Plotting Along

Plotting Along

 When a writer stares off into space, that writer is usually working. A writer acquaintance of mine once told me about how her young daughter -- the child was about seven at the time -- piped up one day and said, "Mommy, I'm going to work like you!" And she sat down at her desk and stared out the window.

What we do takes place in our heads -- in our fertile imaginations. If you don't have an over-active imagination, you'll be hindered as a novelist. Although I had one sibling, I was, for all extents and purposes, an only child because my sister was almost 10 years older than me. Therefore, my closest playmates were in my imagination. In my bedroom or backyard, I acted out whole TV shows and films I'd seen. I was Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and their horses.

Which brings me back to the point of this. It might look as if we're just sitting and staring, but there is more to it. We're imagining. We should wear a sign that states: Caution! Writer At Work.

I just returned from sitting out on the patio. I went out there for a minute to let the dogs do their thing and I ended up staying there for half an hour because I was working out a tangle in the plot I'm developing. Something about the story was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew that some element wasn't firing properly. Out there on the patio, I finally saw the trees and the forest. My antagonist was wrong. Not nearly frightening enough or disturbed enough. That pivotal character was coming off mild, and that's the kiss of death for a suspense novel. Problem solved. I blinked, realized that the dogs were dancing around me, wanting back inside, and I came back to myself and my desk and untangled the knot in my plot.

That's how it works. Half of writing a book consists of not writing. It consists of staring while your mind whirls, pulling up this plot thread, examining it, casting it off, grabbing another, until you finally find one that you can weave in and out seamlessly to tighten your story. The best outline ever still needs tweaking, revising, and bolstering. That's because as characters take shape and find their own voice in your head, plot points can change. What once made sense for a character is now out of character. Actions taken by a character now are preposterous.  Dialogue spoken by your protagonist suddenly seems forced. So, it's back to sitting and staring or jogging, doing laundry, vacuuming the rug -- it all works. Mindless activity to allow your brain to create scenes, conjure places, and pen dialogue.

As Dee Hock once put it: "Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it." 

Artist Helen Chain

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Mount of the Holy Cross
photo by William Henry Jackson - 1873 

There is a painting of the Mount of the Holy Cross in 50% of the Story Gallery at the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum. From the moment I saw it, I was fascinated. 

The artist is Helen Henderson Chain. Born in Indiana in 1849, Helen attended the Illinois Female College in Jacksonville, Illinois. (Close to where I grew up.) She studied English and art., graduating in 1869. She married James Albert Chain in Indianapolis in March of 1871. The couple soon moved to Denver, Colorado, where James started a bookstore and print shop. Helen used a back room as her art studio.

Perspective: Helen Henderson Chain
 from Western Art & Architecture

Unlike other female artists, Helen loved the outdoors, and she and her husband spent many hours climbing and hiking. Helen was one of the early women, in petticoat, long skirt, and probably corset, to climb the 14,011-foot Mount of the Holy Cross in addition to painting the mountain. She also painted Pikes Peak.

Unfortunately, in 1892, while the couple was on a two-year world trip, their ship sank in a typhoon in the China Sea, killing the couple along with more than 100 others.

For more on this fascinating woman, here are some additional links:

https://www.historynet.com/helen-chain/ 

https://www.cspm.org/50-percent/mount-of-the-holy-cross-by-helen-chain/

https://images.app.goo.gl/7349dnNU4mRmmAhM9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Henderson_Chain

Vacation leads to romantic/mystery series

Where should we go on vacation? In 2016, my husband and I decided on Montana.

Internet research revealed The Covered Wagon Ranch in Gallatin Gateway, Montana. They offered a non-rider rate, perfect for my husband. So we made reservations for July and planned our trip. OMG! It was fun—two days on horseback riding into the mountains, gourmet meals prepared by a chef and eaten in a rustic dinning room with other friendly “dudes.” The owners, wranglers and staff were just as friendly. We felt like we’d come home.

On the trip, I saw firsthand the mountains, canyons, and valleys that make that part of Southwestern Montana so beautiful. Sagebrush is real. And so are lodgepole pine trees and aspens with their silver leaves shimmering in the wind.

I took notes about things on the guest ranch that being a city dude I didn’t know:

• Cowboys hang hats on antlers or posts when they come in for dinner.
• The dude ranch is family-oriented with many returning guests.
• Fishing is a big thing in Montana.
• One wrangler is hired only to break and train young horses.
• Some horses are allowed out at night to graze around the cabins. All the ranch is fenced in with log fencing.
• Horses are run up to high pasture for two days a week to allow them to graze and be horses.
• Special attention is given to the care of horses, so they won’t sour. Horses have a long season. Horses go in the winter to lower pastures.
• Rides are arranged every morning depending upon what guests want to do.
• Sack lunches are provided for daylong rides.
• One female wrangler came from Oklahoma and got the job via the Internet
• Before a ride, horses are sprayed with fly spray.
• Besides the saddle, a horse carries a saddlebag for water bottles and lunch, and a rain slicker. Wranglers put a rope halter on the horses and leave it on.
• Wranglers carry bear spray.
• Horses are branded with the ranch brand.

