Crimson Wonderland Blog Hop

 What character from a cherished book do you want to be?

I always wanted to be Laura.

When I first became passionate about reading, I was probably about nine or ten, and devoured every Little House On The Prairie book I could find. I never wanted to be the good daughter, Mary, who parceled out her candy so it would last longer. I wanted to be plucky Laura, who was impulsive, loyal, and unafraid, even though there was danger at every turn. She stood up to Indians with as much aplomb as she did Nellie Oleson, her bratty schoolmate. I was right there with her on every adventure, every meeting, every move she and her family made.

I loved the era that Laura grew up in, and envied her. I wanted to live on the edge of the woods, to meet mountain men and Indians, to explore the wild untamed country that became America. That is why I write and read historical romances. Now that I’m older, I realize the only thing better than being a child growing up in the untamed wilderness is being an adult woman who is able to fall in love with the big, strapping heroes who populated the country several hundred years ago. Now, each time I read an historical romance, I am swept away into the love story amid lush surroundings.

In The Reluctant Debutante, I get to fulfill two of my fantasies. I get to dance at a formal ball with a handsome stranger, and I get to fall in love with an Indian. My second book, The Abolitionist's Secret, has a heroine who becomes involved in the Underground Railroad movement. I always wanted to become politically active for the cause of racial equality. However, I was always a bit too afraid to ride the buses in Selma, or march on Washington. But in my books, I can be very brave. 

I enjoy books that let me slide back in time, to an earlier and simpler era. Through historical books, I can dance at a Regency ball, witness a buffalo stampede, board a wagon train headed west, or even visit ancient Rome. Please explore all the Crimson authors who are participating in the blog hop. I’m sure you’ll find some world to lose yourself in, whether you enjoy a swashbuckling pirate story, a chick-lit contemporary, or becoming a Duchess for a day.

So, it's your turn. Tell me what character you most want to be, and what book you'd like to be swept into. Leave a comment here before hopping over to another participating author's site to be eligible for one of the three prizes that have a total value of $200, and will be awarded at the end of the hop. Leave us your email address or website, so we can get in touch with you when you win. And be sure to click on the link to my personal giveaway through Goodreads, of an autographed copy of The Reluctant Debutante. Good luck, and happy reading!

Tag--You're It!

  Well, this is fun.  Guess what!  A bunch of us writers are banding together to give you, our sweet and wonderful blog audience, a little taste of what we're working on next.  Call it a sneak peek.  We've shared the same ten questions and we're linking our Tag blogs together so you can see all the awesome stories on the horizon.

Here's what I'm working on.  Be sure to stay to the end to follow to the next bloggers. Enjoy.

What is the title of your book? My WIP has had several titles, but I think I’m sticking with Tracked Through Time.

Where did the idea for the book come from? I was watching the history channel, or maybe the Discovery Channel, one night, and there was a special on about the life and times of mountain man and explorer, Jedediah Smith. The entire hour was spent heaping praise on the guy for all his accomplishments. Oh, and then he died. It was a crushing end to an otherwise heralded life, since he wandered off into the desert looking for water and never returned. All presumptions are that he was killed by Indians, although no body was ever found. So, it got me to thinking, what if Jedediah wandered off into the desert and ended up in another century?

What genre does your book fall under? Obviously, from my above question, this is going to be a paranormal/time travel book.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I want the guy who played Jed in the special I saw. He was gorgeous, unlike the real Jed, who was nearly scalped in a bear attack and had the facial scars to prove it.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? The ex-wife of a rock star is looking to restart her life after a public divorce. She gets caught in an electrical storm and wakes up in 1823, in the camp of Jedediah Smith and his band of mountain men.

Will your book be self-published or agented? I’m hoping to find an agent with this one.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? I’m so close to putting an end on the first draft, for about the fifth time. I first wrote it backwards, with Jed coming forward, but it didn’t work as a contemporary, since the history is so rich. So, I ripped it apart and redid the entire book. I’ve entered the first 50 pages in several contests, just to make certain I’m on the right track, and have finaled in every one.

What other books within your genre would you compare your WIP to? I go back to my favorite of all time, A Knight In Shining Armor, by Jude Deveraux. I absolutely loved this book. Mix in a little Jeremiah Johnson for the right early American explorer flavor, and you’ve got my book.

