A New Venture into the World of Short Stories

by

Howdy!

And good morning!

Well, I guess it was earlier this year when our wonderful blog creator, Pam Crooks, wrote to me to ask me if I might contribute a short story to their anthology.  (I hope that’s the right word.)

Short stories have never been my niche.  I tend to be “long winded” and need a little space in order to collect my thoughts.  And, I love the freedom of setting up the story and having what seems to me to be lots of time to tell the story properly.  But, I told Pam I’d try.  The upshot of this was that I did write a short story, which is still in the anthology you can find here on the blog, and found it was a little easier to write than I had thought it would be.

My considerations on not writing short stories have been that every word counts (forgetting that this is true in a long novel, too).  But, I do much, much research for my stories and so I have my mind full of true stories from the early days of the traders first coming into Blackfeet Country as told by James Willard Schultz.  I tell these true stories to my grandchildren often when I pick them up from school, and, because they seem to like them (they often request a story from me), I thought that maybe I could use what I have learned from these early accounts  to write a romantic fiction story, based on these tales from the early 1800’s.

Lo and behold, I found it to be fun…not the grind I had thought it would be.

Now, over the years, I’ve taken a few of the beginning parts of a couple of my stories (where the hero and heroine are children or teens) and have made them into little books of my own making for my grandchildren.  With recent editing of these and getting two of them together for the book, I’ve now published a book of three Historical Native American Romance short stories for teens and young adults.

They are sweet stories of first love, but also tell of some of the real and true dangers the Indians encountered in our long ago past.  And so, I’ve now published all three of these stories in a book entitled, THE COURTSHIP OF MEDICINE PAINT, using the pen name of Genny Cothern.  They are stories from the early days in the wild west and the first story of Medicine Paint is based on two true stories, though highly fictionalized.

The other two stories are MOON WOLF AND MISS ALICE and RED HAWK AND THE MERMAID.

Here is the link:  https://tinyurl.com/thecourtshipofmedicinepaint

Because this is a new venture for me, it sure would warm my heart if you’d go over and have a look.  Soon, I hope to have the book in paperback, also.

Now, to other news — if you are on my newsletter list, you’ll know the the entire MEDICINE MAN Series is going on sale on the 12th (Thursday).  But only for a few days.

Book #1, SHE STEALS MY BREATH will be on sale for $.99 cents — Book #1

SHE CAPTURES MY HEART will be on sale for $2.99 — Book #2

and my latest book, SHE PAINTS MY SOUL will be on sale for $3.99.

 

This is the link to the series page:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4V1HRT?tag=pettpist-20

And now for a recipe I promised to post to the blog in my newsletter today.  For those of you who are not on my newsletter list, let me repeat a little segment from it:

This recipe comes from the book, COOKING WITH SPIRIT, North American INDIAN Food and Fact by Darcey Williamson and Lisa Railsback.
Plains Pemmican (Traditional)
“Dry long, thin strips of buffalo meat.  Pound meat to a coarse powder.  Cut raw fat into walnut-sized pieces and melt over slow fire.  Pour fat over pounded meat and mix in some dried serviceberries.  Mix it well and pack in parfleches.”
     As many of you might know, when men were going to be going on the war trail or were going to make a long journey, they carried pemmican with them.  It was a nourishing food and could sustain a warrior through many weeks of being away from home — depending upon how long he was going to be away and how much he was able to carry with him.  Often, in my books, the hero of the story shares his pemmican or dried meat with the heroine.
     I’ve never made pemmican, but I’ve mirrored it when I am going on a long car ride and then I use dried meat, butter or coconut oil and usually raisins or other dried fruit.  It is not only delicious, it keeps one alert and very importantly…awake.
So I promised to share my own recipe for dried meat.
Here it is:
     In the old days, they dried meat over a low fire or in a smoke house.  Since I don’t have either of those, I marinade very thinly sliced beef in an equal combination of red wine and traditionally made soy sauce, covering the meat completely.  (I use Ohsawa Nama Shoyu Unpasteurized Soy Sauce.)  I marinade this in the refrigerator (because sometimes I forget about it.)  Usually I marinade it for several days.  Then I dehydrate it in a dehydrator until it cracks when you pick it up and tear it.  (Dehydrating it until it cracks was an instruction my sister on the Blackfeet reservation gave me on when it is properly dried.)  Don’t worry about the wine in the marinade.  By the time the jerky — or dried meat — is done, the alcohol from the wine is gone.  It usually takes 2-4 or more days to dry it.
     Very easy to make (you can often get the meat already sliced thin) and very delicious, nourishing and very satisfying.  It’s from this kind of dried meat that pemmican is made.
     Well, that’s all for today.  Hope you enjoyed the blog and hope you’ll go and check out the new short story book, THE COURTSHIP OF MEDICINE WOLF.  Let me know what you think, and, as always, thank you so much for coming to the blog today and for commenting.
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KAREN KAY aka GEN BAILEY is the multi-published author of American Indian Historical Romances. She has written for such prestigious publishers as AVON/HarperCollins, Berkley/Penguin/Putnam and Samhain Publishing. KAREN KAY’S great grandmother was Choctaw Indian and Kay is honored to be able to write about the American Indian Culture.
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22 thoughts on “A New Venture into the World of Short Stories”