Returning home, I brought together what I’d learned with my imagination and created a romantic mystery series called Ghost Mountain Ranch.

You will find these books as eBooks, a paperback set, and audio books.

Will the revelation of more shocking secrets from the past destroy their hopes for the future? The Ghost Mountain Ranch is a 3-book series blending mystery and romance.

https://books2read.com/Darby

https://books2read.com/SladeGhostMountain

https://books2read.com/Kelsey

Just Google It

This one’s for all those researchers out there.

True confessions: I am old enough to have used microfiche.

Yes, I know. It’s not cool to be that old, and certainly not cool to admit it, but I know I’m not alone, and I do consider it quite an accomplishment to have survived all the way from microfiche and card cataloguing through the traveling encyclopedia salesmen at my parent's door, all the way to googling (it’s a verb) and commanding Siri to look stuff up. Right here is where I’d like to insert the wide eyed emoji displaying my shock at how much the world has changed in my lifetime. 🤯 ( Also, an exploding head.)

While many losses of the good old days could be lamented on a topic like this—such as flipping through 30 volumes of the Britannica before bed—we’ll save those for another more nostalgic day. Instead, today I’d like to revel in the sheer madness of now having the world at our fingertips.

The information superhighway—or the internet for those who don’t like fancy terms—is literally full to the brim of everything you might ever want to know about. This is excellent news for those of us authors who like researching while writing our books. Even better news if your library card is expired. (Mine is not. I’m just saying.)

I am always highly entertained by the social media posts where authors reveal their google search lists. The index of weird stuff people look up when writing books is in some cases more interesting than the book itself. The memes about how we are authors, and not serial killers could crack me up for days. (The large number of people being harmed in books, though, is something to ponder.)

Of course, I don’t need to know about toxic gas that smells like sulfur in my real life. Even though this is obvious to me, if my neighbors saw my list, would they be worried? Would I be the focus of the evening news interview where the whole neighborhood is surprised? She seemed so normal. Do the police have a tracker on my search bar? Could they show up at my door some afternoon wanting explanations? (Just because I use the internet doesn’t mean I understand how tracking my search bar works.)

These questions should give me pause, but do they? Nope. I just google away, fingers racing over the keys, learning about everything from guns with silencers to how fast a car can drive before it explodes into small pieces. Where do criminals attach under the car bombs? Which wires exactly need to be touched together to hotwire a car? (Can you tell I’m writing a suspense novel?)

Siri doesn’t judge me when I ask what’s considered a misdemeanor in Oklahoma or if you can wear your hair long when you’re an inmate at a super max prison. It’s none of her business. She just sprints out to find the answers and brings them back to me lickity split. I’m pretty sure I would’ve had to look through a lot of microfiche to find those answers. (I think Google has made me a smarter person. For real.)

So whether you’re a spry young tech lover or an old dinosaur like me, I’d like to recommend you give Siri and Google a try. You’ll be amazed at what you can find out there in the wild wild west (www) of knowledge-land and if you’re lucky—you’ll even find a video on how to hotwire a car because readers LOVE those realistic details. (Don’t get me started on the videos. They are amazing.)

Here’s a few search terms for my recent WIP:

Average income of Mendocino County California

Distance from Tonga to Hawaii

Polymetallic nodules

Is it called a highway in Virginia?

How far into water will bullets travel (There’s a video! A guy tried it in his backyard pool. 🤣)

Are assault rifles legal in California?

Can large ships evade detection?

Where do Navy SEALs carry their weapons when parachuting?

Have you been googling lately?

Drop some of your searches in the comments so we can all wonder what in the world your next book is about. (Plus, when the cops show up we can vouch for you and tell them you’re just an author.)

Until next time! 

Get Your Romance On... With Books! ~ Julie Lence

February. The month of cold nights and somewhat bearable days… the month of flannel and comfy socks… hot toddies and hot chocolate… evenings snuggled on the couch beneath a warm blanket…

The month of chocolates, flowers, and flimsy lingerie… candlelit dinners and decadent desserts… cards and balloons… whispering ‘I love you’… The month that resembles everything in a Hallmark movie or between the pages of a romance book. If you’re like me, you most likely indulge in both; anything to get your romance on. I favor a hero who’s tall, dark, and handsome, who wears a Stetson and Wranglers and has a devilish twinkle in his eye… Oh, who am I kidding? As long as he’s charming, loyal, and caring, he doesn’t need the Stetson,  just the Wranglers! (I’m joshing… maybe. There’s nothing sexier than a man in a pair of Wranglers.)

