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--  

 

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 

 

marketing from the land

The big deal for us this week-end will be a Craigslist ad for selling a portion of our cattle herd. We are doing this for the grass but mostly because our son, Ranch Foreman, is managing the livestock and he wants less animals as he feels his way into all that means. Although he grew up with these herds, as a kid, he hadn't the responsibility that he now feels when he's the man and Ranch Boss is in Arizona. So, reluctantly especially me) the farm has to face the reality of either finding direct buyers (my hope) or sending these animals to the auction, which I hate but has sometimes been the only way.

The ad has so far produced a fair amount of interest but not enough for the bull, Estevan, who I especially want to find a herd where he can do the job he was born to do-- be herd bull. He is easy to work around, not using his bulk to bully the other cows (as much as the cows do each other). He has been depressed, being away from the main herd (and the old herd bull, who he has connected with). An intelligent animal, he knows more than some. He is, however, horned and some are afraid of that even in an animal that is not mean. Accidents happen and that can be true with any of them with that kind of bulk and muscle.

 

So, I hope this week-end we have some visitors here to look at the eleven available animals (cow/calf pairs; heifers; young bulls; and the 2 year old bull). We have had good luck in the past with selling to the right buyers through these ads. My fingers are crossed that the right ones will come across it and the Benevolent Universe (wording in a dream I had recently) will bring a life for these animals, such as they have had with our land here where they both have shelter and the ability to wander in more rugged terrain with the leased land behind us. They live both wild and domestic. The work Ranch Foreman has done among them for the last nearly two years has made them very human oriented-- ideal for small operations.

 

As for me, I never like times of sales. I feel my personality is wrong for this work-- not hard-hearted enough to be realistic.  Too many tears fall during such times, and always have. I see these animals as personalities and some of that is due to living close to them and watching their interactions. I watch them lick each other, call out when separated from the herd or their offspring. I do not see them as a product but as beings worthy of respect where some must die for others to live. When we can butcher from the land, it's perfect for me-- born here, live here, and die here. 

I wasn't born here but I might well die here someday. It's the process of life whether living beings or what we consider the plant world, which might be more living beings than we think.

 

If anyone lives close enough to have an interest in these animals for their own land, email is  [sevenoaksranch@gmail.com] or you can use mine here at the blog [rainnnn7@hotmail.com]. I know some don't believe in eating animals; but if it's done with respect and not using more than needed, I see it as a healthy part of life. Done like this, it's not corporate ranching; but as it always was-- small and interactive to the community. 

Yikes

by Rain Trueax

Time is going by way too fast. I literally cannot believe we've been back at the farm for a month and it seems like it was yesterday.

The farm has had a lot accomplished-- hay for the winter bought and stashed in the barns; sheep shorn; fields fertilized, and fence across the creek replaced after calf got on the other side. The place was in great shape when we returned thanks to the hard work of our son, but this is the season for preparing for all the other ones. 

predators

by Rain Trueax

For years, there have been those who argued that cougars weren't actually dangerous to humans. They brought up the point that no cougar had killed anyone in Oregon (though they had to concede they had in other states). In 1994, this viewpoint led to a ballot measure, passed mostly by city voters, to ban hunting cougars with dogs-- about the only effective way they can be hunted. 

The ban has led to many more cougar in rural areas, such as where I live. Sometimes there has been concern when a cougar is seen hanging around a school, but in general the view has been the same-- cougar danger to human is not that big a deal and much exaggerated.

The photo is from a wildlife cam about a ridge over from our farm. It's not common to see five cougar together. This might've been a family.

Where we live, on the edge of wilderness, it is not uncommon to see cougar tracks or their kills. I've seen a cougar in the wild when I was a girl but not here. When we still had teens at home, they had been hiking on the hill above our house, heard the sound of a branch cracking in the brush. They then had something follow them down the hill. They didn't ever see it, but a cougar was most likely. 

Cougar will track prey quite a ways as they are waiting for the right spot, but they are also curious. More recently, neighbors told us they saw one walk up the gravel road in front of our house. That's beside our mailbox and about fifty feet from the front door.

