Harris Twins Q&A 

 

Is Twin Springs a real place?
Twin Springs Ranch is entirely made up, but there are many places like it. This past summer I travelled to Arizona for a stay at a dude ranch to surround myself with the atmosphere while I worked on edits for A Song for the Cowgirl (out this week!). The ranch I booked is significantly bigger than Twin Springs, but at any size, the magical moments remain the same. My room was set along the horse paddocks, so each morning I opened my shutters to a herd of horses hanging around and just being horses. I went on trail rides, ate in the very western-appointed dining room, and hung out absorbing the ranch atmosphere. It was lovely, and I definitely snagged some tiny moments to add into the book to make Twin Springs even more real.

 

 

 

Why did you start writing cowboy romance?

To be honest, romance was never really on my radar. I’d pick up books with horses periodically and almost always be disappointed about how they were portrayed unrealistically or as props. When I was complaining to some writer friends, they suggested I shut up and do it myself. Too many books that were ‘only; horse books were middle-grade or YA, and that wasn’t my audience, so I looked at where else horses popped up: romance. Cowboy romance is the most popular instance, so I started there. I read a ton and then dove in! My first drafts were... shall we say, not very romantic, but my amazing team of early readers and editors helped me whip it into shape, and thus Twin Springs was born... basically on a dare. Now they (and the genre in general) have a special place in my heart, and I hope to keep revisiting the ranch with companion stories for a long time to come.

 

 

Are any of the horses in the book based on actual horses you know?

Sort of. I have been at big barns, small barns, private barns, sale barns—breeding barns... the list goes on and on, and at every one there have been horses that made an impact on me, but I have never actually owned them. So, in the interest of not using horse identities that were not my own, I have used bits and pieces along the way. I leased a pony named Chili, though he was a gelding. I also leased a pretty palomino quarter horse, but his name was not Zip. I’ve known horses named Gunner and Chance and admired spotty Appaloosas and pintos... The list can go on for all the horses of TSR. The only place real horses appear in my books is in the dedications. Each book is dedicated to one of the important horses in my life. If you follow my Facebook page, you have probably ‘met’ some of those horses as I try to feature them as ‘their’ book comes out.