Friday, November 28, 2008

Trails of Storms. . .

. . . is not just a figment of my imagination.

(That's a little author double entendre there)

At last things are moving along towards my third novel being an actual book for readers to hold in their hands, as opposed to me just talking about it.

Since that time is drawing closer (but the event won't happen until early next year) I've posted Chapter 1 of Trail of Storms on my website. Read it here.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sorry about the Hiatus

I've been gone for a week or so due to a lot of turmoil going on in my life. I'm back, though, and have a couple of announcements.

First, a short humorous anecdote I wrote has been accepted for possible publication in an anthology of humorous stories. The publishers have final say on the makeup of the book, but the compilers liked it and sent me a contract

Next, Karen J. Hasley, with whom I did an Author Interview in October, has a new book out, Where Home Is. Her website includes purchase information.

Last, I've decided on how I'm going to produce my novel, Trail of Storms. Therefore, I will have it available to readers within the next 90 days, if everything goes smoothly. I ask for your prayers that the process will go well and quickly.

The book begins in Virginia, and its characters journey across the Great Plains to Colorado Territory and thence through Raton Pass into New Mexico Territory. Here's an early 1900s photo of the Raton Pass area, to give you an idea of the rugged country through which they had to travel:


Think of going through this country by wagon! On this day before the United States' celebration of Thanksgiving Day, I'm thankful for good highways and luxurious vehicles.

May you all have a wonderful, contemplative day tomorrow--wherever you live--in which to think about your blessings.

I'll be back with another Author Interview on December 2.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Weird!

I don't often remember dreams. When I do, they usually were doozies.

Last night, I dreamed that I had gone with my sister to a funeral in Salt Lake City, Utah. We had borrowed a car from someone, a strange, teardrop-shaped vehicle. I was supposed to play the prelude on the organ, and also sing during the service. For some reason, we arrived late, but a choir was singing, so at least they weren't missing me yet. Then, on my way up to the podium, I discovered that I had left my music in the car. I rushed out, and began a vivid adventure that included crossing freeways on foot, meeting gracious and helpful people, and finding a loveable puppy. Tunnels, large buildings, and men's wear stores also featured prominently in the dream. I never did find where we had parked the car, and in my attempt to get back to the large church, I somehow transposed 33rd South into a north-south street, and 4th West into an east-west street. I don't know if SLC even has a 4th West, or if there is a church in that vicinity. I woke up before I got back to the church.

Whew!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Author Interview: Dianne Ascroft

Today I'm interviewing Dianne Ascroft as part of her Virtual Blog Tour. Dianne is a Canadian freelance writer who lives in Northern Ireland with her husband. Curiosity about the past has inspired her lifelong interest in history and her family tree, as well as her love of historical novels. Her first novel, Hitler and Mars Bars, was published earlier this year.

Welcome Dianne. How long have you been writing? What made you start?

I’ve been writing for about 10 years now. I can be a bit of a dreamer and procrastinator so I’d thought about writing for a while before I actually put pen to paper. In the spring of 1998 I heard a short story contest advertised on a radio station in Belfast, where I was living, and I decided to enter it. There was only one weekend left before the deadline to submit my entry so I immediately sat down and got started. I didn’t win the contest but my entry, ‘The Contest’, was short listed and broadcast on Downtown Radio. This success encouraged me to continue writing. In 2002 I enrolled in the Writers Bureau correspondence course and began working on non-fiction articles and short stories. Since then I’ve written regularly.

When did you publish your book?

Prior to writing Hitler and Mars Bars, I wrote mostly non-fiction articles and an occasional short story. So this novel is my first full length book. It was released in March 2008.

What type of writer are you? Do you plan ahead/plot or do you simply fly by the seat of your pants?

