Threads West: An American Saga by Reid Lance Rosenthal

 I've always been fan of a good western, and mix western and romance and I'm hooked. Recently, I got the chance to read Threads West: An American Saga. It's book one in a new series of six books from Reid Lance Rosenthal. They say you write what you know, and in that case... I would say the Rosenthal has lived and loved the American West!

USA Book News National Best Book Awards ... Threads West is a WINNER in the Fiction & Literature: Western category and FINALIST in the Fiction & Literature: Romance category.

The romance of America, her people, her spirit, and the West.The ongoing story of us. This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. The tale bursts with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West. The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph. This is not only their story. It is our story. It is Threads West, An American Saga.

Threads West has gotten rave reviews, and it's easy to see why. Rosenthal is an incredible talented writer, effortlessly creating a picture in your mind of the characters and the places. There is everything a classic western needs: trains, saloons, wagons, guns, cowboys, horses, and more. It reminded me at times of one of my favorite shows in years past, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Threads West definitely has a genuine western feel, and characters that draw you in. Being the first of a six-part series, I expected there to be some loose ends at the end, and I was right. It leaves you wanting more, but being the first in the series, I'm sure that was the author's intention.

I only really found one issue with this novel. I know that sex is a staple in most secular romance novels, but it is still something I can do without most of the time. I've always felt that to create the romance without those type of scenes is harder and more effective. That being said, I do appreciate it when authors at least write the sex scenes in a gentle way. In Threads West, however, I felt that the sex was kind of just thrown in and came off feeling rather harsh. It may have been the author's intention to show the harshness and unmerciful feel of the old American west, but it definitely was not my cup of tea.

Apart from this issue, I really enjoyed the book, and the addictive storyline will keep readers coming back for more throughout the six-part series. Snag your copy of Threads West: An American Saga on Amazon for $10.17 (paperback). Find out more online at www.threadswestamericansaga.com.

Threads West Review: By Midwest Book Review -

The allure of the west brought many people out there, but their success was greatly varied. Threads West: An American Saga, is the first in Reid Lance Rosenthal’s series about a four generations of Americans as they looked westward and the travels they made to clam their own bit of prosperity and life, forming the America spirt and the will to succeed. With plenty of intriguing characters, Threads West, is a novel well worth reading for those with a love for the old west. 

Buy the Book! http://threadswestanamericansagaseries.com/content/bookstoresoverview/

My Book Addiction and More…

THREADS WEST BY REID LANCE ROSENTHAL… A REVIEW

  From the Publisher

USA Book News National Best Book Awards … Threads West is a WINNER in the Fiction & Literature: Western category and FINALIST in the Fiction & Literature: Romance category.

The romance of America, her people, her spirit, and the West.The ongoing story of us. This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. The tale bursts with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West. The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph. This is not only their story. It is our story. It is Threads West, An American Saga.


THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FOR THE PURPOSE OF REVIEW FROM THE CADENCE GROUP AND DOES NOT EFFECT THIS REVIEW!

MY THOUGHTS:

 THREADS WEST by Reid Lance Rosenthal is a western romance fiction set in 1855 America. It is the first in a six novel series of the romance of America. It is written with depth,details and action packed.It is fast paced and will keep you turning the pages from start to finish. It has despair,faith,spirit, heartbreak, turbulent times, romance, adversity, passion and triumph.The characters are charming, intriguing,and believable.Each character provides a thread into our past. The men and women are strong, have courage, find adventure and danger. They have come together but have no country nor culture in common,but they are forged together by the land and the promise of a future in America. If you enjoyed “Lonesome Dove” or “Little House on the Prairie” you will definite enjoy this one. This author has written a keeper with his vivid detail into the lives and landscape of times of old in America, he will take you back. This is

An American Saga.I would recommend this book for it is a look into the past of America,its people, its story and its making of a great country.I will be looking forward to the next installment. This book was received for the purpose of review from The Cadence Group and details can be found at Rockin’ SR Publishing.

RATING: 5

REVIEWED BY: April Renn

Five Golden Spurs To A Job Well Done!!!

Author Reid Lance Rosenthal keeps the American Western spirit alive and well in THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA.

Every now and then an author and a book come along that grabs readers' hearts and attention that creates a literary stir -- THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA by Reid Lance Rosenthal is that book. THREADS WEST is garnering praise that is making this book an instant classic. What makes this book "special" is the author. Reid is a fourth generation land and cattle owner. His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places, and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and magic that is the 'thread' that is THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA.

 THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA is a historical and romantic western epic. It's characters are well developed and the story moves along at a perfect pace. The setting and eye to detail really make this book a vividly written masterpiece. THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA has everything from suspense, romance, adventure and believable characters that are not stereotyped, unlike many western books on the market.

In a recent interview the author says, "This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. I am very flattered! The tale is filled with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West.

The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Threads West is of adventure, romance and the West wrapped in a silver bolo of the promise of America. It is the ongoing story of us."

The literary buzz surrounding THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA has been outstanding and should make this book and series very popular for a long time.

Visit http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com

American Spirit Isn't Fading in Saga of 'West'

Wyoming author and rancher Reid Lance Rosenthal says the nation's fortunes may ebb and flow, but the American spirit has remained constant. Rosenthal will discuss that issue and others that relate to "Threads West, An American Saga," the first volume of his planned series, at 3 p.m. today at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW.

      The fictional saga begins in 1855, interlacing the lives of the first of four generations of characters. The book's back cover says that "the separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West." Eight of these early characters started their lives in Europe.

     The book is the author's debut novel.

American Spirit Isn't Fading in Saga of 'West'

Wyoming author and rancher Reid Lance Rosenthal says the nation's fortunes may ebb and flow, but the American spirit has remained constant. Rosenthal will discuss that issue and others that relate to "Threads West, An American Saga," the first volume of his planned series, at 3 p.m. today at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW.



     The fictional saga begins in 1855, interlacing the lives of the first of four generations of characters. The book's back cover says that "the separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West." Eight of these early characters started their lives in Europe.



     The book is the author's debut novel.

Douglas rancher publishes historical western romance series

The rancher who writes romance novels composed at least half of his first book on the road, one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding a digital recorder.

Sometimes he'd fall so deeply into his story, into the lives of Johannes, Reuben, Sarah, Zeb, Inga, Jacob, Rebecca and Mac, that he wouldn't notice the cop car blinking behind him. When he finally did, he'd have to tell the officer he was writing a novel. Hadn't noticed how fast he was going.

Reid Rosenthal says it's a story he'd been writing in his head for decades. He made a promise to himself long ago to write books, but life has a habit of getting in the way.

 In fall 2008, Rosenthal was hunting on his ranch near Douglas, chasing an elusive bull he'd been after for two years.

He remembers it this way: The bull was up on a ridge, drifting in and out of the timber. Rosenthal dismounted his horse and started pulling out his rifle. He noticed the setting sun casting lines of fire across the pond. The clouds were golden, rimmed in orange. He put away the rifle and took out his notepad.