Who or what inspired this book? After I saw the special on Jedediah Smith, I began researching his life and times. My pile of research books is huge. And, so I could walk in his shoes, I traveled to northern California to the Jedediah Smith National Forest, where I sat on the forest floor and cried. It was so beautiful.

What else about your book might pique the readers interest? I am trying to juxtapose someone whose points of reference for ten years has been the world of rock and roll, with a Bible-toting 19^th century man’s man. It's been fun.

 Now keep going! Hop on over to the blog sites of these fabulous authors and find out what they're working on. 

Susan Jean Blexrud 

 http://embracetheshadows.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/tag-youre-it-hopping-around-the-blogosphere-with-my-crimson-sisters/

    
D'Ann Boothe Burrow    
http://www.mollykategray.com/tag-youre-it/

Tara Mills: http://www.taramillsromance.com/1/post/2012/11/tag-youre-it.html 
 

Galen Rose: http://galenrose.com/author/galenrose/

Nancy Loyan: http://nlsscribe.com/blog/2012/11/07/my-work-in-progress/

Traci McDonald: http://tracimcdonald.blogspot.com/

Robyn Corum:  http://robynsrules.blogspot.com/2012/11/tag-youre-it-with-me-robyn-corum.html

Suzanne Barrett: http://bellerustique.blogspot.com/

Pam Morris: http://pambmorris.blogspot.com/2012/11/tag-youre-it.html

Shelley K. Wall: http://shelleykwall.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/tag-your-it/

Sometimes, it's the little stories...

I’ve been living in Oberlin for three years and have toured the historic society’s buildings and taken the history walks with very knowledgeable tour guides. I’ve seen the various monuments around town commemorating the Underground Railroad and I know the historical significance of the college, which, in 1833, was the first to admit both blacks and women.

Last week, I had lunch with Darlene Colaso, who works for the City of Oberlin. One of her jobs is overseeing the development of the Center for the Underground Railroad. While we were talking big picture, she mentioned a little boy slave who, in 1853, was too sick to travel on with his family to Canada. The family was still in danger, with their owner coming after them, so they had to continue on to Canada. Little Lee Howard Dobbins was left behind in Oberlin with some good Samaritans and died just days later. It’s only one little story in the overall complex problem of slavery and the incidents leading up to the Civil War, but the way the town reacted touched my heart.

A service was held in First Church, which still exists, for this small boy who nobody knew. More than one thousand people crammed into the church, to honor little Lee Howard Dobbins. Each person gave what he could (the recommendation was ten cents each), to pay for a gravestone for him. The words carved into the stone are Let Slavery Perish! and then tells the story of Lee Dobbins, and how his flight to freedom ended in Oberlin.

The gravestone of Lee Howard Dobbins will be the first permanent exhibit of the Underground Railroad Center. For more information on the Underground Railroad Project, visit their website: http://www.cityofoberlin.com/CityManager/UndergroundRailroadCenterProject

Lee Dobbins’ life and death could have been lost in the shuffle. After all, there were many slaves who risked their lives and were consumed by terror as they dashed from the plantations to freedom in Canada, and each had their own story, now lost in time. But Lee Howard Dobbins died in Oberlin. His little story lives on. 

Why We Live Where We Do

Have you ever thought about why you live in the town or state you do? Did you end up where you are now because of career obligations (either yourself or your spouse)? Was it to be near family? Or did you pick your town because of its lifestyle? Are you still living in the town where you grew up? Or did you just close your eyes in front of a map and point?

We each have many different reasons for ending up where we do. Personally, I’ve lived in seven different states as an adult and my reasons for hop-scotching across the country are as varied as the landscape. But the reason for my last move, boomeranging back to Ohio, the state of my birth, surprised even me.

Foolishly, I thought it was to be near family. Given my other choices—too hot North Carolina, too crowded and expensive California, or way too hot Arizona, Ohio made the most sense, despite the winter snow. I selected Oberlin for its small college-town atmosphere, its liberal nature, and its movie theatre. But actually Oberlin chose me.

Shortly after moving, I began to work on what would become The Abolitionist’s Secret, my December release from Crimson Romance, about a bashful young lady in New York and her handsome military officer, who happens to be a slave owner. She is involved in the abolitionist movement and helps a young slave escape the clutches of the slave mongers at an Underground Railroad stop. 

