Love Waits--- sometimes

  

The stories of  the Stevens began on the Oregon Trail with the march west that so many made to find a new life on the West Coast. In the case of the Stevens, it was Oregon and an offer of land, this one the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. The farm we own in Oregon was part of that claim. It stayed in the same family until we bought it. We're planning it'll long stay in our family too.

When writing a series, many authors do know what is to come. I think I mentioned this before that I did not for this Oregon Historical Series. One book though led to another with romances for the sisters and surprisingly, their mother. I was writing other stories during this time. By the time I got to the youngest of the sisters, Belle, who had been in two books and referenced through letter writing, it was her turn for her romance.

I wrote the first chapter but then felt stymied and put it aside for other projects. Almost a year passed when I finally knew where it would go. In a month, I had it all written, ready for editing.

Belle had long been gone from her family, first with rich friends, who invited her on trips. Then as the Civil War came along, she helped there, learning medical help from Clara Barton (if you don't know who she is, look her up as it's worth your time.)

Then Belle wanted to be in the Pinkertons, who rarely hired single women. With a few lies, she was hired by Alan. When this book began, she is back in Oregon in a pose as a governess to two adorable children with the assignment to find proof of a plot to continue the Southern cause and stop an illicit flow of counterfeit dollars. On a stage heading for Canyon City, with her charges, the book begins. Soon there is a confrontation with the Native Americans, who didn't think kindly of others taking their land.

That attack led to her seeing again her love of 10 years before, who had rejected her advances due to her youth and his own military career, He had been chasing the Indians and then could thwart their attack on the stage.

When he sees Belle again, he can see she didn't want him to speak of her family. The attraction is still there with more violence to come but also a ball organized by the man Belle and her only love, Rand, are mutually but secretly seeking to find evidence of his plots.

Lots goes on, but I thought it'd be fun to share a clip from the book and that ball.   

“Now, don’t forget,” she said before she left him, “the last dance is mine.”

He bowed his head and smiled. He forced himself to look away from her. From then on he forced his concentration on locating and not losing track of Forester. The man seemed to drift from group to group but not long with any. If this gathering had an ulterior purpose, it was more likely establishing him as a power in the community than it was plotting with a subversive group.

He had nearly forgotten the ball would end. Belle would return for that last dance. Then, there she was. “This song was requested for you specifically, Captain Phillips,” she said with a smile as she put her hand out for him.

When he heard it start up, he understood why, Garryowen, the fighting song of many a soldier. Some regarded it as an ending song as well. He swept her into his arms and began the quickstep that was best danced to it. They spun around the dance floor, this time with no chance to talk. He realized as they danced that others had stepped aside. They were in the center of the floor and then they were the only dancers. When the music ended, the others applauded and Belle laughed.

“You look at little stunned, Captain,” she said as the left the floor.

“Custer has claimed that for his Seventh Cavalry.”

“Does that mean no one else may claim it?”

“No, but do you know it’s a drinking song?”

“Actually no... but I did know about Custer. Miles Koegh actually claimed it first.”

“How did you know that?”

She smiled. “Well, don’t tell anyone, but I did happen to have met General Custer once.”

For those who don't know the song, I found a link for it with the images from the movie about the Spanish American War in Cuba: Garryowen 

If you play it, can't you just see a woman in a flowing ball gown,  being spun around the floor by a handsome cavalry officer.

So, the book is called Love Waits, because that is just what happens in this adventurous romance with two warriors. It is wide, and you can find more links in my website, but below is its link to Amazon where you get a free sample, the blurb, and the link to buy it there. 

LOVE WAITS 

 

 

 

Going Home-- Oregon historical romance

 It is interesting, at least to me, what inspires writers, as to their interests for topics, but also what leads readers to the same things. The diversity possible is huge from settings to subjects and characters. When I thought about writing the third in the Oregon series, its timing was part of its appeal, but there had been so many reasons I found fascinating this time in history. At the same time, it is now complicated to cover it in a simple blog. 

Writing a blurb was easier as it goes more to the characters and their issues, but what about the background of the time where these people had
to find their own happily ever after, if they even could, in a turbulent time with the protagonists having their own complexities due to their choices.

Because, in many ways, we live in such a time in 2025, not just in the US but around the world. Writing a book can infuriate as many readers as please them. Study histories of periods a hundred years ago and watch out which books you trust, as histories can be distorted to suit agendas. When writing a book set in such times, it has to be presented as the truth-- but was it?

I began Going Home with needing an interesting hero for the middle Stevens sister. Loraine, who preferred to be called Raine. She had left the family homestead when they got to Oregon. She preferred a life in town and saw the work that interested her as business. She thrived in that environment and even got into stage productions. She felt successful and not in need of a man in her life.

Well, there was one man, Jedediah Hardman, who she called the Laird because of his arrogance and background, with family having left Scotland
due to abuse from the more powerful English. In Georgia they had established a plantation, but not of slaves because of their own heritage of abuse. Their workers were free and paid. Jed had come to Oregon and acquired an Eastern Oregon ranch. He found he woman he wanted to be at his side, but Raine was a city woman and ranch life can be hard and isolating. 

Before they could work out anything, the Civil War erupted. Jed's brothers signed up with the Confederacy, not to defend slavery but to fight for their land. Jed couldn't fight against his own kin; so he traveled back to Georgia and to fight for the South, not a popular view in Abolitionist Oregon (despite its own dark history of racism where in its constitution declared no Black could own land or live in the state and weirdly no Pacific Islander could marry a white). Hypocrisy so often is connected to righteousness.

