It’s My Story and I’ll Write ‘Cause I Want To

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Since I turned in a book nearly two weeks ago and am almost ready to buckle down on finishing the next one, I have been plotting new stories. This writing business overlaps itself and could make the sanest person’s eye twitch. While I’m working on one story, I need to have one or two others under consideration on an editor’s desk. Also while working on a story, I get edits and author alterations for a previous one. By the time a book is actually in stores, I’ve usually written one or two more, plotted a couple, and worked on cover art information. So, while I have a book on the shelves right now, I have to go back and remind myself what it’s about to promote it. LOL Or read it if I’m asked to join a reader’s group for discussion! Don’t laugh.

 

My friend Bernadette has been my critique partner practically ever since we joined RWA the same year in 1988. She remembers everything about every story anyone writes and can keep it all straight. She scares me. I scare myself. I read or critique for another person and forget what the story was about within a couple of weeks. I justify that by saying I simply have too much on my mind to retain it all.  Don’t blow my comfort level by disagreeing.

 

On Friday night I served lemonade cake and tossed out the spin-off character I wanted to use. I needed a hero. (You’re singing now, right?) We often use Pam McCutcheon’s brainstorming cards because they give us themes and traits for a starting point. I’m not sure how this hero developed, but I’m loving him! He’s an ex-bounty hunter out to settle down and find a community and a husband for his younger sister. He’s on a train bound for a peaceful town in the Colorado Territory when the train is held up. My heroine expects him to do something…. When the smoke clears, the town’s new hero is recuperating from a bullet wound at her family’s home. This is going to be so much fun. I don’t have a working title yet.

 

I am a writer who appreciates a good critique group or partner. I’ve been in a critique group for all the years that I’ve been published–and most of those in a group that meets every single week. We go through stages: Levels of productivity, trying out techniques that work, members moving away and, of course, our process of screening a replacement.

 

It’s serious business, this critique group thing. You don’t invite anyone who isn’t compatible. You have to respect the people who are going to offer comments on your work. For me it has nothing to do with published or unpublished; it has to do with work ethic, knowledge or willingness to learn, and enthusiasm. And another creative brain ain’t nothin’ to turn up your nose at. I love my other brains during the brainstorming process—or when I’m stuck. Sure, I come up with the ideas on my own, and I put the pieces together and make all the decisions and write the story, but I only have one brain and one life experience. Getting feedback from other writers who have different perspectives and who understand the process of story writing make their contributions invaluable.

Some writers don’t like anyone else meddling in their stories—some find it changes their story too much. I go into the process with chosen elements I won’t budge on, so the possibility of taking my story a wrong direction isn’t a problem for me. I’m flexible about everything else because new perspectives keep me fresh. If a writer in my group makes a suggestion for someone’s story that isn’t considered, it’s not because the thought was a bad idea; it’s just because that idea didn’t work for that particular story. There are no wrong ideas. We all understand that and nobody gets her nose out of joint.

 
These people are my best friends.  We share other things besides writing, and when someone moves away, we stay in touch.  But we always remember why we are friends.  We’re together because we’re writers, and our goal is to help each other write the best stories possible.  Thank you to the clever writers who have critiqued with me over the years! If you’re one of them, shout out a HOWDY!

 

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS is in stores now.

 

CLICK HERE to watch a trailer for The Magic of Christmas! 

ORDER A COPY FROM AMAZON 

 

Two Authors For Saturday

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Wildflower Junction hit the jackpot and that’s no joke!

Nicole Foster and Laurie Kingery will be our guests right here Saturday.

Nicole Foster just happens to be the writing team of Danette Fertig-Thompson and Annette Chartier-Warren. And in addition to being writing partners they’re best friends. Can you beat that? Saturday they’ll spill the beans about how they met and how the writing name of Nicole Foster was born.

Laurie Kingery sets us straight on how she came to be enthralled with the Texas Hill Country. Laurie will also tell us about how that inspired her new book, Hill Country Christmas.

They come toting prizes so be sure and don’t miss the fun. We’ll save a seat for you. Get that buggy hitched up and ready now, you hear?

  

Appaloosa–The Making of a Western

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As lovers of the Old West, we are truly fortunate to have another Western film release so close on the heels of “Broken Trail” and “3:10 to Yuma”.  Yay!  I’d only recently heard of the movie–right here on P & P as a matter of fact!–so you can imagine my curiosity to learn more about it.  The film is just now being shown in theaters, and I found it interesting how “Appaloosa” came about.

If you thought the story is about a horse–nope!  You’re wrong.  Appaloosa is a tiny town needing protection and justice against a local rancher who’s been roughing up the place.  The community decides to hire a couple of gunmen who are best friends to help them out by stepping in as the law.

