Alan Ladd and My Writing

It's Alan Ladd's birthday today :-D 

This year, to celebrate, I'm going to share about the ways that Alan Ladd has shaped my writing and my books.

When I write fiction, I see and hear the story in my head like a movie.  I can replay scenes, move the camera angles, rewrite lines, and so on -- I see and hear it all in my imagination, and I write it down from there.  Because I love movies, I tend to use actors and actresses as a kind of jumpstart for my imagination, and often "cast" specific stars in different roles.  Eventually, the characters step a bit away from who I have cast as them and come to life in their own ways, but it's a good way to get a book started, for me.

(If you're ever curious about exactly whom I have cast as different characters in my books, I have Pinterest boards for all my books with character choices, pictures of setting and clothing and objects that I have saved as I research, and so on.)

I fell for Alan Ladd hard back in February of 2016.  At that time, I was working on rewrites for my Sleeping Beauty retelling, The Man on the Buckskin Horse, which had won a contest and was to be published in the anthology Five Magic Spindles.  I didn't actually recast any of the characters as him, since they were all very much themselves by that point, but he did help me out with one scene.

One of the changes the editors had me make after I won the contest was to give my "handsome prince" character, the gunfighter Luke Palmer, a backstory.  And I needed to write a scene where Palmer explains his past to Miss Emma, my "fairy godmother" character.  I banged my head against that scene for the longest time because Palmer Did Not Want To Share His Trauma.  At all.  Not a bit.  And I finally threw my hands up in disgust, booted my usual actor for him out the door, and tried running the scene in my head with Alan Ladd in the character instead.

And the character sat down, got a little quiet, and then reeled off this heartfelt speech about how his experiences as a Civil War surgeon had led to his present job as a gunfighter for hire.  One writing session.  Bam.  Whole scene, perfect and complete.  And, when I reread that book (because, yes, I do reread my books -- I write them because I want to read them!), I see and hear Palmer as his tall, dark self... except for that scene, where he flips into quiet and fair Alan Ladd.

Well, I had such a good time working with an imaginary Alan Ladd in my head while rewriting The Man on the Buckskin Horse, I knew I wanted to write him again.  So, when I was casting my Little Red Riding Hood retelling, Cloaked, I put him in as the woodcutter character, Hauer.  And Hauer absolutely stole my heart.  This is Alan Ladd in his 50s, which he never quite reached in real life, and I loved getting to imagine him a bit older and with a lot of life ahead yet, even if only as a fictional character.  (Hauer would obviously be a bit older than in the photo above, but it captures the Hauerness of Hauer too well to use something else.)

I even dedicated Cloaked to Alan's memory, and a tradition of dedicating my Once Upon a Western books to a Classic Hollywood actor or actress was born.

It's pretty easy to know which character I cast Alan Ladd as in my Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, Dancing and Doughnuts, if you know his full name is Alan Walbridge Ladd.  I gave Sheriff Gideon Walbridge that last name as a placeholder because I didn't have a name for him initially, and it stuck.  Sheriff Walbridge is Alan in his 40s, wise and starting to mellow, but still sharp and ready for trouble if it comes his way.

I was so giddy when I realized that Hauer could show up again in One Bad Apple, my Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs retelling.  It takes place a decade before Cloaked, and I spent a long time scrutinizing the personal history I have for Hauer to make sure he could be there in Missouri in 1873.  I tried not to tell too many people ahead of time that he was going to show up again in it so he would be a fun surprise for initial readers, and the reactions I got to his return were everything I hoped for.  

Because I love Hauer dearly, I am especially pleased that he got to be the first character to show up in more than one Once Upon a Western book.  The little ties and crossovers will keep coming as the series lengthens, I promise!

Dan McLeod in my Beauty and the Beast retelling My Rock and My Refuge is the kind of friend we all should have.  He's had so many sad things happen in his life, but he never lets them get in the way of being a good friend to those around him.  I love his quiet dignity, his determination to do anything rather than lose another son, and the fact that he is both soft and resilient.  I want to write more characters like that.  

I have loved the last name McLeod since I was a kid and first saw the movie El Dorado (1966), in which John Wayne's character has a frenemy named McLeod.  I only heard it pronounced, I didn't see it spelled, and thought it must be spelled McCloud, which seemed to me like the absolute coolest name ever.  I even gave it to a character in a story I was writing at the time.  I was super disappointed to later learn how it is actually spelled... but I still love the way the name sounds, so I used it here for a character with lofty ideals and a high moral character, who lives high in the mountains.  Like a cloud.

If you look at the Pinterest board for A Noble Companion, my Ugly Duckling retelling, you'll see lots of photos of a young Ewan McGregor, and not one of Alan Ladd.  That's because Alan was my original casting for Javier Moncada, the love interest.  I wrote the first couple of drafts with him in mind, but then switched Javier to Ewan McGregor because he was a better physical fit for what the character as I was writing him.  But I still hear all of Javier's dialog in Alan's voice when I reread the book.  I loved finally getting to write him as a younger character!  

And then I went right back to writing him older in my short story "Safekeeping," which is in the anthology Follow the Lonesome Trail.  He just has a bit part, and barely any lines, as the weary Dr. Masterson who drinks too much.  In a way, that's me kind of addressing Alan Ladd's own struggles with alcohol, which is also something a lot of people I know have dealt with.  It's not a big focus of the story, but it's there, and my own headcanon involves Dr. Masterson eventually moving away from town and getting (and staying) sober with the help of his daughter-in-law.  

Those last two books are not part of my Once Upon a Western series, but the book I'm about to start writing is!  It's a retelling of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, it involves a Civil War veteran amputee, and Alan Ladd is once again playing a supporting character in it.  I think his character is in his late twenties, a bit older than the main character, and again something of a mentor, because I just really love writing him that way, I guess!