Going Home begins when the war has ended. Raine is feeling fairly settled into her life, but then Jed returns to Oregon to reclaim, What Is His. 

The complication for me, as a writer of this book, was when this whole issue of North versus South was erupting again, when the book was due to come out, over statues, names of teams, and even forts. Having a hero fighting for the South was not going to be popular, but the plot couldn't change and this demonstrates another kerfuffle for writers when political viewpoints change with right and wrong being strongly disagreed over.

Going Home though stayed as it was written with all the interesting aspects of various cultural differences even within a country. It did not just deal with the black and white issues (important as that was). but also the Chinese and Native American issues. Along with that is life at the edge of wilderness, which eventually the hero and heroine must navigate through if they want a good life together. 

This third book in the Oregon series is wide; but if you want to read a sample, the blurb, or purchase it, it is here on Amazon-- Going Home
 

 

violence

 My country, the United States, has once again had a political assassination, not the first, and although one would wish otherwise, not likely the last. Charley Kirk has been blocked from speaking on campuses. but this time, he was shot dead at an event for speaking his mind and inviting dialogue. He was not advocating violence, but that's what he got.

Although I never subscribed to Kirk, I did listen to him now and then. He was a Christian, lived in Arizona, and believed in Conservative thinking. He expressed more than once that he thought it was valuable for people with differences to be able to express them, without violence. He is a loss of a solid person expressing one side of the divide in our country. 

When people use the word evil to depict someone else's ideology, to me that is scary since a few mentally ill or extremists sometimes take it further. 

I won't say more on this; but this week also, a young woman was stabbed to death on a commuter train by someone mentally ill, who should have been incarcerated for his own benefit and certainly hers. Violence is just too prevalent. There is, by the way, a video showing what happened to the young woman, but a lot of media will not show it as it does not suit their agendas. I watched it though as I can so relate to the horror of what happened to her. Charlie Kirk knew the risk he faced. She did not. 

There was a blog written for this week, but I don't have the spirit to put it out right now. Not like the US has not known violent times, thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. and so many more; but it's still depressing, when leaders are taken out by one person and a bullet. Many people die but when it's a political leader, it's more than the rest of us. It's an attempt to destroy a way of thinking.

Right now, I know it's not healthy, but it's time for wine and sadness. Next week will be the intended blog, about a book, set also in a violent time. What the hell is going on or is there no way past that for human nature??? 

Time to remember some peaceful times-- the John Day River and one of our photos. Fortunately, I've known a lot of those times.

 

 

Where Dreams Go-- and tough choices for writers

 Since I started with the Oregon trail and the Stevens family, I decided to carry on with all four books. I had planned at one time to add to the four with their grown kids. I might still do that, but there is another series, I wanted to add a book to, first. I have though some ideas for how I might carry on the history of Oregon through this family. After all, I am a native born Oregonian, not Indian, but it's a much beloved part of my family for those who are. I am getting distracted. Back to the book that followed Round the Bend.

 

First, I had to make a tough decision as a writer-- to kill off a character I had much liked from Book One. I had a reason for the needed removal. In book One, I had a secondary character (well, a couple of them) that I also liked. One seemed a natural to be a hero of his own book-- Adam O'Brian (even though he seemingly lost out when courting Amy Stevens. He was a scout, a  man who well understood the wilderness and the ability to fight when it was required. 

BUT, who would be his heroine. There were still those single sisters, but they didn't seem right, too easy and no challenge in the relationship. One was actually too young. I could bring in a new character; however I already knew who it should be, but it took something to happen that would make that possible.

Amos and Martha, the parents of Amy, Loraine, and Belle, had a happy marriage. In Oregon, they settled near where Amy and Matt built their cabin and there built their own. Happy, happy, happy. Amos was a good man, strong with a bit of a past of his own. Now though ,he and Martha, who had known each other since their own youth, were content. 

Amos though had to go if I was going to get the plot I wanted. I don't think it's ever easy to kill off a character that the writer likes. I knew just how to do it since that kind of accident had happened, in the community where our Oregon farm sets. 

Amos and Matt had been cutting down a tree, one that split wrong, injured Matt and ended Amos' life.

The book begins after that tragedy, with Martha adjusting to her widowhood, remembering over and over the moment that an injured Matt had come to tell her what happened. She had gotten to Amos as he was dying. He told her to tell... but died before he could finish the sentence. 

Because St. Louis Jones had also settled near the Stevens families, he was a help to Martha, but she was still a young enough woman to be strong and care for her own homestead, even as she grieved the loss of her beloved husband, but found joy where she could especially since Amy was pregnant.

I guess by now, readers likely figured out who Adam's love was. He had stayed away from the families, out of respect for them and especially Amos-- since the woman he dreamed of was married to  a good man, as Adam saw it. It was never Amy but always her mother. And, Amos knew it, respected Adam for his ethics.

Scouting for the military down in the Siskiyous, was when he got the letter telling him that Amos had been killed and Martha was now a widow. He headed north, knowing it might still be a long-shot, since he was ten years younger than her and had little to offer. Still, he had to give it a try, as he had dreamed of her over many a lonely campfire.

Their possible romance was complicated by their differences, her concern how her daughters will see him as her husband-- after all, at one time he had courted Amy. To add to it, Oregon had its own turbulent history. Some of it nothing to be proud of, many wanting it, to be forgotten.

Link is to Amazon to get the free sample, read the blurb, or buy there. It is, however, also wide. 

Where Dreams Go 

There is another link, this one to the trailer I created for the book--