two good westerns-- on DVD

Most evenings, wherever we are, my husband and I watch a movie. We try to agree on what and it's not unusual for it to be something we have seen. We tend to like the same sort of films which means no horror, extreme violence, or that leaves us feeling depressed when they are over.

We have experimented with indie westerns for our nightly film-- which can be laughably bad. One, won't name names, was so bad that it would have been better with the sound off-- better because it did have a beautiful cast of young heroes. Totally a pleasure to watch but dialogue and acting... ack! Could a better director have saved the story-- maybe or maybe not.

The two I want to discuss here had varying levels of apparent money behind their making. They were both, however, definitely indie movies, never meant for movie theaters and only for DVD sales or rentals. They were both good in different ways. Of course, when I say that, it is a given that I mean for those who like westerns. If you don't, you might disagree totally. Western lovers though will accept a lot of minor glitches in the plot if it stays true to the genre. And these did in spades.

The other aspect the two had in common was their star. Both movies starred country music singers who had risen to the top of those ranks and are mature men now probably looking for new challenges.

They are middle aged but still tough enough looking to carry off the western hero, the kind of guy who is tough, capable, and for me-- a pleasure to look at. Give me a guy who has some experience on his face. Surprisingly they both gave good acting performances. Could they do Macbeth? Maybe not (likely would not want to), but a western is about good versus evil. It is about those who will stand up when others stand down. It is about the need for right to triumph. Much as a romance, they will have a happy ending-- which may or may not involve a woman.

Ambush at Dark Canyon starred Kix Brooks, who is famous in CW circles for being part of Brooks and Dunn who had hit after hit until they got to a certain age and felt they were repeating themselves and maybe wanted to go different directions. Brooks had a goal to act in a western which I felt he did quite well in this story of a US Marshal who made a catastrophic error in judgment which cost him his freedom.

The story does not end there, but I cannot reveal more of what happens without wrecking the story. Suffice to say there was plenty of action, two good bromances, and a setting in Southern Arizona where they used Yuma Prison for some of the scenes. I have been there which added to my enjoyment as Yuma Prison is one of those places you don't forget-- a literal hellhole for any one unfortunate enough to end up there.

The second film had me in some doubt when I purchased it. It was a retelling of The Virginian. Now that film has been made a lot of times usually with the same plot and beloved by me whether it's perfectly made or not. (The honeymoon at the end of the book, which evidently Owen Wister only added at Teddy Roosevelt's request -- gotta have a happy ending which Wister hadn't originally intended to involve love-- that honeymoon in the Big Horns is my idea of the best a man could give a woman. Total perfection and no sex in the story. It didn't need it.)

Okay, I got distracted. Back to the newest version. It starred Trace Adkins, who is another of my favorites in music-- and to look at. Adkins though seemed an unlikely choice for the Virginian; but when you get into this movie, it no longer is the case. He was perfectly cast.  This Virginian is a middle-aged guy, who has lived a hard life and is trying to live by the Code. He's tough, respected and living in a time where life can end very abruptly-- something he knows all too well.

The plot deviates a lot from the book while keeping some key elements. I can't say too much about it, or I'd ruin someone else's pleasure as the story unfolds, but the jacket gives away one point and I think blows it on another.

This Judge Henry is not a good guy. Ron Perlman knows how to play a complex character like this to perfection. To me, the rethinking of the Judge's character suits our understanding of how power can corrupt. By reworking  his character, the essence of the story changed from the original, but in a way that stayed true to westerns and added a view of life today.

Whoever wrote the book's jacket had a tough job. I know how hard it is to write blurbs that tell enough without too much. I just felt that the friendship between the city man and the western guy changed them both (yes another good bromance). These two men evolved with the needs of the situation. It wasn't one impacting the other but both of them. And the heroine, Molly West, well she was terrific for today's audiences.

Both of these films were good, stayed true to the heart of the western, and were eye candy enough for anybody who isn't a kid themselves ;). Certainly The Virginian was done on a budget as it didn't have a big cast-- but it put its money where it was most important.