Sometimes, we observe our cattle herd bunching instead of their more casual way of sleeping-- with their calves in the middle. They know something, but so far, we don't think we've had a calf killed by them. The herd has enough size to protect itself.

Locally, their kills are generally deer, but the house up the gravel road lost a ram to one. Because our sheep are kept closer to the barns, we don't know we've had a cougar kill one. They could take a lamb with them. They like to cache their kills. The thing to remember is they have to kill to live. They are predators looking for opportunity.

Camping has had us in their country, and while hunting deer, my husband went into one of their dens in Eastern Oregon. Seeing them in a zoo, I very much appreciate their physical beauty and grace but never forget-- they are predators.

This week, Oregon has a new story regarding cougar.

 Mt. Hood Hiker killed by cougar

Here's the thing for those folks who thought a cougar would never attack a human. Why wouldn't they? If we don't have weapons, if they don't have previous experiences of being threatened by us, we are prey species. Yes, we are also predator, but where it comes to teeth and claws, we don't have much to offer in the way of defense. Despite that, there have been many confrontations with cougars that ended with the cougar backing off-- far more than kills.

So, if confronted with one, make yourself big, don't run, look them in the eyes, yell, and if it attacks anyway, fight back. The sister of the woman killed said the authorities told her that her sister had wounds indicating she had fought for her life, but it wasn't enough. It's one of those times where you can't guarantee an outcome.

Places that inspire a story

by Rain Trueax

When writing fiction, why is it set where it is? Some authors create places. I prefer placing mine in real towns and landscapes. Sometimes where that is will be influenced by the problems the characters will be facing. Because I know them best, Oregon, Arizona and Montana end up in most of my books.

In my books, of course, there's a love story but with complications. When I know the problem, the reason I am interested in writing the story, next comes its setting. I need to know where my characters live, their homes.

To give where these people live, I found some images from my own photos and others I'd purchased. Naturally, their homes are only part of the environment as they move around. Sometimes I only know where they'll roam once I start writing. That's the fun of writing, the discoveries I make along with them.

It's the setting

by Rain Trueax

My idea for the blog that led to so much trouble was reading something another author had written about the importance of not forgetting to talk about and advertise backlists. If a writer has been at it long, they likely have some kind of backlist-- most of which has fallen into Amazon's black hole. Their ranking algorithms favor the most recently published books. 

Mostly (with two exceptions), my backlist is made up of contemporary romances written from the 1970s through the early 1990s. For those years, they were what I most enjoyed writing and reading. I liked having characters deal with today's problems but still have the mythology of those who take care of problems and build things-- the pioneer and cowboy ethos.

not as I expected

This has been a week where nothing went as I expected. I had written a blog for today and then because of other circumstances, it's not a good fit. I'll be next Saturday. 

With grandson here this week, my mind isn't operating on full cylinders, and today seems like a good day for photos. These are from our farm and this summer. It seems hard to believe it's more than halfway gone. Since out here, we all need rain, that's not a bad thing.

ups and downs

by Rain Trueax

I am in a group blog, Sweethearts of the West, where I posted the blog below. It got seen by less than usual there as at the same time I learned that a writer friend, Celia Yeary, had died. I wanted to post on her loss, what she had meant to me and it kind of buried my blog where I wrote about the history of the Chinese in Oregon. I thought I'd share it here as I feel it is an important part of Oregon's history.

popular or not

by Rain Trueax

Sometimes I dream something and wake with an associated idea-- sometimes only roughly associated. It happened this week. My dream had taken me back to high school relationships and one particular one where the dream mixed real life experience with fiction. 

In high school, I'd had a friend, the kind we did things together, had sleepovers-- and then one day I went to school and she was no longer talking to me. She never told me why. I never asked. To this day I don't know although I could hazard a guess. More interesting to me would be-- why didn't I ask then? I didn't and won't ever now. Her loss was painful for me as I didn't have a lot of school friends. The dream encompassed this real life experience but gave it a different ending-- think Hallmark ending ;)

When I woke, it was with this thought-- I am not a popular person. Is that why my books are not popular? Do they even relate?

Samhain

by Rain Trueax

Most know that Halloween is October 31st, a holiday that some consider All Hallow's Eve, but it has Celtic and pagan roots where it is known as Samhain. Pagan holidays like Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain follow a yearly tradition of seasons with spiritual connotations. 