Beyond that?  Who knows!  Will I one day write a book without Alan Ladd in it?  I mean, yeah, it could happen.  It probably will, one day.  But for now, you can expect to keep seeing characters show up in my books who look, sound, and behave like characters he often played.  Because my imagination isn't tired of him yet :-)

My Ten Favorite Movies About Writers

My being a writer probably explains my fondness for movies about writers.  Today, I'm sharing the list of my ten favorite movies about or involving writers -- some authors of fiction, some screenwriters, some columnists or newspaper reporters, but all writers!

1. Laura (1944)  While solving the murder of beautiful Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) falls in love with her memory, mainly thanks to the worshipful reminiscences of Laura's mentor, venomous columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb).

2. Saving Mr. Banks (2013)  Author P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) struggles to let go of her specific vision for her book Mary Poppins as Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) works to make it into a movie.  My favorite description of what writers do ("We restore order.  We instill hope, again and again.") comes from this movie.

3. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) needs money. And he needs his career to stop fizzling. And he needs these grumpy characters in his head (especially Scrooge, played by Christopher Plummer) to cooperate. And he needs people to stop pestering him so he can just write his next book. A completely charming, relatable look at the writing process!

4. The Gazebo (1959) A playwright (Glenn Ford) gets blackmailed over some scandalous old photos of his actress wife (Debbie Reynolds) and decides to kill the blackmailer rather than keep paying him. Which leads to very dark comedy that has me in absolute stitches, though my husband didn't find it nearly so funny because he said that Glenn Ford was too good at portraying fear and worry, and so my husband just kept feeling afraid and worried for him. YMMV.

5. Romancing the Stone (1984) Bestselling romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) sets out to rescue her kidnapped sister from the South American drug lords who kidnapped her.  A disillusioned mercenary (Michael Douglas) reluctantly helps her out in exchange for a treasure map Joan's sister sent to her before she was kidnapped.  Romance and adventure and some pretty funny dialog ensue.

6. Moulin Rouge! (2001) An aspiring novelist (Ewan MacGregor) falls in love with a consumptive courtesan (Nicole Kidman) and courts her with the help of Toulouse-Latrec (John Leguizamo) in 1890s Paris, while singing and dancing to modern 20th-century music because director Baz Luhrmann can make that work.

7. Paris When it Sizzles (1964) A screenwriter (William Holden) tries to cure his writer's block and write his next smash hit with the help of a typist (Audrey Hepburn) with quirky and funny results. I feel like Alex and Emma (2003) is basically a remake of this movie, though I suppose they might both just be inspired by the true story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky writing a book under a tight deadline with the help of a stenographer that he fell in love with and subsequently married.

8. Miss Potter (2006) Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger) falls in love, writes stories, paints cute pictures, publishes books, and refuses to let anyone stop her from doing any of those things. It's a sweet, fun mix of cuteness and determination.

9. Roman Holiday (1953) Bored and lonely Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) runs off alone in Rome to have a taste of what life is like for ordinary people.  American newspaperman Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) takes her under his wing before anything bad can happen to her, and he thinks he's got the scoop of a lifetime once he realizes who he's rescued. 

10. Knives Out (2019) A wealthy mystery author (Christopher Plummer) dies, and everyone in his large and weird family (Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, et. al.) suspects everyone else of having killed him. Only an enigmatic private detective (Daniel Craig) has any inkling of the truth for a long time. 

Are there any movies about your particular profession?  Or, are there any jobs you really love to watch movies about?

This has been my second entry for the On the Job Blogathon hosted by myself and Quiggy at the Midnight Drive-In this weekend!

A New Author Interview

Fellow historical fiction author Patricia Meredith interviewed me on her YouTube channel today!  We had a lot of fun discussing everything from how I started writing fairy tale retellings, to whether I will keep writing westerns after I finish this series, to what authors and movies influence my writing, and beyond. 

You can watch that interview here:

Sooooooo... I wrote a book on the sly...

Yes, it's true.  I wrote a book this winter without telling anyone.  Well, almost anyone -- my husband and kids did know about it, and I eventually told a couple friends because I couldn't bear to keep it to myself anymore.  I was just having So Much Fun writing it!

If you're subscribed to my author mailing list, you've heard about this just a bit, as I announced it in my newsletter last week.  But I'd like to talk more about it here now.

This book is called Murder Most Foul, and it's a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in 1940s California.  If that sounds awfully familiar, yes, I first had this idea ten years ago, and I wrote it up as a fake movie review right here back in 2013.

I have loved that idea ever since, but I was always so busy writing other things, I just never got around to trying to flesh it out.  Well, you may recall that I broke my arm back in June.  Typing was good therapy for getting my hand and arm muscles back in shape, but at that time, I was revising My Rock and My Refuge, and that involved a lot more using the mouse rather than straight typing.  So, I thought, what could I work on a bit now and then that would be typing new words, not fussing with revising already written things?

That's when I remembered Murder Most Foul.  I thought, you know, if I tried hard, I could write the whole first draft before Christmas, and I could give it to my friend Cheryl, who was even nuttier about Hamlet than I am... or, at least, just as nutty.  Cheryl and I became friends before my oldest kid was born, so at least 16 years ago.  Probably closer to 20.  We bonded over our shared love of Hamlet and Combat! and Vic Morrow, initially.  Although we never met, we corresponded by email and snail mail all that time.  We sent each other obscure adaptations of Hamlet on DVD, and lots of other fun little things too, over the years.  A retelling of Hamlet as a 1940s murder mystery would tickle her to no end.

So, I started writing, sometime in July, just a paragraph or a two at a time.  Slow work, but very satisfying.  I loved seeing this world and these characters come to life.  I would grin like a little kid whenever I was working on it because everything was gelling so perfectly.

I got about three chapters into it... and Cheryl died.  

This wasn't super unexpected -- she'd had cancer about eight years ago, and the treatments for that had taken a hard toll.  She'd been living in an assisted living facility for a long time, pretty much ever since she beat cancer.  Occasional bouts of pneumonia were the most-serious thing I'd heard of in recent times, but she was in her 70s and not in great health.  At the same time, her recent letters had been upbeat.  So, her death was a surprise.  

