Research. Yes, I actually enjoyed the research needed to write this series.
The eight books in the Bluegrass Reunion series are contemporary romances about family and second chances. They are set in Kentucky. Each romance stands alone.
For Kentucky Cowboy, I learned about the Professional Bull Riders—about bull ropes and suicide wraps, about “rank” bulls like the champion Bushwacker and famous cowboys like Ty Murray and the Brazilian Adriano Moraes. For firsthand research, my husband and I took many enjoyable field trips to PBR events.
Bull riding is “America’s original extreme sport,” and it’s no job for the faint of heart. Like my hero Judd Romeo, the cowboys are in it for the love of competition and the love of the sport.
I was pleased when a reviewer on Amazon validated my research. She said, “We are bull riding fans at our house so this book was particularly interesting to me. Ms. Scarbrough must either be a diehard fan of bull riding or did a lot of research of the sport of bull riding and interviews with bull riders because she really relates to the passion these young men have.”
For Kentucky Blue Bloods, I booked a horse farm tour in the Kentucky bluegrass with Unbridled Horse Tours. I wanted to see a broodmare farm and Keeneland. The tour took place a week before the big September sale, and the horses had not yet arrived. However, I soaked up the atmosphere of the sales pavilion and the barns. I hope I conveyed it in the book.
Many of the heroines in the Bluegrass Reunion Series are single mothers. I didn’t need research for that part of the books. I lived it. Most of the mothers were either unmarried or like Mandy in Kentucky Cowboy an aunt. It wasn’t until book seven, Kentucky Rain, that I actually felt comfortable writing a divorced heroine.
And as for the books containing American Saddlebred horses—well, I research firsthand every week when I take my riding lesson at Premier Stables.