Samhain is the day when the 'other' side is closer to human life than usual, where some put up altars to their relatives who have departed because they feel the veil is most easily pierced. It's not surprising why costumes like ghosts or witches have been popular for the parties or trick-or-treating.

In my books, I've sometimes used these celebrations. Samhain is in one of my Oregon historicals, [Love Waits], and I plan it will be (with more of its spiritual meaning) in the work in progress. 

In the historical, it was for fun and showed the family's growing strength where marriages happened and children began to grow up. Jed (hero from Going Home) wanted to share with his Oregon family the Scottish and Southern traditions with which he'd grown up.

Here's a bit from the fourth in the Oregon series-- a teaser for the family as well as readers for what might be coming. 

from Love Waits:

Belle headed back down the hall and looked in on Rand before she went to the children’s rooms. The girls were already whispering and so she opened the door without knocking. Jessica seemed enamored of whatever Laura was telling her. She looked up at Belle. “Samhain,” she said. “That’s what it is next week. Did you know that?”

“No, I did not. What does it mean?”

“It’s when we play games and bob for apples, and something Uncle Jed called Puicini. It’s kind of fortune telling. Do you think that’s bad?”

Belle smiled. “Not at all. How do you play it?”

“You are blindfolded and then there are four saucers in front of you. They are moved around. The one you choose is what your next year will be full of.”

“And the saucers are each?

“Earth, water, beans, and money. I guess we all want money as not sure what the others would mean.” Laura grinned. “Uncle Jed said they do this from where he came. It’s a nighttime game. He said sometimes even with fireworks. I haven’t yet gotten to do it but they said we will tomorrow night.”

“It sounds like great fun especially the bobbing for apples.”

“It might be pagan.” Laura’s face took on a worried expression.

“It doesn’t sound like that,” Belle said as she helped Jessica out of her nightgown and into a dress. “It sounds like it is nature oriented. Working the earth and it yielding all you wanted, would be like a garden. The water would be maybe a trip.” She smiled as she considered other options. “Or enough rain to keep the land good. “Beans would be food, and of course, we know what money is, don’t we.”

“He said they sometimes decorate for it too. It’s also about the ones who... went before us. Kind of, I think.”

“Then even better.”

“Except, he said sometimes there are ghost stories,” Laura said. “That might be scary.”

Now Elizabeth and Jessica looked worried. “What’s a ghost?” Jessica asked.

Laura looked at Belle for help.

“Well ghost stories are just for fun. They are supposed to scare us but in a way that we know it’s not real. So you get tingles up your spine.” She reached over and tickled up Elizabeth’s back. “And they can be about mysteries where nobody knows what really happened, and they tell stories to try and figure it out. Does your Uncle Jed have some ghost stories that he shares?” she asked trying to turn this back to Laura. She hoped she had said nothing to interfere with what Amy had been teaching.

“Uncle Jed said he would tell us one. One he had been told when he was a little boy. It has to be in the dark though. He said anyone could tell a ghost

story if they wanted. Do you know any?”

Belle smiled remembering how she had admired her older sisters and wanted them to show interest in her. Now she had a niece. She had not thought how important a responsibility that was.

“Well, if I think of one, I’ll definitely share it.”

Laura, Elizabeth and Jessica smiled broadly.

“And I forgot,” Belle said, “head to the kitchen. Breakfast is ready.”

All images from Stencil

 

luck

 by Rain Trueax

The subject of luck has been on my mind. The definition of luck is-- something that comes to you, good or bad, based not on your own actions. My thinking on it began because I'd been thinking I haven't had much of that sort of luck. While I have had a good life, with many wonderful things in it, they came because of what I had worked to do, the settings and people I had chosen, the things I'd given up or accepted. I've been lucky in terms of the things I have had control over. My creative work has been lucky in that sense; but in terms of marketing it-- not so much.

I know people where good things seem to fall into their laps when they've done little to seemingly deserve it. I've also known those where bad things have likewise been their seeming fate-- when they didn't do anything seemingly to deserve it.

