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.