Rain Trueax

When I began writing books, I was in my early twenties. Before that, it was short stories. I had had an idea for an historical western romance and it slowly evolved through the years, along with other stories. I didn't try to get them published as it was more about the joy of putting together a plot and developing characters. Below are the stories from the first to the last-- for now. 

My life evolves from Oregon to Arizona with much of the West in between with our vacation trailer. Where will it end up? I have no idea but am trying to be open to the future through dreams and what I read. Isn't that what life is all about? The boxes you see behind me (there are more out of view) are the product of trying to combine what was two homes into one... Argh.

June 29, 1943

A brief time out for my partner in writing. He reads all my books. He critiques them from a male point of view. Helps me with guns and any scene needing masculine type action. He is their publisher and supports my writing by saying he believes in what I am doing. He is part of what makes it possible for me to be living my dream and writing books.

He is also incidentally or not-- my life-mate. I married this man almost 50 years ago. We share two wonderful children, two children-in-laws, and four grandchildren not to mention the cattle and sheep ranch where we live today.

We've certainly had our ups and downs, but we are best friends today. We mostly like the same things. He's creative and has his own work where we each let the other be. We laugh a lot together. We also can yell at each other and then an hour later joke about what we had argued about. 

Today is his 71st birthday, and I just want to say I appreciate all he's given me through those years as a partner who is always interesting if sometimes challenging. Hey, who wants boring!

Ethics and fiction writing

When writing a story from ideas in your head, a lot of things come into play that will vary with genre. Readers expect certain things from a mystery that will be different than from chick lit. If you are writing in a genre that is action oriented, a lot of emotional reaction isn't required. Some stories barely give you the motivations of the main protagonists; and you see what they are by what they do-- if the writer stays consistent.

Romances have action, dialogue, and the inner workings of the character's thinking. These books resolve how people will do certain things, what their reactions will be, how they will feel after they make choices, and that's an important part of any romance from Jane Austin to Nicholas Sparks. There might be different styles involved, some with more emphasis on dress and behavior and others with even violent actions, but in the end, a romance (the best of them) will be about emotional reactions and even ethical choices.

When I have the most problems reading someone else's romances is when they ignore ethical actions. They might let a hero or heroine behave in a way that is an abomination, but it's supposed to be okay because they are the hero/heroine. Say what! I suppose some with male heroes has come from the rise of the anti-hero. But even an anti-hero has to have an ethical code to find sympathy from most readers/viewers.

So when I am writing a story as I am right now, ethics is an important aspect with which I off and on wrestle. Sure I need to get tenses correct, spelling right, sentence structure making sense (although perfecting of that comes later with editing), but ethics are big to me. I want my characters to act logically-- even when they sometimes make mistakes. And when they have acted unethically, I want them to be aware of it at least eventually.

 Image rights purchased from CanStock

On the current book, I have a lot of this kind of thinking going on as there are some big ethical questions for the hero and heroine. She faces hers not only because of her period in history but from those any culture puts onto its people. Cultures encourage obedience and punish by different methods disobedience of its rules. Some of this probably is human nature and some about power and survival. The more options a culture permits, the more confusing life can be.

As a woman of the 1880s in the West, my heroine has lived by rules and pretty much edged around what isn't okay-- like visiting an occult shrine or going to a psychic. She is 25 and unmarried by choice, again something a genteel lady would not be doing unless she's staying home taking care of aging parents. Obviously by her choices, she is going against the stream but how far is she willing to go in doing that?

She might have been able to avoid resolving that question except life isn't letting her on several levels. A big one is when she is attacked (won't go into details of what happens but it's not a rape), and she must decide whether to bring charges against the perpetrator or hide what happened to save what's left of her reputation. It's not exactly a problem unique to her times but made harder when women had less rights, couldn't vote, certainly not hold public offices and even the right to own property hadn't been held all that long.