Back home that night, he took the scene as a sign.

 So the divorcé who had lived alone, the father of two children now grown, began to write the first installment of what will be a six-part series, "Threads West, An American Saga."

He started with a villa atop a blue, green sea and frothy swells, curtains caressing the windowsill, a flickering candle, and then, "Johannes Svenson's tall, thin naked body …"

***
 "What a fantastic excerpt. Off to buy this now!" -- Eve

 "I love you(r) writing style.......looking forward to the entire book.....when do you expect it will be released?" -- WW

"Perfect.... absolutely perfect introduction to guide us all into your wondrous world. The Unknown will be truly a hit with the true romantics." -- Front Range Woman

***
Rosenthal doesn't look like the author of a historical western romance series. He's 57, smokes Camel straights and drives a one-ton Ford F-350.

When Rosenthal first told male friends what he was writing, he was met with skeptical expressions.

Friend Howard Messinger of Carmel, Calif., laughed at the idea Rosenthal could make a livelihood out of writing romance novels. The two met nearly 30 years ago in Denver, when Messinger was a young attorney and Rosenthal was navigating the real estate business. He knew Rosenthal studied journalism in college, but most of the writings Messinger read by his friend were dry, legal documents, contracts the two worked on together.

"I knew he could write," Messinger said. "I didn't know he could write romance novels."

Romance Writers of America doesn't keep data on the percentage of female authors in the genre compared to male. But male romance novelists aren't common.

"At least not men who don't write under a pseudonym," said Page Lambert, Colorado-based author and Rosenthal's editor. "I think that's one of the strengths in Reid's writing. He brings to the romance genre a masculine sensitivity, which opens it up to a broader readership."

Rosenthal self-published a western romance short story, "End of the Circuit," two years ago, but "Threads West" is his first novel, published by Cheyenne-based Rockin' SR Publishing in October. The series about adventure, romance and the American West begins in 1855 and follows eight primary characters whose lives ultimately cross.

In response to naysayers, Rosenthal says: "I'm a romantic guy."

But then people like Messinger read it, and Rosenthal no longer needs to explain.

 ***

Rosenthal is fourth generation land and cattle. His great-grandfather was a cattle farmer in Germany, later killed along with his wife at Auschwitz. Rosenthal's grandparents made preparations to get their kids out of Germany and fled the country themselves in 1939, on a boat out of Bremen Harbor, which appears in Rosenthal's book.

Rosenthal grew up in both Colorado and Connecticut, where his dad had agricultural properties. His childhood was spent outside, helping his father with the land, and later managing a painting company and demolishing old barns to sell off the wood. He was encouraged by teachers to write, and he devoured the works of Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Leon Uris, Larry McMurtry and Louis L'Amour.

Today Rosenthal's company, Ranches of the West, Inc., manages 16 ranches in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. He's been in Wyoming, living at LaPrele Creek Ranch near Douglas, for nine years.

After they met, Messinger and Rosenthal went fly-fishing in Montana, where Rosenthal told his friend of the value he saw in land and place. The open spaces were his passion, and although he wasn't writing "Threads West" then, the relationship between man and land stands at the center of his series.

"I think it's all inextricably interrelated," Rosenthal said. "I think when you look out this window it generates a feeling, which generates a great story. I don't think you can detach ranching from land, and in my case, you can't detach either one of those from what you want to write.

"… Who has not been involved in a romance, or more than one? And who has not stood on a hillside and breathed deeply and looked out at a landscape and felt something?"

Rosenthal said he had no clue how to navigate the book publishing business when he started. He attended writing conferences and tried to absorb everything he could from the authors there.

 He had a rough version of his first book in three weeks. It took months of rewriting with his editor to get it in publishing shape, he said, adding in historical context and reworking the female voices in his book with her help.

For the Oct. 12 release, 5,000 copies were printed.

***

Here's the thing about "Threads West." It's a romance novel written by a guy's guy, a rancher from Wyoming.

And it's been selling. Well.

On the morning of release day, Rosenthal got a call from a friend who couldn't but a copy off Amazon.com. The sales button didn't work, she said.

He found out later from Amazon customer service: The 5,000 copies sold.

 All Reid could think: This is really cool. Is this really happening?

 Since, the book has gone through three additional printings, a total of 36,000 books, and has reached the top of sales charts on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in multiple categories, including Western Romance, Women of the West, Historical Romance and Historical Fiction. "Threads West" won the National USA Book News 2010 Award for Best Western and was a finalist for Best Romance.

He's done dozens of interviews for newspaper, magazine, radio and online publications. He appears on "The Balancing Act" Feb. 11 on the Lifetime Channel.

 Rosenthal started a website while writing the book, sharing excerpts with early readers, which he believes might have helped generate initial interest in the series. But he said he'd like to think it's the story and characters that keep people coming.

Rosenthal is currently writing book two, which he plans to have published by the end of March. The third book, which takes place in Wyoming, is scheduled for fall of 2011.

And at the back of the first book, Rosenthal offers glimpses of what happens next: "... Pressed against the side of the wagon box, Sarah fumbled in the saddlebag, draped over the wagon wheel, for the next round. She heard a whisper in the air, almost the sound a small bird makes on a calm and peaceful evening in the stillness just before dark, and then a sudden, hollow resounding thud. A woman's voice screamed in pain and terror."

Features reporter Margaret Matray
(see http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/content/casperart/  for complete article)

 For more:
* On the Web: Reid Rosenthal plans to post the first excerpts from his second book in the "Threads West" series this week. www.reidlrosenthal.com , www.threadswestamericansaga.com

A Littel Bit About Reid

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle. His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.



"Many have queried as to why I decided and what inspires me to write the Threads West, An American Saga series. I am fascinated with the interrelated energies of all things. The more primal the current, the greater my interest. In the wide range of tugs to the human soul, nothing compares to the power of the land which underlies all we are and do, and the pull on our heart strings of passion filled romance. These magnets to our spirits coupled with the rich texture of the mid eighteen fifties--a time when America and the world drew their collective breaths just prior to exhaling with a rush towards the American West--is our story, a memory we need to recall, courage we need to again touch and a reminder of the foundations of our uniquely American spirit.



I begin each chapter with a description of the scene. Virtually all these images are indelibly printed in my mind. I have seen them, felt them and in many instances photographed them. My pen becomes merely the shutter, the paper the film. This setting of the stage for that particular moment in this tale of conflicted life threads of distinct personalities from uncommon origins somehow propels me to another place. I hurtle through a time portal to a place so real, so palpably sensory that I can smell, hear and see through the senses of the characters who come alive once given the set upon which to act. And then they begin to talk to me, telling me the story, guiding my writing just as a mere scriber takes dictation. It is on each and every occasion a transformational experience. I am delighted to share with my terrific readers the sizzle, adventure and message of the novels which are the result. Enjoy!"



