Get Lost with Ken Casper's First Family of Texas

Get Lost in a Story readers, Ken Casper is a storyteller. I’m a huge fan and can attest he lures you in, then grabs you by your heart strings and refuses to let go. And now he’s even

more devious. He’s re-releasing some of the stories that gave him name-brand recognition.

Please welcome back Ken Casper.

The First Family of Texas

            She sold him out. The First family has owned the Number One Ranch in West Texas

since the days of the Republic. Until now. Adam First’s bitter, alcoholic daughter has just sold

controlling interest in the vast spread to a Houston bank. They’re dispatching someone to

determine if he should continue to manage the multimillion-dollar enterprise.

Sheila Malone knows the heartbreak of losing land and loved ones. She also realizes she

has to please the bank executive who hired her, if her fledgling consultancy firm is to stay in

business. Helping Adam save his ranch might make up for past failings, but will the bank let her?

Will he?

            What neither the temperamental rancher nor the opinionated efficiency expert have

anticipated is the emotional involvement they’ve awakened in each other, responses that might

cost both of them dearly.

            It all comes down to trust, but trust doesn’t come easily when you’ve been betrayed.

            The First Family of Texas is the opening story of the First Family series, which will be released in the coming months.

DONNELL: Ken, welcome back! As someone who’s about to sell her home of 20 years, this

story means something near and dear to me. The conflict is insurmountable. It’s material, it’s

not flesh and blood, and yet nothing brings out the emotions more than losing the land you’ve called home. Talk about the story behind the story. What inspired you to write this?

KEN: An article I read some years ago about the board of the King Ranch voting its senior member, a Kleberg, out of the CEO position. That was a business decision, but it got the old gray matter playing the “what-if” game. The Number One Ranch isn’t as big as the King place (over a million acres at one time), but it’s still big. The resemblance ends there, however. All my characters are purely fictional, as is the situation that created the furor.

DONNELL: Conflict. You do it so well, and yet I believe you have a solid home base. An

alcoholic daughter selling off her family property – well, I think I might find objection to. How

do you forgive someone like that – or do you?

KEN: It takes a big heart, a lot of love, and in this case a nagging sense of guilt. Nobody’s perfect.

DONNELL: You’re a man. (In case you’ve never noticed). You’ve written many romance

novels. I’ve seen you speak about men’s perspectives vs. women’s. What would you say is the

number one thing that YOU, the man bring to your stories that a woman doesn’t.

KEN: I want to say I hope nothing, that my writing doesn’t reflect my gender. I’m very much aware that my audience is overwhelmingly female, that I must appeal to them. Early reviews referred to me as Ms. Casper, which I took as a great compliment. In fact I’ve never had a reader chastise me with “just like a man to say that.” I probably show the man’s perspective more than some women writers, but I don’t think I do so significantly. I guess it would be better to ask readers how they think my writing is different.

DONNELL: You’ve had women editors. Have you ever had to fight for that male perspective?

KEN: Nope. We sometimes differ in plot nuances, but even those are rare. I’m more likely to be asked to explain what a character, male or female, is feeling. Analyzing feelings isn’t a typical guy thing, so it’s a challenge for me.

DONNELL: Let’s talk about Ken Casper outside of writing. When you’re not writing, what

will we find you doing these days?

KEN: Technically I’m retired. Ha! We have a small horse farm—the farm is small, not the horses—so there are always chores to do, whether it’s pruning trees, mending fences or insulating feed rooms. We also have rose and vegetable gardens, each of which could be full-time projects. I enjoy rough carpentry and woodworking, as well, and wish I could spend more time at them. In-between writing projects, of course.

DONNELL: It’s time to sit down for a Sunday meal. Who’s invited, and what’s for supper?

KEN: The usual suspects—family, friends, friends of friends. Good food, good drink, good conversation—the good life. As for the menu, it runs the gamut from chicken and dumplings to Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Mesquite-smoked brisket, sometimes salmon. Chili rellenos are a special treat, as is strawberry shortcake (homemade). I’m getting hungry!

DONNELL: How close together will you be releasing these books, and what would you like

readers to take away from them?

KEN: One book a month. The First Family saga is five-books. They, along with most of my other romances and my Jason Crow West Texas mystery series, are set in Coyote Springs, so they share secondary characters and places. It’s been fun creating the community. I hope readers enjoy meeting old friends and settings.

DONNELL: You’ve been writing a lot of years. What is the most interesting/unusual thing

you’ve ever discovered while doing research?

KEN: While doing research? No big ah-ha moments. Mostly little surprises, but a lot of little details. For me the surprises come during the actual story writing. Characters think, do and say the darndest things: like the heroine goes to port to pick up the car she shipped from overseas. I was expecting a 5-yr-old Ford Escort; turns out she drives a brand-new Porsche 9-11. All of a sudden my character had changed. Of course, mysteries are full of surprises. They make writing fun.

