LOVE IT WHEN IT’S FREE

Tags

books, demons, druids, elf, fae, fairy, free, magic, mystery, reders, urban fantasy, witches, writers, writing

Judi Lynn, friend and critique partner, is offering a free chapter of her Muddy River Mystery series today. Since she has generously and repeatedly offered her blog for guest postings for my works, it’s time to repay, and I do so happily.

Muddy River is atmospheric, sometimes grizzly, and full of juicy characters, most especially her H&H, both wicked scary with magical powers. Neither of them mess around when it comes to kicking the butts of the baddies.

Something that has always fascinated me is Judi’s mind. She comes up with some creepy stuff. The contrast to what she puts on the page and what she’s like to be around and have as a friend bears no resemblance. I suppose it’s the same with acting—one doesn’t have to be a murderer to portray a serial killer. Although, I couldn’t look at Mark Harmon for years after he did the Ted Bundy thing. (Insert shiver here.) Time to pick Judi’s brain:

Hope my brain comes up with some decent answers.Great questions, BTW.  Thanks for inviting me to your blog!  I love urban fantasy AND mysteries, so decided to try to combine them in my Muddy River series.

What is it about magic that draws you to write and read about the genre? 

Wow, that’s a good question.  I guess it’s because I always thought that if you had a lot of power, you could do great things.  What I didn’t think about is that, if you have a lot of power and WANT to do great things, someone else has power and uses it for his/her own gain, his own evil purposes.  So then, power just ups the ante between a battle for good vs. evil.  I also am drawn to the idea that humans—us—are afraid of anything that’s different from us.  So that when we are afraid or uncertain, we might become the greatest evil of all.

What about mystery? How old were you when you started reading it?

I didn’t get hooked on mysteries until I found Agatha Christie in high school.  I never read Nancy Drew or mysteries for younger readers.  Still haven’t.  I got hooked on James Fenimore Cooper, James Hilton, and Jane Austen.  But once I found Agatha, I loved how her mind worked.  Then I got hooked on Sherlock Holmes.  I wish I could say I’d read some Dorothy Sayers—only one—but I went from Agatha to Nancy Pickard, M. C. Beaton, Carolyn Hart, and Sharyn McCrumb.

What excites you about characters and plots?

 I love a good who-dunnit and why.  But lots of books have a KIND of mystery in them—an unanswered question to figure out—besides mysteries.  I prefer to follow characters whom I respect and admire. It makes it easier for me to root for them to succeed.  That said, I’ve been known to enjoy a sort of anti-hero occasionally, like Jorg from Prince of Thorns.  He’s the protagonist, and he’s twisted, but everyone else in the time period comes off as MORE twisted, so it’s a matter of degrees.  Jorg seems more noble than anyone around him.  As for plots, because I’m a mystery fan, I really notice them. I don’t mind slow starts.  Let’s face it.  That’s part of writing a cozy.  But I want to know the book’s big question, and then I want everything to eventually move to the answer to that question at the end.  And if you’ve introduced a subplot and forgotten it along the way, that’s a big problem for me.

What makes you impatient with a story that is enough for you to set it aside, unfinished?

I’m pretty patient with fellow writers, but lately, I’ve reached the point that if a story doesn’t hold my interest, I delete it from my Kindle and move on.  I used to feel that I had to finish every book I started.  No more.  I’ve found more mistakes in books than I used to, but when they mount up to too many, I’m done.  And if it feels like the book isn’t going anywhere, that the author padded it to reach a word count, I’m annoyed, too.  And then, in all honesty, I can buy a perfectly good book that just isn’t what I like and quit reading it, even though I know LOTS of other readers will love it.  We all have different tastes.

Your blogs often speak to what you like to read now. What did you like to read as a child?

Oh, boy.  I have to admit, my sisters remember all kinds of things about growing up. I don’t.  I mostly remember teachers I loved, but very few books.  I read a really thick, really big book about a pigeon in third grade.  I know, that doesn’t sound exciting, but it was to me.  I raised pigeons when I was young—homing pigeons and racers.  And this poor pigeon was a homing pigeon who was let loose far from home and had to survive hawks and hunger before he made it back to his owner.  Okay, not many people would buy that today, but it’s stayed with me this long.  I went through a short biography stage and Zane Grey.  For years, I wanted to grow up and be a pioneer.  Oh, Laura Ingalls Wilder probably contributed to that.  I loved her books.  And Charlotte’s Web.  And books about a mouse who was adopted into a family—Stuart Little??  I can’t think of anything else right now.  Oh, in high school, I went through a Georgette Heyer phase, too—part of why I love your Regency Romances written as Julia Donner😊

What are you working on now?

