Raised on the Ranch

Debut novel by Preston Hollow’s Natalie Dossett’s celebrates family history, Texas women

Preston Hollow resident Natalie Dossett will release her debut novel in September, after nearly a decade of writing the historical fiction book inspired by her family’s ranch. 

Sarita, set in south Texas during prohibition, follows a young girl’s journey for justice as she searches for her brother’s killer. 

With this story centering around a young woman, Dossett hopes to bring attention to women’s roles and importance during the 1920s in Texas. 

“Even though it’s the men you read about — the men you hear about — there were women that were doing important things,” she said. 

Dossett started a Facebook page called “Women of Texas” while researching to further document and acknowledge the undercelebrated women in Texas history. 

Though she did complete extensive research when writing the book, much of the story’s characterization and details were based upon stories and things she already knew. 

The seventh-generation Texan’s great-great-grandfather was a Texas Ranger, and the stories she’d grown up hearing about him influenced the story greatly. 

The story was also majorly influenced by her experinces on the ranch her family has owned since 1905. The ranch featured in her book shares a name with the ranch she grew up with, and shares much of the same characterization. 

Dossett’s father, the previous owner of the ranch before her brother, said his favorite part is the descriptions of the scenery, which Dossett describes as one of her favorite features of the book as well. 

“South Texas is kind of austere. It’s a lot of cactus and brush. But there’s, to me, there’s a beauty to that,” she said. 

Since she grew up there, she said she felt she almost rediscovered the beauty when writing about it and coming up with the story. 

“Sometimes, you look at something so much that you don’t see it anymore,” she said. 

One of her hopes with this story is that readers think about south Texas in a way they may otherwise forget to. 

Despite her appreciation for her family’s ranch and the history behind it, Dossett did not originally plan to write a story similar to those she grew up hearing. 

When she took a writing course at SMU, however, the ideas that came easiest were those like Sarita.  “They say, ‘Write what you know,’ and that’s what I did.”

After the initial draft, it wasn’t until 10 years later that Dossett would finally complete the book. Even with such a long writing process, she feels like it happened at the right time of her life. 

She has already begun working on a sequel to the story. 

Dossett will be hosting and attending multiple events to celebrate her novel’s Sept. 10 release. Those include a book signing at Interabang on Sept. 11 as well as a several private book signing events in Highland Park before she heads out on a nationwide book tour.