So the story had gone along quite well until I got to this sticky situation. It's easy, as a writer, to turn a major protagonist into a symbol for what is right to do and make it turn out that way... or even go the other way... but better writing is to make it seem inevitable as a choice and that the character would actually do this-- whether it's the best choice or not. That's something I am taking some time to decide. It's not exactly a road block as I know what comes after, but I want to get this part right-- which to me is what good writing is all about.
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Central Oregon

A quiet morning, not too early or late, the perfect time for photos with long shadows and sunlight. Feel how cold the Central Oregon air is and still enough to get wonderful reflections. It's about 22º. The air is crisp and clean with the smell of pine in the air. We are on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, where the hills grow steeper. Off and on Mount Bachelor and other volcanic peaks can be seen.

The campground is closed for the winter but there have been others here before, not just 4-wheel drive vehicles but rabbits, ducks and some odd little animal with four legs and a tail it drags. Rat maybe?

Walking across the snow is crunchy, sometimes you'll fall through, but it's only about 8" so not a big deal. Under the pine trees are beds of needles. Where the pines have protected the ground, the going is easier.

Ice rims the edges of the Deschutes River. It and snow mask the true edge, but the river runs free. It'll take more than this to freeze across it. Time over here in the winter is precious. Why don't I want to do it more often?

Creating a brand

Last year I know I wrote about this because it's what I was told was important to a writer. Create a brand.  If someone writes eleven books as I have (and that doesn't include the five historicals that I am putting off publishing-- nor the ideas for future contemporaries), and if they are not in a series, aren't typical for the romance genre, how do you establish a brand? I recognize one when I see it-- the series all written in a small town named say Adeline (made that one up) or the name Louis L'Amour. 

 digital painting

If your books are in paper, out from a publishing house, they send you around to bookstores or events that relate. You sign books, give talks, and you become the brand to those who will now look for your next book because they know the kind of thing you are going to have in it-- even if it's not set in Adeline. If they liked what you say, they will buy your philosophy for those books, the influences that have inspired the writing.

For me, as an indie writer, who likes being an indie writer, how to do this has been an ongoing question. I guess I should say an off and on question as I tend to forget about it and then go -- uh oh I better do something. I do have a philosophy to my books, but I suspect they disappoint the most avid of romance readers as I'm not into producing angst nor flowery language. They also are not going to be found by the readers of pop fiction who might read many types of novels but gag at the thought of a romance.

That's why I do need to be the brand. I write these books with a knowledge of the life where they are placed. Always it's into some arena where I have experience. I place them in settings where I live or have spent a lot of time. I do know the type of people even if they aren't friends. Some of the books link together but even then they stand alone as something that could be read without the others.

When I looked around GoodReads, I saw where they have a place for videos. I suppose they expect them to all be from the books but would they really want eleven of them (which I do have on YouTube)? So instead I created something new about my last year and some of the influences in my life, some that became part of a book and some inspired the energy that I believe is at the heart of my books-- all of them.

With 2013, I might try to come up with other ways to brand-- short of the cowboy method, of course.

our time in Tucson

Because our main purpose to be at our Tucson, Arizona home at this time was handiwork, getting it ready for the first renters of the new year who will be here beginning the 31st, the time has been a mix of getting things done, sprucing up, along with getting the kinds of photos I can use for future trailers and blogs.

My physical writing was mostly done in the first week with now it being more about plot ideas in my head as I work out characters and actions before I start into a heavy writing schedule again.

For me, Arizona has been an incredibly rich experience this time with a lot of necessary activity and some very pleasurable. A few days were all practical like when the septic tank was pumped one morning with a new dishwasher being delivered that afternoon-- and the prep for both those activities ahead of time. Then there were days rich in artistic pleasures as when we visited Old Tucson, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and two petroglyph sites on the Winter Solstice.

This was my first time back to Old Tucson since it burned (arson) and had been rebuilt. I was in awe frankly of all the great photo ops for someone who wanted Old West type background material. Since they rebuilt it for movie work as well as tourists, it has all kinds of wonderful hidden niches that made for great photos. It doesn't have the same ambiance as when we knew John Wayne had walked the streets and one time we saw Clint Eastwood there with his family (or his look alike as we didn't stare or ask). I have so many fun photos from those years, but this new version is probably better for the photographer who wants something they can use more practically than ambiance.

On the 30th, we will begin heading for Oregon-- give or take a day based on weather forecasts. We are hoping the snow that has been hitting mountains between us and our little ranch will be off the highways. Due to the winter storms our route north will be through California which means more driving pressure but less icy conditions-- although it has its share of places it can happen no matter which way we go.

