Welcome to our New Faces column, where we are pleased to turn the spotlightonsome of the debut authors in the romance industry. We're pleased to welcome Claire King, whose debut romance Knight in a White Stetson has just been published by Silhouette. Welcome, Claire!

Tell us about yourself.

Well, for one thing, I may be one of the few authors writing western romance who actually lives on a working cattle ranch. My husband and I run my family's 4,500 acre cattle ranch in the high desert country of Idaho. We manage 450 head of stock cattle, a dozen ranch horses, a large haying operation and about 40 square miles of wilderness grazing. (Plus my goats, lambs and chickens, which real cowboys consider an embarrassment to a proper cattle ranch, so I won't mention them! )

My husband and I both grew up in Southern California, but when the opportunity arose to run the 120-years-old homestead, we jumped at it. We have one young son, born and raised here on the ranch, who loves his wilderness upbringing. He grumbles a little about the 2-hour round-trip school bus ride every day, though; he insists his horse would be faster.

Are you coming to romance writing from another job?

Actually, I come to romance writing from another job every morning. The cows don't much care about my other career; they insist I drive the hay wagon whether I'm on deadline or not. If I'm not writing, I'm usually out on the ranch somewhere, following cattle through the mountains, helping to stack hay, chopping weeds, running the chuckwagon; you know, the usual stuff of a suburban career gal.

I also spent seven years writing a syndicated newspaper humor column based on ranch life. The column was a lot of fun to write, and over the years won several major journalism awards. I stopped writing it last spring, though, when I sold my first romance; too many irons in the fire (a couple of them literal!). Knight in a White Stetson is my second book; I co-authored a non-fiction compilation of my columns in 1997.

What led you to write romance?

My sisters and I have always been 4-book-a-week readers, and have exchanged our favorite romances for years. I've always loved the sense of immediacy and relevancy of a romance; they really tell the most basic story of the human experience. I particularly like the short, category romances. They are very succint, very tightly focused on the essence of the romance, and better than psychopharmecueticals for reliveing stress! After I'd been writing professionally for a few years, my older sister suggested I write a romance. I wrote Knight in a White Stetson in about six weeks.

Tell us about your road to publication.

The original manuscript for Knight in a White Stetson was about twice the length it is now. I apparently went insane the first time I was freed from the restrictions of a 1000 word newspaper column. I sent it out and the first publisher who read it wanted it. But they were going to publish it electronically, and although I think that's an interesting idea, I wanted a "real" book.

I eventually found an agent, but I don't think she ever actually took the manuscript out of the box, so nothing happened for more than a year. I then found another agent who was really dedicated to the romance genre, and she had me rework the manuscript for Silhouette.

I once heard Debbie Macomber say the five years between when she wrote and published her first book were the hardest years of her life. I can relate. Without my family and the support of my agent, I would have let the frustration overtake the dream.

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

Everything is research around here. I have to think of it that way, otherwise hoeing hemlock out of the irrigation ditches and castrating calves seems a lot like actual work.

The cow camp in Knight in a White Stetson , the old chalk road where Calla and Henry first meet, the barn, the cliffs where Henry rescues Calla, those are all a part of our ranch. I wrote what I knew.

Who are your influences as a writer?

Oh, the toughest question. Everyone, it seems. A friend of mine gave me Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, a couple years ago. It's a book for writers, and really influenced my outlook as a writer as much as anything has. I love Ivan Doig, Wallace Stegner and Willa Cather for their flawless descriptions of the west. I read everything by Nora Roberts. I think Susan Elizabeth Phillips is hilarious. I like the slightly dark, mysterious characters of Anne Stuart. Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm was possibly the most poignant book I ever read. I love everything she writes. Diana Gabaldon rocks my world. I dreamed about Jamie and Claire for weeks after I read Outlander. Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick books have fun sex scenes. Jane Austen is the queen of romantic tension and misunderstandings between characters. I read every Jane Austen novel before I was twelve. Aah, so many more.

What does your family think of having a romance author in their midst?

Frankly, the cows come first around here. You get a little pink-eye in the herd or have a bad winter or the mountain lions come down from the hills and start eating the new calves, and writing pales in importance. But my husband has worked like a fiend these past fifteen years so I could pursue my dream of writing, and he shares every success and failure with me. He's amazing, fiercely supportive ( he can't believe it when I get a rejection notice), and the real reason I believe in true love. My sisters, too, have been an incredible source of assistance and inspiration. They've pretty much dedicated their lives to me during this process. I could not have done anything without them.

Tell us about plans for future books.

I've just sent two more manuscripts to my editor at Silhouette, and I hope to see those on bookshelves early next year. The first, about a female vet and the cattleman who loves, then betrays her, is also set in Idaho. It's got a surprise villain, chemical espionage, an anthrax scare, an emperiled heroine...everything! The second is about a hermit horse breeder who has an Air Force cargo plane crash onto her secluded ranch and has to deal with the aftereffects, including one tough and gorgeous Lt. Colonel, for weeks afterwards. This book is based on a true-life event: an Air Force plane crashed onto our mountain a few years ago. Very dramatic.

I'm working on a manuscript right now about an oceanographer who goes to Baja California to study currents in the Sea of Cortez and ends up falling in love with the most unsuitable man and becoming embroiled in an international drug smuggling investigation. It's by far the most intense story I've written. My husband especially loves this plot line, and he spends a lot of time trying to convince me we need to go sport fishing in Baja for "research".

I'd like to set my next book in Africa. I was on safari in Tanzania with my family a couple years ago, and the place is never out of my thoughts. Maybe I'll send an anthropologist over there to fight with a missionary.

How can readers get in touch with you?

I'm working on a web site right now. Will send this information as soon as possible. Thank you.

Claire, best of luck! Readers, we have a review of Knight in a White Stetson for you.

April 12, 1999