“If your mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, flutters of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breeze and the crimson tendrils of dying sun…if your fingers feel the silken pulse of a lover and your lips taste the deep kisses of building passion…if nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sage brush and pine, and your ears delight in the murmur of river current…if your heart pounds at the clash of good and evil and with each twist and turn of interwoven lives you feel a primal throb, then I have accomplished my mission.”

~Reid Lance Rosenthal

Threads West An American Saga - book one

 

I was not expecting some of the context in this novel, It caught me off guard actually. This sets the series up and we get introduced to the characters. The timeline is in the 1850's and it’s about several immigrants that come together on a ship to the United States. You learn as to why each of them must leave their home country and make that long journey to beginning a new life. Every chapter sets you up for the next 5 novel in this 6 part series. The book has action, spirit and passion. The characters are interesting and believable. The author work it with a great pace to it, you will want to know what is next. My only negative really is the sex scenes. I don't have a problem with these kinds of scenes unless they are mostly about rape or adultery. This is a tough subject matter for me to handle and usually I don't read books that involved that. Going in I didn't know that these scenes were involved; I would have like a warning beforehand. They are pretty graphic and very detailed. So you have my warning. If you are a true fan of a Western and the stories of Immigrants that came to be in the US, then this is the book for you.

 

 

Summary: From the Author:

The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph.

 

This is not only their story. It is our story.

It is Threads West: An American Saga.

 

Threads West by Reid Lance Rosenthal

I am so excited to tell you about this new series from Reid Lance Rosenthal.  The first book in a 6 part series, Threads West is set in 1855 and tells us about a group of people making their way from England to America.  We follow each of them from their origins, see how they all come together and meet and find out their plans for the New World and how they seem to coincide.

I love reading historical fiction and this book did not disappoint me in the least.  I realize that this book is set in 1855 so I wonder if the Civil War will come into play in later installments.  Either way, I am eagerly awaiting the next books in the series.

While I did enjoy this book, it seemed to not have much of a story and served more of an introduction to the characters and setting up some situations for later.  But then again, it was a smart move on Rosenthal’s part in order to keep us hanging on for more.  In my case, it definitely worked.

One very interesting aspect of this book was Reuben’s Jewish faith.  It seems he is taking pains to hide the fact that he is Jewish.  It is sad to know that Jews were not looked at in the same way as Christians.  As we know, this trend would just continue in history.

Also, I am very hopeful that the prissy Rebecca gets her comeuppance in a future book.  While I know she is focused on getting West, her attitude is something that I will glad to see taken down a few pegs once she sees just what the frontier is like.

Threads West is being compared to Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.  While I never read that, I know that McMurtry is well-regarded author.  I feel that if Rosenthal continues on the same path, he will be just as popular, if not more.

Threads West by Reid Lance Rosenthal is available in paperback and e-book format.  Read more here about the characters, of which I only mentioned a few.

I was sent this book in order to provide a review.  This did not influence my opinion in any way.  All thoughts are 100% my own.

Threads West....An American Saga

 

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle. His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.

 

FROM THE AUTHOR

 

"I was musing the other day while taking a break from writing Maps of Fate, the second book of my Threads West, An American Saga series. I paced over to the window. Misty shadows of snow squalls clung to the mountains around the ranch house. I looked back at the desk. Threads West, the bestselling first book of the series nestled side by side with my camera. My eyes widened as an epiphany struck me. Each is a tool for expression in image or word, and has as a central theme the power of the land, and the primal role that energy plays in shaping passions, lives and spirits."

   

Since I began writing the series, I am always accompanied by a small dictation device. For forty years it has been rare that I ventured anywhere without a camera.

  

My poor photo gear has been rolled on by horses, accompanied me on various fishing expeditions and been forgotten and then retrieved on cold snowy ridges during elk season after long return hikes. A few unfortunate pieces have even taken a swim with me when I lost my footing and drifted and tumbled down some river somewhere in North or South America. My dictation tool has been similarly abused. The perils of equipment in the wild and remote!

   

The incredibly wide range of subjects and styles of authors intrigue me. I am also fascinated by the varying styles of different photographers and disparate aptitudes certain artists have for a range of subject matter.

  

I am a landscape photographer. The camera and Threads West side by side on the desk brought home sudden realization. I am also a landscape writer. The land is as much a character in my books as it is the predominate image of my photos. That flows, I suppose, from the affinity I have always felt with the energy that radiates from landscape. It is my touchstone.

   

I am fascinated by and simply love to photograph or write of the endless variety of light, shape, angle and seasons of the land. There is no second of any minute, of any hour, of any day of any millennium which is exactly the same in any terrain.

   

The season, sun aspect, clouds, weather, time of day, angle of shadow, and wind are all ingredients in the ever changing and never duplicated recipe of a landscape photograph. So too are they the critical elements in penning a descriptive scene. The instant in which the image is created can never be duplicated. It is the only recording of that particular millisecond of that scene from that specific vantage that carries into infinity.

   

I smiled as another parody struck me. Right on the front page of my website, www.ReidLRosenthal.com are not only discussions of my books but the precursor to the site’s landscape photos pages!

   

I became more excited as the full force of my discovery struck me. Papers flew everywhere as I pawed the cluttered desk surface for a copy of my “fiction author biography,” and some blogs I had posted on my website long prior to completion of Threads West. I found them finally and held one in each hand looking back and forth.

 

“This spring morning the land was particularly vibrant. Wildflowers dotted the southern flanks of gentle rolls of prairie. Grasses fluttered lightly in a soft breeze. They shimmered and danced like ripples of sea waves across the landscape. Along the base of a particularly beckoning series of low sandstone bluffs stretched a riparian ribbon of emerald slightly darker than the coming summer greening of the grass around it. Across the top of the miniature butte, a bright almost ethereal mist began to rise and form.  

 

As I ascended a distinct game trail along the side of the tiny cliffs my eyes became level with the top surface of the butte. The density of mist had increased. It chugged and boiled slowly along the top of the stony surface. Each seductive billow and hollow created a visual incident which appeared, then disappeared, and then materialized again, ghostly, with prisms of color that trembled as the sun caught the movement of the vapors. A magical dance of ground rainbows.

   

Directly in front of me, my eyes still level with the surface of the top of the warming rocks was a cluster of foxtail. They were bathed in sunlight, their pine cone like tips bristled with soft feathery golden spires, a perfect foreground to the rainbows performing on the stage of earth just behind them.”

 

 

From My Fiction Author Biography:

  

“If your mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, flutters of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breeze, and the crimson tendrils of dying sun…if your fingers feel the silken pulse of a lover and your lips taste the deep kisses of building passion…if nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sage brush and pine, and your ears delight in the murmur of river current…if your heart pounds at the clash of good and evil and with each twist and turn of interwoven lives you feel a primal throb, then I have accomplished my mission.” ~Reid L. Rosenthal, author of Threads West, An American Saga.