The movie is based on the novel of the same name, written by Robert Parker.  Actor-director Ed Harris read the book while in Ireland back in 2005.  By the time he’d read 35 pages, he was so taken with the story, he had a fervent desire to both direct and act in it.  He immediately called his agent to acquire film rights, then later met with Robert Parker to discuss the project.  Not surprisingly, Parker was honored and impressed that a man of Ed Harris’ caliber wanted to adapt his book for the screen.

Every writer’s dream, eh?

From the get-go, Harris insisted on staying as close to Parker’s story line as possible, and the screenplay was written as such.  The two main characters, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, gave the story its depth and meaning.  If you’re looking for a movie busting with special effects and non-stop action, you won’t find it in Appaloosa.  Harris falls back on the westerns we remember by using a less hurried pace and more focus on the characters.

Ed Harris admits the screenplay was a tough sell since few westerns are made these days and don’t fare as well overseas.  Today’s actors, in their 20s and 30s, never cut their eye teeth on westerns, either, as the previous generation had.  These factors, along with a mega-budget of $20 million, had production companies dragging their feet.

Eventually, however, Ed Harris wrestled financing and film distribution into place and turned his attentions to casting.  With Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch the crucial thrust of the story, Harris knew he needed a strong presence to work beside him.  He’d taken on the role of Cole–the first person he thought of for Hitch?  His ol’ buddy, Viggo Mortensen.  Viggo agreed to do the project, but his tight schedule pushed Harris’ project back until Viggo could squeeze some time in to start shooting.

Next, Harris set out to woo Renee Zellweger to play the part of Allie, a woman of questionable character and indiscretions who feels she must align herself with the most powerful man to survive.  Renee fell in love with the part and signed on.

Intense research into the period of the 1880s compelled Ed Harris to choose a villain who was less a thug but more like the thousands of immigrants pouring into this country at the time.  Jeremy Irons, a British actor, fit the image Harris created, and with that, his cast was complete.

Last October, near Austin, Texas, filming began, eventually moving to Ford Ranch outside of Santa Fe.  I found it interesting that the same set was used for Russell Crowe’s “3:10 to Yuma”, completely transformed, of course, into the town of Appaloosa.

A well-regarded cinematographer highlighted the landscape and its expansive beauty, key in giving the film a strong Western look and feel.  Both Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger praise Ed Harris for keeping the film slower, simpler, to really ‘see’ the characters, the landscape, and of course, Appaloosa itself.

“I just tried to cut to the chase and articulate the characters and their relationships and keep the action moving,” Harris says.  “Hopefully, it’s an entertaining adventure.”

Indeed!  I can hardly wait to see another Western on the full screen! 

How about you?  Have you seen Appaloosa yet?  Will you be going?

What kind of non-western movies do you prefer?   Do you like the high-tech special effects?  Lots of action and violence?  Or are you more into tear-jerking chick-flicks? 

I’ll add that Titanic is probably my favorite movie of all I’ve seen, but I’ve seen Wizard of Oz the most times in my life.  The biggest tear-jerker had to be Love Story with Ryan O’Neal.

What’s your favorite movie ever?

 

Frontier Toys

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When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, my favorite things to play with (when I wasn’t reading a book) were dolls. I liked the limp kind that seemed like a real baby, where the arms and legs flopped around. The more realistic the better, especially the ones that had eyes that closed when you laid her down. And I was in sheer heaven when I got a Betsy Wetsy one year. I loved changing her diapers.

Then, when I got around ten or twelve years old my youngest sister and I became obsessed with paper dolls. We’d patiently cut out their clothes with tabs and dress them up. We’d make up stories and have the cardboard dolls act them out. We spent umpteen hours on end playing with them.

Back in frontier days there was little time for playing. Children of a young age on up had chores to do. Older children had to help get crops in and care for the animals. There were no shirkers when it came to living on a farm. Every hand counted. Even school was abandoned when children were needed on the farm.

But kids still found time for play, if only occasionally.

Frontier children were limited when it came to toys, but they were very resourceful. And sometimes it was the parents who showed great creativity.

Mothers would make their little girls rag dolls out of whatever material they had available. Usually they had yarn for hair and nothing but stitching for eyes, mouths and noses.

For toddlers, mothers strung thread spools on heavy string or they handed their children a pan and a spoon and let them go. I did that too when my kids were little.

Fathers carved toys for their sons and made horses, spinning tops, drums, wagons, whirligigs out of string and a piece of metal. Whirligigs made some type of whirring noise when they were whirled really fast. Fathers also made cup and ball toys that had the ball attached to a string. The object of the toy was to flip the ball into the cup.

If they had money to spare, parents would buy their son a bag of marbles. That kept the boys entertained for long periods of time and became treasured possessions.

There were also little tin soldiers for a price unless the father figured out how to make them on a forge out of left over metal.

