Changing Covers but never titles...anymore lol

 

 Creating titles and covers is one of the complications of bringing out books.

For quite a while, I've had what seemed a rather sweet cover for a book that had become more complex than that. Still, I had liked that cover.

To create the wagon trains, I had gotten permission from Ben Kern to use photos from his modern leading of wagons along the route the pioneers took. I was happy that the couple looked as I had imagined them with images I purchased... except it did look sweet. In the beginning I suppose it was, but as I grew older, I saw things in the story that I hadn't as a youth. Incidentally, Ranch Boss does the titles. 

The book in question is the longest one in my life. As a child, I wrote stories in my imagination when I created paper dolls and they were not like Raggedy Ann. I wanted them to be adults and nude with clothing to suit pioneer eras. When I first found the story of Matt and Amy, it was when I'd go for walks with my younger cousin and we'd take turns with parts of their story as we'd walk. Then she didn't want to carry on the plot, but wanted me to tell their story.

I was so young and, of course, immature, but I carried it on further later, writing their story on an old typewriter. My original title for it was Taopi Tawote. In Lakota,it means wound medicine, which seemed apropos for what the hero had to go through to be the man he wanted and needed to be. The problem was people would expect it to be a Native American book, which it is not. 

The word comes into the book from a secondary (but very important) character, St. Louis Jones. He is the older, wagon master, for one of the last of the really large wagon trains. He had much wisdom based on having lived with the Lakotas, there having a wife and child, both of whom he had lost. 

He becomes a powerful mentor to the hero, Matthew Kane, who needs that support given his family and the abuse, with which he's grown up from a father and older brother. Through it all, he found solace with his love for a neighbor girl in Missouri. When her family was heading to Oregon, Matt decided to put what he had earned into also making the journey. He did not want his own family to come, but couldn't turn them down when they asked. His brother, Morey, didn't want the trip so much as to not lose his opportunities to hurt Matt. Morey is a psychopath, who hides his evil well to gain what he sees as power.

 One thing about this book is it's not sweet. The journey west was tough, full of danger and death. Not so much Native American attacks as illnesses and accidents. 

The farm that we own in Oregon has such a sad story. The man had settled there and told his older brother, sister-in-law and their daughters to join him on his homestead They left Missouri. On the way, the brother was killed in an accident with their wagon. She came on with their daughters, married the brother and they had more children. Sadness and happiness. As it was in the West.

So, Round the Bend tells the story of the journey, the growing, love story of two young people, friends to lovers. In the beginning Amy does not believe she could feel feel passion for Matt. He's her best friend and he's ruining that by trying to change things.

Through their experiences, they find healing physically and emotionally, but underlying that is the story of two families, one with love and generosity, while the other filled with hate and selfishness. Adventure, along with the danger that it rides with it. We've driven part of the trail, and it's hard to imagine what it would have been like with canvas for the only roof, when the weather can turn so violent.

 Link to read free sample, blurb, and buy the book if you wish.

Round the Bend

 

What is a Dark Angel?

 

The blog  title asks a question. What is a dark angel? Well, in this book, it's not a supernatural being, but rather what the heroine has come to call the hero. Dark for what he seems like he might be, dangerous, a life on the edge, but angel for what he looks like and what she believes is under the cover of the dark side.

The story begins in Reno, when a young, wealthy, widow, Katy Brown, has come to help her uncle, while her small daughters are at a summer camp. She can organize his business's books, which appear in disarray. She also wants to clean up the office, as clutter bothers her. When her dark angel comes in, Dill Delaney is not pleased at all to see her there, which adds to her suspicions about Uncle John's business partner or is he?

While Katy has no interest in the Reno night life, it's where Dill lives, in a tiny apartment with his adopted feral cat, McGee. What makes Dill's life
even more dicey is he's been forced into working undercover for the federal government to nail a crime boss. Dill hates every part of what he has to do to accomplish this, but he's trapped in it as a way to protect John O'Brian, who he has come to love. 

Worried about Katy getting caught in what is about to go down, Dill does all he can to get her and Johnny out of Reno. He didn't need the warning of his errant father, Finn Delaney. He knows danger is ahead with no real help from the government.

