C is for Colorado Country and Cattle

4/3/16 We took a few more trips around the state, and I think I've found an imaginary location north of Denver that might work. We have yet to take a hike through Pawnee Buttes, and after that, I'll decide which of the landscapes most inspire the written descriptions in the novel. I'll probably combine characteristics and maybe even do some paintings to get the visuals clear in my head. Because what's the fun of creativity if you can't turn every project into a grand drama? 

4/3/15 When my protagonists were newly married, they spent their honeymoon traveling across America looking for the perfect place to build Viridian Farms, an intentional community and organic farm that would supply nearby cities with fresh locally-grown produce. Although both Lindsay and Megan had successful careers in major cities, they yearned for a different, more natural and sustainable lifestyle, and they had like-minded friends who were tired of their hectic modern lifestyles as well.

Seeking that perfect, special place to land eventually brought them full-circle back home to Colorado. I knew I would have to explore the state a bit more before settling on a location for them to call home, so I started to explore some options for the setting of this romantic mystery novel. It had to be a place that made sense for my characters who were highly-educated and fairly sophisticated people, with well-established and prosperous lifestyles. They could afford to spend a bit of money on their dreams.

It also had to be  place that provided logical conflicts with believable antagonists, and a landscape that provided not only visual beauty, but a place to hide dead bodies! Mountains nearby would be good, or at least rolling countryside with groves of trees.

So we started to explore areas of Colorado we thought might work - much of it dedicated to cattle production. I didn't realize the extent of that "production" until we headed north toward Greeley where large corporations raise and process hundreds of thousands of beef cattle yearly. (You can read more here.) On my stretch of the eastern plains, herds of cattle are spread out over thousands of acres and lead relatively peaceful and bucolic lives. Not so in this north central sector of Colorado where miles of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) like these are common.

The smell was unbearably eye-watering and throat-clenching, and this on a cold winter day! I can only imagine how toxic the environment in the heat of summer. One thing I did know about my characters without reservation - none of them would willingly move to a place like this!

So my hunt for the perfect location continues, because I believe "place" has as much presence in a novel as the characters inhabiting that setting. If I don't find something just right, I'll probably create an imaginary county and town to suit my needs. A few more tours, and I'll have enough fodder to create a great mash-up. Then I'll be ready to plant my characters in a place where they can really blossom.

And considering the ecological and social themes in my stories, I'll probably make a few prickly comments about cattle feeding operations like these, which I find to be more than a little disgusting. What about you? Please do leave me a comment.

Y is for Yearning

This morning on a lovely walk down one of the long country roads that surround me, I thought about my yearning for exactly this sort of life. That was when I lived in the city and long country walks didn't happen often. My husband and I both yearned for the rural life with a small acreage to grow some crops and the peace and quiet and slower days that came with this lifestyle.

Now that I have it, I'm still yearning for something that didn't quite manifest for us. Perhaps that's why I have book characters following a similar path. Except they're a lot younger and have a lot more money. Both of those things are important tools to fulfilling dreams.

But youth and money and even time aren't enough, and to that end, I started really exploring my protagonists' very deepest yearnings.

When I first met my hero and heroine, I knew their story would be about a shared vision, more than working out personal conflicts. They are both stable and successful people, each without the other. They don't really have strong needs that require another person. Or so I thought.

But I didn't get very far into writing the first book, when Lindsay Calhoun told me very clearly what his life was about: creating his kingdom. And taking care of his subjects which included the queen. That's why working as a principle attorney at the family law firm was never enough - his father was the king, and he would always be no more than a prince.

The heroine, who in this modern story is a successful psychologist and writer, doesn't have a strong urge for family, at least not until she marries.Then giving her husband a child becomes paramount, and her heartbreaking miscarriages from book-to-book, accelerate her fundamental desire to fulfill the queenly role - bringing forth an heir to the throne. This despite their shared belief that limiting population growth is of vital importance to the health of the planet. The fundamental yearnings of nature will not be denied.

Talk about getting down to basics!