I just turned in my sixth Jazzi Zanders mystery, and now, I’m plotting the 7^thbook in the series and bouncing back and forth between plotting a new Lux Mystery—something new I’m trying.

Got a link?

Here’s my Social Media:

My webpage:  https://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Author Bookbub page:

As Judi Lynn: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judi-lynn

As Judith Post:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judith-post

twitter: @judypost

blog:  https://writingmusings.com/

author Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/?eid=ARBVV_EwfOoSc9roi0Qs3HJ2Pp25lD_meoURr5G9FEL-GKImd06NFH-pzk22O1dYxc7BlaZG0J0amkKg

And for Tattoos And Portents:

https://www.amazon.com/Tattoos-Portents-Muddy-River-4-ebook/dp/B084GVPK5Q/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=judi+lynn&qid=1587415072&sr=8-7

Thanks for coming to my blog! I thought I knew a lot about you and learned more today!!!

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

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Lost and Found

Tags

art, Batman, books, faith, friends, friendship, graphic novels, grief, inspiration, movies, nostalgia, religion, sci-fi, space travel, writing

Lately I’d been thinking about a friend I hadn’t heard from in a few years, Allen Etter, artist, teacher, film director, author, and innovative writer of Christian Science Fiction. I don’t know about the genre now, but when Allen wrote Entropy Gate, I’d never read anything like it. As I searched out his website to see if he still taught at the university, I was saddened to learn that he had died, quite young at 52.

Publishers of Christian fiction were not interested when Allen wrote EG. You don’t have to be Christian or interested in science fiction to enjoy Entropy Gate or its sequel, Beyond. He illustrated his own graphic novels with his distinctive graceful/grotesque talent. I always admired his ability to evoke movement in his paintings.

Entropy Gate:

https://www.amazon.com/Entropy-Gate-Journey-Allen-Etter-ebook/dp/B005M6Q7HM/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=allen+Etter&qid=1580064068&s=books&sr=1-2

Beyond:

https://www.amazon.com/Entropy-Gate-Beyond-Allen-Etter-ebook/dp/B005U6ZDE2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=allen+Etter&qid=1580064068&s=books&sr=1-3

Allen was invested in his faith, his family, and artistry. I admired the way his brain processed art in practical applications. One of his first webpages was of the girl on the cover of Entropy Gate and accessing the site by entering her sparkling green eye.

I remember best the wisdom in Allen’s large, dark eyes, his graceful hands, and his physical presence. At 6’7, he filled up surrounding space but he was never intimidating, more like cuddly. He listened with care and carried with him a quiet, inner burden. I enjoyed talking about fencing, which we both had studied, he being the better fencer.

Allen leaves behind sons and a wife he adored. I am sorry I hadn’t talked to him recently but have his art, books, the appreciation of his encouragement of my beginning efforts. Please check out his works on Amazon and enjoy his many exceptional talents. My glowing reviews were removed when it was discovered that we were friends, but he’s left some of them behind for us to admire. One of my favorites is a rendition of Batman:

SEASONS OF WAR

Tags

battle, books, dragons, fantasy, free, new release, other worlds, snippet, sorcery, swords, war, writing

It’s a good thing to have someone to nag and knock one about the head. My critique partner, Judi Lynn/Judy Post has a pretty good aim. Sometimes there is ringing in the ears, which is not a bad thing, because it makes me pay attention. And as it was written in the Haggard novel, when She Who Must Be Obeyed speaks, you’d better listen.

SWMBO has been nagging me about doing snippets (among other things) and today’s mini-post is a heads-up just to prove I listened. The snippet thing is a fave of the delicious Ilona Andrews, and if it’s good enough for her…and so on.

The trilogy Seasons of Time made its debut in paperback in 2003, when I was told self-published works were a waste of time, would never sell, would never get reviewed, would essentially get laughed off the face of the Earth. I’d had encouragement from a publisher, but as traditional houses are wont to do, they wanted changes. The vision of the story was too important for me to change it to fit someone else’s format. It went on to sell many thousands of copies, win an Honorary Mention in a Writer’s Digest International contest, and receive an excellent review from Midwest Book Review.

