Find your place

 Perhaps I have told the story before of what my desert home offers to me. What it has given me went beyond my expectations-- and my expectations were high.

For fifty years, the Arizona Sonoran Desert has been one of the homes of my heart. Much as I love Oregon, and oh, I do, I had long dreamed of owning a home on the desert; then one year the dream came true. After living in the house only a few days it told my husband and me its name—Casa Espiritu. It is a home to inspire creativity and spiritual connection to self and the other. As with dreams, it is not somewhere I have always been able to live, but always it has been waiting when the time is right. 

In my little spirit home, I have seen dreams come true, written books, created art, loved, wept, experienced being. From it, I have watched javelina, coyotes, bunnies, birds, bobcats, and most especially the families of quail. I have seen the lightning flash and felt the house rocked by thunder. I have watched the moon rise over Pusch Ridge and seen the sun go down behind the Tucson Mountains. 

From it, I have gone out to find interesting trails, desert pools, creeks, petroglyphs. I've watched the desert bloom, seen it snow. The house and how we found it might be magic, even though it’s a very plain house, except it doesn’t feel plain when I fall asleep to the noisy calls of owls from the ironwood trees right outside the bedroom window. 

Its proximity to the natural desert, its denizens, and the historical remnants of many cultures has inspired the writing of eight Arizona historicals (the third of which will be out this next week), one contemporary romance and five contemporary fantasy romances. The books are all love stories to the American Southwest as much as of the couples who populate the books' pages. I’ve set many of my stories in Tucson, in the ranch lands near the border, or up in Central Arizona.

As I write my books, I fall a little in love with every hero. If I don’t, the story is going nowhere. I already told you how much I love this land, wish more could see in the desert what I do. For those of you who want to write a novel and have yet to find your muse, I suggest you start with a place to set your story and characters, a place that means much to you. I have a quote I have long loved and wrote in the front of my journal. 

"Where we choose to be-- we have the power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being." Sena Jeter Naslund

Here is another, which my daughter claimed for herself but I do also.

"I hope I have found myself, my work, my happiness - under the light of western stars."     Zane Grey

To me, place matters very much, in my work and my life. So long as mine is under western stars, I can be happy. Yours might be the coast or a city but wherever it is, it's where a story will most easily come to you and you will find you have something to say-- always easier when you start with the land.

I have told the story before of why all eight of these historicals are not currently out. To find the first two, look alongside here for the places they can be bought and their titles. The third will be there when it's out. 

For more of my books and where they can be found, go to Rain Trueax with snippets about them and links. 

 

opinions

 

Debating how to start this topic, I came up with-- begin with a question and take it from there.

With political life so controversial today, do you think ending a friendship or family relationship over major differences is a good idea?

Some might wonder why I rarely discuss difficult political issues in this blog, though I once upon a time did more of that. Some of that is because i look back on what i once thought and wonder what was I thinking! I believe my values have stayed the same for many many years, but how I think we can get there is what has changed. I don't delete those prior posts, but sometimes I am tempted. I stop because back then I often got good comments and wouldn't want to lose them. They were particularly valued today when I see how few comment, I didn't care if people agreed or not. It was the conversation I valued.

I have had 'friends' delete or unfriend me over what they perceived as my opinions. I don't myself do that unless someone is threatening with what they say. Otherwise, being I am a Libra, I tend to think maybe they have a point even if I disagree. That might be the wisdom of ages... maybe...

Skies such as you see in these photos, reflect how stormy times can lead to benefits with these beautiful clouds. I think knowing we don't all see things the same way can have the same benefits-- at least when we can agree to disagree.

There are things happening today that nobody would see both sides of. Can we then walk off from the topic and try to change the subject? 

There are times I am very tempted to write here regarding what I see as going on in the world, but I pretty well know there'd be those who read here and don't see it the same. Where I see the benefit of expressing an opinion, what is the benefit of arguing if it leads to anger or cuts us off from others? Do we have to convince others or can we just recognize we are not the same with our experiences.

Cloud photos from this place. Today, the sky is blue and clear with warmer weather on the way-- or so weather people say.

Storms come and go

 

 

Some assume that a desert means always sunshine. Well, it does a lot; but there are some surprises, which can be frustrating to those planning a golfing and swimming vacation. Oh, you can still do both, if you are a hearty soul. There are many sunny days... just hope they happen when you have scheduled your visit.

 

This winter has been cooler and wetter than many I've experienced down here. Some days had highs in the 50s (or lower) with nights hovering just above or at freezing. The desert has also enjoyed the benefits of rainy days with us measuring from 3/4" down to maybe less than a tenth. It used to be that most rain was expected during the monsoons, but they have had less rain some years than falls during the winter. More frosty nights are due later this week.

There have been some thunderstorms that livened up the night with the banging and flash of the lightning, this time between the clouds, not landing on earth.

