About the Book

Book: All Together West: A Ginnie West Adventure

Authors: Monique Bucheger & G.L. Rasmussen

Genre: Upper Middle Grade

Release date: December 5, 2024

Families are complicated… and no one knows that better than 12 year-old Ginnie West. With her dad engaged to her best friend’s mom, this summer should be a dream come true. However, the return of Tillie’s birth father muddles the girls’ celebration.

On the plus side, Ginnie’s dream of training on her beloved horse, Calliope, is finally happening. However, she soon discovers that her riding experience is not enough when Tillie, her best friend, and Toran, her twin brother, and their new horses outshine Calliope in performance.

To complicate matters further, Ginnie finds herself in the midst of an escalating prank war with her mischievous Uncle Jake, drawing the entire family into the chaos. The West/Stratton/Taylor families must come together and heal, allowing her great-uncle’s cherished motto, “When you’re here, you’re family,” to hold true once more.

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Author Interview

G.L. Rasmussen and Monique Bucheger

1. Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser (or a hybrid)? My books and short stories are
based on life events or observations followed by “What if?” A friend volunteered to be Santa’s
helper because Mrs. Claus wasn’t available and she happened to have her own elf costume. I
wondered why someone would have an elf costume still tucked away at 36. That nugget
became Elves in the Attic.
I’m a pantser who knows my stories benefit from a little bit of plotting–though the plotting usually
consists of one sentence like: Ginnie searches the loft to find X, but finds Y instead. ;)

2. What is your favorite part about writing? Seeing where my characters/creations take me.
Writing a scene that comes out better on paper than in my head.

3. What is your least favorite part about writing? Getting the creative juices flowing after a
particularly trying day.

4. Do you have a way to keep track of your story ideas? I carry a small sketch pad where I
record ideas or quickly sketch out a scene or background landscape or pose.
I have notebooks I take notes in–but usually transfer the idea into my work-in-progress MS and
highlight it so I find it again easily. I incorporate it or keep moving it until it finds a home or gets
put in an “Extra’s doc for that book or the next one.”

5. What is your writing space like? A war zone. I’ll ditto G.L. here. It only makes sense to me.

6. When did you become a writer? In the womb. In grade school. Ginnie started out as an
Imaginary friend who turned into a character I liked to spend time with so much that I started
writing books about her and her family.

7. How long does it usually take you to write a book? A few months to several years. I like to
look back to see how my writing morphs and matures. Same here. G.L and I both have
unpublished books–for me the shortest time was 2 months (Book 1–though I wrote Book 2 first),
the longest, 9 years (Book 5).

8. Where do you get your ideas for your books? Sometimes they come as thoughts in an idle
moment or a humorous event observed or a painful lesson learned.
All of these apply to me as well as a “What if?” situation–like a friend learned he had an 18-
month old son. So I wondered what it would be like if a 12-year-old girl met the dad who didn’t
know she existed. Hopefully that book will be available next year.

9. What is your work schedule/routine when you write? I like to start early and work until the
distractions become too hard to ignore or other commitments need to be met. Then I may pick it
up later in the day.
Most days I get up and start writing. Depending on how life goes, I may stay at it most of the
day–or I may take care of the people in my life (though my youngest is 16 and at school or work
most of the day). I started writing seriously when I was pregnant with my youngest–and the
majority of my first 4 books were written between 10 pm and 2 am–because that’s when my
house was quiet. On occasion–I still write into the wee hours when I’m on a roll.

10. Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters? Certainly, it’s unavoidable. Close
friends tend not to read my works for fear of recognizing themselves in an unflattering way,
however. Of course, though most of my characters are NOT based on people I know–most of
my characters come with their own personalities and I let them do their thing.

About the Authors

Monique is a bestselling author, a certified Farland Fiction Coach, and an empowerment speaker, dedicated to championing the underdog, in both her writing and real-life adventures.

Having a heart for families in crisis, Monique creates stories that capture the essence of real-life challenges and triumphs, with a touch of humor.

Monique’s upper middle-grade series, ‘The Ginnie West Adventures,’ delves into sensitive and weighty themes such as parental loss, abandonment, and overcoming abuse. She delivers stories not only for tween readers, but for those young at heart.

Drawing from her experiences nurturing a dozen of her own children and fostering over a hundred more, Monique’s experiences shape her books, creating novels in a number of genres, including a historical family saga, contemporary family dramas, a fun picture book, and a middle grade series weaving whimsy and heart into her tales.

A country boy by birth and by choice, Gary spent his youth working on the family farm, for local farmers and ranchers, on horseback or playing sports. Offered scholarships in Agriculture and Advertising Design, he opted for the bright lights and big city. Eight years in the advertising field convinced him that wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Gary freelanced in design and illustration, converted his love of writing for advertising to a newspaper column about the country lifestyle. He has also worked as a ranch manager, cowboy, rancher, and horse trainer. An avid painter and author, Gary shares his talents through mentoring others, is a past president of the Western Art Guild and Idaho Writers League and is an active member of Western Writers of America.

Gary and his wife, Margie are the parents of four children and ten grandchildren and have traveled extensively throughout Europe, Great Britain and the United States.

More from Monique

All Together West: A Ginnie West Adventure is an accumulation of many arcs, including getting to know some family members that Ginnie didn’t even know existed not very long ago. These blasts from the past make Ginnie and Tillie’s present very interesting.

When Monique and G.L. wrote Book 5: Chase Your Dreams West: A Ginnie West Adventure, it turned into a very long book and was split almost in half–with some storylines going into Book 5 and others into Book 6. A new plotline was added to weave a more interesting tale that readers have really liked. In fact, while Ginnie and Tillie have puzzled along trying to solve some riddles, readers made some interesting guesses that have given the authors ideas to add to future novels.

So put on your thinking caps and jump right in with your best guesses as the girls go on a treasure hunt. Who knows what they might find as they search for clues from the present to fill in gaps from the past? Their hunt might lead to an amazing adventure in the future.