I’m definitely a planner. I don’t really like the extra work involved in organising and plotting a story but I find it necessary to do so to produce a coherent story rather than aimless ramblings. Since Hitler and Mars Bars is loosely set during a real Red Cross initiative, I had to plan it out more carefully than other work I’ve done. Also, I had to plan the timeline carefully as several incidents in the book coincide with real world events. For example, there are segments of the book that are set during the last few weeks of the Second World War, during the Red Cross transportation of German children to Ireland and on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation. As a backdrop to my story, the dates and details of the real events had to be correct.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Choosing characters’ names is partly my personal preference. I tend to choose names I like - or for villainous characters I may choose ones I dislike. But, since my novel is historical fiction, the names also had to be suitable for the era. I checked a list of common German boys’ names in the 1940s to choose the names for my main character, Erich, and his brother, Hans. I referred to lists of Irish first names, for the same period, to choose names for the rest of the characters. For Irish surnames, I searched regional telephone directories for the counties where the story is set to find common names in each area.

What is your daily schedule like?

Like many writers, writing has never been my primary occupation. I’ve always held a day job and written in the evenings after my household and farm chores are complete. I don’t manage to write every evening but I usually spend a couple hours, several evenings each week, writing. I’m up early each morning but I have chores to do so I don’t manage to do any writing before I leave for the office. I do carry with me the piece I’m currently working on and spend any quiet times during the day revising it. When I sit down to write later, I look over what I’ve already done and then continue on. On the weekends, after the chores are done, I also find time to write.

How do you handle life interruptions?

While I spend most of my writing and editing time at the computer in the spare room, I’m not completely cut off from my daily life. I don’t close the door while I’m working so my husband can interrupt me if necessary. I try to balance the time I spend working on my own and the time I spend with my husband. I sometimes take a hard copy of my work into the living room and edit while my husband watches tv. But, even though I don’t cut myself off entirely, I don’t like to have to stop my work completely. I tend not to answer the telephone when I’m working and get impatient if I have to do something else at a time I planned to be writing.

Do you write with music playing? If so, is the music likely to be songs with lyrics or only instruments?

I usually write with music playing unless I have a deadline approaching and still have a lot of work left to do. Then I need total concentration and work in silence. I listen mostly to songs with lyrics - preferably slow, ballad type songs. They may be classic rock or traditional Irish or Scottish songs. Many of Dan Fogelberg, Billy Joel and Rod Stewart’s songs are good background music for me. Also, country songs often have the soft, soothing melodies that are easy to listen to while I’m working. I keep the volume turned down. If I turn it up too loud, I listen to the song and lose concentration.

What food or snack keeps the words flowing?

I like tea while I’m working and often get a cup before I start writing. I have a terrible sweet tooth and a bit of chocolate is always a temptation during my evening sessions. I’ve been known to sneak away from my desk to raid the cupboard. But I try not to have too many snack breaks as they cut into my writing time and that time is a precious commodity.

What one thing do you like most about writing? Least?

I love the sense of satisfaction I get when I’ve written a piece that I’m pleased with. It’s amazing to re-read work days or weeks after I wrote it and find myself getting lost in the story - as if it had been written by someone else. I’m delighted when that happens.

The process of writing can be difficult. It can be disheartening to edit a piece several times before I am satisfied with it. I get frustrated and start to wonder if it will ever be right and is it worth the effort. But I forget the difficulties when I finish the piece to my satisfaction. With barely a pause I’m already considering the next piece and have forgotten how much effort the previous one was.

Tell us about your novel.

Hitler and Mars Bars is the story of a German boy growing up in war-torn Germany and post war rural Ireland. Set against the backdrop of Operation Shamrock, a little known Irish Red Cross project which helped German children after World War II, my novel explores a previously hidden slice of Irish and German history.

Erich, growing up in Germany’s embattled Ruhr area during World War II, knows only war and deprivation. His mother disappears after a heavy bombing raid, leaving him responsible for his younger brother, Hans. After the war the Red Cross initiative, Operation Shamrock, transports the boys to Ireland, along with hundreds of other children, to recuperate from the devastating conditions in their homeland. During the next few years Erich moves around Ireland through a string of foster families. He experiences the best and worst of Irish life, enduring indifference and brutality and sometimes finding love and acceptance. Plucky and resilient, Erich confronts every challenge he meets and never loses hope.