Back then, I did book events where I talked about e-publishing and the digital future where hundreds of books could be stored and read on a device not much larger than a postcard. I was given pitying looks from the attendees, but it didn’t bother me. They all bought the book.

Today’s snippet is the opening of The Gracarin, Seasons of War. I’d been asked to write more about the world created in the first trilogy, so I am deep in that process. The interior map is almost done. It needs a few tweaks before sending out into the world. The cover is being created and a cover release should happen any time now. The notes from three beta readers have come back, which means it’s almost time to send it along to SWMBO.

Thanks for following. Because if it’s good enough for Judi/Judy and Ilona, it’s good enough for me.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

How to Hide a Body

Tags

construction, cozy, decorating, dogs, flipping, Foodie, heartthrob, houses, murder, mystery, pug, Viking, writing

It’s a pleasure to have the wonderful Judi Lynn visit my blog. When we met (long ago), she was writing mystery, then urban fantasy, then was offered a contract with Kensington to write a series of romances, which she doubted she could do. Hah! For them, and us, she wrote a marvelous series about Mill Pond, peopled by characters so real you wanted them as your forever friends, characters so alive that they made you laugh and cry, allowed you worry about their problems and rejoice in their triumphs. And oye, the food! (Ms. Lynn’s a kitchen goddess after all.)

The Mill Pond series was followed by a request to write cozy mysteries, just what Judi loves. To look at her, one would never think that someone so jolly and generous could think up so many unique ways to murder people. But then, you’ve never seen the bathroom wall she painted with splotches of red paint. And in this new cozy mystery series, she gives us Ansel. (Insert sigh here.) I love Prosper from her urban fantasy works, but her quiet Norseman, oh my… You only have a few days left to wait to meet him and to find out how the corpse ended up in the attic. It’s on presale now!

You can find The Body in the Attic here:  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/37036

Thank you, M. L. Rover, for inviting me to your blog.  I’m a huge fan of yours, when you write as Julia Donner or as M. L. Rigdon, so it’s an honor being here today.  Thanks for letting me talk about the first mystery I wrote for Lyrical Underground, THE BODY IN THE ATTIC.

1. Why mysteries?

I fell in love with mysteries when I discovered Agatha Christie in my high school years.  In between reading Jane Austen and English Lit assignments in college, I got hooked on Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. I liked Sherlock Holmes, but not as much as Nancy Pickard’s Jenny Cain and Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series. Those led me to Martha Grimes, Elizabeth George, and many, many others.  In cozy mysteries, the gore is minimal, the characters are part of a tight knit community, and the killers always get their just rewards—one way or another.  Unlike real life, evil doesn’t go unpunished.  And it’s fun to match wits with the detective.  Can you catch the writer’s clues and distinguish them from the red herrings?  It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle.  Lots of fun.

2. Why have your heroine be a fixer-upper?

When my husband and I got married, we bought a bungalow that had great bones, but everything in it was too small or dated.  We were young and had no idea how much work it would take to update everything.  When I turned on the faucet in the kitchen and John turned on a faucet in the bathroom to brush his teeth, the water got confused and stopped moving completely.  We had to replace lead pipes with copper ones.  When we invited my family over for supper and put the leaf in our table, we couldn’t open the refrigerator door until we all stood up and moved the table sideways to make room.  Eventually, we ended up adding on to the kitchen, adding a dormer for a second bedroom upstairs, and finishing the basement into a playroom for the kids. Little did we know when we bought the house.  But to this day, we love the place.   We still have a fondness for old houses and go on house walks in old neighborhoods. Not that we’d ever do this again. If we HAD to move for some reason, we’d buy something newer that was move-in ready.  But I wanted Jazzi and her cousin to restore old houses to make them beautiful again.  It hurts me to see a lovely old house that’s neglected.

3. What do you like to read besides mysteries?

I don’t like to read the same author or even the same kinds of books back to back.  Eventually, I need a change of pace.  So I might read two cozies and then read an urban fantasy. I wrote urban fantasies for a while as Judith Post and discovered Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs, among others. Then I might pick up a Regency romance—like you write as Julia Donner—and then a romantic suspense or something bracing like Mark Lawrence’s Jorg series.  I like to mix up the genres I read now and then.

