perfect candidate. Will she find what she seeks - acknowledgement and acceptance? Or will her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun finally be the death of her?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

THE (CUTE) AUTHOR