   

I have found new purpose and energy (not that I have ever lacked either) in my prose and photographic expression now that I have become cognizant of their synergy. They are both of the land, the stage upon which we and the characters in my novels line dance in a fleeting moment of existence, to then be replaced by the shoulder taps of successive generations. The only character or image that survives all the previous and the entirety of chapters or photograph yet to come is the land itself.

   

The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph.

   

This is not only their story. It is our story.

  

It is Threads West: An American Saga.

Threads West – An American Saga

 

Threads West…An American Saga is our saga.

It is the tale of America, her people and her spirit.  It is the ongoing story of us.

One saga.  Six sizzling reads.  It begins with Threads West, the first of three historical romance novels. Then brace yourself as the adventures continue with three contemporary books.  Set in authentic locations on three continents and in the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the life threads of thirty-eight character—whose personalities are forged by the land and the promise of America—live, love, struggle, die, fail, and succeed.  Like the undulating landscape of the West, their lives are woven into the rich and passionate tapestry of an emerging nation.

Fueled by the powerful magnetic pull of the energy of the vast lands of the American West the characters of these adventures have neither country nor culture in common—each comes from a different background, but the threads of their textured and conflicted lives become part of the fabric of America’s great westward expansion.  Their interwoven destinies, ambitions, courage, treachery and love flow through four generations, creating an American epic that binds the historical characters to the predestined struggles, torrid passions and duplicities of their descendants. The intrigue and unrelenting conflict of their lives are destined to converge with startling twists and turns as they build a great nation.

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle.  His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers.  His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places, and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon the American West, is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.

 Be sure and grab your copy!     Purchase your book today!

A Little Bit of Reader Love :)

I've always been fan of a good western, and mix western and romance and I'm hooked. Recently, I got the chance to read Threads West: An American Saga. It's book one in a new series of six books from Reid Lance Rosenthal. They say you write what you know, and in that case... I would say the Rosenthal has lived and loved the American West!



USA Book News National Best Book Awards ... Threads West is a WINNER in the Fiction & Literature: Western category and FINALIST in the Fiction & Literature: Romance category.


The romance of America, her people, her spirit, and the West.The ongoing story of us. This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. The tale bursts with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West. The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph. This is not only their story. It is our story. It is Threads West, An American Saga.


Threads West has gotten rave reviews, and it's easy to see why. Rosenthal is an incredible talented writer, effortlessly creating a picture in your mind of the characters and the places. There is everything a classic western needs: trains, saloons, wagons, guns, cowboys, horses, and more. It reminded me at times of one of my favorite shows in years past, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Threads West definitely has a genuine western feel, and characters that draw you in. Being the first of a six-part series, I expected there to be some loose ends at the end, and I was right. It leaves you wanting more, but being the first in the series, I'm sure that was the author's intention.

I only really found one issue with this novel. I know that sex is a staple in most secular romance novels, but it is still something I can do without most of the time. I've always felt that to create the romance without those type of scenes is harder and more effective. That being said, I do appreciate it when authors at least write the sex scenes in a gentle way. In Threads West, however, I felt that the sex was kind of just thrown in and came off feeling rather harsh. It may have been the author's intention to show the harshness and unmerciful feel of the old American west, but it definitely was not my cup of tea.

Apart from this issue, I really enjoyed the book, and the addictive storyline will keep readers coming back for more throughout the six-part series. Snag your copy of Threads West: An American Saga on Amazon for $10.17 (paperback). Find out more online at http://threadswestanamericansagaseries.com/

You can also buy this book on: Barns & Noble, Kindle, and Nook.

Elements of Writing

To me, the basic elements of fiction writing are: The story, the characters, the plot.  The writing is the story encompasses the arc of the tale, and the ever changing flow of set and theatre from beginning to end. The characters are the actors upon the stage of the saga. They precipitate the action of the plot. The plot comprises the building blocks which frame and support the story in various locations, times, and character interaction. Finally, there is the writing. The texture of words, sentences, description, thought and syntax is the glue that binds the other essential elements of the book.



But what do I know? Many authors, virtually all of them far more accomplished than I, have their own opinions of these matters. One thing I am convinced of is that in many genres, including western romance, characters can be stereotypical. Though still enjoyable the “can do no wrong” or “can do no good” personality is fantasy. The reality of human nature is that every person has his or her strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings, strong suits, skeletons, principles or lack thereof, and each has been molded not only by their DNA but by their history and social setting. Complexity. It is the quintessential and most intriguing ingredient of any personality. People are not black or white but varying shades of gray. I have invested heavily in this facet of my characters because it is true and authentic.





The excerpt series on Threads West consists of tidbits pulled from the chapters on each of the primary characters in this first of the novels, the Threads West, An American Saga series. The romance of America, her people, her spirit, and the west. The ongoing story of us.The initial  books of the series, beginning with it's name sake here, are historical Western romance novels. The final book of the series, based in part on a true tale, continue the story in the Contemporary West. The arc of the story that unfolds over the 170 years  inhabited by more than thirty eight primary characters spanning  four generations, their life threads woven into the rich tapestry of an emerging nation, and forged on the beautiful but unforgiving anvil of the vast lands of the American West.



And one more hint. Just as, in my humble opinion many characters in this genre are stereotypical, so too are many endings. Either she stands sobbing, clutching her heaving bosom in the doorway as her quiet, strong, broad shouldered man rides off silhouetted by the setting sun to pursue his manly quest…or...they walk slowly, happily, hand in hand surrounded by the warmth of love and light into a golden dawn (choose one).



Each of these six books could stand alone. They have their own endings which in some ways brings conclusion and in others leaves the readers hanging, awaiting continuation of the story. When completed the Saga will be well over two thousand pages. But the end, truly the conclusion in the final pages of Plateau ©2009, the last of the Threads West, An American Saga series, will not be stereotypical. However, that is yet another tale in the modern west six books from now.

Author Crashes Amazon.com!!!

Rancher Reid Rosenthal was on horseback with a six-point bull elk about 200 yards away. Instead of reaching for his rifle, he reached for his pen and notebook.



“There was a particularly incredible scene with crimson tendrils of sunset sinking over a mirror image of a pond up on one of the ranches,” Rosenthal said.



It was then, he decided that it was time to put the book that had been dancing through his head for more than 40 years down on paper.



In October, that book crashed Amazon.com



“I was astounded,” he said. “Sales were so rapid, at 9:07 a.m. on the 12th of October, it melted down the Amazon button. From what we’ve been told – we don’t have the records yet – but it was something like 50 books a minute. The sales button shut down, and for the day of our launch, we didn’t sell a book from 9:07 a.m. until 5:18 p.m.”



The suspicion is that the first printing, all 5,000 copies, were sold out by 9:07 a.m. Despite the problems, Threads West was an overnight best selling paperback in five genres and was Amazon.com’s most active book in the world for two days. A second printing of 20,000 copies has been ordered. Barnes and Noble has picked up the book and will release it in its stores Nov. 16.



