WALKING THE LAND
Now and then I write a book that comes easy and SUNRISE CROSSING flowed like lightning out of my fingers. There were times I was typing as fast as I could just to keep up with the story running in my head.
Part of the reason was I loved the characters in this book. Each had depth and each found love where they least expected it.
But the main reason I believe it came so easy to my imagination was that I spent time walking the land. (See the book trailer below.)
I did my research on the Stanford Ranch near Fritch, Texas. It is owned by Natalie Bright and her husband. She’s a dear friend and a great writer. Check out her website if you get a chance; you’ll love her pictures of ranch life.
I went out to her ranch not to learn everything about ranching but to understand the people. To make stories come alive you have to get the people right.
Then, for my story, SUNRISE CROSSING, I put people together who were from different worlds. For example, a rancher and a woman in Dallas who owns an art gallery. She needs help and the only person she can turn to is a man she barely knows.
“Don’t hang up,” she said again. “I need a favor. A big favor.”
“Can’t you call a friend or family?”
“I have no family,” Parker admitted, “and I have no friend I can trust.”
“I’m sorry for that, lady.” He didn’t sound sorry or interested in talking.
“Stop calling me lady,” she snapped then remembered yelling at him probably wasn’t the best road to take. “I just need you to drive to Dallas. Pick me up at the North exit of the Galleria Mall. You do know where that is?”
“Nope,” he said. “Anything else I can do for you?”
“Yes,” Parker fought back tears for the first time in years. “Don’t tell anyone. Not your buddies or your wife or your priest. Just pick me up and drive back to your ranch. I’ll walk over to my place from there.”
He was silent for so long she decided the guy probably fell asleep. For all she knew he was Crossroads’ resident nitwit. She’d thought of a dozen possible ways to get to her farm but any other plan left a path that could be followed.
Finally, the cowboy cleared his throat. “I can’t tell a priest, I’m Baptist. I don’t have a wife. She died a month before you bought the place next door. As far as my buddies, it would be a waste of time to tell them a secret, two beers and it’d fall out of the back of their heads.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Can you pick me up or not? Can you keep it a secret?”
“What time?”
“Noon tomorrow. Remember North door of…”
“I got it, lady. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll be happy to pay you.”
He swore right into the phone. “Don’t insult me, Parker. It’s a favor you asked for. I’m not looking for job.”
“How will I spot you?”
“Blue pickup. You can’t miss me. I’ll be pulling a trailer load of hay.”
“Thank you, Mr. Montgomery.” She whispered after she heard him disconnect. “You don’t know it, cowboy, but you may have just become my best friend.”
I don’t know everything about anything, but I’ve spent my life trying to understand people. Because people make my stories. Readers will forgive a little mistake if your people come alive, and to do that, you have to understand where they come from.
I would love to hear about your favorite “unexpected” love story. I will be giving away an autographed copy of SUNRISE CROSSING, so leave a comment to enter. And remember you can order my books at my website: http://www.jodithomas.com/.
Come back with me to Ransom Canyon in my new book SUNRISE CROSSING.
Yancy Grey is slowly putting his life back together after serving time for petty theft. As he rebuilds an old house, he finally has a sense of stability, but he can’t stop thinking of himself as just an ex-con. Until one night, he finds a mysterious dark-haired beauty hiding in his loft. But who is she, and what secret is she protecting?
The art gallery Parker Lacey manages is her life—she has no time for friends, and certainly not lovers. But when her star artist begs Parker for help, she finds herself in a pickup truck, headed for the sleepy town of Crossroads. A truck driven by a strong, silent cowboy…
Gabe Snow has been a drifter since he left Crossroads at seventeen after a violent incident. When he accepts a job in his hometown, he’ll have to decide whether he can put the worst night of his life behind him and build a future in the community that raised him.
LOUD & QUIET PERSONALITIES – BRINGING LIFE TO THE WILD WEST
Texas Hill Country — 1879
Disentangling herself from pawing hands as she crosses the room, Grace irritates the sheriff by separating him from the painted lady keeping him company.
“Did you hear me? Hale killed my pa. And my ma, and my—”
“I. Am. Not. Hysterical.” Grace spat out each word. Furious, yes. Hysterical, no. Although he was rapidly pushing her in that direction. She’d get no help from this snake.
Keli Gwyn here to whisk you back in time. Imagine this. It’s 1866. You own a hydraulic mining operation in California. It’s the middle of the summer. There’s been no rain since May. Rivers are running low. Streams and creeks are drying up. But you need water to operate your mine. What do you do? Read on to find out how two bright men of yesteryear, who lived where I do now, came up with a solution.
Mine owners were happy…provided they had water. In order to get that precious commodity, ditches (canals) were built to divert water from the sources to the mines. The ditches might be able to supply enough water for smaller operations, but the big hydraulic mines needed more than that. John Kirk, an engineer from Pennsylvania, had anticipated this need. A forward thinker, he bought the water rights to many Sierra lakes high above the Gold Country. He and his partner, surveyor Francis A. Bishop, envisioned a canal that would bring water from the mountains to the foothills below. Although their plan for the canal was well thought-out, they’d completed less than one mile when they ran out of funds in 1871.
The monumental task required a massive workforce. Over one thousand Chinese laborers came up from San Francisco, assisted by about a hundred Euro-Americans, mostly Italian. The canal cost the Company between $650,000 and $700,000, or about $25,000 per mile.
I was so impressed by the men who designed and built the El Dorado Canal that I decided to honor them in my August 2016 release, Make-Believe Beau. The hero and heroine of my latest book, Flynt and Jessie, work for the El Dorado Water and Deep Gravel Mining Company. I took fictional license in staffing the engineering department. Flynt is the engineer. Jessie is his newly hired draftswoman, which creates a stir in the office. While the story focuses on their romance—both the feigned one and the real one—I worked in as much of the history of the El Dorado Canal as I could. I’m sneaky that way. 🙂
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