The Diamond Mine of Christian Fiction: cowboys

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Davalynn Spencer loves her cowboys!

Hey y'all! It's Rebekah here. Today we get to meet Davalynn Spencer.

Davalynn writes inspirational Western romance complete with rugged cowboys, their challenges, and their loves. She is the wife and mother of professional rodeo bullfighters, and worked several years as a rodeo journalist and crime-beat reporter, winning awards in both arenas. Her fiction has finaled for the 2015 Will Rogers Medallion and the 2014 Inspirational Reader's Choice Award, Selah, and Holt Medallion. Davalynn teaches writing at Pueblo Community College and makes her home on Colorado’s Front Range with her handsome cowboy and a Queensland heeler named Blue.

Rebekah: What's your favorite thing about your genre?
Davalynn: Cowboys!

Rebekah: Describe The Columbine Bride in 3 separate words.
Davalynn: Need - Hope - Love

Rebekah: If your book was made into a movie, what actors would you cast as your main hero and heroine?
Davalynn: Tom Selleck and Sasha Alexandra

Rebekah: How long did it take you to write this book? How do you balance writing with other responsibilities (job, family, etc.)?
Davalynn: It took me a couple of months to write this novella—but that includes several drafts, edits, and the final version. In a perfect world, I would write fiction all day. But I’m a college English professor and newspaper columnist, so I usually work on my novels in the afternoons.

Rebekah: When did you realize you first wanted to be a writer?
Davalynn: Sixth grade.

Rebekah: Do you stick to your TBR pile or are you an impulsive book buyer? What are you currently reading?
Davalynn: I am more of an impulsive reader and I read across genres. I’m currently reading The Journey of Josephine Cain by Nancy Moser. I just finished House of Mercy by Erin Healy.

Rebekah: At some point an author has to torture their characters. Tell us the truth. Do you enjoy or hate it?
Davalynn: I force myself to make things difficult for my characters. Sometimes I write two versions of one scene – the one I want that makes everything turn out just right, and the one that ramps up the conflict. Of course the second version is always better and builds tension toward a satisfying ending.

Rebekah: Who’s your number one fictional character crush OR favorite fictional couple?
Davalynn: I’m a big fan of Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) and Sue Barlow (Annette Bening) in Open Range.

Rebekah: What’s one thing readers would be surprised to know about you?
Davalynn: My husband was a rodeo bullfighter and clown for many years. Once when he was injured and the doctor said he couldn’t return to the arena for a week, I dressed up in his clown clothes and continued with the comedy acts. We had a contract, and “the show must go on,” right? But I didn’t fight bulls. Mama didn’t raise no fool!

Davalynn's newest release: The Columbine Bride ~ a novella in Barbour’s collection, The 12 Brides of Summer

Lucy Powell is on a path not of her choosing: widowhood. But she’s determined she doesn’t need anyone’s help to get her neglected ranch back in order and running right—especially the neighboring rancher who keeps showing up at the end of her shotgun. Buck Reiter can’t leave Lucy and her two young’uns alone. It’s just not in him to sit by and watch while someone struggles. But he ends up as the struggler, searching for a way to let Lucy know there’s a whole lot more going on in his heart than just being neighborly.