I got in touch with these deep, inner urges reading Robert Olen Butler's excellent fiction-writing how-to:

In the author's words:

Yearning seems to be at the heart of what fiction as an art form is all about. It’s based on the fact that fiction is a temporal art form—it exists in time—and it’s also an art form about human beings and their feelings. Any Buddhist will tell you that as a human being on this planet, you can’t exist for even thirty seconds without desiring something. My favorite word is yearning because it suggests the deepest level of desire. My approach [to teaching writing] tries to get at essential qualities of process for the aspiring artist beyond what is inherent in the study of craft and technique. This notion of yearning has its reflection in one of the most fundamental craft points in fiction: plot. Because plot is simply yearning challenged and thwarted.

Read more about this author and the fiction writing process in an interview at Fiction Writers Review.

Now off to continue building my book kingdom, and challenging the yearnings through thwarted plots!

How's your book coming along? I'm not anywhere close to my word count goal for Camp NaNoWriMo, but it looks like I'll complete the A-Z Challenge with flying colors! Thank you all for visiting during the month. My blog hits are 5X higher than usual.

X is for Xenophobia

XENOPHOBIA. : fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.

You can bet when the white-collar liberal protagonists in my novel move their new business venture, Viridian Organic Farms, to the GMO and feedlot beef country of eastern Colorado - sparks are going to fly. But will it cause murder? When there are guns, the likelihood increases, according to this opinion in the LA Times.

Just for fun, here's a comprehensive phobia list.

W is for Windmills

Earlier in the year, we traveled to northern Colorado to scope out an imaginary town for Viridian Farms, the intentional community created by my book protagonists, and the setting for life... and a few deaths... in my murder mystery. I expected to see a lot of cattle since this is ranch land, but I didn't anticipate quite so many wind farms. I knew they existed, but driving through the depth of them, rather than just along side a row along the highway, was a rather dramatic and intense experience. See that shadow on the road above? That's from a windmill blade. They all move toward you, creating a surreal feeling of vertigo as you travel. It felt incredibly unpleasant.

Modern windmills are massive in size. My mindset about them before driving through this metal forest was definitely positive. After all, wind energy is more efficient and kinder to the environment. Right? I started questioning that premise when I viewed, up close, the incredible size of those metal towers, and the astounding amount of energy it must take to manufacture as well as transport them to their final locations. Wow. Just wow. 

There could be another book in my Morristown series related to the wind energy industry. It might not be the bucolic answer to fracking (another burgeoning energy industry in Colorado) I thought it might be. More research is required.

More importantly to the first book in the series - would my book characters want to live in the moving shadows and intense energy of these turning giants? Would you?

V is for Vintage

When you own a vintage automobile, life is an ongoing adventure. If I weren't sleeping with my mechanic (who also happens to be my husband), I might not enjoy driving Miss Poppy quite so much. This whole experience has inspired the mechanic and Steampunk character, Tripper George, in my novel. They might not look much alike, but the artistry and fix-it talents of my character are driven by this man.

How's your A-Z adventure coming along? It's been another challenging ride for me!

U is for Uriah

... as in Uriah Heep. You're probably familiar with the character from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Or you might remember the 1970s band of the same name.



Now meet one of my newest novel characters, Sheriff Uriah Heep. (Pictures in this previous blog post.) Here's an excerpt from the book that tells more about him:

Uriah Heep never meant to come back to Morristown, Colorado. He certainly never planned to become county sheriff. His grand escape came straight out of high school and into a big city college on a ROTC scholarship.

 Not that he was much into the military coming from a long line of ranchers. He certainly wasn't interested in flying an airplane or maneuvering a tank. That was way too much like ranch work. Somehow, without really knowing how it happened except without a lot of thought, he ended up as an officer heading up a military police patrol unit.

It seemed like an okay job until he shipped out to the Middle East and ended up on checkpoints that saw way too many explosions. And shattered body parts. And death. Three tours of desert duty were enough for any man. His time was up right about the time his father died. They called him home for the funeral.

After that, it was an easy jump to take a part-time position with the county sheriff’s office. He’d needed more time to settle his dad’s estate, a considerable one that included a cattle spread. Ranching wasn't how he wanted to spend his time, so the job as deputy sheriff gave him a good excuse to avoid 10,000 acres of wide open range land that was now all his. He didn't have a damned clue what he should do with it.