Thus, begins the book when Dill and Katy come together with a strong attraction, which both know they should ignore. I don't want to tell more about what's coming, which could ruin the suspense, but due to the violence, Dill's near death experience, Katy gets her father's private jet to take them to Portland (along with McGee and Dill's motorcycle), where waits a specialist, her home where Leah and Jesse will soon return.

When Dill finally realizes what's happened to him, it's more than just ending up in Portland. There is a lot involving family (a totally

disapproving mother-in-law), friends, unknown enemies, and some black swans. 

If people love each other, they can overcome so much that will end up making them even closer. I could say would they overcome it, but this is, after all, a romance. It's how it all comes together where the fun of writing and reading Her Dark Angel will be found.

Dill has to fit into a wealthy family, where he has known nothing like it. There is that and a hidden enemy.  Fitting in with the wealthy set is challenging to him as much as the world he's been more used to with danger outside his door.

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Available exclusively at Amazon as this will be the first of my contemporary 7 books in KU, which means for readers having subscribed. You can though read the blurb, free sample, or buy the book also at that link:

Her Dark Angel

Finding your pearl of great value

  

Some might think that the title of this romance came from the Bible. Well, it could be thought that way, but there is way more to the meaning of pearls than from Scripture.

“As a pearl is formed and its layers grow, a rich iridescence begins to glow. The oyster has taken what was at first an irritation and intrusion and uses it to enrich its value. How can you coat or frame the changes in your life to harvest beauty, brilliance, and wisdom?” – Susan C. Young 

. “Life is made up of a few moments all strung together like pearls. Each moment is a pearl, and it is up to us to pick the ones with the highest luster.” – Joyce Hilfer

“Some give up under pressure, while others rise up and undergo life-transforming experiences. Oyster responds beautifully to external pressure, giving birth to a priceless pearl.” – Mukhtar Aziz 

“A pearl is worthless as long as it’s in its shell.” – Native American Proverb 

These quotes, along with many others, especially the one on the Gospels, speak to what a hidden pearl can mean as well as its value. It also is why it was right for a title in this book. People can seem whole and strong and yet have fought against opening up the hidden part inside themselves. Does that fit romances? I think it very much does as the closest relationships make us face ourselves in ways we won't when not faced with challenges.

 So how does that work with this book? By the way, that sculpture is one of mine. 

 When architect/builder S.T. Taggert returns from a morning run, he finds a call waiting from his Navajo mother. She is concerned that his sister, Shonna, is missing. She asks him to find out if she is okay. This represents a part of his mixed heritage, drunken, white father, and a mother who deserted them to return to her land. Reluctantly, he agrees to see what he can find out about his sister.

Going to his office, S.T. finds something else unwanted. A photojournalist, Christine Talbot, is waiting to do photos of hm, for a series of up and coming young men in Oregon. He doesn't like the idea but finally agrees only because she appeals to the respect he has for those who work.

Christine has another shoot for the series lined up in Roseburg of another man who is making a splash, evangelist, Peter Soul, who has a growing group called Servants of Grace. 

Hence the book begins with conflicts and connections. All will come together, along with S.T.'s search for his missing sister, who had been in the Servants of Grace, with her admiration for Peter Soul, who also wants S.T. to design a larger facility for his growing congregation.

Besides the mystery, the romance, the beauty of Oregon, there is more to explore in this story. One, of course, is what is spiritual truth, how does one find it, is it sometimes corrupted, and if so, how to be aware of that corruption, especially when it might be emotionally very pleasing?

Then there is the question of ancestral heritage. Even if we never lived like modern family members, do we still carry in our DNA their truths? How will that impact our lives if we are living in a very different culture? Is, as this hero believes, there  prejudice against those who carry dual heritages?

It's not like the book presents these questions as some kind of class instruction, but more that the questions are entwined in a heated romance between two very different people, but who find out they have more in common than they thought. Romances can be a lot more than just the basic love story at its heart. How and where do people work out the rest of their lives? More critically, in this book, if there is danger out there, how do they survive it?