I stopped writing Murder Most Foul.  I'd had such a great time imagining how much Cheryl would enjoy it that, with her gone, I couldn't work on it anymore.

I finished My Rock and My Refuge and launched it into the world in November, and breathed a sigh of relief because I intended to take a couple of months off from writing and just enjoy watching lots of movies and reading lots of books.

That's when I suddenly felt the need to work on Murder Most Foul again.  I realized I loved it too much to abandon it.  Even though I couldn't give it to Cheryl for Christmas, I could still finish it.  I could dedicate it to her memory.  And, maybe I could even write it quickly enough that it would still be finished before Christmas.  I could give it to my best friend/writing mentor/editor as a gift instead!

I did not finish it before Christmas.

In fact, I finished it at the verrrrrrrry end of February, with two days to spare before a planned trip out to see my bestie.  I really wanted to surprise her with a new book to read when I got to her place, and I did it!

So, yes, I will have a new book coming out later this year that is NOT part of my Once Upon a Western series.  It's not a western at all, or a fairy tale retelling.  It's not even exactly the same as that fake movie review I wrote ten years ago, though it does have the same basic cast in mind.  But I love it a lot, and I hope a lot of you will too. 

The "What's Your WIP" Tag -- Part Two

Time to finish off this tag!  See yesterday's post for my answers to the first nine questions.

Again, here are the tag rules: 

• Thank the person who tagged you & link to their blog. 
• Link back to the creator, Katja @ Little Blossoms for Jesus & add the tag graphic. 
• List the rules. 
• Answer the questions. Feel free to add snippets! 
• Tag as many or as few people as you wish & let them know they’re tagged. 
• Add a clean copy of the questions at the end of your post for the “tagged.”

What’s your favorite scene so far (if you can tell about it without spoilers!)? Can you give us a snippet? 😉 

Marta and Mr. Wendell are walking down the road while he tells her how he got his scars, and what he lost because of them.  

And, yes, here's a snippet:

This time I did not stop my hands.  I wanted somehow to comfort, to reassure him.  He sounded so broken when he related those last words, so lost.  Almost, I could not comprehend that anyone could say such words about this good, kind man.  Not when he had been so hurt already.  I reached out and laid my hand on his arm.  Not like I was taking his arm to walk somewhere, but only resting it there so he would know he was not alone. 

We stood there, my hand on his arm, not looking at each other, but facing the bench, the rose bushes, and the mountain.

Finally, I said, “Thank you for explaining so much.  You had no need, but I am understanding much more now.”

Slowly, Mr. Wendell reached over with his other hand and placed it over mine.  He met my gaze.  “I think I did need to.  I needed you to know.”

I wanted to be standing there forever, my hand under his, his gaze on mine.  And that was why I slowly pulled away.  I made my voice as kind as I knew how.  “I am glad to have listened, then.”  Before he or I could say more, I hurried back to the house.  Too many thoughts swirled in my head, mixing and bumping like vegetables dropped in a stew pot.  I needed to sort them out in peace.

(A ghost mining town in California)

Is the story still what you thought it would be or has it thrown you a couple curve balls? 

This is making me chuckle.  The story overall?  Still what I expected.  Individual scenes?  Generally not what I expected.  It seemed like almost every time I'd sit down to write, and have an idea in my head of what scene I would work on and where it would go, the characters would smile fondly at me and steer the whole thing in a totally new direction.  Which would always be better than where I'd thought it would go.  I'm used to that happening a few times in a book, but over and over and over?  It was very interesting!  I guess my subconscious had ideas that it wasn't telling my conscious mind, but which would come out when I wrote, which was pretty cool.

I also thought some people were going to die, but now they don't.  At all.  That's super normal for me, though.  I have lost track of how many books and short stories I've written where I totally planned to kill someone off, and then I just had to pardon them because I couldn't kill them after all.  If you read one of my books and someone actually dies in it, you'll notice it's just about always a really evil villain.  I know that losing a side character along the way can up the stakes for a protagonist and whatever, but I just... have a hard time being that mean to my characters!  I love these imaginary people!

Is there a Bible verse, poem, hymn, picture, or quote that helped shape this story? 

While writing the first draft, I often had part of Psalm 27 running through my head, the refrain of the way it's set to music in our church's hymnal: 

The Lord is my light and my salvation -- of whom shall I be afraid? Of whom shall I be afraid?

That really resonated with me for Marta's story, but also for Mr. Wendell's.  And for Marta's brother Jakob, too.  They all have moments of deep fear in this book, and they all lean on the Lord for comfort and help.

(Near Creede, Colorado)

When and where have you done most of the writing so far? 

I kind of talked about this yesterday too, but a lot of this book has been written at a local coffee shop on Saturday mornings and/or Sunday afternoons, plus here at my house at night after my kids go to bed, whenever I have mental energy left.

Where do you get inspiration for this story? 

My Great-Great Grandma Peters came to America from Germany in the late 1800s.  She went to a cooking school and was a chef in New York City before marrying a fellow German immigrant and moving out to the Midwest.  She taught her daughter Augusta all about making fantastic breads and pies from scratch.  Augusta was my dad's grandma, and she lived with my dad's family when he was growing up.  He still speaks glowingly of her homemade bread and pies.  That idea of a German immigrant with impressive cooking and baking skills just popped out at me when I was thinking of retelling Beauty and the Beast as a story with immigrants, and Marta sort of whooshed into being as a result.