DONNELL: Ken, now it’s time to ask the reader a question.

MY QUESTION TO READERS: Many authors write across genres. Nora Roberts, Judith Arnold, James Patterson, Carolyn McSparren, just to name a few. Are you as inclined to read them in one genre as another? Do you prefer them in one over the other?

I hope readers will check my website: www.kencasper.com and follow me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ken.casper.10 and watch for my upcoming giveaways and FREE books.

My books are also available at:

Amazon.com

Smashwords.com

Nook.com

Thanks for being our guest, Ken! Please come back and visit.

Get Lost in the Caddo Book Trilogy

Get Lost in a Story Readers, what do you get when you combine a trilogy written by authors Ken Casper, Roz Denny Fox and Eve Gaddy?  You get a fabulous storyline surrounding an east Texas town of Uncertain.  And while the town might be called Uncertain, you can be sure to be mesmerized ~  Donnell

Shall we learn more?

https://www.facebook.com/ReturnToCaddoLake

 

UNCERTAIN FATE

Book 1 of the Return to Caddo Lake Trilogy
Previously released as The Millionaire Horseman, book 1 of the Return to East Texas Trilogy
Available in October from BelleBooks, at your favorite bookstore, at Amazon.com and on Kindle

Book One:  Uncertain Fate by Ken Casper
Nineteen years ago, Frannie Granger disappeared . . .

Since then, the land at Beaumarais near Caddo Lake, east Texas, has hidden the secret of her fate. Now that secret is out, but a mystery remains: who is responsible for what happened on her last hectic morning so long ago?
 

The local sheriff is convinced Jed Louis, heir to the antebellum plantation house, breeder of Percheron horses, and the eldest of the three foster children Frannie raised as her own, is responsible for what took place.

Gwyn Miller, who leases land from Jed, is equally committed to proving the millionaire horseman was in no way involved.

She’s also determined to show Jed that nothing can ever threaten what they have with each other, not even his Uncertain Fate.

Ken Casper, aka K. N. Casper, is the author of more than 25 novels, short stories and articles. Born and raised in New York City, he’s now a transplanted Texan. He and his wife Mary own a horse farm in San Angelo. Along with their two dogs, six cats, and eight horses—at last count!—they board and breed horses, and Mary teaches English riding. She's also a therapeutic riding instructor for the handicapped.

     You can keep up with Ken and his books on his web site at http://www.kencasper.com

Book Two:  Uncertain Past by Denny Roz Fox 

Caddo Lake has finally revealed the bones . . .

 

Nineteen years ago, Emmy’s foster mother disappeared, tearing their fragile family apart. After years of lonely wandering, Emmy returns to Uncertain, Texas to support her foster brother Jed, who’s been accused of the murder, and solve another mystery from the past—finding the biological mother who abandoned her.

 

Riley Gray, her teenage love and now a successful attorney, is the only person who can help Emmy. The old sparks quickly reignite. The romance is as irresistible as before. They never stopped loving each other. But someone wants Emmy to stop asking questions, and is willing to threaten not only Riley but his young daughter, too.

Roz Denny Fox, (also known as Roz Denny) is the author of more than fifty romance novels. Part of her love for writing came in moving around with her husband during his tenure in the Marine Corps and after that as a telephone engineer. The richness of various cities and diversity in friendships make crafting stories about everyday people a pleasure. Visit Roz at www.Korynna.com/RozFox

 Book Three:  Uncertain Future by Eve Gaddy

 

When Texas Ranger Will McClain discovers that his foster mother's remains have been found in the East Texs town he left years before, Will returns to solve the mystery of who murdered Fanny Granger and why.

While investigating the murder he falls for the lovely Tessa Lang, the archeologist who discovered Fannie's bones.  He also connects with his foster siblings, Jed Louis and Emerald Monday.  But Will is a Ranger and must do everything in his power to find the murderer, even when his foster brother is the main suspect.

Will has returned to the only home he's ever known, but convincing Tessa that she can make it her home as well is a tall order.  For Tessa believes her career lies elsewhere, and that the love she's discovered for teaching as well as her love for Will are both temporary.

Eve Gaddy is the award-winning author of nineteen novels.  She lives east Texas with her husband of many years, and her incredibly spoiled Golden Retriever, who is convinced he's her third child.

Visit her at www.EveGaddy.net

Fun questions for Eve and Roz:


DONNELL:  What inspired the trilogy?

Eve Gaddy:  Ken Casper, Roz Fox and I are friends who see each other mostly at writing conferences. One conference we thought it would be fun to write a trilogy of books together. We wanted to set it in Texas but not in West Texas, where so many stories are set. We wanted something a little different. 
 
