Roostered Cowgirls & Western Slang Contests. How smart are ya? Go on. Give 'er a try.

Click the play button after a few seconds to get you in the country mood.

I’ve always said (okay, not really but I’m saying it now) that in another time and place, I could have been a cowgirl. I love me some cowboy fodder and every once in awhile I listen to country music. As I sing, I have been known to throw in some southern twang. I can sound genuinely hick.

I love horses. They’re just like big ol’ puppy dogs to me. In another time and place, I’d own several—a Red Dun, a Black Stallion, a Strawberry Roan, and maybe even a Dapple Gray. Oh, and a miniature horse too. Just for fun.

I’d slap on my cowgirl hat, strap on my chaps, and mosey on down the trail into the glowing sunset. Can’t you just hear the clippity-clop of the horse hooves on the trail, the jingle-jangle of my spurs, and the wind rustling through the tumbleweeds? Giddy up, Widow Maker, giddy up.

Yep, I’d make a mighty fine cowgirl and if you say otherwise, be prepared to meet my Quickdraws. (Just kiddin’. I don’t own no Quickdraws. But I do have a Nerf gun and darts).

Writing my zombie western romance novel has been a hoot—writing the twang and slang of the wild, wild west cracks me up.  And, in my research, I found some wonderful resources to help me to decipher our normal day verbiage into western idioms.

There was a point in which my male MC dresses up kind of fancy and I wanted to say something more than just, “He looked nice in his fancy clothes.” (That’s telling not showing by the way, and I would NEVER do that). I was able to find a website that said fancy clothes were called, “Best Bib and Tucker.” Oh, I snatched that up. That’s a good phrase right there. And, back in those days, a handsome man was called a Thoroughbred. That’s nice. So what the heck, I implemented the two. It worked.

Of course, I have to be careful not to add too many western phrases into my novel. It could come off over bearing and creepy. Besides, a few are impossible to understand. Someone would read it and be like, “What the heck?” But a few here and there to provide a more western feel and make it more authentic is mighty fine by me.

So I thought it would be fun to give you a few slang terms and see how well you do in defining them. Oh, let’s make it a contest! Yeah, that would be fun!

First, we need RULES (I’m making this up as I go here):

1)      Follow my blog. Just click on the join this site button. So easy to do.

2)      No cheating. No looking it up online. Okay, you can look it up online, but it would be a lot more fun if you didn’t.

3)      Leave your guesses in the comment section.

4)      The one who gets the most right, wins. (In case of multiple winners, a name will be drawn from a hat—a ten gallon cowboy hat).

5)      If you tweet this (and why wouldn’t you?), just tell me you did, I’ll believe you and then TWO of your wrong answers will be made right. Like extra credit.

6)      Make sure to include your email so I can get a hold of you.

7)      That’s all of the rules I can think of. No point to make this technical. This is just something dumb, yet fun to do.

PRIZES: You have to have prizes. Hmm…not sure what kind of prize to offer. It should be something cowboy related, right? If I sent you a bottle of lotion, that would be weird. Shoot. I don’t know.

Okay, okay. I think I got it. How about a gift card for you and a friend to go to a movie theater in your area to see “COWBOYS vs. ALIENS.”  Not quite zombie, but pretty darn interesting none-the-less OR a Barnes and Noble gift card if you’re just not that into cowboys (Shame on you. Shame. Shame).

Here we go (I gotta make this hard):

1)      Adam’s Ale

2)      Milestonemonger

3)      Dough Belly

4)      Paintin’ his nose

5)      Get the mitten

6)      Texas Cakewalk

7)      Windies

8)      Rod

9)      Fice

10)   Amputate your timber

11)   Doxology Works

12)   Belly Wash

13)   Hay Seed

14)   Rot Gut

15)   Sheepherders Delight

16)   Texas Butter

17)   Fiddle

18)   Horn

19)   Roostered (I use this one in my book)

20)   Honey-Fogle

Good Luck ya’ll. I’ll post the answers this Friday, May 20th along with the winnerest winner of this here contest.

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