“The last time I fell madly in love with a Western historical saga, the title was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry; it won a Pulitzer in 1986,” wrote Eve Paludan, a two-time No. 1 bestselling author, in her review. “Reid L. Rosenthal, cowboy and rancher, has written a novel that spirited me away to the 1850s-1860s era and provided me with gripping hours of authentic Western history, action, drama, heartfelt romance and something extra special and seldom seen in literature of this caliber: well-written, sizzling sensuality.”



The book begins in 1855 and tells the story of a land and people on the cusp of history. It was several years after the revolver was invented, but a few years before the repeating rifle. Gold was discovered in 1848. The Singer sewing machine was invented in 1851.



European immigration was on the rise. The country was teetering on civil war.



Threads West takes place entirely in 1855 and introduces the first of four eventual generations.



“It is a rock em’ sock em.’ It is action packed with loads of surprises,” Rosenthal said. “It is the adventure and romance of the West, wrapped in the silver bolo of the American spirit.”



Rosenthal is currently writing book two in the six-book series, called Maps of Fate. He is more excited for the third book, called North to Wyoming. It will take place primarily in this area of Wyoming, Reid said. The series is written for for the female romance crowd, the male west adventure crowd and the American patriot crowd.



“The last novel is 2010. It is real time, contemporary west. This is not just a story of the people, it is a story of the land, how it shapes personalities, how it shapes destinies and what has happened to it over two centuries,” he said.

Though Rosenthal’s new career as an author appears to be moving lightning fast, his career as a writer started in fourth grade.



It was then that he and his family took a week-long vacation to the Caribbean. For homework, Mrs. Darling instructed him to write in a journal that he would read to the class when he got back.



“When I got back, I read to the class with the typical trepidation of a fourth grader, and they loved it. I looked up and they were enraptured,” Rosenthal said.



That day, the 9-year-old boy promised himself he would write books. He took creative writing courses in high school and had some journalism training in college, but was pulled into the ranch lifestyle and struggled to put pen to page.



“This story has been in my head for 40 years. It is tough to explain but I have written these books. They are written, just up here,” he said, pointing at his head.



After passing on a six-point elk, Rosenthal had much to learn about taking a book from between his ears to store shelves. He attended writing and publishing conferences where he was able to pick the brains of published authors about some of the concrete rules of book writing, how to submit a manuscript to a potential publisher and many other trade secrets.



Rosenthal wrote his first draft of Threads West in about 60 days and spent about four months editing and polishing the work.



“For me, the most important thing is to get it down on paper. Once it is on paper, then I really can go to town. But if I sit there and I try to edit this line or that line as I am talking or thinking . . . that doesn’t work for me,” he said.



He received interest from several publishers of differing sizes, but opted to go with Rockin SR publishing out of Cheyenne. The small company allowed more freedom on writing the next book in the series and permitted Rosenthal to maintain his own film rights, book rights, foreign distribution rights and title rights, all of which would be gone had he signed with a large publisher. It is a relationship some authors compare to indentured servitude, Rosenthal said.



All are rights that may prove valuable several years from now, or as evidence of what he left on the table by choosing a smaller publisher.



“I’m under no illusions. I’ve only been an author for two weeks, almost three. In the literary world, despite the success of this book and all the accolades, my name is still ‘Reid Who’ with three question marks,” Rosenthal said. “I think in the end, having talked to all these people and doing this big digital release and lining up another, a book is one person looking another in the eye and handing it to them.”





View the actual article by clicking on the links below. These links will open the PDF in a new window.

A Little Bit About Reid Rosenthal

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle. His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.



FROM THE AUTHOR:



"I was musing the other day while taking a break from writing Maps of Fate, the second book of my Threads West, An American Saga series. I paced over to the window. Misty shadows of snow squalls clung to the mountains around the ranch house. I looked back at the desk. Threads West, the bestselling first book of the series nestled side by side with my camera. My eyes widened as an epiphany struck me. Each is a tool for expression in image or word, and has as a central theme the power of the land, and the primal role that energy plays in shaping passions, lives and spirits.
"



Since I began writing the series, I am always accompanied by a small dictation device. For forty years it has been rare that I ventured anywhere without a camera. 
 



My poor photo gear has been rolled on by horses, accompanied me on various fishing expeditions and been forgotten and then retrieved on cold snowy ridges during elk season after long return hikes. A few unfortunate pieces have even taken a swim with me when I lost my footing and drifted and tumbled down some river somewhere in North or South America. My dictation tool has been similarly abused. The perils of equipment in the wild and remote!
 



The incredibly wide range of subjects and styles of authors intrigue me. I am also fascinated by the varying styles of different photographers and disparate aptitudes certain artists have for a range of subject matter. 
 



I am a landscape photographer. The camera and Threads West side by side on the desk brought home sudden realization. I am also a landscape writer. The land is as much a character in my books as it is the predominate image of my photos. That flows, I suppose, from the affinity I have always felt with the energy that radiates from landscape. It is my touchstone. 
 



I am fascinated by and simply love to photograph or write of the endless variety of light, shape, angle and seasons of the land. There is no second of any minute, of any hour, of any day of any millennium which is exactly the same in any terrain.
 



The season, sun aspect, clouds, weather, time of day, angle of shadow, and wind are all ingredients in the ever changing and never duplicated recipe of a landscape photograph. So too are they the critical elements in penning a descriptive scene. The instant in which the image is created can never be duplicated. It is the only recording of that particular millisecond of that scene from that specific vantage that carries into infinity.
 



I smiled as another parody struck me. Right on the front page of my website, www.ReidLRosenthal.com are not only discussions of my books but the precursor to the site’s landscape photos pages!
 



I became more excited as the full force of my discovery struck me. Papers flew everywhere as I pawed the cluttered desk surface for a copy of my “fiction author biography,” and some blogs I had posted on my website long prior to completion of Threads West. I found them finally and held one in each hand looking back and forth.




From the Photo Blog:


“This spring morning the land was particularly vibrant. Wildflowers dotted the southern flanks of gentle rolls of prairie. Grasses fluttered lightly in a soft breeze. They shimmered and danced like ripples of sea waves across the landscape. Along the base of a particularly beckoning series of low sandstone bluffs stretched a riparian ribbon of emerald slightly darker than the coming summer greening of the grass around it. Across the top of the miniature butte, a bright almost ethereal mist began to rise and form. 
 



As I ascended a distinct game trail along the side of the tiny cliffs my eyes became level with the top surface of the butte. The density of mist had increased. It chugged and boiled slowly along the top of the stony surface. Each seductive billow and hollow created a visual incident which appeared, then disappeared, and then materialized again, ghostly, with prisms of color that trembled as the sun caught the movement of the vapors. A magical dance of ground rainbows. 
 



Directly in front of me, my eyes still level with the surface of the top of the warming rocks was a cluster of foxtail. They were bathed in sunlight, their pine cone like tips bristled with soft feathery golden spires, a perfect foreground to the rainbows performing on the stage of earth just behind them.”