Then the old sheriff died, and he’d inherited that position too. A couple of years passed, most days in relative peace and quiet. Before very long, the job and the ranch fit him like a pair of comfortable shoes, though he couldn't figure out how that had happened.

Planning for his reelection next year had already started. The Denver firm he’d hired to handle his campaign had come up with a great slogan: Stay on the right side of the law or you’ll be in a Heep of trouble. He figured his 5,000 county neighbors would get a chuckle out of that, and a little humor along with a real, planned promotion couldn't hurt. Not that he thought he’d have a tough time winning an election.

Everything in his life seemed to be going well enough. But Uriah Heep wasn't one to take anything for granted. Ever.

Do you think names like this are a little unkind? I sometime wonder what parents are thinking when they give their children "clever" monikers that might mean something to the parent... but not necessarily to the name-bearing child who has to live with it all their life.

T is for Tarot

When I was in art school decades ago, one of my professors created the Tarot of the Spirit deck which was published by U.S. Games and continues to be part of their popular line of cards. Recently at a write-in meeting of Colorado Writers and Publishers, I compared this deck to the award-winning Darkana Tarot deck created by Janden Daniel Hale.

Why my sudden interest in Tarot? One of my book characters, LeAnn Baker, reads Tarot cards. She's the Steampunk tattooed woman who is the personal chef and baker for Viridian Farms. Her personality and hobbies will give the conservatives in my local rural community plenty to talk about, and maybe even inspire some murder!

But first this author has to learn a little more about Tarot. I confess, for all the beautiful artwork on the many card deck selections, and the fascinating symbology, I've never studied Tarot. Nor have I played the card games still popular in parts of Europe. It's a very complicated and detail-rich game/system. I decided I'd better give myself a little help and so bought this yesterday.

One of my favorite things about writing is research and learning about new things. What have you researched lately to help you write your latest novel?

S is for Sheriff

Every story needs antagonists, and I was pretty sure one of mine would be a county sheriff in conservative, rural Colorado. An older, portly, balding, unpleasantly cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass county sheriff. I needed somebody willing to dislike and butt heads with my tall, dark, and brilliant lawyer-turned-farmer protagonist. Someone who was a little stupid, and could be easily put in place by J. Lindsay Calhoun.

But then the character who really wanted to be county sheriff stepped in and took over.

Not only is he easy on the eyes, he's a hometown boy just returned from a gig in the military, and someone who immediately establishes rapport with not only the hero, but with all the readers. He's a really good guy, and he has a story of his own that fell out of my imagination without any resistance. You work with that when it happens.

Everyone loves Uriah Heep. Yep. That's his name and part of his story. You'll read more about him towards the end of the alphabet during the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge!

If you like Sheriff Heep's sweater collection, jump over to Wool Overs where you can buy them, and see more photos of the model who inspired this character.

R is for Revisions

I thought at first I'd explore the topic of rights on this day since a fundamental theme of my novel is Right to Farm laws in Colorado. But instead, I'll talk about something more pertinent to all authors: revisions.

When I first attempted a novel, I tried really hard to follow some sort of outline that would lead me along on a nice, tidy, pre-planned plot. But I soon learned that characters, especially the more developed they are, have a tendency to take the story down side streets they find more interesting. Those detours didn't always mesh neatly with parallel plots meant to mislead the readers from the real mystery at the heart of a good murder story.

At first I fought this misbehavior, but I soon realized these mis-directions were a kind of magic, and often led to fascinating insights and developments. I started letting go, to the point that I was writing chapters out of order, writing scenes that seemed to have no place in the story but defined a character or embellished a setting... even described events that would fit in an entirely different book!

I like the flow of this method, but I realize my revisionary future has also skyrocketed. I'll have to do a lot more rearranging, meshing, editing, re-reading, and probably more than once. That's okay. As my line editor points out - the fun begins after you've crapped it out and have something to work with.

My usual method is to write up to The End, then revise. But I'm thinking of trying a day-to-day revision process, or maybe spend one day a week revising what I've written the previous week. I have a tendency to lose interest in anything fairly quickly, including events in my story, so shorter revision windows might work better for me.