  3. I love both recipes, bit will stick to your version.

    It is nice to see short stories from you. It is easier to get a child to die a toe into reading if they start out with short stories. Many of my students resist reading because they are assigned books to start.

  4. Hey Karen! I will be sure to check out the short young adult story! Believe it or not, I have been known to read young adult books. I would read what was popular with the students at school. One was the Twilight series which became a movie, which I saw those too! Anyway, I’ll be sure to read it! And you know I loved the Medicene Man series! ??Oh, and my husband makes beef jerky. Mainly he smokes it in the smoker. He hangs the pieces and I know it takes many hours!

  5. Hi Tracy! Thank you so much for your kind, kind words. Yes, it does take the time to make the jerky, especially if one has to cut up the thin strips. And smoking the meat really tastes the best, I think. : )

    • Hi Tracy! I lost my original post to you sometime this morning. So thought I’d jump back on. I love that you would read the same stories your students were reading. Sometimes one can find some wonderful things in children’s books. I wish I could work a smoker better than I do because I do think the jerky made from smoked meat tastes better than the marinade. And, again, thanks for coming here today.

  6. Hi Karen, Love the blog. The pemmican recipe sounds like sometime I would like to try to make. Thank you.
    Have enjoyed ALL your books for a number of years 🙂 These short stories sound interesting also.

  7. Karen, I love your books so I immediately bought the short stories and I’ll get the others on Thursday. Thanks for the recipe. I envy you your sister on the Blackfeet reservation. What a fantastic connection.

    • Hi Charlene,

      Thank you, Charlene. Your sweet comment has gone straight to my heart. Yes, I love my sister on the Rez very, very much and I wish we lived closer. We go there occasionally — too occasionally. When we lived on the West Coast, we used to be able to get there once a year. She is always in my heart and many of my books are dedicated to her. In the book, SOARING EAGLE’S EMBRACE, she let me use one of her songs in the book. Songs are owned in Blackfeet Country and one doesn’t sing someone else’s song without permission. Thank you much for coming here today.

  9. I am glad you have discovered the enjoyment of writing short stories. It is a different skill set and not everyone is suited to it or wants to try.
    I have done jerky in both the stove and the dehydrator. I have never done it to the point where it can be crumbled up for a pemmican style food. We usually just take it along with a supply of trail mix. Works well.
    Thanks for another interesting post.

    • Hi Patricia!

      Yes, I have backed off doing short stories simply because I thought there wasn’t enough room to get everything I wanted to say in it. But, I’ve been reading James Willard Schultz of late and a lot of his work is short stories — true short stories, straight from the “horse’s mouth.” I think perhaps he has influenced me a bit. I so love these stories from the long ago. Some of them are told by people who were living them in 1810. A whole new world and they are so exciting. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

  10. Such beautiful covers. I ordered the new one, because when I was young this was exactly the kind of book I loved to get lost in.
    My son is part Blackfeet. Maybe he’d be interested, you never know!

    • Hi Dalyn!

      Thank you so much for this terrific comment. I’m going to answer you personally on email, but let me say here that all three of these stories are Blackfeet. I’ve been reading a lot of history for my romance stories (not appropriate for teens because though they are pure historical romance, I write in the traditional historical romance style which includes a few (usually 2 or 3) scenes. Never graphic, never detailed and never erotica. Still they aren’t appropriate for teens). So I have a new name for the young adult stories that are sweet, historical romance stories, although THE COURTSHIP OF MEDICINE PAINT is more of an adventure/action story with a little romance thrown in. : ) Thank you very much for leaving htis comment.

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