As for inspiration to keep working on a book, I keep my creative juices flowing by watching a lot of movies and TV shows, reading books, and listening to a lot of movie soundtracks and Bobby Darin.  I also got a lot of inspiration from the research I did into Colorado gold and silver mining history -- that really helped Mr. Wendell's backstory and personality take shape.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

I'm a plantser.  If you compare a story to a tree, then I need to know where the trunk and the big branches are before I start writing, and how tall it is.  In other words, I need to know the basic plot, some major plot points along the way, and exactly how it all ends.  But the leaves and smaller branches get added as I go.  Which means I get plenty of surprises as to how we get to the end, and any subplots, side characters, things like that.

I tried outlining a book once.  Wrote up a nice, complete outline for exactly how the book would go, wrote two chapters, got incredibly bored because there were no surprises left for me, and abandoned it.  I'm also not great at just having a character and a vibe and seeing what happens.  So I'm in between the two.

Do you have a little ritual before you start writing? 

Sorta?  I have a system, but it's not exactly a ritual -- I don't chant or mutter incantations or turn in a circle three times, or anything ritualistic like that.  But I do have a system!

I either make or buy something warm to drink (depending on whether I'm at home or the coffee shop).  I pull up some music on my computer -- for MRAMR, I've mainly been listening to the Quigley Down Under soundtrack by Basil Poledouris.  Then I pull up the copy of my WIP doc that's stored in my Dropbox and save it to the hard drive of the computer I'm working on.  

(When I write at the coffee shop, I use my laptop, but at home, I usually use our desktop.  Since I don't always know where I'll work next, I always end a writing session by saving it to my hard drive, then to my Dropbox account.  And I always start by opening it from Dropbox and saving it to my hard drive -- that means I have two copies of my latest version at all times, and another that's close to that latest version saved on a totally separate hard drive.  Which means I almost never lose what I've written.)

If I am at home, I might light a candle.  I might not.  Then I read back over the previous scene so I can ease into the new part... and then I write forward.

Are you thinking of publishing this story? 

Absolutely!  It will be book four of my Once Upon a Western series.

What things have you learned while writing this story?

My research has taught me about mining towns, miners, mine accidents, bear attack survival, German guilds, German bread baking practices, the history of Colorado, Chinese immigrants in the 1870s, baking at high altitudes, the availability of tea in Colorado in the 1870s, prices for bread in mining camps versus towns versus cities, the Franco-German War of 1870-71, wages for servants in various areas of the country in the 1870s... I have learned a LOT while writing MRAMR!  And I always do.  That's something I love about writing historical fiction!

(Abandoned mine in Colorado)

Now!!!  The time has come to tag some fellow writers.  Except, this tag has been around for a while, and I have been so busy the last year or so that I am really behind on reading blogs... so I don't know who's already done this, and who hasn't.  If YOU want to do this tag, then you are hereby tagged!

Has your WIP a working title? If so, tell us! If not, have you any idea of what it might be? 

Have you a synopsis for your WIP? If so, give it to us! If not, can you give us a blurb on what your WIP is about? 

Have you a working/mock cover for your WIP? If so, show us! If not, have you an idea in mind? 

How did you get the idea for this story? 

How long do you think it will be? 

Is it longer or shorter than you thought it would be? 

Who’s your favorite character so far? 

What’s your favorite memory related to this WIP? 

Any special person(s) who helped create it? 

What’s your favorite scene so far (if you can tell about it without spoilers!)? Can you give us a snippet? 😉 

Is the story still what you thought it would be or has it thrown you a couple curve balls? 

Is there a Bible verse, poem, hymn, picture, or quote that helped shape this story? 

When and where have you done most of the writing so far? 

Where do you get inspiration for this story? 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

Do you have a little ritual before you start writing? 

Are you thinking of publishing this story? 

What things have you learned while writing this story?

I hope you've enjoyed this peek behind the scenes of My Rock and My Refuge and my writing process!

The "What's Your WIP" Tag -- Part One

I spotted this at The Caffeinated Fangirl recently and couldn't resist doing it myself.  I'm working away at revisions on my Beauty and the Beast retelling, My Rock and My Refuge, so that's what I'll be answering these questions about.

Since there are eighteen questions in this tag, and answering them all in one post would get reeeeeally long, I'm splitting this into two posts.  I'll share the second half tomorrow!

Here are the tag rules: 

• Thank the person who tagged you & link to their blog. 
• Link back to the creator, Katja @ Little Blossoms for Jesus & add the tag graphic. 
• List the rules. 
• Answer the questions. Feel free to add snippets! 
• Tag as many or as few people as you wish & let them know they’re tagged. 
• Add a clean copy of the questions at the end of your post for the “tagged.” 

Has your WIP a working title? If so, tell us! If not, have you any idea of what it might be? 

It has a real title, not a working title!  Finally and at long last, heh.  This book is called My Rock and My Refuge, which comes from Psalm 62:7b:

the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

I really like that it has alliteration like Beauty and the Beast, and that it works on multiple levels for the story.  

Have you a synopsis for your WIP? If so, give it to us! If not, can you give us a blurb on what your WIP is about? 

Revisions tend to sharpen the focus of my book, so this is only a working synopsis, but basically, MRAMR is about a hardworking young woman named Marta Beckmann who has recently moved to the United States from Germany with her brother Jakob, both seeking to earn money here to help save their family's bakery back home.  They answer an advertisement for a housemaid and a man of all work, and move to a silver mining community in the Colorado mountains.  Their new employer, Mr. Wendell, is a wealthy recluse with scars on his face and in his heart, and... and... it's Beauty and the Beast, guys.  You know what's going to happen ;-)

Have you a working/mock cover for your WIP? If so, show us! If not, have you an idea in mind? 

Nope, and nope.  Once I finish this rewrite, I'll send this draft to my cover designer.  She'll read it, come up with a few rough ideas, run them past me, and we'll brainstorm a bit before picking one design for her to pursue.  I suspect the final design will involve mountains, given the title and setting.  But she may surprise me!  I've never yet anticipated what she'll come up with.