Boys also whiled away many an hour playing with a barrel hoop and a stick. It was versatile. It was a game that could be played by one boy or a dozen. If it involved a group of boys, they usually spit up into teams and tried to get the hoop away from the others. I’m sure they had some kind of goal to reach to score points. Or boys could race the hoops if they had several.

Baseball wasn’t played until around the turn of the century.

Native American children had similar toys and games. The girls had dolls and the boys had stick games they played. Of course, Karen Kay would know more about this than I would. Maybe she’ll come by today and comment.

Can you imagine the children today having nothing to play with except these primitive toys? I swear, they wouldn’t know what to do without their Game Boys, I-Pods, and X Boxes!

 

 

 

 

 

What toys were your favorites when you were young?

 Order from Amazon by clicking on the cover!

A Bit Of Western Trivia

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First an apology for being late.   My elderly dog was sick all night, and we went off to the Vet first thing this morning.  She’s okay now, but when I returned, my AOL would not cooperate.

All is well now, though, so here we go this Monday. 

You all know about my library. The library that grows like weeds and resists any effort to be culled. It’s a compulsion I share with so many of you. It makes us blood sisters and brothers. I naturally bond to anyone who loves the written word as I do.You always discover such interesting tidbits. For instance, did you know the origin of the phrase “jerkwater town.” Well, I discovered it yesterday. According to “Happy Trails, a dictionary of Western Expressions,” the following is the explanation.
Steam engines soften made stops in small Western stations for no other reason but to obtain water, the fireman jerking a cord attached to a long spigot extending from the water tower to fill the engine’s water tender. Similar practices, universal in the early days of railroading, gave rise to the Americanism ‘jerkwater town,’ first recorded in 1896 for any small, out-of-the-way place where no train stopped except to ‘jerk water.’

And then there’s this: “Jackass mail,” a stagecoach pulled by mules over rough terrain.

Ever hear the initials G.T.T.? It’s a historical term common in the 19th century, standing for “Gone to Texas,” apparently derived from G.T.T. signs that emigrants hung on the doors of their homes and businesses when they went West. It is also a designation for any disreputable man. According to this fine western dictionary, “Now finally the settlers over there began to organize for mutual protection. . . against the more overbearing ranch hands who were often Texas badmen, mostly GTT’s, meaning ‘Gone To Texas,’ men who had fled there from the law or other vengeance.”

A ‘trail waddy?” Hey, he’s nothing but a cowboy. It came to represent any honest cowhand, though waddy originally meant a cattle rustler.

But probably my favorite new found fact is the origin of Kangaroo Court. According to one story, the expression might have originated in Australia, although it was first recorded in the United States during the California gold rush. According to the story, the source for the term are kangaroos in Australia’s back country who when out of spear range sat staring dumbly at men for long periods of time before leaping off for the horizon. Their staring was thought to be similar to the dumb stares of jurors sitting on a mock jury, and their leaping away suggested the quick decisions of such an extralegal court.

There apparently are no quotations supporting the use of kangaroo court in Australia court in Australia at any time. One guess is that it was coined by an Australian emigrant. Another theory is that Americans familiar with the kangaroo’s jumping habits invented kangaroo court as a humorous term for courts that tried claim jumpers. Mustang courts means the same.

Just a few fun trivia facts for a rainy day.

 

 

Favorite Kiss Prize

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Good Evening!

Hope you all enjoyed the Favorite Kiss all this last week.  I loved all your comments and your guesses.  And I loved hearing from each and every one of you.

And now for the drawing.  We have a winner.  Victoria Bylin.  And her prize is an autographed copy of my recent release, THE LAST WARRIOR.

Well, here’s to another week.  Please remember to join me on Tuesday, October 14th, for the blog.

Birthday Party Winners!

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Well, darlings, this is it!  Our list of winners from our Birthday Party!

 $20 Amazon Gift Card – Nathalie D

$20 Amazon Gift Card – Anita Mae Draper

Western Charm Bracelet – Sharon Berger

Rustic Tin Star and a Stacey Kayne book – Zaharoula Viennas

“Last Stand at Saber River” – Western DVD – Tami Bates

“Broken Trail” – Western DVD – *lizzie Starr

“3:10 to Yuma” – Western DVD – Jennifer Yates

“Live Like You Were Dying” – Tim McGraw CD – Michelle Buonfiglio

“Duel in the Sun” – Western DVD – Caffey

“Big Jake” – Western DVD – Rebekah E

Western DVD – Sherry Allman

“Invasion of Johnson County” – Western DVD – Kathleen

“3:10 to Yuma” with Clint Walker – Western DVD – Margie

“Little Moon & Jud McGraw” – Western DVD – Deborah

THE LAST WARRIOR, by Karen Kay – Victoria Bylin

Now, we’ve heard from most of you, but if you haven’t given us your snail mail address, then you just email Elizabeth Lane, lickety-split!  We’ll get your prize right out to you.