To read the blurb, free sample, or buy the book:

Hidden Pearl 

 

 

  

Bannister's Way -- contemporary romance

 If you read Desert Inferno, you will know that its hero, Jake Donovan, was sure Rachel O'Brian would fall for the handsome federal agent, sent to help shut down an important, smuggling operation on the border. David Bannister is handsome, blond, smooth, and brave as he tries to protect Jake from an enemy determined to kill him. That effort leads to the federal agent nearly being killed.

Bannister now shows up as a hero in his own book, Bannister's Way, where his assignment, now working for a private detective agency, is to solve a murder in a prestigious liberal arts university, just outside of Portland, Oregon. The local police have found no evidence. An important political man wants this crime solved.

 The book opens when David confronts his ex-wife where he'll be the model for her life drawing class in that university. This has been set up for him by his partner, Richard Vance, as his way to get inside to find evidence of the killer. Karen, who now calls herself Raven, is infuriated as they did not part on good terms. David, wants her back, hence, he has two purposes in taking the assignment and solving the murder is not highest on the list. 

However, he has no idea that a life drawing class involves nudes. He and his partner have enjoyed playing pranks on each other. David does not find this one humorous, but the only way out of doing it would be to give up this long-shot chance to get back with his ex, as well as find the motive of the killer-- a way to solve the crime with no physical evidence left behind. 

As with many books in the contemporary series, Romance with an Edge, a few characters pop up from an earlier book. This book though has many elements in it, all part of how life can be complicated -- to say the least.

Because I had taken art as a minor in college, I was familiar with life drawing classes. I also, have had an interest in art history, for how forgeries complicate that world. Having been a sculptor myself, with a lot of fired clay figures in my life as evidence, writing about a heroine, who did that work, added to the fun (the image alongside here is my digital painting with one of my sculptures being worked on Raven's stand).

Writing about a long-estranged couple, but where the sparks were still there added to this creation, which is fiction as is the fine art college. That house on the river though, that was real as I stayed in one like it when I was a kid and swam in that river. 

I'd mention all the tropes, which they say can attract readers (like friendship between two bros), and there are many, most off the lists, but I think are relevant to how detective work happens, art is created, people are treated or should be, and finally the beauty of that part of Oregon.

Since one reviewer at Amazon didn't care for the title, I should mention here that it fit David, who was known as a headstrong, risk taker--- one of the things Raven had disliked about him was a belief, it all had to be his way. David has emotionally grown since those early years, but his stubborn determination to do what he sees as right is still part of him and again could cost him his life-- hence the title that could not be changed. :) 

Check out the link to the book where you can read a free sample as well as an extended blurb. 

Bannister's Way 

 

Desert Inferno -- contemporary romance

image we took in 2011 on one of our desert hikes. The rattler is not in the book, but it is a symbol of the danger that is.

 

Next in my series, Romances with an Edge, is a contemporary romance where I wrote the first draft in the 1990's for the sheer satisfaction of creating it. I didn't think whether it was salable as back then, I wrote a lot of my contemporaries because I had read others; then wondered what would I write if I did them.

Desert Inferno broke one cardinal rule I had seen in most romance novels of that time. The hero was not handsome, not in his eyes or in those of many he arrested. Jake Donovan was a border patrolman and worked the desert along the rugged land between Arizona and Mexico to arrest those committing crimes and turn back those with no right to enter the United States. 

Even then, it was not popular with many people, but he had come from a difficult upbringing and chose this as his way to contribute. As backstory, his brother was in prison when this story begins. He chose the other way, and Jake had helped put him there for his crimes.

Back to writing, when the option to be an indie writer arose, the books took some changes to fit the time (communicating had changed a lot in those years. I brought out the first in 2012, it was Desert Inferno, which opens with the heroine, Rachel O'Brian, a successful artist with a career painting Southwest landscapes, many of her works in prestigious galleries.

The reader meets her when she has gone out from her family's ranch on the border, to do a plein air painting-- alone on the desert with her paints and her faithful truck, who she has named Matilda, (I by the way, never have named a vehicle, but I knew some did).