4. Why are family and cooking so important in your books?

My family is small, but close.  And I love to cook and entertain.  I get bored cooking the same things over and over, so I subscribe to different cooking magazines and buy way too many cookbooks.  My sisters don’t like to cook, so it’s fun to invite them and my cousin over for supper.  They don’t like it if I get too fancy.  They like roasts and Italian sausage sandwiches.  When it gets chilly outside, two of their favorites are chili or beef and noodles.  My friends have more sophisticated palates, and I can experiment more.  I can make bouillabaisse or chowders, Thai noodle salads, and Chicken Seville.   It’s fun, and it keeps me out of trouble.

5. Is there a romantic interest in your books?

Be still my heart. Ansel Herstad is a contractor who works with Jazzi and her cousin, Jerod.  Jazzi calls him a Norseman.  He grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Wisconsin.  He’s six-five with blond hair and blue eyes and lots and lots of muscles. But he doesn’t realize what a hunk he is.  I wanted to people Jazzi’s world with lots of GOOD men.  My husband worked at a tiny hamburger drive-in all through high school, and to this day, he’s still friends with the guys he worked with.  When one of those men marries a woman, she becomes part of their group.  And after knowing them for years, these guys are the best.  My daughter’s single, and she swears it’s no walk in the park to meet a good guy these days, but they’re out there (probably already taken).  And I wanted them to part of Jazzi’s world.

 

Judi Lynn’s blog:  https://writingmusings.com/

Webpage:  https://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/?eid=ARBEkp5jfrUGMBkV9_9i-tpSF_CQs0fg9igDATo5gwcN17HXalHG084-lLxN-mKrXptUaUHZz2EZ_w7X

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5023544.Judith_Post

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judith-post

 

Thank you Judi Lynn/Judith Post for the interview! And here’s a link to some of her urban fantasy and myth genres:

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Battles-Fallen-Angels-Book-ebook/dp/B00C3L8BNM/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542027708&sr=1-4&keywords=Judith+Post

 

PLACES TO GO

Tags

battle, creatures, dragons, fantasy, hero, monsters, mythical, war, writing

Long ago in a land far away (Wisconsin), I sat in the dark inside my car, early for a night shift on the oncology unit. Looking out the front window, a vision blotted out the screen—a white temple, a robed woman standing in front of it. The image hounded me at work and in the days to come, until I had to write the story crammed inside my head. It roared to life in an unending stream that meant cutting over a hundred thousand words when it was done. That was the beginning of the fantasy trilogy, Seasons of Time.

Prior to this mental invasion, I’d been writing a western romance. That story needed lots of research about Native Americans. Regency requires even more, but with fantasy, the mind flies to faraway realms, unknown and new, strange and freaky wonderful.

Writing “in the zone” is an amazing experience, a bit like deep meditation, but without the placid floating off into peaceful relaxation. Writing it makes me think of what it must be like to smoke weed or peyote, neither of which I can do because of weird reactions to drugs and a wussy fear of getting caught. In the fantasy zone, protags are fearless. They can fly with the dragon-like fflorin, ride chargers that are part horse and reptile, escape from terrhogs—think blind, gigantic worms. Where did I get all this stuff spewing out of my brain? I have no idea. I’ve been asked and can only reply that they are just there, living inside my head, and causing havoc until I write it down, give it voice.

Fantasy also offers the freedom of the omnipotent power of world creation. What if you could make up your own world and go live there, sort of what Sheldon Cooper does on Sheldor? I’m not an antihero fan, so I can kill off the baddies, hurt them any way I want. Talk about your “heady” stuff. One may ask if that isn’t what every writer does in the writing process. Not exactly. Genre writing requires specific parameters. Fantasy has few, other than what its readership expects, and even then it’s pretty loosely defined.

It’s important to take seriously reader requests, so I’ve tacked on more to the Seasons of Time triology and by starting Seasons of War trilogy based in the same world. Oh, the places where my mind has gone. I’d forgotten what it was like to charge into battle and soar with the fflorin.

