Everyone, please welcome Terri Meeker. She's sharing her newest release with us today, and history has never been so hot!
Billy the Kid – Sexy as Hell
And before you roll your eyes – no, Emilio Estevez in “Young
Guns” is not Billy the Kid. That ‘The Mighty Ducks” dude played him way
too sociopathic. While we’re on it, Kris
Kristofferson and Val Kilmer (shudder) also were a far distance from the real
William H. Bonney. From a physical standpoint, Paul Newman came close in “The
Left Handed Gun,” but mostly Hollywood gets him wrong.
One of my favorite bits about the real Billy comes from Lew
Wallace, the man who was the governor of New Mexico while Billy rode the west.
While sitting in his office one night, Wallace complained “A precious specimen
named ‘The Kid,’ whom the sheriff is holding here in the Plaza, as it is
called,, is an object of tender regard. I heard singing and music the other
night; going to the door, I found the minstrels of the village actually
serenading the fellow in his prison.”
What kind of man would inspire that level of devotion? Who
was Billy the Kid? The best way to see him was through the eyes of those who
knew him.
Physically, he was good-looking and ‘very popular with the
ladies’. Many people describe his ‘dancing’ blue eyes and his fine, wavy hair.
A forensic artist from King County, Washington drew the accompanying sketch.
Billy was known to have had a querida (sweetheart) in every
little village in the territory. He was also was known for being a gentleman. Even
the man who killed him, Sheriff Pat Garrett said Billy’s manners were “as fine
as any college-bred youth.”
Along with about fifty percent of the population of New
Mexico at the time, Billy was a cattle rustler. He was also very generous with
his earnings. He was once described as blowing all his money, not at the bar,
but on candy hearts for a girl he was seeing.
Though he was famous for never drinking alcohol, Billy loved
going to all the parties of his time. He knew all the dances. If a party wasn’t
happening, Billy would create one – by going over to a friend’s house and
singing to the wee hours of the morning. He was known to have a lovely tenor
voice.
He was the leader of ‘The Regulators’ while still in his
teens and was the only Regulator to be involved in every skirmish in the
Lincoln County war. He must have been a captivating figure. Those who knew him
certainly thought so. And the guy’s had
over fifty movies made about him – more than any other historical character.
There’s got to be something about him.
While researching my book about him, I read over a dozen
biographies and even traveled to New Mexico to hang out in Billy’s old
haunts.
I like to think I captured some
of his spirit in my book, ‘Dancing with Billy the Kid.’
Thank you for sharing your new release with us, Terri! If you want to find out more about Terri Meeker and her books make sure you head to her website.
If you’d like to order “Dancing with Billy
the Kid,” just click here.
Bonnie Borle finally has the missing piece
for her history dissertation in her hot little hands. What she must do for it
is chilling—go back to 1881 to fix a hitch in Billy the Kid’s timeline.
Sneaking her 2016 purse through the portal
is easy. Resisting the temptation to tweak a few events surrounding the Kid’s
famous jailbreak is impossible. So is resisting Billy’s dancing eyes and
devil-may-care charm.
Though Billy’s spooked by Bonnie’s seeming
ability to read his mind, he falls a little more in love every time she cuts
loose with her blue-streak vocabulary. But it’s what’s in that fancy mochila of
hers that fascinates him the most. Things that light up, play music—and
foretell a future that doesn’t end as pretty as his Jules Verne novels.
As they run from the posse, Bonnie loses
the battle to keep her hands off Billy. But at all costs she has to keep her
hands off his future. Because Billy’s got a grim date with destiny. And erasing
it could erase Bonnie—permanently.
Terri Meeker is supposed to write her
author blurb in the third person. It’s just how things are done. She
shouldn’t question it, but then she’s always been difficult. Even in high
school, her best friend’s mother described her as ‘eccentric’ before urging her
daughter to make friends with a nice, normal girl.
Born in Wyoming, Terri now lives on Fidalgo
Island in Washington State. An ex-history teacher, she’s loved learning
about the past since childhood and has been fortunate to live in lots of
interesting places: Washington DC, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach, Albuquerque,
Missouri and Mons, Belgium. She’s married and a mom of 3 humans, two dogs and
two cats. She’s also a Whedonite, a gamer and a ginormous nerd. Needless
to say, she loves to write.
Terri is really getting into this third
person thing and thinks it will give her a lot of gravitas during future dinner
conversations. She thinks you should probably start doing it as well. Oh, and
you should absolutely connect on facebook, twitter or via her website. She’s really
friendly.