Note: this is not necessarily the "usual" way for cover art to happen.  My designer is also my sister-in-law AND a dear friend.  Most cover artists want like a 2-page synopsis of your book, and they go from there.  They don't read the whole book.  Most of them don't seek author input along the way, either, but will do final edits as requested.  But some do!  Every cover artist is different ;-)

(Colorado mining country.)

How did you get the idea for this story? 

Um.  Um.  Hmm.  Well, I had the general idea of "beautiful German immigrant" and "scarred, wealthy recluse" several years ago, probably around the time I published Cloaked in 2017.  That was at least five years ago, so I don't remember any direct triggers anymore.  

However, I do know that I planned right from the first to write about a "beauty" character who was not young and naïve and sort of easy to push around, and that I wanted to pair her with a "beast" character who was not crabby and grouchy and mean.  I wanted to just take away the starry eyes and the "fix the unpleasant guy" things that so often get used for retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and focus on the way that kindness and brokenness can get mixed with love to promote healing.

How long do you think it will be? 

Oh, probably around 100K when it's done.  It's about 120K right now, but it needs a bit of tightening.

Is it longer or shorter than you thought it would be? 

WAY longer.  WAY, WAY longer.  My previous books in this series have been around 50K.  I had no idea going in that MRAMR would be twice as long.  In fact, it has the longest first draft of anything I have ever written!

Who’s your favorite character so far? 

Marta Beckmann, protagonist and narrator and baker extraordinaire.  I've never written a heroine quite like her before, and I just love her so much.  She's this amazing blend of directness and kindness.  And she is a ball of marvelous energy -- like the Energizer Bunny, but with a German accent!  Her life has not been easy at all, but she has such calm and such grace and such joy within.

(Alicia Vikander looking kind of Marta-esque)

What’s your favorite memory related to this WIP? 

A locally owned coffee shop opened up a mile from my house just about the same time that I started writing the first draft of MRAMR, in October of 2020.  I go there basically every Saturday morning to drink their wonderful coffee and work on this book.  I love that I can get there in just a few minutes -- before, this I was driving fifteen minutes to get to a Starbucks to write every weekend.  Plus, I love that it's not a chain, it's locally owned -- I would much rather have my $5 or so go back into the community directly that way!  Plus, for the first time ever, I am a "regular" at a coffee shop.  The baristas recognize me, the owners recognize me, and that is really special to me.  It's been such a blessing!

Any special person(s) who helped create it? 

My 14-yr-old son has been helping me translate German bread recipes from a 1907 German cookbook, and we have had such a good time working together on this project!  We're both taking German via DuoLingo (and I took it in college for a year), so it's been a very cool way to use our new language skills... and to realize how much we don't know yet.

(Traditional German bakery sign)

Tune back in tomorrow for the rest of my answers!  Here is a clean copy of all eighteen questions, in case you want to copy them and do this tag yourself.  Or in case you're curious about what I'll be answering tomorrow ;-)

1. Has your WIP a working title? If so, tell us! If not, have you any idea of what it might be? 
2. Have you a synopsis for your WIP? If so, give it to us! If not, can you give us a blurb on what your WIP is about? 
3. Have you a working/mock cover for your WIP? If so, show us! If not, have you an idea in mind? 
4. How did you get the idea for this story? 
5. How long do you think it will be? 
6. Is it longer or shorter than you thought it would be? 
7. Who’s your favorite character so far? 
8. What’s your favorite memory related to this WIP? 
9. Any special person(s) who helped create it? 
10. What’s your favorite scene so far (if you can tell about it without spoilers!)? Can you give us a snippet? 😉 
11. Is the story still what you thought it would be or has it thrown you a couple curve balls? 
12. Is there a Bible verse, poem, hymn, picture, or quote that helped shape this story? 
13. When and where have you done most of the writing so far? 
14. Where do you get inspiration for this story? 
15. Are you a plotter or a pantser? 
16. Do you have a little ritual before you start writing? 
17. Are you thinking of publishing this story? 
18. What things have you learned while writing this story?

WAHOO!!!

:-D

I finished the first draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling this morning!

:-D

I started writing this book at the end of October.  Sometime around February, I started to worry that I was being a big slacker, because the previous three books all took me about three months to finish the first draft, and this one had been going for longer than that and wasn't anywhere close to done!  

Was I getting lazy?  Was I getting slower?  I didn't think I was getting slower -- I'd been tossing out 1,500 to 2,000 words in most writing sessions.  And I was writing several evenings a week, and at least once a weekend, just like usual.  Surely I wasn't getting lazy.

I gradually realized that laziness and writing speed weren't a problem.  This book is just bigger.  At least, this first draft is.  My first drafts for Cloaked, Dancing and Doughnuts, and One Bad Apple averaged under 30,000 words.  This first draft?  Is over 100,000 words.  No wonder it took me three times as long to write -- it's three times as long!!!

Now, does this mean the finished book will be three times as long as the others?  Probably not.  My word count changes a LOT during revision.  Usually, it goes up.  But I think it might go way down this time because I suspect there's a lot of trimming and tightening to be done.  I don't know yet.  I won't know until I get revision suggestions and notes back from my editor.  And I'm not ready to even send it to her yet.  First, I'll let the whole thing simmer for a week or two while I recover from the last couple of weeks, where I pushed hard to get it finished.

Once I can read it with fresh and rested eyes, I'll change and fix a lot of things I've made notes on as I go.  Then I'll send it to my editor when it's ready, and when she's ready for it.  She'll spend a week or two on it.  She'll send back her notes.  I'll spend a week or so sulking because I hate getting revision notes and always sulk about them.  Which I've just learned to expect.

Then, I can start revising.  I'm guessing I'll send it to my editor in early September, and start actually revising it in early October.  Sometimes my rewrites go quickly.  Sometimes, I spend more time rewriting than I did writing.  Because I suspect this book will get a lot cut instead of a lot added, I'm hoping this will be on the shorter end of revision times, but... I won't have a good idea of what needs to be done until I get my editor's notes.

