E.E. Burke's Best of the West featuring Peggy Henderson

The Yellowstone Romance Series

A young woman is given the opportunity of a lifetime to travel back in time to the era of the mountain men in untamed Yellowstone, where she meets the love of her life and sets in motion an ancient plan for the preservation of the park we love today. 

Yellowstone Heart Song: Book 1

"I am not good with words, but you make my heart sing, Aimee..."

Nurse and avid backpacker Aimee Donovan is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. She encounters a patient who tells her he is a time traveler and can send her two hundred years into the past to spend three months in the rugged Yellowstone wilderness at the dawn of the mountain man era. The only requirement: she cannot tell anyone that she’s from the future. 

How did a white woman suddenly appear in the remote Rocky Mountain wilderness? Trapper Daniel Osborne’s first instinct is to protect this mysterious and unconventional woman from the harsh realities of his mountains. While he fights his growing attraction to her, he is left frustrated by her lies and secrecy. 

Daniel shows Aimee a side of Yellowstone she’s never experienced. She is torn between her feelings for him and exposing a secret that will destroy everything he holds as truth. As her three months come to an end, she is faced with a dilemma: return to her own time, or stay with the man who opened her eyes to a whole new world. When the decision is made for her, both their lives will be changed forever.

Excerpt from Yellowstone Heart Song

Daniel wrapped the buffalo robe tighter around his shoulders, trying to ward off the chill of the cold October wind. His hair whipped around his face. He gazed out across the gaping expanse of the canyon before him. Sitting on a rocky outcropping, he solemnly watched the brilliant yellow and red colors of the canyon walls change their shimmering hues with each passing moment as the morning sun’s rays illuminated the rocks.  Off in the distance, the mighty E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay roared as its turquoise waters plunged loudly several hundred feet deeper into the canyon. He never tired of this awesome spectacle in all the years he had come to this spot. This time, however, it brought no joy to his heart. Everywhere he looked, visions of Aimee materialized before his eyes. The sound of her voice echoed in the wind, sometimes so clearly, Daniel thought he was losing his mind.

“I want you to know that no matter what happens in the future, I will always love you. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. Please don’t ever forget that.”

Had he been wrong? Had she tried to tell him something that last day? With the way she clung to him the morning he left the cabin? The intensity and passion with which she made love to him the night of the storm, and her words of love couldn’t have been acted.

He stiffened at the rustling sound of leaves behind him, but didn’t bother to turn around. He had been aware of Elk Runner watching him from the trees for some time already.

“Why do you come here, brother?” he finally asked, his eyes still riveted on nature’s splendor before him. He had wanted to share this spectacular place with Aimee, but had never gotten the chance.

Meet Peggy

Thank you so much for having me on Get Lost in A Story today!

I am an award-winning, best-selling western historical and time travel romance author of the Yellowstone Romance Series, Second Chances Time Travel Romance Series, Teton Romance Trilogy, and the Blemished Brides and Wilderness Brides Western Historical Romance Series. When I’m not writing about Yellowstone, the Tetons, or the old west, I’m out hiking the trails, spending time with my family and pets, or catching up on much-needed sleep. I’m happily married to my high school sweetheart. Along with my husband and two sons, I divide my time between living in Southern California and Yellowstone National Park.

I’m currently finishing the eighth – and final – full-length novel in the Yellowstone Romance Series, which is a series that started as a single book I never expected to publish. The first book, Yellowstone Heart Song, was simply a story stuck in my head that I finally had to write down. I was urged to publish it after it sat on my computer for over a year after I finished it. I never thought anyone would be interested in reading about a modern woman traveling to the Yellowstone of the past, and have been overwhelmed with how well the book, and the entire series, has been received.

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E.E.: How often to you get lost in a story?

Peggy: I get lost in a story as often as I can. I may not have as much time to read anymore as I used to, but I love listening to audiobooks. I can listen in the car of when I go for walks or do other chores, and make the time fly.

E.E.: Fairy Tale or Action Adventure?

Peggy: I love a good action adventure. If it combines with fairy tales, even better.

E.E. What sound or noise do you love?

Peggy: I love the sound of horses munching on hay in a warm barn. It’s just such a peaceful and happy sound. I also love the sound of a creek gurgling along, the wind through the tops of trees, and rain falling. I’m a lover of nature, and these are the sounds that bring me inner peace.

E.E.: Why did you start writing?

Peggy: I started writing because, frankly, I couldn’t find the story that was in my head for over a year and wouldn’t let go. I searched and searched, but nothing was close to the story or the setting, so I finally decided to write it down. That story became a 12-book series and two spin-offs!

E.E.: Do you write while listening to music? If so what kind?

Peggy: No, I have to have complete silence to write. There’s enough chatter going on in my head that is distracting. I don’t want to add any more to it by adding music. Even music without words tends to distract me. I will sometimes listen to a song or melody to get me mentally ready for a scene I’m about to write, but I can’t have the music playing while writing that scene.

E.E.: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go?

Peggy; To the place I write about in my Yellowstone Romance Series, of course! Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone of the past is where I send all of my modern heroes and heroines.

E.E.: What is something that not a lot of people know about you but you WISH more people COULD know?

Peggy: This is difficult for me to talk about, but lately, I’ve been more open about it. I suffer from depression and anxiety disorder (general anxiety, plus social anxiety, and health anxiety) No, I’m not a hypochondriac when it comes to health anxiety. There are only a two or three things I worry about when it comes to my health, and talking about them sets off triggers. It’s not easy dealing with constant fear and constant sadness (depression is more than sadness, but I’m keeping it simple) on an almost daily basis, and it’s even more difficult to explain to people, even those we are closest to. It’s a very misunderstood problem, which makes people with anxiety and depression more isolated. 

E.E.: Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?

Peggy: I would love to invite Lucas Walker from the Teton Romance Trilogy. He is such a fun character, so full of life, and I know he’d have a lot of incredible tales of action and adventure in the Tetons to tell.

E.E.: What dreams have been realized as a result of your writing?

Peggy: I’ve been able to write full-time, and from anywhere, which has given my husband and I the freedom and opportunity to move to Yellowstone National Park this past season. I wrote my books while he took a job as a historical preservation craftsman (his dream job) at the historic Old Faithful Inn.

E.E.: What three things are, at this moment, in your heroine’s purse?

Peggy: A gun, a petrified snakehead, a cellphone

E.E.: What is your hero’s “kryptonite” – in other words, what will bring him instantly to his knees?

Peggy: If anything happened to his heroine

E.E.: What drew you to write in the genre(s) you do?

Peggy: I love the American West and the history that goes with it. I especially love the time of the explorers, the trailblazers – the mountain men and fur trappers, and then the scouts and pioneers. That’s why my favorite genre is historical westerns.  I also have a lot of fun with “present meets past” in my time travels that bring heroes and heroines from that time period to the future and sends them from the future to that time.

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If you could travel anywhere back in time, where would you go and why?

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