Guest Post: Jane Porter, author of She’s Gone Country
Please welcome Jane Porter, author of a new novel, She’s Gone Country! Check out our review here.
by Jane Porter
After writing several suburban mom novels set in affluent Bellevue, Washington, I was really ready to write about a different part of America, a more rural, rustic lifestyle and that’s what I did in She’s Gone Country.
Although I live in Microsoft land now, I wasn’t raised in a sophisticated society. My hometown in Central California was an ag-based community. One of my best friends in high school was a beautiful brainy and very blonde rancher’s daughter who was active in 4-H and Future Farmers of America. Cyndi wore mascara, cowboy boots and tight faded Wranglers with a massive silver heart belt buckle. I’m pretty sure Cyndi influenced the character Shey in She’s Gone Country, as did my maternal grandfather, a handsome Texan from El Paso.
My grandfather, William Lyles, was tough as nails and a self-made man. He learned early in life that he could do anything if he worked hard enough, so he worked very very hard. He owned two cattle ranches and a large successful construction company and to get from Texas to California, he flew his own plane, finding it far easier to build his own airstrips on his ranches and fly right in, then to travel by commercial aircraft and need a rental car.
My grandfather died during a round-up on the Parkfield Ranch, 40 miles east of Paso Robles, California. But [amazonify]0446509418[/amazonify]my grandfather’s focused and yet resilient nature made a lasting impression on me. It’s also helped shape the way I look at life, and as the mother of three sons, I want my boys to be strong, but I also want them to be themselves.
She’s Gone Country is a story of all the things I love best—raising boys, wide open spaces, ranchers and cowboys, and love. Love for our men. But also, love for ourselves.
To go along with the title of this blog, I asked Jane what luxury meant to her.
My luxury is travel. I literally work to travel. And whenever I can, I take my kids with me, too, as I think one of the best ways to live life is to explore the world around us. And while I like camping, nothing beats a great hotel with a gorgeous pool, 5 star spa, and all the amenities. It’s absolute bliss to walk into that cool, plush, luxurious room and fall onto the down duvet covered in the softest, whitest Egyptian cotton. Heaven!
For more on Jane Porter and She’s Gone Country, visit www.janeporter.com or her Facebook page.
Category: Guest Posts
I won this book too but it is stuck in my boxes waiting for the move. I was attracted to this book before I read the description by the author’s wonderful smile! I spent many months in the summer with my aunts and uncles and cousins enjoying the country. I so glad it was pre-computer, color TV and many other things. Now I have memories of my uncle’s dog bringing in the cows at the end of the day, climbing a ladder inside a barn to see baby kittens and my uncle squirting milk from a cow’s udder directly into a cat’s mouth.
Carol Wong
I don’t think I have read anything by Jane Porter, but her name sounds so familiar to me. Just reading the description of Cyndi (I even like the y and i reversal) got me interested in this. Based on that description, I could immediately see her just perfectly in my head.
Vera, I really appreciate that you feature authors on a frequent basis. Seeing a photo of the real person behind the book usually makes me want to pick up at least one of their books, where it may not have appealed to me without a hearing a bit of how they came up with the story.
This is a fun guest post! Especially since I just won a copy of your book in a giveaway at another blog
I’m eagerly awaiting it’s arrival. I love how you drew from your own roots and loves to creat this story … I think, when writers write what they know and love best, that’s when the best stories come. I am super excited about this book, and cannot wait until it comes in and I can lose myself in Texas 
Congrats on your win Rivka. I only win stuff if the Feng Shui is right in my house. Hard to believe, but it is absolutely true. If I did not spend so much time at the computer, I could get the Feng Shui corrected.
Enjoy the book and let us know what you think.
haha, Thanks! I was pretty excited when I found out I’d won – I entered knowing it was a longshot and was rewarded for my leap
A review will def be posted on my blog once I get it read! 
Hey Rivka, I saw on your book blog that you have read all of the Anne of Green Gable series. I read the first book and really enjoyed it but was afraid the sequels would be a let down. Did you find that the subsequent books were are good as the first?
I love to hear an author’s perspective of where their book ideas come from and who or what has influenced the characters. Her grandfather sounds like a wonderful, strong man (not unlike a few grandfatherly aged men in my life…maybe it is generational?). I have a son myself, so I can see her want to have them be strong men but also have an identity of their own. I feel the same way with my own. I have her book on my TBR shelf (along with, it seems like, hundreds more
) and I cannot wait to read it. My husband came from a rural setting and many of the people he grew up with were very country, so it would be fun to try to think about them fitting into the story.
Oh, one last thing…she is making me so jealous with her descriptions of 5 star hotels. I want to go!
Five star hotels are nice but I am thinking now that I want to visit a dude ranch. I think about Spin and Marty and round-up cattle drives, campfires and cookouts. Yes, I think I rather be home on the range.
The book does sound great.
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I just wanna go riding … It can be riding on the beach (just not my East coast beaches right now, with Earl offshore!), or riding on trails, or riding across the prairie: I just wanna be sitting on a horse and riding into the openness
I used to love watching Spin and Marty. I dreamed about dude ranches a lot!
This is a nice perspective of the author. I would like to live in Washington but I am also content to live in California’s Central Valley and regularly blog about the location, if you are indeed reading this response Jane.
http://channelingricky.blogspot.com
I do not know Parkfield Ranch, is it perhaps Harris Ranch now? Can’t even imagine what a roundup might actually be like, but surely it is dangerous.
I think the book sounds interesting. Thanks for the author info.
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