About that time another friend, Rosalyn Alsobrook walked by and mentioned the town of Uncertain, Texas on Caddo Lake in far East Texas.  We loved the name, so we all got together and visited Uncertain.  We took a ride on a riverboat that toured Caddo Lake and fell in love with the place.  The story goes that when the town first came to be the people were uncertain what to name it.  So they named it Uncertain.  Don't know if that's a true story but it sounds good, you have to admit.   

  

DONNELL:  Roz Denny Fox, why did you want to be part of this trilogy?

 

ROZ:    Ken, Eve and I had talked about working together on a story idea.  We always met at RWA and Ninc conferences, had a few glasses of wine and talked story ideas.

 

 

It's been a while since we did our research, but I think Ken tossed out the idea of writing about foster children.

He always wanted to put in a mystery--that's the guy in him.  I'm abominable at things like red herrings and clues, so any that are in my book probably came from Ken or Eve.

We decided readers liked books set in Texas.  Eve mentioned not many were set in East Texas, hence our choice of a general setting.  A friend of Eve's suggested "Uncertain" and some of our ideas fell into place and seemed to fit right in the spooky, swampy area around Caddo Lake. 

My husband and I picked up Ken and his wife and we four drove from San Angelo, Texas to Eve's area.  Along the way we visited the Monday Trade Days location where I'd thought might be a good place for my main character to have been found as a baby. 

We really did have a lot of fun driving around, choosing the homes we wanted in each of our books.  As we talked to people we met, someone referred us to a man who once put out the Caddo Lake Newspaper from his house  It was called "The Uncertain News".  He had a lot of great stories and took us for a ride through the swamp in his paddle wheeler. He had a great time and we did too.  It's an area that is more like Louisiana than what people think of Texas.  And for us it was the perfect place to set a 20 year old murder.

 

 GLIAS Readers, are you as intrigued as I am?  Today is your lucky day.  Since we have three authors, THREE lucky readers have a chance to win one of the books from the Caddo Book Trilogy.  All you have to do is answer Ken Casper's question.  Also, be sure to leave your contact info: 

 

What's the most unusual name of the town in your state? 

***Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America addresses only. If an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) is available, the author may utilize that option for International participants. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.

Ken Casper

It is my absolute pleasure to welcome Ken Casper to Get Lost in a Story to introduce a protagonist I defy anyone to forget. Mystery lovers, meet Jason Crow in AS THE CROW DIES, a Bell Bridge Books' www.bellbridgebooks.com May release, and an outstanding new mystery series. . .

Vietnam took his legs.
A murderer took his father.
Somehow, Jason Crow has to take a stand.

"My father had no reason to kill himself," I said. "On the contrary, he had every reason to live. I was coming home. We had plans to do things together. Plus, there's no way he'd kill himself using my gun."

Burker picked up a screwdriver, went through the motions of examining it. "Look, Jason, we're not friends. Never have been. Probably never will be, but I've always respected your talent on the football field and your intelligence. You were good. Damn good. What's happened . . .well, it's a shame.

"I don't want your pity, Burker."

"Good, because you won't get any from me, but I will tell you I'm disappointed in you. You're smart. That's why I expected you to be more objective about what's happened. Let me give you another tidbit of information, another fact for you to consider. There were powder marks on your father's right hand. He pulled the trigger."

Jason Crow comes home to Texas on clumsy, prosthetic legs--struggling with his lost dreams and the pitying curiosity of friends and strangers. But there's no time for him to brood, because his father has just been shot to death.

Unable to convince the police that his father was murdered, Jason begins his own investigation. In the process, he uncovers family secrets that shake him to his core and make him question everyone and everything around him, including his love of Michiko, the beautiful Eurasian-American nurse he met in Japan.

While fighting his own insecurity as a double amputee, Jason must challenge forces capable of destroying him and those he loves to pursue the person who robbed him of his greatest hero: His Dad.

Ready to turn the page? I sure am. But you'll have to wait because today Ken Casper is here to answer the Get Lost Crew's fun questions. And Readers, a question or comment will enter you to win an autographed copy of AS THE CROW DIES.

DONNELL: Which of your characters would you most/least want to invite to dinner, and why?

KEN: Most: Jason Crow. He’s well educated, has a strong character, a sense of humor, and his adversities give him a unique world view. I’d feel comfortable asking him probing and personal questions and be confident I’d get honest answers.

Least would probably be his mother. She’s very secretive, emotionally unreliable and ridden with all sorts of bad vibes. I don’t think I’d receive honest answers from her.

DONNELL: Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

KEN: I read a few to get the general reaction to my stories and my writing. I don’t obsess over them. They don’t generally have any significant effect on my writing or the kind of stories I tell, though they sometimes give me ideas to play with.

