Happy Endings by Susan Payne

.....1874 Sweetwater was growing in all sorts of ways. New bank, new school and new houses for the families settling there joining the original ranchers. This busy town was earning a reputation for peaceful living and prosperity for everyone.

.....Will an unwanted intrusion from outsiders bring all that to an end? Would the townspeople and those in the perimeter of protection be endangered? Or will everything work out as it was meant to for the people living and loving in Sweetwater?

Wild Women Authors welcomes back Susan Payne with Happy Endings, the last in her Sweetwater series recently released out of the Wild Rose Press. With Susan is Maggie St. Michaels, local restaurant manager.

Good morning, Maggie. Please tell us a bit about yourself. “I was raised in St. Michaels Foundling Home in New York City until I graduated at eighteen. I came to Sweetwater after my sister, Callie Harrison, contacted me asking for help on her ranch. Mary Elizabeth and I came together. The two Mary’s the ranch hands called us.”

Tell us a bit about Sweetwater’s Happy Endings. “Well, I’ve been here since about the beginning of the town taking off. Right after the railroad came through and businesses began popping up. They had some, of course, but since I’ve been here, we’ve opened up a newspaper and a new bank. Our own midwife. We have an attorney and architect, photography shop, a leather smith, the wonderful Sweetwater Bakery, a boarding house, and the restaurant inside the saloon.”

What did you think the first time you saw Franklin Johnson? “I was so busy I barely had time to think much about him accept that he was helping me set up a much-needed restaurant for the workmen in town. Someplace they could get a square meal at a reasonable price.”

What was your second thought? “That he was handsome, kind and if things had been different, I would have fallen for him right away.”

Was it love at first sight? “ I felt I owed too many people for my good fortune. I needed to pay them back for helping me find a job and place to sleep. On my own, I would never have been able to manage a restaurant as I’m doing now.”

What do you like most about Franklin Johnson? “His kindness. Even when he lost his memory of me, he was always polite and helpful. A good worker and willing to do whatever needed doing. I think most in town would agree with me.”

How would you describe him? “Tall, good-looking, but then he has an identical twin so I don’t think of his looks as important as his character. In that way, Franklin tops Hamilton by a mile.”

How would Franklin describe you? “Probably as a pain in his you know what. I came into his saloon and turned it upside down. His workday now begins at five a.m. and doesn’t stop till close of business at ten o’clock or so. Then there was clean up, bed, and back to work again in the morning. That’s seven days a week. The men had to be fed three times a day so there wasn’t much rest for either of us.”

What made you choose managing a restaurant as a career? “It kind of landed on me. A couple of my sisters from the orphanage said the town needed this kind of restaurant and I was the most experienced one available. I had helped feed the ranch hands out at the Harrison ranch, was trained by Callie, and was free to do it.”

What is your biggest fear? “That I will wake-up and find this is all a dream. My job, my being with so many St. Michaels orphans, and Franklin no longer my husband.”

How do you relax? “Franklin and I like to go fishing along the Sweetwater river just outside of town. We don’t get much time, but when we do, that’s where you’ll find us.”

Who is your favorite fictional character? “Cinderella. She worked hard and got her prince. I guess she would be near the top.”

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? “Stay true to yourself. If you do then it doesn’t matter what others think. My namesake, Sister Mary Margaret, now Mother Superior, told me that along the way. We all listened to her advice and took it to heart.”

Maggie, thank you for taking time away from the restaurant to chat with us. Now it's Susan's turn under the spotlight.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? “All the old westerns, of course. Zane Grey Presents. I also spent hours listening to recordings of theater shows. South Pacific, Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – I spun the stories as I listened to the songs. Made up lives for them after the play was finished.”

What event in your private life were you able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? “You may notice these books were all about the food. Sustenance in all forms. Cooking since that hasn’t changed all that much. My grandmother cooked all her life on a wood burning stove. Baked the best pies and cookies without a means of controlling heat. Merely knowing when to add wood or stir up embers. I never knew her to burn anything. Canned all her own food which they grew on the eighty acres she received as her wedding gift from her parents. That ability to be self-sustaining is carried through in many of my historical western stories. A way to touch those characters I write about.”

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? Wild Rose Press is exceptional in their ability to help new authors. Or authors who are under-represented. They have an ala’ carte menu that I found helped me get published and distributed. They are extremely easy to work with and don’t mind answering the newby questions.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? “So many now…I have an eclectic taste in genre. I read three and find four more. It’s never ending.”

Lastly, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? “I have The Persistent Marquess releasing on July 15^th. Also a mail-order-bride with an agenda besides marriage on her mind, Forever Kind of Woman, out this summer. A Regency Christmas anthology out in September. Also, two more westerns, The Texas Ranger and The Professor with Wild Rose Press and Montana Lineman with Literary Wanderlust by the end of the year.

Here's a bit more information about our guest author:

A voracious reader her whole life, Susan Payne loved the written word. When reading more than fifty books per month wasn’t enough, she decided to allow her mind to take flight and write all the many stories that kept intruding in her life. She blended her love of history and her love of words to create over eighty stories. All historical and centering on a couple finding love and a happy ever after together.

The author has published a series of stories surrounding fictional Sweetwater Kansas beginning with Harrison Ranch through The Wild Rose Press and Montana Lineman by Literary Wanderlust due out by end of 2020.

To learn more about Susan Payne and the stories she creates, go to:

Website: www.authorsusanpayne.com

Email: authorspayne@gmail.com