Ohio was an active route on the Underground Railroad, too, and Oberlin played a significant role in the movement. There are several monuments around town that herald the town’s involvement. And the city has taken on the restoration of an old Gasholder building with plans to convert it into an interpretive center about the Underground Railroad. I decided to donate a portion of the proceeds from the book to this center, which is funded by private donations and grants. For more information about the center, visit their website at: http://www.cityofoberlin.com/CityManager/UndergroundRailroadCenterProject

So, tell me about your own personal experience. Where do you live, and why? Do you use your town in your stories at all? 

And, don't forget to return for the Crimson Authors blog hop November 17-21! We have gifts!

Crimson Christmas Wonderland Blog Hop!

I'm participating in my first-ever blog hop, from November 17-21, 2012! Readers will visit as many of the blogs as they can between these dates and leave a comment. All those who enter a comment anywhere along the way will be eligible for some pretty spectacular prizes in the form of Amazon gift cards. If you visit all the sites and leave a comment, you can enter into the drawing nearly 50 times.

If you've ever been carried away to another space and time while reading a book, you understand what the romance genre is all about. Like the Calgon bath commercial, sometimes a good book can take you away. And with the varied choices in the Crimson lineup, you can be swept away onto pirate ships, to America in the decade prior to the Civil War or back even further to the Revolutionary War. How about ancient Rome? Or maybe to a desert in the southwest where strange experiments are taking place? Or a ranch in Texas? Maybe fighting off demons is your cup of tea.The choice is yours.

Following is the list of participating authors. We jointly wish you fun on the hop, and a very merry holiday season. May your stocking be stuffed with romance books.

http://crimsonromanceauthors.com/crimson-wonderland-blog-hop/

The Mad Hatter

 

Lately, I’ve been feeling like the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date.”

Take today for example. I have been blogging every Sunday morning since July, when my blog went live. Yet this morning, it was the furthest thing from my mind. I received a much-anticipated e-mail last night from a publisher who is interested in my contemporary novel. I need to run through it one more time and make certain it’s in pitch-perfect shape. So the blog took a back seat to my edits. This morning, at least.

Then, there was work. I have a weekend shift for a greeting card company in a big box retailer that just got expanded into two big box retail outlets. There went four hours of the day. Lunch, a quick glance at the paper, picking up my neglected, whimpering dog and snuggling took more time.

So here it is. Not Sunday morning. Not even Sunday afternoon. It’s Sunday evening, and I’m only now getting around to the blog. I didn’t get my edits finished, and I haven’t opened the book I’m reading and reviewing for a fellow author. But I approach this blog like I do my writing. I have to make time to write a blog every week to stay on track. I’d like to think there are folks out there who, by now, have come to look forward to hearing from me every week. And I can’t let a single one of them down. Or myself.

I Miss The Magic

Lately, I’ve been mired in editing—first with my second novel in the Cotillion series, The Abolitionist’s Secret, which went back to the publisher late last week, and then with my third novel in the series, which is being polished up to send off. It makes me feel good when my babies walk out the door, but it seems like it’s been forever since I’ve done any creative writing. Consequently, my attendance at my various writing groups has fallen off, since I have nothing to share, and many edits to complete by a deadline date.

So what do I do with these characters who keep popping into my head? Right now, I have a young woman who is a nurse in the Civil War on the Confederate side and her husband, who is wounded in battle and comes to the hospital. Trouble is, he’s a Union soldier and if he gets better, he’ll be hauled off to a prison camp. What to do? This delightful dilemma has been rolling around in my head for a few weeks, but I haven’t had the opportunity to put anything down on paper. Maybe I can find time this week to begin.

I know we all come at writing from different angles—some do it to pass the time, some write because it makes them feel good, some like to set goals and reach them. I write because I can’t imagine life without the creative process. If I have a week where I’m at a conference or on a vacation, I find that I miss being able to sit down at my computer and have an idea that takes off. My fingers fly across the keyboard and, to me at least, it’s like magic when an actual story emerges from the corner of my brain. And, right now, I’m missing the magic. 

How about you? Do you feel like something's missing from your life if you don't write, or is writing something you do to escape from your normal routine to a more pleasant place? How do you balance the editing process with the creative one?