Today, on the penultimate stop of my blog tour, I’m a guest of Cowgirl Dreams author Heidi Thomas, who lets me entertain the notion of writing the West into a story.

I write:

Setting isn’t just a place to drop a story. Done right, setting becomes something like a story’s center of gravity, an anchor to which plot lines can be tethered and held in place, allowing for a book’s architecture to stand strong.

Heidi’s novel, about a headstrong woman’s dreams of becoming a rodeo performer, traffics heavily in Western themes. So does my 600 Hours of Edward, in a more contemporary, urban way. The key with any story is to find the right place and then convey it in the DNA of the tale.

Thanks, Heidi, for letting me hold forth. If you’re interested in winning a signed copy of my book, head on over and leave a comment.

Tomorrow, the tour wraps up with a post at the blog run by Carol Buchanan, a Spur Award winner for God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana. There, I’ll chat about the development of my main character, Edward Stanton.