Elizabeth’s email address is:  elizlane123@msn.com

Congratulations!  And thank you for making this the most incredible week ever!

 

Lyn Cote and the Colt .45

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Hi Western readers!

Glad to meet you!

I’m just about done writing my new historical series, “Texas Star of Destiny.” This series covers the years 1821-1847 in of course TEXAS! I’ve always felt a connection with Texas, probably because I was born in El Paso. My dad was a West Texan and my stepdad was from East Texas. My mom evidently had a “thing” for Texans!

Anyway, the books in this series are The Desires of Her Heart, Her Inheritance Forever, and Her Abundant Joy. Each book covers a generation of the Quinn family and an historic Texas event: The beginning of the Austin settlement, the Texas Revolution and the Mexican-American War.

 

I’ve always been fascinated by the effect of war on civilization. Wars are often called the locomotives of history. Under the pressure of war, men become very creative. And the truth is that the army with the best weapons wins. The Mexican American was won by the Colt 45. And I’m going to let my hero Carson Quinn explain to Niven, a young American officer who has attached himself to the Texas Rangers who scouted for General Zachary Taylor.

Amidst the cover of low bushes and high grass, Carson sat cross-legged under a popple tree and began cleaning his guns. First the rifle, then the two Colts—as he thought over all that had happened tonight and over this year.

Niven lumbered over, looking saddle-sore and exhausted.

“How do you like being a Ranger?” Carson murmured.

“Not much.” Niven leaned against the tree, looking as if after riding sixteen hours a day for days, he didn’t dare sit down. “How long have you been at this?”

“Six years.”

“Is the pay good?”

“We get paid sometimes. When Texas could afford to.”

Niven stared at him. Finally, he said, “I’ve never seen pistols like those. What are they?”

Carson went on reloading. “Only a few of us have these. We could use more. These are Walker Colt 45’s. Samuel Colt designed the first one. Our own Ranger Walker saw that it was just what we needed here in Texas, but it required a few changes to be more practical. So a few years ago, Walker went back east, found Samuel Colt and showed him what we needed.”

Carson held the gun in his palm. “See before, I would have had to take the gun apart to reload, the trigger kept disappearing into the gun and the pistol was too clumsy to get out easy.”

Wobbly, Niven leaned over, inspecting the gun. “Why haven’t I heard of such a weapon?”

Carson shrugged. “It’s been a life saver for us. Before we got these, we were at a disadvantage fighting the Comanche. We had single-shot rifles or pistols to their arrows. And a Comanche can shoot a full quiver of arrows into a man while he tries to reload.”

“You wear a bow and have a quiver,” Niven pointed out.

“Yes, I’m good with a bow.” I’m good at most ways of killing men. This thought shriveled inside him. “And I use a bow sometimes if the raid goes on where I need to reload and don’t have time.”

“I have a lot to learn. And I want one of those Colts. How do I get one?”

“Well, why not ask Taylor?”

“I will.” Niven wavered on his feet.

“You better go lay down before you fall down.”

Niven nodded and then staggered a few feet away. As soon as his head touched his blanket, he fell asleep facedown.

 

 

So Niven asks Taylor to order some Colts. He orders 1,000 and that’s how the Colt won the Mexican American War!

BTW, my December release is, Her Captain’s Heart, my first Love Inspired Historical and the first in my “Gabriel Sisters” series about three Quaker Sisters who are up to any challenge!

 

Order a copy from amazon:The Desires of Her Heart (Texas: Star of Destiny, Book 1)

Birthday Presents–From Us to You!

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Hot-diggity!  It’s been a fan-tabulous birthday party for the Fillies!  We’re as happy as fleas on a dog hearing from so many of you this week.   Your kind words for us and what we do here in Wildflower Junction have been danged gratifying.  More than you can possibly know. 

So now that we’ve blown out the candles and filled ourselves silly with cake, it’s time to start handing out presents!

That’s right!  Fourteen of ’em!

We’ve been keeping track of the jawin’ all week long, and we’re gonna be picking the winners real soon.  When we do, we’ll let you know who they are.

So keep checking back, y’hear?  Yee-haw!

Tomorrow’s Guest: Lyn Cote

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Lyn Cote will be here at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Now, in case you’re a slugabed ah want to assure you that whatever time you want to join us will be fine. We’ll hold down the fort until you arrive.

Miss Lyn is such a charming lady and she dearly loves to write western romance. She’ll be giving us the low-down on the Walker Colt .45 and a bunch of other things. No telling where the conversation will lead. We never know, but it’s always interesting.

The Fillies are giving you an invite to join us. Hitch up your buggies and hightail it over!

Petticoats & Pistols