What is your next project?

I recently completed a short story, ‘A World Apart’, about moving from city to country and adapting to a new lifestyle. Although it’s fiction, it draws on my own experiences of moving from Toronto, a city with a population of 3 million, to a farm in Northern Ireland. The story is included in the Fermanagh Authors Association Miscellany 2 which is due to be published in December.

Since Hitler and Mars Bars was released I’ve been busy promoting it, so most of my writing has been answering interview questions and writing guest posts for others’ websites. I haven’t had much chance to do any new writing. But I do have some ideas for a sequel to the book churning around in my mind. I’d like to start getting them down on paper in the next couple months.

What is your advice for other writers?

Most writers want to focus on the creative aspect of writing - we have stories in our heads and we want to tell them. That’s why we write. But it’s also important to learn as much as you can about marketing before your book is published. Whether you are published by a traditional publisher or self publish, you will have to assume the responsibility for marketing it. It is disheartening to put a great effort into writing a novel that is never read. Knowing how to market a book is essential if you want your book to be bought and read.

What other work of yours has been published?

As I’ve said earlier, most of my previous work has been non-fiction articles. My articles have been printed in Irish and Canadian newspapers including the Toronto Star, Mississauga News, Derry Journal and Banbridge Leader. I’ve also contributed a variety of historical and human interest articles to Ireland’s Own magazine.

I contributed the historical pieces, ‘Derrycullion: Development of a Townland’ and ‘Joe and Maura’ to a local history book, The Brookeborough Story: Aghalun in Aghavea. Edited by Jack Johnston, Brookeborough Historical Society, Northern Ireland, 2004.

My short story, ‘A World Apart’ and several poems are included in the Fermanagh Authors Association Miscellany 2 due for publication in December 2008. Edited by Seamas MacAnnaidh, Fermanagh Authors Association, Northern Ireland, 2008.

Thank you for the interview, Dianne.

Thank you, Marsha. You’ve asked me some interesting questions and made me stop and think about my answers. I really enjoyed it! If your readers enjoyed the interview I hope they will drop by other stops on my Virtual Book Tour. Check my blog, ‘Ascroft, eh?’ (www.dianneascroft.wordpress.com) for full details.

Monday, November 10, 2008

First Snow!

Last night we got about a quarter inch of snow in Rim Country.


Snow mixed with ice on my deck. Note the snow shovel ready to go.


While it's not sticking in large areas, some more sheltered spots still have a sketchy white covering at 10 AM.


It's also cold.

The calendar doesn't agree, but for me, winter has arrived.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Author Interview: Gale Sears

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Gale Sears, an LDS writer who is receiving acclaim for her stunning works of historical fiction. Upon the Mountains was a finalist for two Whitney Awards for 2007: Best Novel of the Year and Best Historical Novel of the Year.

Gale grew up in Lake Tahoe, California, and spent her high-school years in Hawaii. After graduating from McKinley High School, she went on to receive a BA in playwriting from Brigham Young University, and an MA in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Utah with her husband and family.

Welcome Gale! How long have you been writing? What made you start?
My first serious foray into writing was in college when I was a theater major. I wrote plays. Several were produced and I found it an amazing experience to hear my words coming from the actors' mouths. As for novel writing, I was a late bloomer. My first book (as yet unpublished) was written in 1997. In 1998 I picked up the faded beginnings of a book I’d sketched out years before. After many years of angst, work, and doubt, those efforts culminated in the historical novel Autumn Sky.

When did that book come out?
Autumn Sky was published in 2004.

What type of writer are you? Do you plan ahead/plot or do you simply fly by the seat of your pants?
I’m a drive-myself-crazy-with-the-details kind of writer. For some reason I choose to write historical fiction, and though I LOVE the history, I spend hundreds of hours researching, and then mapping out the sequence and the story. There are times when the story “takes off” in an unexpected direction, and that’s fun.