Action begins when she sees movement, believes it might be a person in trouble. She grabs a canteen, her gun, and walks out to see if help is needed.  She does know the dangers of this land. Assistance might have been earlier, but now the man is dying and soon dead. The desert can be deadly for the unaware.

Back at her ranch, she notifies the police that she needs someone to come out. The one who gets the notice is already on the border and shows up to assess what happened. It is Jake Donovan. This is the beginning of a beauty and the beast type story, though she does not see her beast as he sees himself or even as others see him.

Click on the link to get the free sample of how this begins and the flavor or the book.

The problem with this book, once I wanted to bring it out, was a cover. There were simply no male models that fit what I saw Jake as. Easy to get the beauty of the story in an image, but not the kind of man without perfect features and yet who has charisma, power, and the kind of energy that was attractive to many others, especially women.

I finally solved the cover problem with this image that does not show his face, but does that body she admires so much. It hints at the violence with the lightning.

Desert Inferno at Amazon

 With their very different upbringings, figuring out what would work for a relationship, where only one wants it, takes some time. Meanwhile, Jake has an enemy out to destroy him-- an enemy not safe for Rachel either. The ranch she has been raised on with her single father was in earlier historic romances in Winds of Change.

There is a lot of the desert in the book because of my love of it, not ignoring the dangers it can present, especially in wilderness. I also called Border office in Nogales, Arizona, to make sure I was keeping that part accurate for its time 2000. Being a painter myself, Rachel's part was easy to write. 

With twists and turns in the story, it kept the book interesting for me to see all this couple went through to get a happily ever after (you know, with romances, that's part of the deal for readers-- unlike how life too often works out...). 

Because I enjoy writing more than a couple, other characters crop up, including family, but always the romance is central-- again part of the deal with this genre. 

Embracing the Dream - Arizona Historic Romance

 Although, I plan to continue with my contemporary romances in the Romances with an Edge series, I ,also, like to write about what I am doing that I think might help those wanting to be writers. Putting out a book is much more than writing it. There is also how it will be seen, which means titles, covers and blurbs. Amazon and most other sites do not allow a change of titles or even series names. There are other options and that's what happened last week that did not involve contemporary books.

Ranch Boss and I looked at the cover for Embracing the Dream, which has had other titles, but never will again due to a better title, after it had been pulled and brought back (losing all prior reviews as did all the Arizona historical romances, Winds of Change series). The cover image did fit the book, as in a woman with a dream of a man, but seemed flat. We created a new one, using no AI, but do have some useful tools to do it. (I might write a blog on how creating your own cover works). We then improved the blurb for those who go to the book in Amazon. 

 It's hard sometimes to come up with a way to alert readers to what they might like about a book, especially when it's a complex romance (which most of mine are). I do not write a story that just tells of one relationship, the lovers. It will be at the center, but I really like the secondary characters, some of whom, as happened with Embracing the Dream, were in earlier books, and become hero and heroine in another story. It also can happen that such character end up secondary in future books if they fit the stories.  

For helping readers find books with subjects they like, there are lists of tropes. They also help a writer look either at the story they have written or for some create a story that might be more popular with readers. Tropes are those issues that have proven popular in other books. I looked through the lists for this book and found two that did fit, first was Forbidden love. His family is Yaqui, a family she really liked and who liked her. But this was a difficult time for the Yaquis in Tucson as there had been a  war raging in Mexico between their tribe and those in Mexico who wanted their lands. The violent altercations made those in Tucson leery of the tribal members who had come there. 

As for another forbidden part of her hopes, he had been married when she first realized her feelings, then even when later his wife left him, with their son, for another man, her parents were not happy with her dream as she was younger, by a lot. Age gap trope. They wanted her to grow up more and encouraged her to go back East to university, which she did. In the meantime, to help his younger brother, who tried to join the Rough Riders for the Spanish American War, he joined and was accepted while his younger brother was not.

When they both return to Tucson, after very different experiences, the book begins. I won't say more about it here. If you want the rest, click on the link below for my website in the series Winds of Change and that title, Embracing the Dream. Actually, because we changed the cover after the website was created, it has that other cover. When you click to see more, you will see the current cover, and it'll take you to the book on Amazon for the blurb and a free sample to read the beginning.