How about you? What's your revision process? Leave me a comment, please.

Q is for Quotations

Because my story is based in Morristown, in honor of famed Arts and Crafts movement founder, William Morris, I offer some of his quotations. They strongly influence several of my book characters.

And perhaps his most well-known quotation which my heroine, Megan MacGregor, has hanging on the wall of her living room.

I probably will use a William Morris quotation on a dedication page at the beginning of each novel.

P is for Politics and POV

I begin the Morristown Murder Mystery series in 2007, the year Barack Obama is avidly campaigning for president. This plops my mostly liberal book characters smack into the middle of conservative rural Colorado the year before the Democratic party comes into power in Washington. That scenario creates a lot of tension, controversy, and misunderstanding in my story. I witnessed this local shake-up first-hand as I had also recently moved to a small rural community.

Writing eight years after-the-fact opened up some serious plotting opportunities. It's almost as though I have a crystal ball into the future, because I've already lived through some interesting changes in American society. On the one hand, the events are fairly fresh in my memory. On the other hand, I can still imagine my characters making decisions and acting in ways that made sense back then, even though facts might later change their points of view. This time-frame gives me tremendous writing flexibility.

For example, I never consciously planned to include characters strongly impacted by the Middle East wars. As the writing progresses, at least four of them are directly or indirectly affected by the military or personal experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of my point-of-view changes occur because they make sense for the characters. As I mentioned in a previous post, my main character, J. Lindsay Calhoun, isn't quite the liberal I thought he would be. As he shows his libertarian leanings, he'll prove to be the bridge between opposing views over the course of several books. The times, and changes in politics, will impact all the protagonists and antagonists, and perhaps create more opportunity for murder and mayhem.

O is for Open-pollinated

Since my book characters moved to the country and started an organic enterprise named Viridian Farms, they've learned a lot about different kinds of crops, and specifically seeds. There's a lot of confusion these days, even among farmers and gardeners, and certainly within the non-agricultural public. Let's look at some definitions:

Open-pollinated seeds: pollinating is achieved by insects, birds, wind, or other natural mechanisms. The seeds of open-pollinated plants will produce new generations of those plants.

Hybrid seeds: cross-pollinated plants of two in-bred strains that improve the characteristics of the plant, but only for one generation. The next generation is unlikely to breed the desired characteristics.

GMO seeds: A Genetically Modified Organism results from a discipline called Genetic Engineering which involves taking genes from one species and inserting them into another. For example, genes from an arctic flounder which has "antifreeze" properties may be spliced into a tomato to prevent frost damage. 

Patented seeds: GM seeds are not the only seeds with Intellectual Property Rights. Almost all conventional (non-GM) and organic hybrid seeds are patented and cannot be saved for use in the next planting season.

As the Viridian Farms crew begins growing vegetables for sale at city farmers markets, they'll idealistically begin with open-pollinated seeds. But as the venture proves more challenging than anticipated, they might find themselves considering the use of patented, organic hybrid seed stocks.

Certainly they'll butt heads with farmers around them who are planting Monsanto crops. I'll discuss that a bit more when I write about the Colorado Right to Farm laws, which create the basis for murder in my mystery.

N is for NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo that is. I decided to participate with some pals from Colorado Writers and Publishers, a Facebook group that is now almost 500 members strong.

It really helps me to focus on my writing when I belong to a group like this. I'm only just 7,000 words into the novel since the beginning of the month, but I have fifteen chapters roughly outlined, and a new character. A sheriff I'll write more about when we get to letter S.

How's your writing coming along this month?

M is for Morristown Mystery

This book's evolution involved a series of concept and name changes. I always knew it would be a murder mystery with a healthy dose of romance, but I didn't really know where it would take place or how the characters would interact. I did know a small town would be home base for much of the action, because the story line evolved from a non-fiction book about a Main Street economy. The problem was with my premise - it simply wouldn't work on a practical economic level. So much for writing non-fiction.

