A Wylder West Campfire with Marilyn Barr and her guest.

Wonderful! The camp is a place where we enjoy meeting new people from all over. What’s your preference, coffee, tea, cocoa, wine? The camp fridge is like a magical Chuck Wagon. You speak it, you get it. 
Marilyn. We are coffee drinkers.

DV: I can do Cowboy coffee if you don’t mind grounds but since we’re modern I think I’ll use my Corning percolator? How do you take it? 
Olive: Six-shooter not black water, please.
Marilyn: That’s how they ordered full-strength black coffee in the US Wild West. If you didn’t specify, it was automatically watered down to what we call half-caffeinated.

Ugh, what’s the point of drinking it then. Six- shooters for all. Olive in your time I would guess “camping” is much more prevalent.
Olive: I’ve never lived in a house so my entire life is what you would call a camping trip. I’m a guttersnipe or what you call an orphan, so I roamed around our beautiful country. I had help from the migrant tribes where I would spend the night in a teepee, asi, or wikiup, but mostly I slept under the stars.
Marilyn: Well, I have it on good authority that your intended Nartan Sagebrush has spent the past seven months building a modest cabin for you. Living in one place will be a big adjustment.
Olive: I can’t wait to meet Mr. Nartan Sagebrush. I heard he is as genuine as a thoroughbred but gentle as a colt. He put this advertisement in the telegraph office in Lusk and a good Samaritan brought it to my person. 

DV: Wait! Advertisement? Like mail order bride? Is that it? Can I see it?
Olive: Oh yes. “A quiet wife for a quiet life.” He’s a leather tanner from what I hear. Isn’t that a fine dream? A permanent home with a vocation to fill my soul with a husband to fill my belly with babies. I haven’t seen Mr. Sagebrush but even if he’s uglier than a bucktoothed opossum, I could love him for giving me this dream.

But Olive, you aren’t exactly a quiet woman…are you worried about getting along with him?
Olive: I know I’m louder than the songbirds in spring. When he sees my heart is in his corner, he will adjust. I hope. Well, maybe I will be focused on not causing trouble.
  
Marilyn can you tell us about your latest project and what’s on the horizon? 
Marilyn: Olive’s book Dance to a Wylder Beat comes out this spring. When her stagecoach rattles into town, she not only rattles Nartan but the entire town of Wylder. 
Olive: How could lil’ole me do that?
Marilyn: Just wait and see. Today is the cover reveal for Dance to a Wylder Beat and we are so grateful to you for hosting us.

Is that you on the cover?
Marilyn: Yes, Nartan insisted Olive was the cover model on the adventure they share. Despite their rocky start, Nartan commits to making Olive happy. Once Nartan commits to something, nothing will change his mind.

The cover is gorgeous and so are you, Olive. I can’t imagine he’ll be disappointed in you.  Do you have a life motto? 
Olive: My motto is to give everyone a chance for you haven’t seen the world through their eyes. Sometimes the meanest people are the ones who need the most care. If you judge them at first sight, you miss out on the lesson they bring to you. I’ve met gentle souls from Mexico to Montana and learned how to do so many things. I can work leather, pound pemmican, butcher animals, read, and work numbers, because I would listen to anyone willing to talk to me.
Marilyn: Well said, Olive. You are a survivor because you saw the good in everyone you met along your travels.

How long did it take you from conception to publication? How did you do it so quickly, or what circumstances drew the process out.
Marilyn: Olive, I will take this one. I dreamed of Nartan last July – 
Olive: Hey! That’s my man! If you dreamed of him, why won’t you tell me what he looks like? He’s just a shadow on the cover. 
Marilyn: Don’t worry, Olive. I’m happily married and wouldn’t survive on the Sagebrush Homestead of 1878. I can’t live without things you don’t know were invented yet…and no, you will just have to wait and see what Nartan looks like. Go ahead and pout.
Olive: I wasn’t pouting.
Marilyn: I wrote Dance to a Wylder Beat from start to finish in August of 2020. I have never written a book so quickly. It felt as if someone else possessed my fingers on the keys. It flew through the editing process once the level of “old-timey phrases” was established. My only struggle was the balance between Olive and Nartan’s 1878 voice and their 2021 audience. I didn’t want anyone to have to Google what they were saying.
Olive: Who are you calling “old-timey”? What’s a Google? Is it like a newspaper?