All of which means... yay, the first big chunk of work is done!!!  But I don't have any idea of when my release date will be.  I've been hoping for winter, and that could still happen.  Or it might not.  We'll see!

Meanwhile, I still need a title.  Sigh.  That'll happen too, I know.  It will, not matter how patient or impatient I am.  But I hate not having a title.  Sigh.

Anyway!  In this post, as you may have noticed, I'm sharing a few images that are related to my book.  I shared these all on Instagram last month, as part of a challenge to talk about your work-in-progress, or WIP.  You can read those specific posts (and see more pictures) here, here, here, and here.  You can also check out my Pinterest board for this book to see lots of things that I've either found inspiring or saved to refer back to.  Many of the pictures are the same, to be honest.

I'll just leave you with this Bible verse that has been in my mind a lot while writing this book.  Waiting and hoping and being of good courage are pretty big themes in it.  At least in this first draft!

She Laughs

So, it's been a weird year again so far, huh?

I mean, I kind of expected a lot of people to be unhappy about the election results.  Didn't expect them to turn out en masse to demonstrate that, but last year taught us that demonstrations, peaceful or not, get a lot of attention, so I should have seen that coming.

I didn't expect Big Tech to start literally censoring those they disagree with.  But "cancel culture" has presaged that, so it's not a big surprise either.  

My blogs and website are hosted by Google-owned Blogger.  Might they pull the plug on them at some point because of my religious beliefs?  Could be.  I would be sad.  And angry.  Might not be surprised, though, by that point.  Shutting someone up online is popular these days.  Then again, I'm a pretty small fish, so who knows.

I've been battling a lot of anxiousness the last week or two.  Haven't been writing much as a result, because my creative juices have been at a low ebb.  When current events begin to severely damage my calm, that does happen.  I've spent a lot of time in prayer, reading the Bible, and thinking.

This morning, I decided I was done losing sleep and calm over this.  

It's one thing to know that the world is not ever going to love Christians, and another to face encroaching persecution.  Mentally, I know the world does't love Christ and doesn't love his followers.  Spiritually, I know that Got will work all things for the best of those who love him, and that he says "the best" doesn't equal "an easy life," but rather "a home in heaven."

But it's hard to focus on God's promises when you're afraid.  I keep coming back to that image of Peter walking on the water just fine as long as he focuses on Jesus, but as soon as he looks at the scary world around him, fear pushes its way to the forefront and he starts to sink.  But remember how that story ends?  Peter doesn't think, "Oh, crap, I am sinking, guess I'll drown."  He cries out to Jesus for help.  Jesus instantly helps.

I've done a lot of crying out to the Lord for help.  For mental and emotional calm.  This morning, I searched my heart and mind to figure out exactly what is bothering me the most about the recent events.  And I realized that it comes down to two of the things that I have struggled with all my life: change and uncertainty about what happens next.  Lack of a plan.  Lack of control.

I hate change.  I get things the way I like them, and I want them to stay that way even if change would make things better.  I like having a plan.  Even if the plan has to get revised, I like having it.  Plans make me feel secure.  I like being the one to make the plan, especially, because I want control.  Control makes me feel safe.

Hey, guess what?  I have never been in control of my life.  Ever.  I can delude myself that I have been, and I've done a great job of that.  But none of us is promised tomorrow.  None of us is promised the next minute.  God says he knows the plans that HE HAS for us.  Not the plans we have for ourselves.  Not the plans we want to make.  Not the plans we've already made and are really looking forward to.  His plans.

And once I faced that, once I prayed to God and said, "Lord, take my fear of change and my enthusiasm for control, and replace them with trust in you," you know what happened?

I smiled.  And then, I laughed.

And part of Proverbs 31:25 came into my mind:

She laughs without fear of the future.

And I realized, this was it!  This was the sinful source of my fear and doubt and anxiety and anguish.  Me holding onto my desire to control them and freaking out because I can't control what's happening. And once I repented of that, there was room for more of God's peace that passes all understanding.

Christ's words in John 16:33 has been on my mind and heart a lot these last couple weeks, so I'll leave you with them:

"In the world, you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world."

(HAVE overcome.  Past tense.  Done; finished; accomplished.  The end.)

"One Bad Apple" Cover Reveal

Feast your eyes:

My cover artist has done it again!  Could this cover be any more gorgeous?  I think not!  And it so totally screams "Snow White set in the Old West," doesn't it?  Plus a little hint of Hamlet in there, since One Bad Apple has a lot of Hamlet overtones.

What exactly is One Bad Apple about?  Well, it's about seven white orphans who are reluctantly allowed to join an all-black wagon train headed to Kansas.  The orphans just want to find their only remaining adult relative, a homesteading uncle.  But they get all mixed up with the people in charge of the wagon train: a minister, his daughter, and his wife, who is a healer.  One of the orphans dreams of being a doctor, and he hopes the healer will be able to teach him how to cure sick people.  But instead, he discovers she has a sinister plan to dispose of her husband and stepdaughter... and she intends to place the blame on this orphan.

One Bad Apple is set to release on July 28, and I will be calling for advance readers and setting up a blog tour in a few weeks, so keep a lookout for those posts!  Meanwhile, you can mark One Bad Apple as a "want to read" here on Goodreads.

Want to stay up-to-date on all book news regarding my Once Upon a Western series?  Sign up for my author newsletter either in the sidebar of this blog or by following this link.  Signing up for that will also let you read my Rapunzel-inspired story "Let Down Your Hair," which is available exclusively to newsletter subscribers.

You can also keep in touch with me on Instagram and Facebook, as well as this blog and my book blog. You can even follow me on Amazon or Goodreads!

I'll leave you with this collection of my book and short story covers because I love how they look together:

"One Bad Apple" Update

So, as you may have gathered from things I've said here, in my author newsletters, and on Instagram... writing One Bad Apple has been a long road to travel.  I just completed my third round of pretty substantial revisions.  THIRD.  Cloaked and Dancing and Doughnuts took one.  Not because this book had more problems or because I rushed the first draft -- not at all.  It's just that this is a much more complex story.