But, in wearing Wranglers, does he have to be a cowboy? Probably not. Throughout the years, I’ve read several different types of heroes; CEO’s, sports players, pirates, army men, rich lords, Vikings, and the ever popular 1980’s sullen type with a chip on his shoulder… who was quick with a comeback… who wooed  women to bed and then snuck away before the crack of dawn. He was the black sheep of the family and, if lucky, had one good friend. He was someone with a painful secret… who guarded his heart fiercely… who desperately needed to be loved. Someone who redeemed his callous, selfish ways by the end of story and won the reader’s heart.

Two such books from that timeframe featured heroes of this nature, and it was because of the authors who brought them to life and took the reader on their journey to happy-ever-after that I decided to try my hand at writing. Each hero is condescending, callous, dashing, daring, witty, and in need of a heroine who is not only strong enough to heal their bruised souls, but to tame them without shredding them of their identity.  I loved Nick and James back then and I love them today, and I hope you will, too.  (Each can be found on Amazon) 

 

Double Standards by Judith McNaught

Nick Sinclair, the ruggedly handsome president of Global Industries, handles his business the way he handles his women: with charm, daring, and complete self-control. When he hires Lauren Danner, he assumes the whip-smart beauty will be another easy conquest but much to his surprise, her wit and rare spirit dazzles him and he slowly finds himself falling in love.

Yet he has no idea that Lauren is living a lie, one that is becoming more dangerous with every passing moment. Trapped in a web of deceit, she fights her growing love for Nick and the promise of life with the most compelling man she has ever met.

   

Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey

Heartsick and desperate to return home to America, Georgina Anderson boards the Maiden Anne disguised as a cabin boy, never dreaming she'll be forced into intimate servitude at the whim of the ship's irrepressible captain, James Mallory.

The black sheep of a proud and tempestuous family, the handsome ex-pirate once swore no woman alive could entice him into matrimony. But on the high seas his resolve will be weakened by an unrestrained passion and by the high-spirited beauty whose love of freedom and adventure rivals his own.

 

 

     

 

Lawmen and Love

 

I've always enjoyed thinking about tough, seasoned lawmen turning as smooshy as a marshmallow when love catches them unawares.

Such is the case in my new release -  Lawmen and Love.

Three tough lawmen aren’t prepared for the moment when love arrives and turns their worlds upside down.

 This boxed set contains three full-length sweet and wholesome romances full of heart, humor, and hope featuring courageous women and brave men who uphold the law.

 

♥ Corsets and Cuffs – He never knew trouble had such a pretty face. She never knew the law could be so handsome and hardheaded.

Pampered and privileged, Brianna Dumont escapes the life she’s always known in an effort to clear her father’s good name. She arrives in Baker City, Oregon, intent on selling her father’s shares in a mine. Only the mine is a bust, her father’s partner is a crusty ol’ coot who hates women, and the sheriff in town is determined to keep her behind bars.

With good friends around him, a small ranch of his own, and a fulfilling job as sheriff, Tully Barrett loves his life. Then an exasperating woman shows up, making demands and driving him crazy. No matter how hard he tries to ignore her brains and beauty, she works her way under his skin.

When trouble follows her to Baker City, will Tully be able to protect her, along with his heart?

  

♥ Caterina - She’s hiding her past. He’s determined to reveal the truth.

On the run from the Italian mafia, feisty Caterina Campanelli escapes New York City with the help of her brother and travels across the country. She ends up in the small, rugged town of Pendleton, Oregon, where she makes new friends and focuses on building her future as a chef. Completely unprepared for the passionate feelings inspired by the handsome deputy in town, the last thing she needs is for a man of the law, especially one so relentless and exasperating, to dig around in her past.

Dedicated to his work as a deputy, Kade Rawlings takes pride in his community and his job protecting it. Determined to remain single and unfettered, he finds himself unable to stay away from the Italian spitfire who rolls into town keeping secrets and making the best food he’s ever eaten. Using his charm, wit, and brawn, he may just get more than he bargained for when he sets out to win her trust and her heart.

Will Kade be able to keep Caterina safe when her past catches up to her?

 

 ♥ Distracting the Deputy - He’s sworn to uphold the law. Her life is riddled with closely guarded secrets. When the past catches up to her, will she rush to him or run away?