But I did enough research to notice that certain business practices worked well in small towns. Diversifying efforts (or having more than a few part-time jobs to meet the bills), being really creative (and offering products and services that supported the local needs and interests), and not moving too much of the focus out of the area, while still bringing in customers from outside, were all important considerations.

I discovered a large B&B on a business trip that exemplified many of these aspects - the Claremont Inn, which I decided to emulate in the book. I changed the name to Montclare Inn. There is no Montclare in Colorado - nor is there a Claremont anymore for that matter. That town's name was changed to Stratton, in honor of Winfield Scott Stratton, This curiosity got me wondering, because Stratton wasn't from the area. I knew this because he was a well-known historic figure further west, in Colorado Springs. 

I soon discovered the fairly common practice of renaming small towns after famous people, and making up a fast and loose history about the association. For example, in nearby Flagler, Colorado, railroad baron, Henry Flagler, had alleged ties. According to the Henry Flagler Museum in Florida, however, it was doubtful that Flagler ever stopped in that Colorado town. I think it was just an excuse to change the name from its original Bowserville.

Which brings me to my "what if" moment in the novel. Because one of the characters is an architectural engineer, it would be logical for him to have a fondness for Arts & Crafts architecture, and for William Morris, who spearheaded the movement in 1800s Great Britain. It would also explain why a blip of a small town on the high plains of Colorado would have a number of handsome Arts & Crafts bungalows and English cottages - homes that might attract an educated group of young business people to the area.

Before too long, I made up an imaginary town in an imaginary Colorado county with an imaginary history including a William Morris visit. (There is no record of Morris ever setting foot in Colorado.) 

That easily, the Morristown Murder Mystery series found its home. Themes and titles fell into place. My characters were anxious to move and get on with their intentional community and developing their partnership business, Viridian Farms. The first book fairly began writing itself. 

L is for Lips

Yesterday on Twitter, fellow A-Z Challenger, Katie Paul, mentioned kissing and that got me thinking about a bit of a flaw in my story. There's a lot of love in my books, and so I describe kissing in some detail, like the hero's sexy full lips especially that bottom one, which the heroine just loves to nibble on.

Except the real-life actor I'm using as the prototype, for all that he's a strapping and muscled six-and-a-half-feet tall, has really narrow lips. If he ever plays this character in the movie, his lips will be noticeably... small. Great smile, but thin lips.

You might think I'm worrying about this too much, but I can't help it. One aspect of the Outlander filming that makes me insane is that the lovely Caitriona Balfe who plays the main character, has gorgeous blue eyes. But in the novels themselves, author Diana Gabaldon repeatedly mentions golden whisky-colored eyes for this character. It pulls me out of the story - film and book - every time the eyes come up.

So what's an author to do? At this point, I can easily revise and change lip descriptions in my writing. So I'll do that. Even though thin lips aren't quite as lovely as those full, lush suckers, and damned tough to write about in a toasty love scene. Do men have lip-plumping cosmetic surgery? Nah, never mind. I'm just obsessing. Surgery not required.

I'll just focus on the gorgeous blue eyes. And great eyebrows! I just noticed those. Plump, lush eyebrows. I can work with that.

Camp NaNoWriMo update: Only about 6,000 words so far, but I have a dozen chapters outlined, and a new character developed. The local sheriff, who proved to be a total surprise. More about him later.

K is for Kilts

The setting of my novel isn't Scotland, but my protagonist is Scottish-American, and he's a bagpiper of considerable talent. Needless to say, he wears kilts for various functions, and there are different kinds from the most casual for hard labor, to military uniforms, to formal attire complete with a short "Prince Charlie" jacket. He wears them all.

I found many terrific photos online.

I also made a great discovery watching this YouTube video. A man getting dressed is just about as sexy as him getting undressed. Maybe even more so.

  I was inspired enough to work a scene into my novel based on this entertaining and informative video. Best writing prompt ever. Yes, indeed.

J is for Jefferson

When I first began imagineering my main character, I named him James Lindsay Calhoun, which soon shortened to J. Lindsay Calhoun for a professional handle. It sounds sort of lawyer-ly, doesn't it? The James made sense since he was nicknamed Gentleman Jim by his legal colleagues. I envisioned him as excruciatingly polite in manner, while verbally destroying his opponents in court. Even in private, a foul word never passed his lips.