The first book of the Seasons of Time trilogy is free now and for the next 3 days. Get it here:

https://www.amazon.com/PROPHECY-DENIED-Seasons-Time-Book-ebook/dp/B004S7EQ92/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535118166&sr=1-4&keywords=m.l.rigdon

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

More Than Friends

Tags

blogging, books, critique, editing, essays, fantasy, friendship, horror, inspiration, mystery, opinion, publishing, regency, romance, thriller, writing, YA

Just finished another exquisite blog post by Rachel R. Roberts, author, playwright, educator, and essayist. Poignacy and nostalgia embue every sentence. There is an elegance to her writing stemming from her personality, as lilting and gentle as her voice. I hear her as I read, the syrup-smooth glide of her southern cadence. The prose is so lyric and grammar always perfect. I can see her blushing as she reads this, her head slightly turned away with modesty that is natural and unaffected. I’ve always admired that in certain women, specifically those who are sincere with that response. I have none of that and often feel like a clod when in the company of Rachel, the epitome of  the gracious, southern lady. Her writing has the same even grace, while layered with so much left unwritten and yet clearly stated. I feel so lucky to hear her comments when she can attend our writing group. She never fails to find a bit of encouragement, is perceptive and kind when it comes to critiquing. Which brings me to the writing group itself, Summit City Scribes, or as we call ourselves, just plain ole Scribes.

The group ranges from ten to twenty members, fluctuating with each bi-monthly meeting. The rules are simple—fifteen minutes to read, the reader is not allowed to comment until after all the members make their remarks, which goes around the table one by one, starting with something complimentary then the opinion, suggestions, or critique.

Members are an eclectic bunch covering a wide variety of genres in fiction and non. It’s heartening for this reader to hear that the work just read held the attention of those having no interest in the genre but that it did hold their interest. If it’s a romance, that’s a big deal to hear from men who write about hiking, or a jounalist, a former cop, or the guy writing a gritty murder mystery. I remember the terror the first time I read to the group almost twenty years ago. Nowadays, I can’t wait to hear what they have to say and often use everything they suggest.

There are so many wonderful writers in this group, and since joining, I’ve found more than encouragement and instruction. The women are clever, bold and goal-oriented. The men are clear-sighted and true gentlemen, which is a lot to be said in this day and age. When my husband passed, Scribes were there, surrounding me like a bastion, determined to hold me up and see me through. They did and have through so many disappointments and set backs, writing and personal. I also scored with another of my favorite writers, my critique partner, Judy Post aka Judi Lynn. She is the fearless leader for Scribes and takes the role seriously, encouraging and touting us like a fierce mother hen. Uh, no. More like a valkyrie. Even though I dread the work involved in rewrites, I get a shiver of excitement when getting back pages from Judy drenched in red ink. She loves to write mystery, so she finds all the plot defects.

I’m including blog sites to illustrate how we differ as writers. I’ve always loved differences, how much there is to glean from another POV. I’ve learned so much from Scribes, wouldn’t have any of the craft or successes without them. Check out their blogs, you’ll see what I mean about how we differ, and because of that, learn, and more importantly, apply.

Rachel S. Roberts

https://www.rachelsroberts.com/blog/naked-ladies

Judith Post/Judi Lynn

https://writingmusings.com/2018/08/04/just-keep-writing/#comments

Kathy Palm

https://findingfaeries.wordpress.com

I’ve added a former Scribes member, Les Edgerton. (Won’t list his credentials  because it goes on for miles.) He has a terrific blog and an amazing new book out.

http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2018/08/preordering-available-for-adrenaline.html?spref=tw

So much to learn, so little time.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

 

PUT OUT THE DAMN LIGHT

Tags

Byron, corsets, England, etiquette, genre, history, manners, mystery, pet peeves, regency, Victorian, writing

Judi Lynn/Judith Post recently wrote a blog about ten steps to make your mystery better and started off with “kill somebody.” I can’t think of any opener to top that, so will just start off with the things I look for and try to incorporate in historical fiction to make it believable and immediate. Because that’s the point, isn’t it? To immerse the reader in a world that has been before.

Character/s

How often do we see the same man or woman over and over in a story and nothing changes but their eye and hair color? In reality, people don’t look the same, even when they look sort of the same. People are unique. So should characters be. It’s best if they possess the kind of personality you’re drawn to, but perhaps you prefer the challenge of finding a way to make a somewhat off-putting man or woman sympathetic to the reader. But an initial connection must be made from the get-go and that’s kind of difficult if they have the charisma of yesterday’s pancake.