From My Fiction Author Biography:




“If your mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, flutters of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breeze, and the crimson tendrils of dying sun…if your fingers feel the silken pulse of a lover and your lips taste the deep kisses of building passion…if nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sage brush and pine, and your ears delight in the murmur of river current…if your heart pounds at the clash of good and evil and with each twist and turn of interwoven lives you feel a primal throb, then I have accomplished my mission.” ~Reid L. Rosenthal, author of Threads West, An American Saga. 
 



I have found new purpose and energy (not that I have ever lacked either) in my prose and photographic expression now that I have become cognizant of their synergy. They are both of the land, the stage upon which we and the characters in my novels line dance in a fleeting moment of existence, to then be replaced by the shoulder taps of successive generations. The only character or image that survives all the previous and the entirety of chapters or photograph yet to come is the land itself.
 



The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph. 
 

This is not only their story. It is our story.
 

It is Threads West: An American Saga.

Douglas Rancher Publishes Historical Western Romance Series

The rancher who writes romance novels composed at least half of his first book on the road, one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding a digital recorder.



Sometimes he'd fall so deeply into his story, into the lives of Johannes, Reuben, Sarah, Zeb, Inga, Jacob, Rebecca and Mac, that he wouldn't notice the cop car blinking behind him. When he finally did, he'd have to tell the officer he was writing a novel. Hadn't noticed how fast he was going.



Reid Rosenthal says it's a story he'd been writing in his head for decades. He made a promise to himself long ago to write books, but life has a habit of getting in the way.



In fall 2008, Rosenthal was hunting on his ranch near Douglas, chasing an elusive bull he'd been after for two years.



He remembers it this way: The bull was up on a ridge, drifting in and out of the timber. Rosenthal dismounted his horse and started pulling out his rifle. He noticed the setting sun casting lines of fire across the pond. The clouds were golden, rimmed in orange. He put away the rifle and took out his notepad.



Back home that night, he took the scene as a sign.



So the divorcé who had lived alone, the father of two children now grown, began to write the first installment of what will be a six-part series, "Threads West, An American Saga."



He started with a villa atop a blue, green sea and frothy swells, curtains caressing the windowsill, a flickering candle, and then, "Johannes Svenson's tall, thin naked body …"



***



"What a fantastic excerpt. Off to buy this now!" -- Eve



"I love you(r) writing style.......looking forward to the entire book.....when do you expect it will be released?" -- WW



"Perfect.... absolutely perfect introduction to guide us all into your wondrous world. The Unknown will be truly a hit with the true romantics." -- Front Range Woman



***



Rosenthal doesn't look like the author of a historical western romance series. He's 57, smokes Camel straights and drives a one-ton Ford F-350.



When Rosenthal first told male friends what he was writing, he was met with skeptical expressions.



Friend Howard Messinger of Carmel, Calif., laughed at the idea Rosenthal could make a livelihood out of writing romance novels. The two met nearly 30 years ago in Denver, when Messinger was a young attorney and Rosenthal was navigating the real estate business. He knew Rosenthal studied journalism in college, but most of the writings Messinger read by his friend were dry, legal documents, contracts the two worked on together.



"I knew he could write," Messinger said. "I didn't know he could write romance novels."



Romance Writers of America doesn't keep data on the percentage of female authors in the genre compared to male. But male romance novelists aren't common.



"At least not men who don't write under a pseudonym," said Page Lambert, Colorado-based author and Rosenthal's editor. "I think that's one of the strengths in Reid's writing. He brings to the romance genre a masculine sensitivity, which opens it up to a broader readership."



Rosenthal self-published a western romance short story, "End of the Circuit," two years ago, but "Threads West" is his first novel, published by Cheyenne-based Rockin' SR Publishing in October. The series about adventure, romance and the American West begins in 1855 and follows eight primary characters whose lives ultimately cross.



In response to naysayers, Rosenthal says: "I'm a romantic guy."



But then people like Messinger read it, and Rosenthal no longer needs to explain.



***

Rosenthal is fourth generation land and cattle. His great-grandfather was a cattle farmer in Germany, later killed along with his wife at Auschwitz. Rosenthal's grandparents made preparations to get their kids out of Germany and fled the country themselves in 1939, on a boat out of Bremen Harbor, which appears in Rosenthal's book.



Rosenthal grew up in both Colorado and Connecticut, where his dad had agricultural properties. His childhood was spent outside, helping his father with the land, and later managing a painting company and demolishing old barns to sell off the wood. He was encouraged by teachers to write, and he devoured the works of Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Leon Uris, Larry McMurtry and Louis L'Amour.



Today Rosenthal's company, Ranches of the West, Inc., manages 16 ranches in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. He's been in Wyoming, living at LaPrele Creek Ranch near Douglas, for nine years.



After they met, Messinger and Rosenthal went fly-fishing in Montana, where Rosenthal told his friend of the value he saw in land and place. The open spaces were his passion, and although he wasn't writing "Threads West" then, the relationship between man and land stands at the center of his series.



"I think it's all inextricably interrelated," Rosenthal said. "I think when you look out this window it generates a feeling, which generates a great story. I don't think you can detach ranching from land, and in my case, you can't detach either one of those from what you want to write.



"… Who has not been involved in a romance, or more than one? And who has not stood on a hillside and breathed deeply and looked out at a landscape and felt something?"



Rosenthal said he had no clue how to navigate the book publishing business when he started. He attended writing conferences and tried to absorb everything he could from the authors there.



He had a rough version of his first book in three weeks. It took months of rewriting with his editor to get it in publishing shape, he said, adding in historical context and reworking the female voices in his book with her help.



For the Oct. 12 release, 5,000 copies were printed.



***

Here's the thing about "Threads West." It's a romance novel written by a guy's guy, a rancher from Wyoming.



And it's been selling. Well.



On the morning of release day, Rosenthal got a call from a friend who couldn't but a copy off Amazon.com. The sales button didn't work, she said.



He found out later from Amazon customer service: The 5,000 copies sold.



All Reid could think: This is really cool. Is this really happening?



Since, the book has gone through three additional printings, a total of 36,000 books, and has reached the top of sales charts on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in multiple categories, including Western Romance, Women of the West, Historical Romance and Historical Fiction. "Threads West" won the National USA Book News 2010 Award for Best Western and was a finalist for Best Romance.



He's done dozens of interviews for newspaper, magazine, radio and online publications. He appears on "The Balancing Act" Feb. 11 on the Lifetime Channel.



Rosenthal started a website while writing the book, sharing excerpts with early readers, which he believes might have helped generate initial interest in the series. But he said he'd like to think it's the story and characters that keep people coming.



Rosenthal is currently writing book two, which he plans to have published by the end of March. The third book, which takes place in Wyoming, is scheduled for fall of 2011.