I mean, I'm not just retelling Snow White as a western here, I'm retelling it with a mostly minority cast.  And twisting it up with Hamlet while I'm at it.  All of which has been tricky in ways I hadn't anticipated, but ultimately is creating a really satisfying story.  I think.  I hope.

I've sent it off to my editor yet again, and I'll also be sending it to my sensitivity readers this week.  That's a new step for me, but because I really want to do my African-American characters justice and write the most accurate, respectful story I can, I need input from people who actually share some of the heritage as these characters.  Which is exciting!

The Old West was an incredibly diverse place, as I keep highlighting with my "West of Yesteryear" column for the Prairie Times.  I want my Once Upon a Western series to reflect the actual diversity of that time and place in our nation's history, but I need help in doing that.  I've done more research for this book than for my previous three book-length retellings combined.  And I have more to do yet while my editor and sensitivity readers go over this draft.

But in other news, my cover artist is working on a cover for me, and I should get to see her ideas soon!  That's one of my favorite parts of this whole writing process, and I can't wait.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to get a peek at some of the visual ideas I've been working with on One Bad Apple, you're welcome to check out my Pinterest board that contains inspiration for it.  Enjoy!

Teaching Creative Writing: Fiction, Part Two -- Article at Blest the House

The second half of my article on how to teach fiction writing to your kids is up right here!  This one focuses on teaching grades 6 through 12, building on some of the ideas I shared last month.  If you're a homeschool parent looking for ideas, or if you're a writer yourself, you might be interested in some of the resources I share in these articles.

Teaching Creative Writing: Fiction, Part One -- Article at Blest the House

Today, I've got a new article up here on the homeschooling blog Blest the House.  It's filled with ideas for teaching kids in Kindergarten through fifth grade how to write fiction.  I've also written a sequel to it, which is for middle school and high school students, and that will be coming along later.

The Never Have I Ever Writing Tag

(Source)

So, you may or may not know that I am in the final chapters of revising One Bad Apple, my latest Once Upon a Western book.  It's been a long road, writing this book.  But I feel like it and I have finally made friends, and the last couple weeks of revision of been joyful ones.

Be that as it may... it's nice to take a break from writing once in a while and just chat about the writing process itself.  Which is why I'm so glad Eva tagged me for this over on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness!

Rules 
1. Link to and thank the blogger who tagged you. (Thanks, Eva!)
2. Include the graphic somewhere in your post (or make your own!)
3. Answer the questions truthfully and honestly.
4. Tag 3 bloggers.

(Pssssst, DKoren!  You're going to want to turn on GIFs for this post...)


Never Have I Ever… 

…started a novel that I did not finish. 

I can think of three actual novels I did not finish the first drafts of.  And many short stories.  So, yeah, guilty.

…written a story completely by hand. 

In high school, I did about half my story-writing by hand and half on typewriter (!) or computer.  In college, I wrote papers on the computer and stories by hand (the first draft, I mean).  It wasn't until I wrote my first novel after college that I started switching to mostly computer.  But I didn't give up doing at least some of my crafting by hand until I got my first laptop sometime around 2010.

…changed tenses midway through a story. 

I know it's happened.  I can't remember specific instances, but I know I've had to go back and make stuff match before.

…changed my protagonist’s name halfway through a draft. 

Totally guilty, though usually for side characters, not protagonists.  But I've changed names for main characters after the first or second draft lots of times, particularly the gunfighter in "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," who was originally Cole Palmer, then became Bret Palmer when I rewrote it, and finally became Luke Palmer when I revised it after winning the Five Magic Spindles contest.

…written a story in a month or less. 

Pssshsshhh.  Of course I have!  I've won Nanowrimo multiple times.  I've written whole first drafts of books in a month or less, much less some measly story.

…fallen asleep while writing. 

Nope.  Never.  No way.

…corrected someone’s grammar irl/online. 

In real life?  Yes.  Cuz hello?  I'm a homeschool mom.  It's in the job description.  Online?  Probably a few times.  But I tend to give most people a pass online.  Or else I'd go crazy correcting people constantly, and who needs that?

…yelled in all caps at myself in the middle of a novel. 

Oh, all the time.  So guilty.  I was just talking to a friend about how, when I'm writing romantic scenes, I'll put stuff like (GAG ME!) and (YARK!) and (MAKE IT STOP!) all through the first draft.

…killed a character who was based off someone I know in real life. 

I've based very few fictional characters on people I know in real life.  The only time I've consciously done so was for Dancing and Doughnuts, where the quilting circle ladies are named after the ladies in the book club at my home church.

…used pop culture references in a story. 

Guilty!  I do it all the time.  But it's usually subtle, like re-purposing a favorite line from a movie or book.  In my WWII stories, though, I'm all about popping in references to the pop culture of that day.

…not researched anything before starting a story. 

Not lately.  But in the past, yes.  And I generally do a lot of my researching as I write because I don't always know what it is I'm going to need to learn until I get to that part of the book or story!

…used “I’m writing” as an excuse. 

Probably?  I can't remember a specific instance.  I mean, as in like, "here's why I'm not doing such-and-such on Saturday," yeah.  As a reason to be excused.  Not like I've said, "I can't, cuz I'm writing," and then actually gone to a movie or something.

…written between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. 

I worked third shift for four years straight.  I wrote in the middle of the night all the time!  For years!  But lately, no.

…drank an entire pot of coffee while writing. 

Technically, yes, because my coffee pot only holds two mugs-worth of coffee, which is about equal to a venti from Starbucks.

…laughed like an evil villain while writing a scene. 

Indubitably.

…written down dreams to use in potential novels.

Yes, totally.  They're usually utter rubbish upon further inspection, alas.

…published an unedited story on the internet/Wattpad/blog. 