Winter has arrived and with it a lot of traveling attention must be paid to weather forecasts and highway conditions. We've gone north when it took chains to get over the Siskiyous or the roads were closed. One year we saw how bad the conditions were getting, pulled into a restaurant, heard the police saying they were shutting it down totally and got motel reservations at Shasta just in time which was a lot more pleasant than the alternative of a school-- and with the cats now, how would that work? Either of them? We'll watch for conditions and not get anything close to that happening.

Of course, here in Arizona, it hardly seems like winter other than the great lighting conditions, sunsets, decorations and music in stores when we are forced to visit one (seldom as possible).

Frankly, as reluctant as I was to come, I will be equally reluctant to leave. I have two homes I love very much. One has a lot more responsibility attached to being there and the other is too far from family. I have always said I have a divided heart and why couldn't I find my perfect place closer than 1200 miles from my other perfect place?

For those who have never seen our home in Tucson, I had made a video for its VRBO listing and it's on YouTube.

the desert smells like rain

After five days of intensive writing, I did finish the Christmas novella with editing its 25,000 words my main concern now. I really haven't felt like writing anything about it though with the horror of the school shooting seeming to swallow me. How do we get past this kind of thing without feeling severely depressed, sorrow for the parents, the children and concern for what do we do about it? This attacks us all as who doesn't feel empathy when children are attacked wherever we see it.

Despite all those emotions, I did keep editing the Montana Christmas story because sometimes, when there is nothing we can really do about something, that's the relief-- to move to a different realm. Fiction can be that realm unless it's depressing-- one reason I like romances.

We have had rain in Tucson. Some of it quite heavy. There are two things I love about the desert that are not the norm. One is when it rains because it makes the desert smell so good. The other is the month of August which combines rain, thunder storms and heat. Almost every time we come to Tucson, we do get some rain, but it doesn't last long. Just a day or two and then gone. I totally enjoy it while it's here as does the land.

Politics and the romance novel

Here's an issue you don't see discussed much for romance novels-- how politics influence or should influence the stories. In many romances, maybe most, there isn't any political element. And by this, I don't mean partisan but conservative versus liberal, exploring how far government should go, where does it have a right to intervene, etc etc.? They stick to love with some barrier between the couple. Some of the finest romances though, like those of Jane Austen, very much have a political aspect woven into the plot-- sometimes very subtly.

Probably a lot of writers, who aren't writing say an espionage novel, try to avoid a political bent because of its potential to turn off half the readers from the get go. In contemporary romance novels (there is a little more of it in historical romances but not a lot) having a political aspect is in my experience rare. Oh there is the lesson that love is worth what it costs, that doing right is the right thing, helping others is good, sometimes a religious one,  standing up to bad guys is necessary at some point, but contemporary stories about deeper governing issues, not so much.

Should there be or is the very nature of a romance novel to find one place you can forget about all that? To some point, I can agree with that. Probably the last thing any romance reader wants is preaching a political doctrine when they came for a good plot, set of characters, and a connection to their own lives for the emotions generated by the reading.

Except, when you consider the difficult issues our world faces, it seems to me at least some romance writers might give some thought to inserting plot elements into their stories that do explore what is good or not on a political scale. Not a party or candidate (which would be outdated all too fast) but what should we want from government? How accountable to us should it be? When does it become a problem? etc. etc. which obviously would be seen differently whether one is a right or left wing oriented writer.

I'll write more on this an example from one of my own books; but for now, take some time and watch this video. It's an interview with Jeremy Scahill as he discusses what I consider a very powerful moral issue for today (I got it from a blog called Hattie's Web). When I see something like this, I think now how could I explore this subject with one of my books? My next blog here will discuss an example of one of my books with a political theme within it.

November at the Oregon Coast

A week-end at the Oregon Coast with the family where we experienced pretty near every kind of weather possible for a coastal late fall. It was a good time with the grandkids, kids, and for thinking. As usual, I took a ton of photos. The quiet time without my computer was something I needed.  I returned to the farm feeling  inspired about life, beauty and possibilities. The Coast, in all its moods, is always rejuvenating to me.