And at the back of the first book, Rosenthal offers glimpses of what happens next: "... Pressed against the side of the wagon box, Sarah fumbled in the saddlebag, draped over the wagon wheel, for the next round. She heard a whisper in the air, almost the sound a small bird makes on a calm and peaceful evening in the stillness just before dark, and then a sudden, hollow resounding thud. A woman's voice screamed in pain and terror."



Features reporter Margaret Matray

(see http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/content/casperart/  for complete article)



For more:

* On the Web: Reid Rosenthal plans to post the first excerpts from his second book in the "Threads West" series this week. www.reidlrosenthal.com , www.threadswestamericansaga.com

Interview on “Page One” - Reid Lance Rosenthal

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle proprietor. His cowboy heart and poet’s pen captures the spirit
 of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places, and to the people—both past and present—who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.

“If your mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, flutters of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breeze, and the crimson tendrils of dying sun…if your fingers feel the silken pulse of a lover and your lips taste the deep kisses of building passion…if nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sage brush and pine, and your ears delight in the murmur of river current…if your heart pounds at the clash of good and evil and with each twist and turn of interwoven lives you feel a primal throb, then I have accomplished my mission.”  http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com

 "The last time I fell madly in love with a Western historical saga, the title was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry; it won a Pulitzer in 1986. The splendor and adventure of Threads West, An American Saga, Novel One, has now surpassed my long-ago love affair with McMurtry's Western saga. Reid L. Rosenthal, cowboy and rancher, has written a novel that spirited me away to the 1850s-1860s era and provided me with gripping hours of authentic Western history, action, drama, heartfelt romance and something extra special and seldom seen in literature of this caliber: well-written, sizzling sensuality. What separates a good novel from a great one? I close a good novel and feel satisfied. When I close a great novel, like this one, I feel sad that there are no more pages to read. From the first time each character appears in the book to the last time they fade from the pages, I was immersed in the personal stories of the heroes, the heroines, the bad guys, the powerful, the vulnerable, and the brave. I cared about their lives and loves, strengths and weaknesses, and their strife and successes. As they head for their compelling shared and undiscovered destinies, their paths unfurl like a Western sunrise in this new saga of the American West. The Threads West series opens with a bang and closes with a promise of more excitement to come. The story of these enduring characters is destined to stamp its imprint on the spirit and heritage of readers' hearts. The writing is incredible. I'll leave you with this small taste from Reid L. Rosenthal's pen: Dawn on the day of departure was a brilliant palette of indigo in retreat to the west and blossoming fire orange to the east. The Mississippi had a slight chop from the morning wind, the surface ripples reflecting the burgeoning day in a shimmer of color. Five stars are not enough. One book is not enough. Let there be more Threads West. Soon!"  --Eve Paludan, editor, publisher, No Tree Publishing, and Twice #1 writers digest national best selling author of The Romance Writer's Pink Pages, Letters from David, and (Pending) The Man Who Fell from the Sky.

"The book is riveting and the story line captivating. I didn't want to put the book down once I was started. I have never read Romance or Western novels and I thought this read would be a stretch for me but as I got into the story I immediately became engaged and found myself immersed in each word as the tale, the characters and their lives unfolded." --Karen Mayfield, Msc.CC, National bestselling author of Wake Up Women BE Happy Healthy & Wealthy, and co-creator for Wake up Women book series

"Diverse characters interwoven with highly visual prose flow into a journey of gathering suspense. One senses the tightening thread that binds them will unravel with both delicious and devastating results. Rosenthal delivers!"  JOSEPHINE ELLERSHAW, -#1 International Best Selling Author - UK/US/CN

PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and who were your influences?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: The energy of land inspires my writing. The land is an integral part of my soul, and the foundation of virtually all of my passions. My primary genre, though, will be romance. Why? Romance is of passion and personal interaction; constants which wind throughout all our lives. The weave of western relationships is always the land. The intertwined twists of ranch and romance are fascinating threads which define the men and women of the West. The foundation of my stories is such reality. There is intrigue, adversity, vicious duplicity and triumph that few know of, but which are always at play beneath the idyllic mosaics of inviting canyons and sun drenched plains., I was a voracious reader as a youngster. Flashlights under the covers at three am, and that whole scene.  

I have been influenced by many great authors, Crane, Hemingway, Uris (whose brilliant themes of converging threads of lives have had major affect on my presentation in my novels) McMurtry, L'Amour and Max McCoy, particularly as to his dazzling, principled dedication to historical context. Along the way I have been blessed to have great teachers and mentors, too many to mention here, save one. Thank you to Mrs Jane Karsten, my independent study creative writing teacher in my junior and senior high school years. It is she who whispered incessantly in my ear, sometimes kindly, at others more cajoling..."you can do this...you must do this.. it is your calling."

PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: I write to share my mind's image and my love of and respect for the land, my heart convictions, and my sense of passion and principle with others. I first wrote creatively when I was nine, at thirty thousand feet. The family was winging its way to the National Park on St. Johns, U.S. Virgin Islands, for a week of camping, exploring, and snorkeling to celebrate my sister's fourth birthday. A mongoose ate my sister’s cake, but that is yet another tale. That morning, overwhelmed with the excitement of my first ride on silver wings, I made my first entry. I  gazed in awe out the plane window, and wrote madly with one of those old style bic pens, the ones with the very thick dark blue ink lines. Cotton ball clouds cast flitting shadows on the emerald corduroy of sea far below., Later, I read my thoughts to the class. I could feel the words transport my audience. Their rapt attention startled me. It was my epiphany. The penning of descriptive scenes and feelings was not an assignment, or work. It was a release for me and a sharing with others. The story, the telling of the tale caught my heart, captured my imagination, and gave me a sense of satisfaction different than any other.

It was at that moment, in fourth grade one sunny winter day many years ago, I made myself a promise. I am not much for breaking promises, and though many years past when I originally intended, I am finally fulfilling that oath a young boy, wide eyed with realization, made to himself so long ago.

PageoneLit.com: Briefly discuss your new book THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA . 

Reid Lance Rosenthal:  This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. I am very flattered!  The tale is filled with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West. 

The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters.  The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West.  They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Threads West is of adventure, romance and the West wrapped in a silver bolo of the promise of America. This is our story.

PageoneLit.com: You are a rancher and cowboy so I won't ask "why do you like the western/romance/historical genre" but I will ask you what MAKES the THREADS WEST series  different from other's in the same genre?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: There are many fine westerns, western romances and historical westerns out there. I am incredibly flattered that reviewers, best selling authors, and readers alike are comparing the book to Lonesome Dove and Centennial, and that it has even been referred to as the Gone With The Wind of the West. In fact I am pleasantly stunned.