DONNELL: Do you prefer big cities or small towns?

KEN: I loved growing up in NYC, and I still enjoy visiting there, but I have no desire to live in the Big Apple or any other big city. I much prefer the friendliness, familiarity and laid-back life style of small towns.

DONNELL: What’s in your refrigerator right now?

KEN: Leftover lasagna. It’s better the second day. Baby back ribs. Fruit. Salad. Yogurt. The usual milk, butter, eggs, and the makings for a BLT.

DONNELL: What is your favorite tradition from your childhood?

KEN: Sunday breakfast. My father went to church early, then while the rest of us attended, he prepared breakfast—a full English breakfast. He was from Brooklyn, but on Sunday morning he always tuned into Wheeling, WV. It’s called Bluegrass now. We called it hillbilly music back then. I still love listening to it.

DONNELL: What do you do to unwind and relax?

KEN: Yard work, gardening. Tending our roses. Carpentry and d-i-y projects.

DONNELL: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

KEN: Sometimes, but not often. When I do, I just keep on writing. Anything. Preferably something outlandish. Eventually something useful clicks and I move on.

DONNELL: What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

KEN: Interesting? I don’t think I have any strange habits or idiosyncrasies. I don’t wear a particular pair of socks when I write, for instance, or perform arcane rituals before I sit down to write. Except…well, I do require complete quiet. I don’t play music or have a TV on. That doesn’t mean I don’t get disturbed, of course. People come to the door: “I don’t mean to disturb you, but…” And the phone has a fiendish knack for ringing just as the gun goes off.

DONNELL: Yes, I just hate it when the gun goes off and the door bell rings. Dog or cat person?

KEN: We have both. If I had to choose, though, I'd say I'm a dog person. We have a Golden Retriever and a Black Lab, and love them both. We've always had two dogs. We also have half a dozen outdoor cats up around the house and as many down at the barn.

DONNELL: How much money does it take to be happy?

KEN: Money doesn't make people happy, though the lack of it can make them miserable. The old-time vaudevillian, Sophie Tucker, said it very well. "I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is better." But I've known an awful lot of people in modest circumstances who were happy and inspirational. I've also known "rich" people who were miserable. Go figure. (Of course, if you're rich, you probably hire an accountant to do that for you!)

DONNELL: LOL. You hire the accountant to be miserable for you? Okay, then. What's the first thing you do when you finish a book?

KEN: Think how I’m going to start the next one. The truth is I’m usually so burned out. I need down time to recharge my batteries, so for the next week or so I read other people’s books and catch up on the chores I’ve been putting off for months. Eventually I have to scratch the itch. That’s when I start plotting another book. Playing the what-if game is just plain fun.

DONNELL: If you could interview anyone throughout history, who would it be?

KEN: That’s a tough one. Thomas Jefferson comes to mind. I’d ask him how he could write “All men are created equal” yet own slaves. And I’d like to ask his mistress, Sally Hemmings, why she voluntarily gave up freedom in France to follow Jefferson to slavery in Virginia when she didn’t have to. He must have been quite a guy to prompt that kind of devotion. I suspect we’d dine late into the night over an occasional sip of fine wine, discussing everything from crop rotation to the orations of Cicero. I have no doubt his Latin would be far superior to mine!

Ken, excellent answers. Thank you! Now, it's your turn. Got a question you'd like to ask readers?

KEN: I think the 30s and 40s was a time of great challenge, of heartache, dedication and heroism, yet we rarely see stories set in that period. Historicals are generally defined as a hundred or more yeas ago. Contemporaries take place today. AS THE CROW DIES takes place in 1968, which was a difficult year in this country, too. Would you like to see more stories set in the recent past?

Ken Casper, aka K. N. Casper, author of more than two dozen books, figures his writing career started back in the sixth grade when a teacher ordered him to write a "theme" explaining his misbehavior over the previous semester. To his teacher's chagrin, he enjoyed stringing just the right words together to justify his less-than-stellar performance. That's not to say he's been telling tall tales to get out of scrapes ever since, but... Born and raised in New York City, Ken is now a transplanted Texan. He and Mary, his wife of thirty-five-plus years, own a horse farm in San Angelo. Along with their two dogs, six cats, and eight horses—at last count!—they board and breed horses and Mary teaches English riding. She's a therapeutic riding instructor for the handicapped, as well. Life is never dull. Their two granddaughters visit several times a year and feel right at home with the Casper menagerie. Grandpa and Mimi do everything they can to make sure their visits will be lifelong fond memories. After all, isn't that what grandparents are for?

You can keep up with Ken and his books on his web site at http://www.kencasper.com

There you have it, Readers. Click on tomorrow as we'll have another fun day in store when GET LOST IN A STORY welcomes author Karin Tabke and her alter ego, Karin Harlow.