How do you choose your characters' names?
Many of the names are friends and family, or mixes of their names. Some just pop into my head. I’m working on a book set in Russia and I had a Russian tour guide write out names for me. Their naming system is complex and it was fun learning what names to put together.

What is your daily schedule like?
Laundry, dishes, running errands…Oh, you mean writing schedule. I try and write at least three hours a day. When I’m getting near to finishing a book I’ll write up to seven hours. Since I write pencil on paper, seven hours is about all my hand can take.

You write by hand? Wow! How do you handle life interruptions?
Life on life’s terms. Of course, the phone is put on silent and the dog knows not to bug me about going out until I stand up for a stretch.

Do you write with music playing? If so, is the music likely to be songs with lyrics or only instrumentals?
It has to be quiet when I write.

What food or snack keeps the words flowing?
Gatorade, dill pickle chips, dark chocolate, raw almonds.

What one thing do you like most about writing? Least?
I like when a scene comes out right—when I look down and see the visual and emotional impact I had in my head staring back at me from the page.


I dislike when a scene comes out wrong—when I look down at all the crumpled pieces of paper staring back at me from the floor.


Tell us about your new Christmas book.
The newest book out for me is entitled Christmas for a Dollar. It’s set in 1931 during the depression and is based on an actual Christmas celebrated by my father and his siblings when they were children.


It’s 1931 in Bakersfield, California. America is in the midst of the Depression, and the Kamp family is struggling to get by, especially after Mrs. Kamp’s untimely death. Now, with her mother gone and her father overwhelmed by doctor bills resulting from her brother’s polio, little Ruthie expects another Christmas without presents or festivities. But when her father brings home one dollar in change and lets the children use it to buy special gifts for each other, the Kamp family comes to find that money isn’t what makes Christmas full of joy, love, and miracles. This touching true story will remind you and your family of the simple joys in life and the importance of selflessness, gratitude, and charity.

What is your next project?
I am on chapter 40 of my historical novel set in Russian during the Bolshevik revolution. I’m so anxious for it to be DONE. I love the story and the characters, but I have been working on it for a year and a month, and 5 days, and 6 hours…

What is your advice for other writers?
Hang in there. Writing (and getting published) is hard work, but it is also very rewarding. Be satisfied with the writing itself and don’t worry about the rejections or, on the flip side, the accolades or money. Those who have had books published will be smiling [in wistful agreement] at the thought of book signings where you’re completely ignored or held in disdain. And I calculated once that I made about 27 cents an hour.


Also, I think it’s important to stay true to your ideals as you write. There is a great lure in this world to write what is popular…nothing wrong with selling books, but if it takes you away from standards or writing something that will lift, just take a little time in your decision.

What other work of yours has been published?
Autumn Sky, 2004
Until the Dawn, 2006
Upon the Mountains, 2007 – All published by Covenant Communications, Inc.

Gale, thank you for being my guest.
Thanks for the interview, Marsha.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Author Interview: Eunice Boeve

Today's guest interviewee is children's author Eunice Boeve, who moved into adult fiction with her latest novel, Ride the Shadowed Trail.

Eunice was born, raised, and met her husband--who was stationed there while in the Air Force--in Montana. They married and settled in north central Kansas, where they still reside. For eight years, Eunice worked as a speech paraprofessional in a school for special needs children. Sarah, an autistic child in her children's book, The Summer of the Crow, is based on one of those students. The Boeves have four children and five grandchildren.

Welcome, Eunice! How long have you been writing? What made you start?

I started writing about 30 years ago. I first began to realize I had the desire to write about ten years before I actually began to try to write for publication. Once, rather early on, I decided to put it all away. With children, grandchildren, working outside the home, and a lot of self-doubt about my writing abilities, I often let months go by without writing anything at all. I held out for about eight years. In the last ten years I have tried to write full time.