I have not, I would not, and I loathe the very idea.  Everything gets edited!!!  Even my blog posts!!!

…procrastinated homework because I wanted to write. 

Definitely.  I used to pretend my schoolwork was taking a really long time during high school so that I'd have time to be alone at my desk, madly scribbling at some story or other.

…typed so long that my wrists hurt. 

Yeah.  Especially the year that I worked doing data entry 40+ hours a week, and then started writing my first novel in my spare time.  I didn't quite develop carpal tunnel, but I would have if I hadn't gotten a different job.

…spilled a drink on my laptop while writing. 

Nope, don't think so.

…forgotten to save my work/draft. 

I would like to say that this has never happened to me, but it totally has.  Ugh.  Not for a lot of years, though!

…finished a novel. 

I've written full first drafts for nine books, varying in length from 40K to 100K.

…cried while writing a scene. 

Yes, I have, and it's all Armie Hammer's fault.  I didn't realize a character I'd based on him was going to have to die until I hit that scene, and then he got shot, and it was really awful.  I cried.  In Starbucks, while writing it.

…created maps of my fictional worlds. 

I almost always end up making some kind of map using Paint or just scribbling it on a piece of paper.  I've got maps for houses so I know where stuff is so I don't say dumb things like mention a door that wasn't there before, and I've got maps of whole towns, or of where one place is in relation to another.  A lot of times, I make maps for action scenes so I can remember who is where at what time, and where they move around to.  I'm very visually oriented, so I find maps really helpful.

…researched something shady for a novel. 

Well, if by 'shady' you mean 'weird or suspicious or dangerous,' yes.  I've done a lot of researching into poisons and 19th-century drugs lately....

I tag…

DKoren at Sidewalk Crossings
Hayden at Leatherbound
Skye at Ink Castles

Play if you want to!

The Narnia Writing Tag

I'm kind of laid up today.  I started to suspect I had toenail fungus a few months ago, and when OTC stuff didn't cure it, I decided to go to the podiatrist.  I went yesterday to have it looked at, and he ended up removing my entire toenail.  I'm super sensitive about my toenails as it is, and yeah, um, it's not good.  So I've been lying on the couch all day, so thankful that my kids are old enough to pour cereal and make sandwiches because being on my feet at all makes the toe hurt worse, and being up long enough to make a sandwich is just killer.

So I gave them the day off from school, and we watched Ben-Hur (1959) while I laid on the couch and tried not to groan so loudly you couldn't hear the dialog.  It was their first time watching Ben-Hur and, overall, they really dug it.  Yay!

Anyway, now they're playing outside, and I've finished reading a book AND written a review for it, and now I need something else to do, so I'm snurching this tag from Coffee, Classics, and Craziness AND from I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read).  Because I can.  It appears to have originated here.

I'm answering these about my WIP, a retelling of Snow White with the working title Seven Orphans.

Narnia: Where is your story set?

It's set in a wagon train crossing Missouri and Nebraska in the 1870s.

The Magician’s Nephew: How did you come up with the idea for your story?

Back in 2016, Jamie Lapeyrolerie did a two-part post (part 1, part 2) about the lack of diversity in Christian Fiction and called for Christian authors to address this lack.  That's right about when I was starting to figure out what fairy tales I wanted to retell as part of my Once Upon a Western series.  I already knew that I wanted to portray a more realistically diverse Old West than we see in most Hollywood portrayals and most "classic" western fiction.  The truth is, the Old West was filled with a vibrant mix of ethnicities.  Ex-slaves, Native Americans, Hispanics, immigrants from China and both western and eastern Europe -- it was truly a melting pot.  And while it wasn't always a haven of racial harmony, a lot of the time, people were more concerned about surviving and taming the wilderness than about what a person looked like.  So there were opportunities for people who maybe would have been at odds back in the East to meet and mingle and even make friends.

And then I was reading a history book with one of my kids for school one day, and it talked about the Exoduster migrations, when thousands of former slaves flocked to Kansas and other western states, seeking new homes away from segregation and their former masters.  I knew right then I needed to learn more about this because I'd already been thinking I'd like to set a story in a wagon train, and this sounded like it would provide a great setting for a book.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: How do your characters meet?

The main character is Levi, one of seven white orphans that get taken in by a wagon train of black people.  So he meets my Snow White, Stepmother, and Huntsman characters when the wagon train finds the orphans.

The Horse and His Boy: Are there animals in your story?

Of course!  There are a lot of horses, mules, and oxen.  Also dogs.  Probably going to be chickens and other farm animals along the way too.

Prince Caspian: Which of your characters turned out different than you’d expected?

Well, I'm only 4 chapters in so far, but one of the orphans has turned out to be WAY more antagonistic and truculent and generally unpleasant to be around than I'd expected.  Which adds some nice conflict.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: What is one of your character’s personal quests?

Levi's original quest is to reach his uncle in Kansas without being separated from his younger sisters or their cousins.  But that won't be his main quest.

The Silver Chair: Who is the villain?

The Evil Step-mother, of course!  Which is going to be pretty clear right from the beginning.  Her name is Lucretia Mallone, and she is my most-villainous villain yet.

The Last Battle: Does your story end the way you expected it to?

Well, I haven't gotten to the end yet, but I know how I expect it to end, and I can't wait to get there.

The Pevensies – Friend or sibling group?

I have two main sibling groups in this, but Levi also makes friends with Hopeful Mallone, my Snow White character.

Reepicheep – Is there magic in your story? If so what kind?

My books are non-magical.  I had toyed with the idea of Lucretia dabbling in some form of voodoo, but I decided that that was too stereotypical, and also, she's evil enough as it is.  I don't need that to make her look more evil.

I was going to find lots of cute graphics to illustrate this, but I'm not feeling up to it, or like it, or whatever, so instead I'm just going to post this and go back to moaning.  Latest round of ibuprofen can kick in any time now, thanks.