Where do you like your cowboy stories to take place? Does it matter to you?
I’ve written stories that take place in Texas, Tennessee Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, etc, but I always wonder if it matters to the reader where the story takes place? I mean there are certain places I think of when I think of cowboys and where they live.
I think Texas is a given for cowboy stories. I always think of there when I think cowboy, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be from just about anywhere. Wide open spaces lead themselves to raising horses or cattle which is what a cowboy does. I live in Tennessee and we have lots of horse ranches and cattle ranches around here. We also have the home of country music but in Nashville itself, you won’t find many real cowboys. I think you find more what they call concrete cowboys in the city. Anyone can dress in Wrangler jeans, a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, but does it make them a cowboy? Not necessarily.
So those are my thoughts on where to find real cowboys? How about you?
~ Sandy
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Hello Sandy!
I live in Smithville, TN! It’s cool to hear that an author lives in Tennessee as well!
Would be cool to see an author write about a PBR event at Bridgestone arena in Nashville
But, it’s always interesting to see what states the cowboys live in western romance books
Hope you have a great week!
- Paige Gregory
I would have to say most of my stories are set in Texas or Wyoming. As long as it is the west it works for me. Like you said you will find your authentic cowboys there.
Fellow Tennessean myself! I love to read about cowboys in any of the states out west. Each state offers different scenery, history, weather, animals and dangers that all of the cowboys had to endure. Maybe that’s why I first fell in love with Lonesome Dove. From dry, dusty and hot to cold, blistery and snow. A cowboy was rugged and had to endure and adapt.
I grew up in Utah, plenty of cowboys there, so I love when the stories are in Wyoming, Nevada Arizona and Utah because I can picture the places so clearly having been there.
A good many authors on this site seem to bring their cowboys to Calgary. While the big-seller romance books tend to be set in Montana or Wyoming. I’ve read one (very old) story which ended up in NYC at the Madison Square Gardens rodeo. I guess a cowboy could have to visit a city to sign papers of some sort, or attend a funeral, even if it was Heuston that might bring him out of his usual Texan environment.
I really doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s in the country
But I do have a soft spot for Texas and Montana!
Hi sandy,
As long as he’s a real down to earth cowboy, It doesn’t matter where he’s from!
I love a strong,take charge and gets what he wants cowboy! <3 lol
But, I do love Wyoming and Montana!
It doesn’t matter to me what state, but when a book is wirtten and in based in my home state, I am proud. I know we have cowboys, lots of them. Rodeo cowboys and ranchers.
I have lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, New Mexico and Louisiana and visited all the western states and a good part of western Canada. You can find true cowboys almost anywhere if you know where to look and it is not in the sparkliest “cowboy” bar in town. Look at the feed stores, livestock auctions, horse shows and of course rodeos. A cutting horse contest will only have cowboys because anyone else would be bored to tears after an hour or two (I speak from experience), the only redeeming factors here are the cowboys. I remember visiting an uncle in Kentucky when I was a kid, about 1956, and when my daddy went into a store to get some directions people stopped to stare at him. Nothing unusual about him just dressed in his normal boots, jeans and Stetson but they seemed awestruck by the cowboy. We thought it was very funny. Sorry, I’m in a rambling kind of mood today.
Doesn’t really matter to me as long as there is a HOT Cowboy there!