The Four Es of Character Building

Entice, entrigue, engage, and excite. This doesn’t mean making them attractive. It means making them accessible. They should have traits and personalities similar to the human conditions that haven’t changed over the ages. We all have baggage. Give them reasons for reacting the way they do when “showing” their responses, instead of just “telling” or explaining them on the page. Lets’ just get over it. We’re products of our environments until we do something about it. Give your protags some emotional warts so you can show how they’ve grown (removed) them by the end of the book.

Mary Balogh’s more recent regency works are peopled by the challenged. Her characters have been blind, lame, deaf, suffering from disabling war wounds, including PTSD. The ubiquitous fiesty heroines and sardonic men have become tedious, which is why Balogh is considered the comemporary queen of historical regency. Her people have the problems, joys, and triumphs we understand and seek, or find lacking in our own lives. They have some amazing emotional warts to overcome.

The Three Cs

Complication, conflict, conclusion. You better have all of these nailed. Throw in some juicy subplots while you’re at it to pick up the pacing and tension. If dried up of ideas on how to inflict misery on your beloved protags, there’s always a nasty or annoying family member. We’ve all got one.

Situations

An opening incident that involves one or both of your main characters must suck us into the storyline, establish the time period, or atmosphere, and most importantly, get the reader invested in the primary charatcers.

More and more we’re seeing historical stories striving to tweak genre themes to fit into a niche market or category. In doing so, the story can become secondary to the magic of creating a period piece or just a dang good story. The deliciousness of sinking into the past can get lost from its primary goal by forcing conformity to a parameter. It’s vitally important to keep the time period immediate, to bring the reader into that world, become saturated by the surroundings. In other words, don’t lose sight of the magic of the site, the joy of being there.

Know your history

 OK, so I have a pet peeve about blatant incongruity, like women in corsets doing impossbile physical feats while wearing what should be more accurately called a torso vice made of whalebone or metal slats. It’s impossible to lounge, leap over small buildings, or mount a horse via stirrup without creating a puncture wound. Regency versions (stays) were not quite as viscious as the later, Victorian versions.

Incorporating the etiquette of the time period makes it real, the necessary realities. Calling cards were vital social accourtrement and came with a precise set of rules. A card corner turned down meant the card was delivered personally. It was the most convenient way for both parties to find out whether or not your company was welcomed, or more kindly told to get lost, when there is no reply to the card.

Men went up stairs before women for many reasons but most often to spare them the display of their ankles. Then there’s my always favorite, wait for it…clear vision in rooms where no candle or lamp is ever lit or extinguished.

Even though strict rules were ingrained, behaviors/actions considered not done often were during the regency where gossip had lethal results. A great deal was written about people like Lady Caroline Lamb (flagrant adultery), Brummell (viciously insulted his prince), Lord Byron (too raunchy to list), and Jane Austen (dared to write and evetually use her real name) to list a few. When the Victorian Age descended, the not done stuff still happened, it just got shoved underground.

So many rules, so little time.

If you would like to read Judi Lynn’s excellent advice, here is the link to her blog:

https://writingmusings.com/2018/05/22/10-steps-for-writing-a-mystery/

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

A Cover & Austen Reveal

Tags

AUSTEN, Cover Reveal, regency, Scotland, writing

The brain is a curious hoarder. So many facts and impressions are tucked away in its curly crevices. It was my critique partner (Judy Post/Judi Lynn) who pointed out a recurring theme in my Regency Friendship Series—how women of all classes in the past had limited choices. That didn’t stop the brightest or most stubborn from finding ways around pesky barriers. Austen was one of them.

Historical writing requires constant fact-checking, not only for integrity’s sake, but more importantly for me, keeping it real for the reader. Readers of the regency genre are avid students of the time period. It’s not unusual for them to be acquainted with activities in Parliament for any given Season. An error can catapult a reader from the story. This means that it’s like hitting pay-dirt for this anglophile when a fine work on the time period comes along. I just found Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Homeand feel like I’m living high on the hog (or more in line with the time period, in transports) as I read every delicious line.