There is a lot to do in Tucson even with storms from nice restaurants to museums. Or plan your walks or bike rides between storms. Today is quite sunny but yesterday we got rain most of the day. It is chilly either way with warmer weather due maybe in a week, but even that not remotely hot. Still, when you consider weather in other parts of the country, this can still be an improvement. It does lead to some great sunsets with those clouds.

And for those inclined to snow sports, like skiing, the mountains above Tucson have snow at the heights, and I think the ski lifts are working up there-- at least when the road isn't closed due to ice. It's pretty when driving way below to see the white on the hills.

For desert rats, like us, this winter has been welcome, but for tourists maybe not so much *s* All photos taken from our home here.

What dreams can mean

Dreams are a big part of my life-- the night time sort, not daytime. Some have meaning to them but so far no prophetic dreams, which is fine with me. Some are prosaic or seem that way like recently going to a movie theater, which seemed meaningless until the end of it. I'd left the film part way to go to the bathroom. I came back to see the end except it went into scenes of people watching films, with nothing to do with the story I'd left. Those scenes kept going on and on until I realized the story would never return and the meaning was how we wait around for an ending that may never come, and it does relate to life.

Some of my dreams work into parts of books. One became a book that led to two more books. It began because in the fall of 2013, I lost a cat I loved very much. I'd have paid a lot of money to save her life. She was too young to die, but something was catastrophically wrong inside. All I could do was let her go, which happened when the veterinarian came out to the house and gave her a merciful end. I cried so much. I still cry when I think about it, which is why I don't include her picture here.

 That night I asked for a dream to know if reincarnation was true. I had thought this cat had come to me twice. Both other times, she'd lived out her whole lifetime. This time I wanted to know if reincarnation was true. If it was, I hoped I'd get her back again. The dream was not about cats but it was powerful.

A man and woman were on a train. They had been lovers in previous lifetimes. This time they were both destined to die early from accidents.

There were two spirit guides looking at what was happening. As the lovers kissed, a gold ring was clearly seen over the kiss. The guides saw it and

observed how rare that kind of love was. 'They will just ruin things again if we don't let them fix it this time,' they said. At the same time, there was another couple, where the woman was plotting to kill the man to get his money. What can fates do to fix these two unfairnesses? The dream had the answer with a transfer of souls.

Now, it's been a lot of years since the dream, but some elements are still strong in my memory especially that ring over their kiss. I still see it if I think about it and have never heard of such a thing anywhere except in my fiction novella.

When I woke that morning, I realized I had to write this story. There were elements I could not use-- like the train. There were other elements that I added to it to fill out the book of these lovers who had met in high school but never did anything about their feelings until years later when tragedy cuts their time short. I added scenes that fit the characters like a time in the spirit at Bear Mountain. That's what writing is about-- an initial idea and then what!

I wrote the novella, When Fates Conspire, and put it out in January 2014 when I began to think this had potential for something more. 

No dream this time, but the woman who lost her son is having a hard time, in The Dark of the Moon, holding onto the family ranch with her main help gone. A man, who sees the

other side and is trained as a sorcerer, comes to the ranch after hearing of her plight. He offers to help, and it's not hard to see where this is going since it's a romance. 

The mystical side though went beyond the sorcerer as the son who had been killed, who had found joy with his soul mate in their new bodies, begins to feel a draw to a ranch where he's never been and that he can't explain. The soul connection is there when mother and lost son meet. Oh, there is the little matter of villains and a killer bear.

Were two enough? Not close, It takes three. Storm in the Canyon has a shape-shifting druid hero. Langston Agency is called by the restored son to figure out what is happening in a canyon with strange powers growing by the day. This is a canyon known for its tragic endings. The spirit world is also concerned and sends a spirit guide into human form to help. She can't stay forever but is romance in the air? Of course, but so is a logical explanation for why monsters of old might be gaining power in a

Montana ranch canyon.

Three novellas from one dream, but it wasn't the end. I wanted to combine them into one novel-- Diablo Canyon. I also wanted to add in the spice that novellas don't have enough room to have. 

Having three into one has a confusing aspect. If someone doesn't read the whole blurb and buys the novella and then the novel, they might feel they were cheated. The novellas do have one feature, or rather more of it than the novel-- Dante's quotes fit each chapter. What a poet he was.

Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.    Dante Alighieri

novellas available at Amazon:  

When Fates Conspire: https://www.amazon.com/Fates-Conspire-Diablo-Canyon-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00I53K8CE

 The Dark of the Moon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K105OVY

Storm in the Canyon: https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Canyon-Diablo-Book-ebook/dp/B00L0LQEG2 

Full length novel with those three and spice put together: https://www.amazon.com/Diablo-Canyon-Trilogy-Rain-Trueax-ebook/dp/B00M9NXVDO