Rain Trueax Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Chance, Contemporary Romance

In my book, Moon Dust, readers first came across Judd Shipman, who was part of a youth gang determined to undermine the school where he attended, not because the kids had anything against education, but were brainwashed by a man who claimed to be a youth leader. After observing what was going on, he and his friend, Barry Kuntz began to see how wrong this all was and tried to turn things around. 

 

Second Chance is eight or so years later, Judd has gotten a second chance thanks to support of friends, especially the principal in that school, Dane; now he wants to offer that to others through the animal wildlife rescue center he has been putting together the hard way, after he got the education that again friends gave him. His friend, Barry is still will him but is fighting cancer. Life isn't easy for Judd as he worries about his sister who has had a drug and alcohol problem. Using the money he makes working as a truck driver, he helps his sister along with the animals that come to his center.

For me, as a writer, Judd makes a terrific hero. He has a tragic back story with being nearly murdered by his father, who killed his mother, but he has turned it around. Yes, he had help, but he still had to do that. His father is still in prison but could get out soon. His sister wants Judd to try to block that, but Judd believes in second chances. His sister goes to a psychologist to try to get her to convince Judd to block the parole, wants her to talk to Judd.

Well, again as a writer, who would make a good heroine? How about a woman also in Moon Dust, psychologist, Barrett Schaffer, who was also Susan's best friend. Judd's sister knows a secret about him that would make him possibly listen to a woman who has been only an unrealistic dream since he was a teen.

When they meet again, sparks are there, but there is an age gap, Barrett is now a divorcee raising a daughter. Judd encourages her to visit his wildlife rescue, but it's hard for him to believe this dream might become real.

What happens next between these two, with Barrett's difficult divorce, Judd's destructive father and an enemy determined to destroy his life, well, it doesn't get in the way of these two finding growing feelings, but first, can they overcome the obstacles, real and imagined, how will Barrett's daughter feel about a new man, not to mention, the fight back against their enemies, with the help of their friends from Moon Dust, still backing both of them. 

So, forbidden love or is it; age gap does it really matter; second chance or is it too late, and danger around the corner in many different ways.

If the book interests you, check out more about it in my website. In the contemporary series Romance with an Edge:

https://raintrueaxbooks.com/ 

 

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wildlife rescue

 Once in a while for me, characters just seem naturals for a second book. That happened in Moon Dust with two, rather unlikely protagonists and yet... were they? They became the heart of Second Chance, likely or not. 

Before I get into their story, this is the only book where I wrote myself and Ranch Boss into a book. Below is the clip where they appear, based on an experience we had with a wildlife rehab center, Chintimini, that we knew about in Corvallis, Oregon-- not the one in this book, but pretty much how it happens in such places where we brought an injured animal for help.

 I created the image above from a photo of our farm creek and the kinds of animals that often get rescued by sites like Chintimini and the fictional one in my book. All the animal photos were ours, which I cut out to make the image. Now, onward to the clip.

When the car drove in the driveway, he went out to meet the couple and direct them to the back. He'd created a temporary examining room out of a floor-less shed. It wasn't as good as what he'd had before the fire; but with a strong light overhead, it would serve.

The couple were older, excited about the bird they were carrying and concerned as to its chances. "Bring it on back," Judd instructed and asked Barrett to bring him a bottle of cortisone from the recently donated refrigerator.

Putting on his gloves, Judd didn't bother with the jacket. The owl that peered at him from the carrier had dilated pupils and seemed completely unaware of its surroundings. Even at that, the gloves were a precaution.

"Be careful. Their beaks and talons are sharp," he warned as the man set the carrier on the table. Barrett stood in the doorway as Judd reached into the carrier and carefully pulled the bird out.

The man gave a nervous laugh. "I got a good look at those talons when I picked him up."

"We were just lucky we saw him," his wife said. "Such a little bird, but he was tough. Stood there right in the road and somehow didn't get hit again."