Happily for me, there’s lots left of the book to relish, and what delights me most is the author’s learned opinion of what drove Austen. Jane, her sister and her mother lived separately from the brothers. This always confused me. Two brothers were wealthy through inheritances. One brother was stingy and another provided assistance, but it was Jane’s insistence on independence and her reasons for it that are illuminated in this book. As I read this intimate accounting of Austen’s life, so much about her emerges.

As writers, we need time alone to do the work. Concurrently, we must have support from either spouses, family or friends, especially friends who write. Jane came from a “middling” household where there wasn’t a great deal of money, and both her parents worked tirelessly to better the finances. Although she came from gentility and there were servants, the females were expected to pick up the slack around the house. The boys would be expected to spend their time with studies. It must have been a constant struggle for Jane to find time to write. There is also the hint of resentment, a vague sort of disappointment that makes one wonder if her brothers might have acted on this due to their lackluster writing attempts and Jane’s subtle brilliance.

The more I read Worsley’s book, the more my ideas about Austen become clearer, mainly because I’ve encountered her barriers. My first husband threw every kind of stumbling block in my way, but my late husband, John, was the opposite. When I sat down in front of the computer, no one was permitted to interrupt. Phone calls, anybody at the door, were put off. No disturbances allowed, a constant wall of protection and support with the exception of quietly setting a cup of coffee on the desk. He read everything and acted amazed and excited. He never boasted about me in public, knowing that would make me uncomfortable, but constantly talked me up to his/our children. Jane knew she would never have this from a spouse and she had marriage offers to decline. Most of her male contemporaries would not have allowed her to write and certainly not seek publication.

Regarding this cover reveal, A Laird’s Promise is about Caroline, who has all options, choices and dreams removed or placed out of reach. All she has is her pride and the determination to protect her fragile-hearted mother. And Alisdair, who must make a choice for the sake of the many, and does so knowing that it will break both their hearts.

The presale starts today, April 20, with the release date of May 01.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

INFLUENCE

Tags

antiques, civil war, costumes, Galena, history, inspiration, pioneer, research, travel, writing

There are those who long for a fairy godmother. As I’ve mentioned before, I had a fey aunt, Marie Louise Duerrstein, and tagged after her in fascination with how her mind and imagination worked. It wasn’t until a few months before she could no longer speak clearly from a stroke that I realized that whenever she told me her ideas, I saw them exactly as she created them in her mind.

As a girl, it never occurred to me not to do what Aunt Marie said. There were some chores I didn’t like doing, but then there were the times when she told me to audition for a play. The thought of saying no or that I couldn’t do it never entered my head. I was her living mannequin for newspapers, magazines, and in first grade, a documentary I’d forgotten about until my sister, Sarah, saw it in a history class.

Aunt Marie put together parades and pageants, reenactments and Santa Claus Houses. She’d hand me a paint brush and tell me to paint a horse because she wasn’t good at that. She once told me to make an elephant after she erected its frame, which got stuffed with newspaper, covered in burlap, and painted gray. Later, she told me to make a much larger one for a Republican Party event.

She amassed her own museum, The Old General Store, what she called: A Step into the past. And it was, and so convincing Jan Troell used it in his film, The Emigrants. Until becoming a curator, she made a living as a seamstress and selling bits of this and that of her artwork. She got artifacts for the museum with her wily sense of acquiring what she needed for nothing or next to nothing. Her motto was: Never pay for advertising. She didn’t, and yet her museum was known all over the world and in major magazines from National Geographic to Good Housekeeping.

Galena, Illinois was one of the first boomtowns of the West. In the 1820’s, Illinois was considered the edge of the world. By the 1840s, Galena’s Main Street was lined with four and five story brick and stone buildings (still intact) that survived spring floods from the Mississippi backing up the Galena River, filling the first floors with muddy water. Businesses moved merchandise to the top floors. And forgot about a lot of it. Aunt Marie didn’t. She knew the town’s history and went to store owners in the early 1950s. She said she’d clean out their attics if she could keep what she found. The items ended up in her museum, like-new boxes never opened, some from prior to the civil war.

When she opened her museum in 1957, she dressed me in a costume she’d sewn and in high- button shoes seventy years old. I worked in the museum, as did most of my family, after learning local history from Aunt Marie, who learned it directly from old timers. One was a woman in her nineties, who remembered sitting perched on her father’s shoulder to listen to Lincoln speaking from a Desoto Hotel balcony.

