ROBIN: Jerry and I met poolside at my apartment complex on 8/8/88. Long story short, I asked him to let me know when I’d swum laps for fifteen minutes so I didn’t have to bother to look at the clock (hard to see from in the pool). I swam and I swam. Finally I asked, “Isn’t fifteen minutes up yet?” “No, not yet,” he answered with a grin. After that exchange was repeated a few times, I knew I’d been had. By about an extra ten minutes worth of laps.
I guess Jerry’s brothers kind of played matchmaker for us (and one of them is six foot four as well, Debra). After Jerry took me home to meet the family in the fall, they pulled him aside and told him he’d better not let this one get away or they’d give him what for. (Did I mention I liked his brothers from the start?) Poor guy. I’m not sure he knew what hit him from then on.
MARY: Wow, how did this little conversation turn to husbands? My husband is a farmer and rancher in Nebraska. He’s my high school sweetheart, and we just celebrated our thirty-sixth anniversary. My husband is from a family of seven sons, and we’ve got four daughters. Much of the comedy in my books comes from watching My Cowboy try to figure out the girls. He adores them, and at times they drive him crazy with their tears and the nonstop chatter and all the giggling. My first book, Petticoat Ranch, is about a mountain man who’s never been around women, who winds up married to a widow with four daughters. He is plunged into this confusing, charming, terrifying, all-girl world. A lot of the comedy from all my books, the way the women and men misunderstand each other, comes from watching my husband react to our girls.
MARGARET: Your husbands all have my deepest sympathies (especially Mary’s). Any man brave enough to marry a woman who dreams up tall handsome cowboys for a living should have his head examined. Speaking of which, my husband is six foot six and even taller in his cowboy hat. We met in church, which seems rather dull, except I was engaged to someone else at the time. A sensible, logical, left-brained type, he’s mystified to be married to a woman who knows how to travel across country in a covered wagon but can’t figure out how to put gas in the car.
DEBRA: I love all of your how-I-met-my-husband stories! Hearing others’ real-life beginnings is one of my favorite pastimes. My novella, An Ever After Summer, was my first historical love story, and I loved coming up with my characters’ backstories and showing God’s love to my characters. Y’all were so helpful walking me through the research process, and when I was lost as a goose on the Internet and coming up with nothing, I would ask and y’all were like the fastest guns in the West shooting me the answer or telling me where to go!
ROBIN: After more than thirty years of writing, I have the strangest information, especially of an historical nature, tucked away in my brain. Glad someone appreciates the info, Debra. Jerry has said I sometimes talk like I’m a hundred and fifty or two hundred years old. When he and I were first dating, the book on my coffee table was The Cholera Years. He should have had a clue about what being with a writer meant from my choice of reading material. But, lest I seem a complete relic, I also read People and Entertainment Weekly. Nothing like pop culture to snap me out of an historical fog!
MARY: I would love a copy of The Cholera Years, Robin. I tried to give one of my fictional towns a cholera epidemic and it was just all wrong. So frustrating. I needed a disease and settled on scarlet fever to wipe out a crowd of people, but I wanted a cholera outbreak badly and just couldn’t make it work. Uh . . . that doesn’t sound strange, by any chance, does it?
MARGARET: That particular book isn’t on my coffee table, but the search history on my computer would make a great witness for the prosecution. Before the sheriff pounds on my door, I better run; I have a stagecoach to catch (oops, there’s that historical fog Robin mentioned). One thing remains clear: we couldn’t have written this book without the support and enthusiasm of our editor, Ami McConnell, and the entire Thomas Nelson gang. The best part? The four of us get to do it all over again—with a second collection!
DEBRA: For this next go-round I’ve already started collecting research books—so, girls, y’all have hooked me. And yes, as Margaret said, we couldn’t have written this book without the fantastic support of our editor, Ami McConnell, and the awesome team at Thomas Nelson—thank you all so much. And, girls, I’m thrilled that we get to do another anthology together. I can’t wait to get started!
ROBIN: How could any of us not adore an editor who says she is “impressed” with our “fantastic” ideas for the next collection? Seriously, it’s been such a treat to work with Ami and everyone at Thomas Nelson. I count myself very fortunate.
MARY: Thomas Nelson has made this such a fun book for the four of us. We’ve managed to be ourselves in our own novellas while tying the four stories together in a way that makes a really fun collection. Ami, thank you for all your help. You’ve got a great gift, and I appreciate you sharing it with us.
AMI: You ladies are wonderful, and this has been so fun! But I’m going to have to close the interview now because you need to get back to writing. After all, we’re now looking forward to your next collection, Four Weddings and a Kiss!
About the Authors
NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR MARGARET Brownley has penned more than twenty-five historical and contemporary novels. Her books have won numerous awards, including Reader’s Choice. She has published the Rocky Creek series, and A Lady Like Sarah was a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist. Happily married to her real-life hero, Margaret and her husband have three grown children and live in Southern California.
DEBRA CLOPTON IS A MULTI-AWARD-WINNING NOVELIST who was first published in 2005 and has more than twenty-two novels to her credit. Along with her writing, Debra helps her husband teach the youth at their local Cowboy Church. Debra is the author of the acclaimed Mule Hollow Matchmaker series, the place readers tell her they wish were real. Her goal is to shine a light toward God while she entertains readers with her words.
BEST-SELLING NOVELIST ROBIN LEE HATCHER IS KNOWN for her heartwarming and emotionally charged stories of faith, courage, and love. The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance, the Carol Award, two Romantic Times Career Achievement Awards, and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of more than sixty-five novels.
MARY CONNEALY WRITES ROMANTIC COMEDY WITH COWBOYS. She is a Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy, and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist. She is the author of the best-selling Kincaid Brides series: Out of Control, In Too Deep, Over the Edge; Lassoed in Texas trilogy; Montana Marriages trilogy; and Sophie’s Daughters trilogy. Mary is married to a Nebraska rancher and has four grown daughters and two spectacular grandchildren.
Margaret Brownley, Robin Lee Hatcher, Mary Connealy, Debra Clopton Page 28