It was the perfect time to watch these films as my newest novella comes out February 1 and while it's not exactly a western, it has one cowboy and the other a ranch owner for heroes... as well as... okay I won't go further but there will be more on it this week (while I am on the road but they are prewritten).

writing about violence

For  some people sex is the hard thing to write about in a book. For me it's violence; but I do write stories involving danger which means at a certain point there might be a fistfight, guns blazing, people getting shot, knifed, or killed. Writing that is a tough one since I've never punched anybody in the face-- ever. Not even slapped them. So if I have to use my imagination with the love making, the violence is even more so.

It seems we live in a culture where kids grow up automatically knowing about violence and enjoying it. For many people, it's more acceptable than sex, but for me it's the other way around. If I have my hero or heroine do something violent or be impacted by violence, I want it to be essential to the story, and then I want it to feel right. When that fist smacks into a face, I'd like it to feel it happened. Naturally that means I rely on what I've seen in a movie or read in someone else's book-- and hope that will never change as I don't want to get punched to find out what it's like.

When we were at Old Tucson December 2012, they showed how they stage their fist fights as well as explosions. The best movies look so realistic that you would believe that blow really hit home and sometimes it does-- leading to broken bones.

Real fist fights are not pretty, and they do a lot of potential damage. Recently the newspaper related a story where a man was hit by someone and went down in such a way it killed him. Taking violence casually, due to all the movies and games, seems one of our mistakes as a culture. So there is a lot of responsibility when opting to use it in a book.

As a writer who wants danger to be in the book, who has some bad guys with a hero out to take the villain down, there will be violent events, and I have to think long and hard not only how to stage them but how much to describe. Also is violence the best way to resolve what must happen? Are there less bloody alternatives that would work as well? And as to details once I decide it has to be, I am not one for blood spurting everywhere to read or watch; so I am sure not going to write about it ad nauseum.

One of the big issues, of course, is when a weapon is used, how much damage would it really do? How much kick would it have? What type of weapon would be used in each historic era? I can think of a lot of old movies where I saw the settlers on a wagon train fighting off the marauding Indians using repeating rifles. Guess what-- those weren't around until during the Civil War and even then not quite like we might imagine based on the movies or rifles of today.

Making a decision to kill a character is a big one for me. When I do it, I ask myself are there alternatives. Except sometimes there really don't seem to be any if I want the story to feel realistic. I consider violence as big an issue for how I will write about it as the sexuality.

I rely on Farm Boss for weapon information because men seem to always know about it where I am lucky to remember what he said from one fight scene to the next. Off hand I cannot tell you how many guns we have on our ranch, but they range from the very old to relatively new.  My personal oldest one is a .38 which was my grandfather's and the story goes that he was on a horse running from a posse with that gun. It's now a little on the old side for firing and whether the story is accurate, who knows.

When required, I can use a gun, asked for my first the Christmas I turned twelve. Supposedly the 30.30 is mine too but it has a little more kick than I prefer for coyotes. I have no fear of safe handling of guns with a loaded one near me most of the time (except when the grandkids are visiting), but I don't know much about them other than how to care for, handle safely and shoot the ones I have-- and I stay totally away from all those automatics where it's too easy to shoot yourself. Even with a concealed weapon permit, I don't carry a gun unless I am anticipating being in a wilderness where I might need it. Otherwise, pepper spray does nicely ;) and I haven't had to use that either although I've had a few times I wasn't sure if I would.

It does seem a casual attitude toward violence has not been helping us as a culture. Writers have a responsibility to take that into consideration with their stories-- or so I believe.

Two I loved and not in a series

As long as I'm writing about someone else's romances, I thought of two more illustrating how very different romances can be for what's in them. These happen to also be two that I know exactly where I was when I bought them and although I have loved them, I don't own more by either author. Their other books just didn't register with me; but because of loving these two, I definitely did try their others.

For me, sex isn't a big thing in a book to have it or not have it. I do find that if the sex becomes too dominant, I get bored. I am not easily offended though and a little sex on the dark side doesn't horrify me unless it's glorifying rape. That is a total no-go. If that hero forces the heroine when she says no but she later likes it, I will toss that book into the garbage if I bought it. Abuse isn't sexy to me.