To this day, the 1800’s seem more comfortable to me than the present. Nine of my formative years had been spent surrounded by the past. That’s how it became easy to write in the time period. I know how to trim lamp wicks, fill them with kerosene, and clean the chimneys. I still use a coffee mill from that time. My home has antiques from her collection and the maternal side of my family. I know I will never taste anything as exquisite as the crispy lightness of a waffle made on the range with a waffle maker of cast iron. And that’s how I could write a story about a woman moving from Chicago in 1891 to a cabin in Colorado. So maybe there is something to the adage about writing about what you know.

Avenue to Heaven was released 11/01/17. It’s the first book in the Westward Bound series, stories about women who make new lives for themselves on the other side of the Mississippi, women of courage and determination. The ones who actually accomplished this are our past and our heritage.

https://www.amazon.com/Avenue-Heaven-Westward-Bound-Book-ebook/dp/B076HVGS98/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1509530295&sr=1-1&dpID=41zH8uAUeKL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

 

Below is one of the ”living mannequin” moments. I was twelve at the time and can’t remember what it was for, magazine or newspaper. The background is the museum and mannequins she made to “dress” the store.

 

And Aunt Marie as a stand-in for the movie Gaily, Gaily

 

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://partners.bookbub.com/authors/1163516/edit

 

WHO LET THE DRAGONS OUT

Tags

Atlanitis, dragons, fantasy, romane, writing, YA

 

So, I’m toiling away on the last bits of Canticle of Destruction, the third installment of the Songs of Atlanitis YA fantasy series. I put dragons in my first fantasy series (called them fflorin) and figured, what the heck, might as well put dragons in this series. I like ‘em. So do others. In they go. But of course, they have to be part of a historical twist within the story arc and coincide with the previous books. Check. Check.

Anyway, the last six months have thrown my goals off track due to involvement with a friend’s estate and collaborating with her writing. Won’t do that again. Doing so proved painfully illustrative and validated a set of rules my critique partner, Judy Post, aka Judi Lynn, and I have learned to our cost. Rule Two—which comes after the sacred Rule One of writing one’s tushie off every day—is never, EVER let up on promoting your own work. I did for the last months, spending more time elsewhere, but always managing to get some writing done. Still, I dismally failed at Rule Two: promote and advertise your work until you die. Or lie bleeding out on the floor.

The year started off great with a fabulous bounce from an ad on BookBub for the regency series written as Julia Donner. Yes, I do the no-no of writing under more than one name. Here comes the whine: I gotta do more than one genre!

Fortunately, and blessedly, as writers in this day and present industry construct, we no longer have to line up under the sign that says writers MUST follow a formulaic code of composition. Of course, that outdated rule must be observed if one is signed with a traditional publisher. (Shoulder shrug here.) That’s a given, but writers now have a wide range of choices. Whether we go with the traditional publishing path or not, we all have to promote ourselves. The days of book junketing is pretty much dead and gone, unless your agent has signed you for a million buck deal with a clause that clearly states the publisher will provide this. Ergo, Rule Two (hence known as the Eleventh Commandment) is not to be forgotten, never ignored. I did to my cost, my sales sagged, and now I’ve got to get back on board the advertising express.

At the end of the month, I hope to have that new YA fantasy up and live on Amazon and two (yes, count them, two) campaigns running. This means (insert dramatic groan) I have to scour pages and pages of advertising ideas. As writer and playwright friend, Rachel Roberts has expressed, it’s not easy to toot one’s own horn. Can’t agree more. I’ve endured  the disappointment of three declines from BookBub in the last months. Have to wait for a while to resubmit, but in the interim, look out Twitter, here I come.

Wrapping up, publicizing one’s work is wicked heart-wrenching—a hair-pulling, out- loud wailing, and lying-on-the-floor-heel-kicking endeavor. But it’s the only way to sell the books we’ve sweated blood and rained tears on the keyboard to bring to life. So bring on the dragons and burn up the procrastination tactics. Your work and what you have to say is worth it.

While we’re on the subject of horn-tooting, Judi Lynn’s latest installment of the delicious Mill Pond Romance series, Love on Tap, is now available for presale. Please take a looksee on Amazon, Face Book or her webpage:

Judi Lynn

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/