But later, while researching the Calhoun clan online, I came across a descendant who was known as The Black Cock of the West. Instant I can use this! moment. So I decided to lose the Gentleman Jim angle entirely. It was a little too twee anyway.

But I stuck with James, and when I started moodling his future first-born, decided on the name Jameson for junior. Until my husband pointed out that Jameson is a right- proper Irish name - not Scottish at all.

Dang. I'd have to hit the Scottish names list and come up with something else for the kid. Maybe Duncan. Except I think I named the drum horse in my prequel Duncan.

This naming stuff can get complicated.

Just recently I decided James is fairly boring. Jefferson would fit Lindsay better, now that he's showing his libertarian leanings as the story evolves. I could keep the J. Lindsay Calhoun but the Jefferson has more pow factor.

Thank goodness we have Find/Replace in word processing programs to make our lives easier, right? It'll be fairly straightforward replacing James with Jefferson as I don't really mention that name very often - just in the beginning of the story, and during scenes in which he's introduced to someone else.

I've already gone through and changed another character's name from Emily to Emma by searching "em" - and while searching for the name, discovered a few too many uses of the words "embarrass" and "emphatic".  Handy tool, that Find/Replace function.

Now I just need to come up with some good names for the county sheriff who is XX throughout the WIP, and for the mayor, who is ?? because, for some reason, they haven't really identified themselves yet.

Does that ever happen to you? How many times have you changed the name of your characters after starting the story?

H is for Help

I had to take a breather from blogging and really focus on my Camp NaNoWriMo writing today. So I just want to say thank you for all the team effort and promotion during the A-Z Challenge. You all are a huge HELP to me. Writing is such a lonely business, and knowing I'm part of a team focusing on the same basic goals really makes a difference. Have a great writing day, friends!

G is for Guns

Actor Jeff Bosley as J. Lindsay Calhoun

When I was first moodling characters for the novel, I made them perfect in every way. Attractive, smart, sexy, healthy, happy, and very liberal of course. They were, after all, modeled after my finest ideals.

Then I started putting faces to these characteristics. The Internet proved to be a huge help, especially social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I could easily imagine my stories in film, so started looking at potential actors for key roles. I found Jeff Bosley via a mutual Facebook friend, and thought he'd make a good J. Lindsay Calhoun.

But soon it became apparent that our personal ideals weren't exactly on the same page. Not that they needed to be, mind you. After all, a good actor can play any role. But still, he was so different from my hero. Big into bodybuilding, action heroes, Green Beret and other military stuff... like guns. So totally unlike my perfect protagonist.

When I seriously began writing, Lindsay took over and started changing the story lines. In one chapter, he was out of town and Megan had a home invasion. He handled the situation by phone until he could quickly fly back to Denver via a private jet. That's when Megan discovered he was carrying a sidearm, and before I knew what happened, the hero and his love are arguing about guns.

What? Arguing? Stop that! You're supposed to be perfect, not to mention crazy about each other. You cannot argue in my novel.

It became obvious as the conversation grew more heated, that Lindsay was really more of a libertarian thinker than a liberal. How could that be happening? I'd totally lost control of the plot.

When I really thought about it, it kind of made sense for him. He is, after all, a lawyer with deep understanding of constitutional law. Through his career, he has connections with various police departments. He's also a kilted bagpiper, and a logical pipe-and-drum band connection would be through a police regiment. I really couldn't just ignore the military and weapons aspects of this character, could I?

No. I could not.

So now I have all kinds of conflict. And a more interesting hero. And loads more story potential.

Dammit.

I also dislike my main character a little. Sometimes even a lot. I'm guessing so does the heroine. Now I'm having to deal with that issue. I see much more plot tension in my future.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Bosley. It's all your fault. ;)

Want to know more about this actor? Here's a fabulous interview at The IF List. I'll tell you more about them on Friday. It's a seriously awesome writing tool and an opportunity to put your novels on a dream casting website.

What about the rest of you writers? Have you ever had a character take over your story and drag it down some path you never consciously imagined? Do tell me about it in a comment.