As most women writers know, domestic issues, community, and social involvement can keep us from our writing. It’s not always easy for women to put our own desires first. I often longed for a wife, housekeeper, cook, and at times, even a surrogate grandparent. But then again, if husband, children, grandchildren, housework and cooking did not drag me away from my writing, I would work until my eyeballs fell out and the flesh melted from my fingers. That is, when all is going well. When it’s not and I am scratching for every word, I get this overwhelming desire to sleep, and have even dropped off at my computer.

What made me start writing? I think even as a child, the seed was there. I used to invent long “stories” for my dolls--paper and otherwise--and cut out flat cloth animals, which I took into the woods and fields to live out animal stories. When I was in the 5th grade, I sent a poem to the Weekly Reader at my teacher’s urging. I never heard from them, but I consider that my first rejection. My dad wrote a book length story about his cowboy days. It was never published, as he died soon afterward. I was five then, so even at that age I realized people wrote books, but it took many years to equate that with the possibility that maybe I could, too.

My mother read constantly and often to us, so I learned to love books. I loved journalism, English, and literature classes, but I didn’t realize my desire to write until I was in my thirties. I took a correspondence course and sold a few children’s magazine stories and an article about my dad who packed horses for the Forest Service. When the editor of that magazine dropped out an important sentence from that article about my dad, I saw how vulnerable we are to the written word. That’s when I packed up my how-to-write books, tears streaming, and began my eight year hiatus from writing.

In about 1990, I began my first book, Trapped!, with many starts and stops, my stops often months at a time.

When did you publish your first book?
In 1995. Trapped! The True Story of a Pioneer Girl, is middle grade historical fiction based on the story of twelve-year-old Virginia Reed, a member of the infamous Donner Party. That publishing experience was a “hair-raiser” and led me into self-publishing, and then Publish on Demand.

What type of writer are you? Do you plan ahead/plot or do you simply fly by the seat of your pants?
I write mostly fiction so I can be a fly by the seat of my pants writer. I have in mind a novel about a woman of mixed blood who lived in Canada and Montana, and for that story, I’ll have to stick to the facts, but even so it will be fiction and so, although it will need to be outlined by time and place, etc., the flesh of the story will not be so limited. On this one, I’ll also start with a theme in mind, something I don’t always do.

When I start a story, I know the protagonist, name, age, and sex. I also know the time period and the setting and generally what will happen. Sometimes what I think will happen, doesn’t, and sometimes something I haven’t even thought of, does. Two of my books started with a conscious theme. Maggie Rose and Sass, a young adult/middle grade book, has the theme that as human beings we are all the same and it is only our perceived differences, learned through culture and exposure, that tell us otherwise. My adult book, Ride a Shadowed Trail, has the nature vs. nurture theme. Of course my book Trapped! has a survival theme, but also the sub-theme that if we work together and help each other, we increase our chances of survival.

How do you choose your characters' names?
My characters' names usually just come to me. Sometimes I have to search for a name and I do have a lengthy list to pick and choose from. Sometimes I’ll change a name later in a story. In The Summer of the Crow, Olivia was originally Olive, but, after a while, it seemed just so awkward and also I kept forgetting and calling her Olivia. In Ride a Shadowed Trail, I named an old black woman, Belle, and a sixteen-year-old white girl, Lucy. Those two would not do a thing for me. They stayed as flat and as disinterested as a pancake. Then I got the idea to change their names around and that did it. Suddenly they came alive. I think the two had a pact, that until I got their names right, they weren’t cooperating. In my Summer of the Crow book, I named my character Brady, not realizing until some chapters later that his mother had given him the name because it was what she thought had been her maiden name. That’s when I found out that she and her brother had been abandoned when they were children and Brady was the last surname they remembered. Later on in the story, that information played a role in explaining another’s actions.

What is your daily schedule like?
I have no schedule. I just write when I can and for as long as I can.

How do you handle life interruptions?
Some days I handle life’s interruptions better than others, but for the most part, I just heave a big sigh and do what I have to do. Actually I never do throw a fit.