Marilyn, looks like you walked into that one. We don’t have time to explain the tech behind search engines. Are there any mentors, authors, or books other than yours you would like to give a shout-out to? 
Marilyn: Dance to a Wylder Beat is part of a multi-author series designed by The Wild Rose Press called The Wylder West. All the books take place in and around the town of Wylder, Wyoming Territory. While all the books presently published take place in 1878, there are other books in the works which tell Wylder’s story from then to the present day. 
The series started with the first four books being released at the same time. Nicole McCaffrey’s The Wylder County Social Club, Kim Turner’s Wylder Hearts, Laura Strickland’s A Walk on the Wylder Side, and Sarita Leone’s A Wylder Christmas establishes the town of Wylder for readers. While the books can be read in any order, readers have loved the different styles and stories of the same town’s people. Next released was Sherrie Lea Morgan’s Wylder Magic, which I just loved. Home in Wylder by Jane Lewis and A Wylder Undertaking by Laura Strickland are the newest releases. A reader can enjoy a wide range of stories from sweet to steamy, and funny to tear-jerking, in Wylder. I have enjoyed every book.

Wow these sound amazing. And readers might not understand the research that goes into not only a particular author’s book but all the books in the series to make the cohesive. Can you tell us what literary success look like to you?
Being in the same group as the other Wylder West authors is the definition of success to me. I’m a fan of them all. I’m still shocked my proposal was accepted. I’m waiting for my alarm to wake me up from this dream. I love hanging out in the Wylder West Facebook group with readers and the other authors. The camaraderie is incredible, and I’m honored to be a part of it.

Life Hacks for Authors. Tips, tricks, or anything you specialize in that you would share with others. And if you don’t mind how you’ve dealt with Covid 19.
Marilyn: Olive close your ears. I have made it a goal to learn about a new topic each month we have been in quarantine. From pirate documentaries to YouTube tutorials on making paneer from scratch, I have loved every minute of it. For Dance to a Wylder Beat, I took a non-mechanized leather tanning course with our local historical society at a historical site. When the other students heard I was researching for a romance novel, I became the heel of many “leather uses” jokes…ah-hem… I learned not only would I make an awful leather tanning (little upper body strength) but also the smell would chase me away. Leather was soaked in urine in 1878 to release the fat and hair from it. Then the rawhide was conditioned with a mixture of cedar oil and cattle brains. I was fine scooping the brains from the skulls and mixing the conditioner. It was pulling the skins who had sat in urine for a few days that sent me running for the hills! 

Taking something awful and turning it into a learning and life experience. I applaud you. Now the fun questions If they made a movie about your life, what would the title be and who would play you? 
Marilyn: For Dance to a Wylder Beat, I would have Adam Joaquin-Gonzalez play Nartan Sagebrush. Adam Beach (circa 2010) would play Nartan’s nearly silent brother, Ikshu Sagebrush. Olive Muegge would be played by Maria Gomez circa 1966.

Do you have a special object like a piece of jewelry or keepsake of some sort?
Olive: Since I’ve been on the run my entire life, I have no special keepsakes. If I can’t carry it easily, it is left behind.
Marilyn: Your future husband has many special treasures though. He keeps his ceremonial costume and Shamanic tools in the special chest. Those cultural artifacts are hidden away.
Olive: Why would Mr. Sagebrush hide his spiritual gifts after studying with a medicine man?
Marilyn: That’s for Nartan to tell.
Olive: I will just have to find this chest and go through it for myself.

Teach me something I don’t know in two sentences.
Olive: Marilyn thinks it’s funny my skunk eggs are what you call onions. Bird eggs are called cackleberries and lizard eggs are called snake droppings in 1878. 

What do you think the headlines will read 40 years from now?
Marilyn: Olive, this one is for you. What will the headlines look like in the 1920s?
Olive: Oh, my stars! There will be railroads crisscrossing our land from sea to sea. You could hop on a train and go around the world if you liked. The trains would bring more people to feed, so we will have more cattle everywhere. I bet every house will need its own herd. We’ve already seen an influx of cattle coming from Texas to graze on our common green. In twenty years, I bet grazing land will be more expensive than city buildings.

If you could eat anything in the world right now, what would it be?
Marilyn: Pizza. I live for pizza.
DV: Did they have pizza in 1878?
Olive: I don’t know what a pizza is, but I don’t know anything about settler food. I was relieved when Mr. Sagebrush’s advertisement didn’t mention cooking skills.
DV: You should pick up a pizza for Olive before she is returned to 1878. I don’t think there’s delivery here at Camp.
Marilyn: Wouldn’t that be a blast! Pizza came to America until 1905 so it wouldn’t ruin history too much if we snuck her some.
Olive: I don’t know if I want to mess with explosive food.
Marilyn: It’s not – never mind. I must pick up some pizza before we head back to my time machine, so we better get going.
Olive: Thank you kindly, Ma’am, it’s been a pleasure.
Marilyn: Yes, Thank you so much for hosting Olive and me. Look for more of Olive’s antics in my upcoming release Dance to a Wylder Beat and check out the rest of The Wylder West series by the talented authors of The Wild Rose Press.

I’m so happy you both stopped by. I know you both have a busy schedule but before you leave, could you tell us more about the book, where to find and links to more about you, Marilyn?