When he’s not evading grabby-handed octogenarians, mentoring troubled teens, or rescuing rascally youngsters from disaster, Deputy Knox Strickland can be found upholding the law in the eastern Oregon region he patrols. He avoids making plans for tomorrow, focusing instead on doing his best today. Then one chance encounter with a beautiful woman in a wheat field turns his world upside down. Knox is left questioning what secrets she’s hiding, and how hard he’ll have to work to scale the fortress she's built around her heart.

Zadie Redmond isn’t like most women. A life spent looking over her shoulder has destroyed the promising future she’d once envisioned. Her days are spent leading hunting and fishing adventures or teaching tiny ballerinas the proper way to plié. She fills her evenings with do-it-yourself projects while worrying about the day her past catches up with her. In an unexpected moment, the local deputy swoops into her world like a storybook hero and she knows nothing will ever be the same. Zadie will do anything to keep Knox safe from the danger lurking in the shadows, even if it destroys her chance at love.

Will Knox convince Zadie she can trust him with her secrets and her heart?

Wishing you a fabulous February full of love!

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield is a farm girl who loves to write character-driven romances with relatable heroes and heroines. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances are filled with sarcasm, humor, hope, and hunky heroes.

When Shanna isn’t dreaming up unforgettable characters, twisting plots, or covertly seeking dark, decadent chocolate, she hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna is a member of Western Writers of America and Women Writing the West.

The History of the Stethoscope

By Kristy McCaffrey

The method of listening to the sounds of the heart, lungs, and other organs is called auscultation. In 1816, a French doctor named René Laennec was examining a 40-year-old woman, and he was embarrassed to place his ear to her chest to perform an auscultation. Remembering a trick he’d learned as a child, he rolled up twenty-four sheets of paper and used it to listen to the woman’s heart.

René Laennec

The design was soon improved using wooden funnels. Laennec preferred to call his instrument Le Cylindre, but later changed it to the stethoscope, deriving from the Greek word stethos (meaning chest) and scope, a French word derived from the Latin scopium (meaning to view). It allowed him to extensively study chest diseases and especially tuberculosis, from which he eventually died.

One of Laennec's original stethoscopes

Laennec was the first to describe the auscultatory signs in medical use today, such as bruit (a whooshing sound caused by turbulent blood flow in an artery), rales (clicking, bubbling, or rattling sounds in the lungs), bronchophony (a patient’s voice sounds louder and clearer than normal when heard through a stethoscope), and egophony (an abnormal lung sound that occurs when a patient says the letter “E” but the sound heard through the stethoscope is changed to a nasal, bleating “A” sound).

The wooden model was used for twenty-five years until an Irish physician named Arthur Leared created a model with two earpieces (called binaural) placed at the end of stiff metal tubes. It would be another one hundred years before the next improvement: the addition of two bells (the part the doctor presses against the patient’s skin) to listen to different parts of the body at the same time, such as the heart and the lungs. By the 1940’s this was the most popular type of stethoscope. 

The current design was created in 1961—a lighter model that can listen to lower or higher pitched noises by adjusting the pressure of the bell against a patient’s body.

Pre-Order THE SWAN

Amazon | Apple Books | Nook | Google Play

(it will also be available at Kobo and in paperback on release day)

Oklahoma Territory
November 1899 

Dr. Anna Ryan has been spurned by the Dallas medical community for the simple reason of being a woman. Wanting more than a rural practice alongside her mother, also a doctor, Anna accepts an invitation from a mentor to join a private hospital for disabled children in Oklahoma City. But when she falls in with a band of women attempting to liberate a town of innocents, she’ll need more than her medical training to survive.

Malcolm Hardy has skirted the line between lawlessness and justice since escaping the mean streak of his father and his no-good half-siblings a decade ago. In Oklahoma Territory he created enough distance from his family name to find a quiet purpose to his days. But then Anna Ryan walks back into his life, and his hard-won peace is in jeopardy.

The last time Malcolm saw Anna, she had been a determined girl he couldn’t help but admire. Now she was a compelling woman who needed his help to find The Swan, a mysterious figure with a questionable reputation. But one thing was clear—Anna’s life path was on a trajectory for the remarkable while Malcolm’s was not. Surrendering to temptation would only end in heartbreak.

Anna is the eldest daughter of Logan and Claire from THE DOVE. 

The Wings of the West Series Reading Order
Book One: The Wren
Book Two: The Dove
Book Three: The Sparrow
Book Four: The Blackbird
Book Five: The Bluebird
Book Six: The Songbird (Novella)
Book Seven: Echo of the Plains (Short Story)
Book Eight: The Starling
Book Nine: The Canary
Book Ten: The Nighthawk
Book Eleven: The Swan (Coming Soon)

 

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