Do you write with music playing? If so, is the music likely to be songs with lyrics or only instrumentals?
No, I don’t have music playing while I’m writing. If I did, it would have to be instrumental, so I wouldn’t start tuning into the words.

What food or snack keeps the words flowing?
I don’t eat and rarely drink anything while I’m writing. I do have a coffee and snack break with my husband at 3 pm.

What one thing do you like most about writing? Least?
What I like most about writing is living inside the character’s skin and seeing what life will hand them, what decisions they’ll make, and where they’ll be when the story ends. What I hate about writing is marketing. I just want to send my book out into the world and then get started on another one. I do really enjoy giving a book talk, but I’m not too crazy about signings.

Tell us about your new novel, Ride a Shadowed Trail.
My latest book, Ride a Shadowed Trail, came out last spring and begins when Joshua Ryder is eight-years-old. He is living with his mother, a Mexican prostitute, in Indianola on the Texas coast when she is brutally murdered. His father, he’s been told, was a redheaded white man who died of yellow fever when Josh was a baby. Josh sets out to find some one who might have known him and finds Pete Waters instead.

Pete is an old ex-cowboy who has always longed for a child, especially a son, and he takes the boy in and, in the course of time, teaches him the cowboy trade and becomes a father to him. Josh is eighteen when Pete dies. Still wondering about his biological father, Josh leaves Pete’s small ranch in the hands of his Mexican neighbors and riding Shadow, the colt he helped raise, he again begins his search for someone who remembers his father.

Finally, without finding even a scrap of information, he gives up the search and hires on with an outfit taking a herd of longhorns to the railhead at Wichita, Kansas. The ranch owner (based on a real woman who took a herd to Wichita along with her children) accompanies the herd along with her son and two daughters. Josh and the eldest daughter fall in love, but Josh now knows who murdered his mother and has vowed to return to Texas and bring to justice this particular vicious outlaw--who kidnaps, abuses, and kills young Mexican girls--or die trying.

What is your next project?
Well, readers of Ride a Shadowed Trail are asking what happens to Josh next, so I’m back in his life. This time he is in Montana, having trailed a herd up from Texas. I know some of what happens in Montana. He meets a woman, whose Indian family, all but the unborn child she carries, were killed at the Battle of the Big Hole, and I know he’ll spend some time in Virginia City, Montana. But that’s about all I know. I’m also working on a picture book based on an incident in my life, but, oh, my gosh, is it ever hard to write! When I think I have it, I set it aside to cool for a month or so and then take it out again and always I see that it needs more work. I think I’ve re-written it at least forty-seven hundred times.

[laughs] What is your advice for other writers?
Write what you want to write, not necessarily what you know. How limited would be our range of stories if we wrote only what we knew. That’s what research is for. However, we all know what it’s like to be human, we’ve all known happiness and sorrow, we all have loved and on occasion, although, hopefully, only temporarily, have known the murderous rage of hate. So I guess we do write what we know. Also read, read, read. But have we ever met a writer who wasn’t also a reader?

What other work of yours has been published?
In the late 70s and early 80s I had some children stories published in Wee Wisdom, Boy’s Life, and some Sunday school papers, and the article about my dad in the Montana magazine. In 2001 the Montana magazine published my story about a black woman named Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary. Ride a Shadowed Trail is my first adult book. I have four middle grade/young adult books:

Trapped! published in 1995 by Royal Fireworks Press
The Summer of the Crow, self-published in 2001
A Window to the World, Publish America, 2004
Maggie Rose and Sass, Publish America, 2005

The last book was named a 2006 Kansas Notable Book.

Since the summer of 2006, I’ve been writing a time travel story for kids for the Kansas Traveler, a quarterly publication about Kansas.

My website is www.euniceboeve.net if anyone is interested in more information.

Thank you for the Interview, Eunice.
My thanks to you Marsha.

Ride a Shadowed Trail was released this spring by Publish America. It is available through the publisher, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, from me, and it can also be ordered by any bookstore. It retails for $19.95.
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