So two more book reviews of romances that I have loved for very different reasons-- one with a lot of sex and one with the implications of it but no descriptions. One written by a woman and the other by a man. Neither one currently on Kindle.

Years ago I read a book again in the Lake Oswego library that I loved. I had looked for it in various used bookstores through the years but never found it. Finally I decided I'd give an Internet search a try. Lo and behold there a used copy was and I ordered it. 

Vardy by John Harris is an historical novel that has a strong romantic relationship at the center of it. Set in France and beginning in 1870, it is the story of one of Napoleon's military leaders. Colonel Max Cary de Lily is small, ugly, missing one eye, scarred, but also full of the energy of war heroes or really any hero. Vardy is a young woman who at first is drawn to his power but then falls in love as she is pulled through the adventures of a volatile time in France's history. This story is well set in its time period but never loses the power of the two main characters. Vardy's growth as a character is part of its appeal. Even though these two people are lovers, there is only the suggestion of sex, no descriptions.

When it arrived, in beautiful condition I might add, I was delighted to find it was as pleasing to me as a novel as it had been when I first read it nearly 40 years earlier. It is also very different than the second book I will review.

In 1991, we had made a hurried drive across the United States right after our daughter's wedding. Farm Boss was involved in a project which involved using for the first time a laser. It was being built in Massachusetts and the company was in danger of going under before they could get the laser shipped. He needed to get the glitches out. It wasn't going to be something that could be done in a few days. I suggested we go back together, drive and spend the month it would take (company covered costs). It took us just 4 1/2 days to drive there from Oregon. It gave me a lot of time alone with one of those weeks at Rockport and two in Concord. It was a memorable trip on many levels as I could wander where I chose during the day and there were many delicious historical sites from which to choose.

It was while in Concord in a small bookstore that I found Shadow Play by Kathleen Sutcliffe. I took it back to the lovely old hotel where we were staying and didn't quit reading until I had finished it (it not being a short book). It remains one of my favorite romances; but when I went looking to see if it's still available, the professional review of it was scathing although other readers wrote reviews expressing the same love I felt for this story. Goes to show.

Shadow Play is a romantic fairy tale loosely set in an historic period but that's not the crux of the story. It has all the ingredients I love in a romance starting with a great hero and a heroine worthy of him. The hero has been through a lot of bad times but emerged as someone considered almost a god in the Amazon. Some of that is good marketing on his part but he's more the hero than he knows. The aristocratic heroine is out of his league or so they both think until enough time together changes their minds with lots of adventures, one right after another as they travel up the Amazon into forbidden territory. There is a villain worthy of any romance as he is beautiful physically, dangerous and presents a risk to the hero until the climax. So troubled past, dangerous present, uncertain future, and some lusty sex.

It always amazes me how when I love a book it doesn't mean I will like anything else by the same author. As authors we always hope we are creating books, whether in a series or not, that will make others want to read all we wrote. While it is true that when I find a book I love, I will check out others by that author, it doesn't automatically mean I'll even like them let alone love.

Also all the talk, of paper publishing having more value than eBooks, I think is disproven by how quickly books disappear from the shelves and even the ability to buy those put out by the big publishing houses. Some of these oldies are having their authors retrieve the rights and put them out as an ePub. I am all for that because any book I have loved I will want to read again.

Series writing and a mystery

Recently we watched a film on Netflix which I had come across while looking through their offerings. I didn't know anything about it but as soon as it began I remembered something. One for the Money was based on a book by the author Janet Evanovich, whose books I had seen around and remembered as a successful author but was vague on what she wrote.

The film was kind of cute as it starred the lovely Kathleen Heigl who is always a pleasure to watch. The other characters (two hunky kind of heroes) were not as well known to me other than Debbie Reynolds as her grandmother and Sherri Shepherd who played a secondary character, Lulu, but is better known for being on The View.