Threads West is perhaps different from all those classic works in several respects.  Its first generation of characters are of uncommon origin, all but one being from Europe.  This vanguard of brave souls is truly the foundation of this tale of the West and a nation on the cusp of greatness. The first novel begins a saga that will span almost 170 years from the rough and tumble of the 1850's frontier to the complex ranch and agrarian society of the Contemporary West.  There is, again in the words of reviewers and readers, an "exquisite sensuality" not found often, or at all in most western genre in my humble opinion.
Finally, I believe folks are being swept away by this book because its characters are real, far from the stereotypical personalities many expect in a "western". They have both strength and weakness, they wrestle with complex inner conflicts, and they interrelate with one another with the same believable realism, at times less than pleasant--as we all find in life outside fiction.

PageoneLit.com: THREADS WEST begins in 1855 - Did you research for this historical setting and time? If so, How?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: Wow! Did I research this.  It was bigger task than I anticipated.  Though I thought I was familiar with this magical moment in American history, I was mistaken.  1855 may be one of the most difficult single years to write of in the history of this country and the West that I have experienced.  The great westward migration was in its infancy. The later turmoil between the Northern and Southern states was just beginning to darken the whispered rhetoric of both sides. Native Americans had rightfully lost trust in the promises of the white men. The Indian Treaties of the years prior, and indeed the compacts between the states as to abolition, had all been broken by one or the other party just within the previous twelve to twenty-four months.  This was the year just prior to the discovery of gold in Colorado, the real precipitator of the tidal wave of westward migration that began in 1858. The Singer sewing machine had just been invented, revolvers were only years old, and the repeating rifle was still just a few years out. It was the year the world, and America breathed in, held their collective breath and readied to exhale with a rush towards the great plains and Rockies.

I was assisted by several researchers to whom I gave very specific tasks.  They are acknowledged as to their contributions in the enhanced Ebook form under Additional Acknowledgements.  In addition, I drew on scores of printed and web sources, and several great non fiction and memoir historical works of that very specific time period., It was fascinating, immensely rewarding, and I hope affords historical texture of a macro depth, detail and scope not typically found in historical western novels. It was a time of both promise and fear, and the beginnings of the second great European immigration, a critical frame just prior to the switch of reels in the living movie of American history; Reel one, the East. Reel two, the West.

PageOneLit.com: Who is Johannes Svenson? Sarah Bonney? Zebbariah Taylor ?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: Johannes Svenson was tall, lean and blonde. He was both irreverent and charming, and his military service in the Danish Heavy Calvary instilled in him a worldly, quiet but mischievous confidence. Roguish, adventurous, restless, he and his life are adrift. But Johannes, in his search to find himself, was about to be swept into the swift unknown currents of a rugged foreign landscape by the mysterious cascade of destiny.

Sarah had made her choice. Following the death of her mother the old world held little promise. The glowing letters from her aunt already in America, an ambition and wonder that could be satiated only by exploration, and a strange pull which flowed from the unknown continent across the sea was about to collide with the realities of life, and personalities more experienced and far less innocent than hers.

Zebbariah Taylor was weathered, wiry and wily in the ways of the wilderness. His solitude was of stands of quaking aspens, sun drenched canyons, gurgles of rushing high country creeks and the still waters of beaver ponds which provided the pelts that kept him in supplies. Zeb was not much partial to people, intensely disliked settlements and towns and distrusted most who shared his skin color. His few friends were some of the Arapahoe and Shawnee with whom he traded. Unknown to him the path of tough leathery loner would inexplicably intersect with the life journeys of others, resulting in generational influences far more broad and long term than his lone wolf nature could have ever foreseen.

PageOneLit.com: THREADS WEST, AN AMERICAN SAGA  BOOK ONE looks to be a successful series/franchise for you - If Hollywood called today and asked you to cast the film version who would you cast and WHY? 

Reid Lance Rosenthal: Frankly, I would be thrilled to see this epic saga portrayed in the stunning audio and visual of a great film or series. But one step at a time. First, the book just now coming out in print on October 12 (http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com), and then the next steps.


PageOneLit.com:  Plot or Character? Which do you feel is more important and why?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: The over arcing essence of the plot is consistent, and will flow through to successive generations of characters, more than thirty eight in all, over the course of the series. This is the tale of personalities of uncommon origins, disparate motivations, their life threads none-the-less destined to weave into the tapestry of an emerging nation, and an untamed West. I cannot identify a single character that is more or less important than another. All have their roles in the story, each has his or her contribution to the tale, the conflict, the triumph, and the romance of their interactions. Together they constitute the foundation of the entire series, their progeny destined, like their predecessors to fight, love, cry, fail and succeed inextricably intertwined with one another and the energy of the vast lands of the Rockies.

PageOneLit.com: THREADS WEST is already generating major comparison's to the iconic best selling Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series - How do you feel about that?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: I discuss this a bit above.  I am both gratified and extremely flattered (not to mention a bit in delighted shock) to have my work, much lest my debut novel compared to any great book by any standout author, much less those like Lonesome Dove, Gone with the Wind and Centennial, which in my mind comprise the very top of the bar of this literary genre. I find the whole surprise inspirational. It makes me want to write, to tell the rest of this story, and to do it in a way that reaches out and touches readers, makes them care for these characters, tingle at the passion of the plot, palpably sense the power and energy of the land, and feel a beat of pride as they recall through the tale our roots as a people, a country, and the unique spirit of America that is the glue that binds us all.

PageOneLit.com:  When can readers expect Book Two?,


Reid Lance Rosenthal: Book Two, Maps of Fate is already in the writing and I, and my publisher, Rockin''' SR Publishing are shooting to deliver the enhanced Ebook to all my great readers and Threads West fans in January 2011, the print copy coming soon thereafter. Excerpts and overview of the second novel of the series in fact follow the end of Book One in the Threads West paperback and Ebook. It will be action packed,  passion and romance filled but with scenes that will undoubtedly bring tears to readers, as they do me when I simply pen the story the characters are whispering to me as I write. It will span an approximate twenty year period, to about 1875. It's ending will, as does Book One, leave the readers, and the characters (who will include both new personalities from uncommon origins, and some of the next generation) at a point in the saga which is simultaneously conclusion and suspension that segues into Book Three, North to Wyoming  anticipated in late spring/early summer 2011.

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: I must admit, Threads West!  :-)

PageOneLit.com: What's next?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: Along with Threads West, An American Saga, Books Two and Three over the next six months, I will be completing my narrative non fiction book, Land for Love and Money, an entertaining anecdotal instruction for owners and wannabe owners of all types, sizes and facets of land in North America. The work is based on my long time ownership and career in lands in numerous states, three countries and two continents over the past forty years. 

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

Reid Lance Rosenthal: My hobbies, like my writing are more than hobbies, they are passions, a heat that flows from my soul...and all find their source in the land.  Hunting, fly fishing, river floating, horse back riding, and skiing the steep deep and extreme terrain of the Rockies are among a few. It is this perpetual dance with the land that indelibly prints mind scenes which later find their way to paper, remembered strokes of a natural brush to share with my readers transporting them to a moment. I sincerely hope they enjoy it thoroughly!

CLICK TO RESERVE BOOK TWO NOW!!! http://www.mapsoffate.com/content/purchase/