"It's a barn owl," Judd told them as he pulled the bird's wings out, examining each one for breaks. Everything looked to be intact, which meant concussion and shock were its most likely problems. “It’s a female.” He smiled. “That’s good. They’re tougher in most species. We'll give her this to reduce the swelling and shock." He loaded a syringe with cortisone.

"What do you think her odds are?" the man asked, helping Judd hold the bird.

"I'll know better tomorrow." He picked up the bird and put it in a small cage. "I'll keep her in the house for tonight. If she’s still alive in the morning, I have an arrangement with a veterinarian. We'll see what she thinks."

The couple smiled with relief, left their phone number, and asked to be kept informed as to the bird's condition. When they had gone, Judd picked up the caged bird and carried it back into the house. 

I planned to write about the book, but more on our experience with the injured owl seemed better. Next week for the book.

We had driven from the farm to a nearby town for groceries, when we saw the owl just standing alongside the road. That didn't seem natural but when we returned we looked to see it still there. Getting out of the car, Ranch Boss wrapped it in  heavy blanket.

As soon as we had gotten home, stowed it safely into one of our cat carriers, we called the animal rescue facility, Chintimini in a town about 25 miles from here, where we knew they worked with wild creatures. They said bring it right in to assess its chances. An hour later, they were giving it treatment for shock and had said they felt it would survive, but it had a concussion. Fortunately its wings were unhurt.

After a few weeks, they had called to tell us we could come get it and release it back to where we found it, which we did, being blessed to watch the beautiful bird, as it flew into the night toward harboring trees.

https://chintiminiwildlife.org/ has grown a lot since then with expanded programs, worth checking it out. 

Evening Star

 

My contemporary novels are not as linked together as have been my historical novels. When I wrote them, that was only off and on in my mind. Some characters know each other, but my priority was the issues that interested me as is the case with this one. When I made the decision to bring these books out as an independent writer, I looked at whether I could change any of that. I felt not without losing credibility for these characters.

One example of where I did know is the hero of Evening Star, Randy O'Brian, I knew his ancestors had come up from Arizona and were related to Cordell O'Brian, the marshal in my earlier historical series. 

I think for writers, it's good to have people the readers will enjoy following from hero/heroine to secondary characters. Readers like that. I like it, but you have to think ahead to make that work. Considering the first of these contemporaries were written in the 1990s, when the plots came to me, to have a couple of them related is fortunate.

In terms of timing for when these contemporaries took place, Moon Dust and Evening Star are closest though the people don't know each other. Well, in Portland, Oregon, it's a big city with a lot of people, who live there, who we will never know unless we come together via jobs.

Back to the story at hand and why it interested me. First issue that came up
for me, as a writer, was I generally have a point of view of the hero and heroine. I like to write that way, but I didn't do it this time. There are two points of view but none for the hero. I wanted others to see him through others eyes, given what he was doing. 

Would the reader wonder also what was up with him, who was he really, who knows? Other than novellas, I like writing what the hero is thinking (always have the heroine), but this book, a full length novel, I preferred to see it all through her eyes-- other than that one other point of view, who was not Randy's. I have thought of rewriting this book in first person, and tried out a chapter or two, but don't know that it would improve the story. It would be easy to do despite I have never written one that way.

Marla Jamison thinks she has her life as she wants it. She's experienced tragic losses and wants nothing like that to happen again. She has a successful career, a boyfriend to date but not care too much where it came to either of them. Convenient describes it.

Except meeting a man, determined to teach her another way, puts all her plans at risk. The heart knows what it wants and maybe that's what is best. Difficult though it might be to get there.

Just for fun, this is the first paragraph in the book, if I did change it to first person: 

Hearing my heels click as I made my way across the terrazzo flooring, I barely made it to the elevator before the doors closed. To be polite, I smiled for the quick thinking young man who had held them for me. Unfortunately, that led to a protracted view of his week. I managed another smile as I thought—whose week isn’t overloaded. Before we reached his floor, I politely fended off an invitation to dinner. I held onto my smile.

 Below is the link to the book in third person. Currently all contemporaries are only at Amazon. That could change since they are finding no readers, but not sure it'd be better if they were wide like the historicals.

Evening Star