As soon as I heard the name of the bounty hunter heroine, Stephanie Plum, I figured that this book, written in 1994, was intended to be part of a series. Some research after the film told me that Evanovich has written now 19 books with Plum as her heroine. Her last one landed instantly at the top of the NY Times bestseller list. She's obviously doing something right.

Not for me. I won't be buying the books and wouldn't likely watch another movie based on them; but when I see something like this, as a writer, I always wonder what that writer did right. What made it work for so many people? Can I learn from what she did to maybe write something that would likewise appeal to more readers? These stories are mystery/adventures not romances even though there is male female interaction-- and the torsos on those male heroes-- oh my.

What I think works is the family relationships, that this heroine seems like an ordinary woman (even if more beautiful than the average) who can then do these daring things, seeing her succeed, and the humor (although the grandmother shooting the holiday dinner turkey didn't seem funny to me). The stories are based in Trenton, New Jersey, where there is a tight family and also the broader community of which the heroine is part (and from which Evanovich also has come).

Janet Evanovich was a romance writer who decided she liked better the action part of her stories than the sexy parts. She had a reputation as a romance writer and to jump genres takes some toughness. She did serious research into what it would take to be a bounty hunter, weapons, cases, the investigations, etc. She uses that in her books as well as the family interactions and the attraction Plum has with either of those two hunky heroes.

I looked at the reader reviews for her last book, the one that was an instant best seller, and some of the readers who had stuck with her are getting tired of the same old same old. It's not easy to turn out almost twenty books without finding some repetition. In that length of time, stringing out the reader for which man the heroine will choose (if either) sounds a little like Matt and Miss Kitty from the old Gunsmoke TV series. Haven't we gotten past that and why can't Plum figure out who she really wants-- if either? Doesn't that smack of some heroine immaturity as well as hanging the readers out there?

As I thought about the plot in One for the Money, which I am assuming is the plot in its book, I felt it had a lot of phoniness. Through naivete or dumbness, Plum is constantly nearly getting killed and some fluke saves her or in steps one of the heroes to fix whatever she goofed up. I simply cannot get into such a book and can't imagine spending months writing about such a woman. She is the romance heroine in the worst way but without the romance-- sex does NOT equal romance.

What I wondered was Stephanie Plum Janet Evanovich's alter ego? It's not the life Evanovich lives but it's not unusual for authors to relate to one of their characters-- especially if you are going to live with that fictional character for nearly twenty years.

In my own books, the most I have linked together are three (loosely and without the same hero or heroines in each), but  I can see the merit of creating such a series as it's a ready made audience for your next book. Except-- how you avoid being bored with it? Maybe when the heroine is you living this alternate lifestyle?

Anyway, I liked the film better than the critics but won't be reading the book to figure out more of how she has gained such popularity-- unless I can get it used at Bookman's when I am next in Tucson. I don't think I could do her kind of story; but since this blog is intended to encourage other writers who might have the potential to write such a series, it's something to think about. Series writing can be the way to go for building a readership and clearly Evanovich has done something right in hers; but I've said often and repeat again-- a writer can only write what is in them. And when you have to spend months or even years with these characters, it's important readers will like them but even more that you do.

Sky Daughter as an eBook

With having written ten contemporary manuscripts, I will now have nine as eBooks on Amazon Kindle with the publication of Sky Daughter. It is a story of a family, its secrets, and what that means as one member of the family has been involved in something very dangerous which will effect not only them but their small mountain community.

Maggie Gard has returned to the Idaho mountains after a series of setbacks to work at the service station her family runs and be there for her grandfather who seems to be failing. Instead of peace, she meets a stranger who is in trouble and will challenge her on every level. With him, she will begin to unravel secrets that will impact her view of the world.

The story is one of mysticism, the paranormal, power run amok, ancient religious traditions, and that of a passionate love between two very different people who are also trying to find peace of mind regarding the religious and spiritual heritages of their families. The following passage is from the book when Maggie is remembering a childhood conversation with her dead grandmother:

‘Dream, Sky Daughter, dream of the future and of all that will be.’ 

 ‘Grandma, I don’t remember my dreams.

‘You must try harder. Dreams are the spirits speaking to you. They are your power.' 

‘Mama says they’re not.’ 

 ‘Your mama had to follow her path and you must follow yours. They are not the same.'

‘How do you know?’

‘I know and you will too when the time come.'

‘How?'

Her grandmother just smiled. ‘You will.’

‘You could tell me now.'

‘No one should tell another their path, Sky Daughter, but someday you will know yours.’

Sky Daughter on Amazon Kindle

It's fun to be a writer

In the midst of a kind of murky Pacific Northwest winter, cow problems (which have been resolved satisfactorily by selling the cow), lambing, a cold/allergy/something that seems to know no end and has evidently evolved into something with a life all its own, political stories that are depressing, world events that are even more so, I am feeling so lucky that I write.

Instead of dwelling on all the things going wrong, I can immerse myself into a hero who satisfies all the vitality and excitement that frankly I wouldn't have energy for if he showed up anywhere but on the page. I don't have to do a thing to get all that flowing into me. Just write about him and his heroine, about the joys they are discovering and for a few hours, I am into their life, not my own.

With writing I can go someplace warm if I want and bask in a climate change created by my imagination and laid out by words. I can revisit places I have loved being but where I may never return.

When I want to dwell on some problem in my characters' lives, it's just plain different than when it's my own. For one thing I know it's going to work out for them. I am going to make it work out.

When I read the newspaper, I get all my need for misery like with a story that really disturbed me and happened last week. A young man drove up to a boat ramp and saw the car of the woman he loved had been accidentally driven into the river and was slowly sinking. Heroically he dove in to try and save her. He drowned. Not only that but she had already been saved and was down the river a ways. Now that's a real life story which still disturbs me days later because it's how life often works out but we wish it would not.

Then there is this photo taken in Yemen by Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda. Arab Spring won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award. The beautiful, almost spiritual photo tells us of the cost of war and of love with one photograph. But it doesn't tell us how the story ended or even what it was. Just that one moment is all we get captured with all its beauty and angst. The writer can take that moment and create a story that does end happily or sadly. It is a choice. Life does what it will. Fiction gives us an option.

In any book I write, my hero might struggle and nearly lose his life, but I have the power and will make sure he and his heroine survive. That's the wonder of fiction, and why writing is so rewarding when days are tough. For a few hours every day you can get away and be someone else as you create dialogue and actions that are equally believable to how life works, but when it ends the 'right' way instead of the tragic.

I love writing about the heroes I have created who are often a mix of men I have known and yet also someone uniquely different. I thought about these fictional fellows recently about how they react when something bad happens. Several of them are some kind of law enforcement officer which means they walk in when others run out. Several of them though are just nice guys who find they are forced into the hero role by circumstances. I love to write about both types. I gotta admit. I LOVE men!

And then the women. Sometimes they start out with attitudes that aren't fully developed for maturity even if they should be mature. Heck, always they start out that way. But the relationship, the situation into which they are thrust, it all comes together to bring out their strengths. When the book is finished, I know they will be stronger women than when it began.

My heroines will be worthy of the hero and not because they have some cute, sexy figure, but because they have strength of character. They become women I'd like to have for friends. Women I'd like to be if I was reliving my own life in a different way. They take more risks than I do. I can take those risks through them where in reality, probably I still wouldn't because I'd be counting the cost-- and I wouldn't know it will work out happily in the end.

To 'grow' characters is sooooo satisfying. You know life isn't always that way. We've all known people who just wallow in the same mistakes year after year after year. That might be 'reality', but what fun is it to read about it or spend months writing about a character like that.

To me, writing should be fun. Save the angst for memoirs. They are where you can't keep control because you are telling a true life story. In fiction why wallow in angst? I can't think of a reason; so when I do have my characters go through tough times, which, of course, has to happen to have a story be interesting, I know it'll be worthwhile. Sorry but in real life, not always so.

And the best part of writing is you know there are all those ideas for the next book floating around in your head. This one was good but that one, that one will be even better. Writing is a way of both being in the world and out of it. Sometimes that is a very good way to be.

Marketing the books...  Now that's not so much fun!