I've benefited from the random sort of luck at the farm like the time I just happened to walk into the bedroom and look out the window toward the pasture to see the sheep running with a coyote behind them. I ran out in my sandals, didn't stop for a gun and when I got to the fence, the coyote had a lamb down against it. I screamed the mad mama scream. The coyote looked up in shock and ran away. The lamb got up-- uninjured. That was luck for the sheep and me-- the coyote not so much.

A recent example of random luck was the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack. A couple from Utah were on a trip like many take. It was pure luck that they were on the bridge at the wrong time. An unlucky mother was on her way to pick up her children. Someone else maybe had just left the area or had decided against going at that time. We sometimes call that fate, but luck is an equally good word for it.

So I haven't had the sort of luck that led me to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I also haven't won any contests or lotteries or basically much of anything. 

The thing that I began to wonder about was if, as some claim, we make our own luck. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is the kind we don't want and have done nothing to deserve. Some claim such events are God's doing. But really, we want to think that for a man to be killed and his wife critically injured,God made it happen. I just don't believe in that sort of God-- don't want to believe in it-- I do believe in random events that have no meaning beyond they happened-- luck.

We went out to Finley Wildlife Refuge to watch the geese. We hadn't been for awhile, and it felt good to be out there, with others enjoying the same thing. Then we noticed movement on the hill and realized the refuge's elk herd was moving fast across it, heading west. We watched, drove along the road and took photos.

Elk are called the ghosts of the forest because they are elusive in terms of being seen. They can move quietly for such big animals. They can be aggressive in the right situations as I know kids who said they were treed by them in the Coast Range. The bulls have been known to gore a human who got too close. Generally though, they run from danger and humans do represent danger due to hunting.

I've seen many elk herds through the years. They generally are eating, kind of loosely traveling as they feed. This herd did something I've never seen before. After they had run, they bunched into a defensive circle, which would move forward, toward the road, a cow in their lead with one following a little behind at their back. Then they would decide that wasn't safe and turn back to the north. Whatever was determining their defensive mode, it was fascinating to watch. 

We saw four bulls but they were young, at least appeared to be based on their horns. Maybe the old bull had been killed in the hunting season. The refuge actually allows some hunting and maybe this herd was reacting to a past hunt-- this isn't the season. It is the season for them to have their calves soon. 

So we were lucky to be there at the right time. Someone else, who might've come later, or left earlier, would have not seen the whole drama. I've had a lot of that kind of luck.

cycles

This has to be the most chaotic holiday season we will see in many years *fingers crossed*. The election has led to so many bad feelings at a time when everyone is already stressed with trying to meet 'holiday' expectations.

Our Thanksgiving was good as we drove east of the Cascades to a home we had rented Sunriver, one with enough room for our kids, grandkids, and us. Our daughter and daughter-in-law did the planning and cooking for the dinners-- which was just fine with me.

To have all of us under one roof is something you can't appreciate fully until they all move out into the world, and what was 'we' ends up us and then with miles between and different interests. Next year our granddaughter will be starting college *sigh* -- where does time go?

Over the years, we have rented homes at Sunriver many times as it has miles of trails, an ice skating rink, the Deschutes River nearby, lots of shops and restaurants, but best of all the houses are nestled into the pines with some on golf courses, even though as of yet, none of us golf. It does give a high degree of privacy. It is also a place with enough homes with the ability to sleep ten.

This was a time of mixed generations. Our kids are into middle-age but look younger. The oldest of the grandkids is a young woman with the grandsons catching up fast.  And Ranch Boss and I are firmly into old age where for so many years our look was more undefined. 

Middle age can stretch a lot of years. I am not sure where it has to stop; but when I see myself in the mirror or a photo, I think I am a type, like an aging Olivia de Havilland-- a nice sweet looking (generally) old lady with long silver hair. Not dying my hair is a choice, but the old part is the cycle of life. 

It feels weird to be old and not because I feel young. It's because it's something very new after years of not that much different. Some, of course, is the weight I've gained, but it's not all that. I think some is also because when I am writing a lot, as I have been this year, I forget what I look like, don't really care. When I come up for air, I look in a mirror and wonder-- who the heck is that woman???

Writing at Sunriver wasn't as fruitful as I had expected in finishing my second Christmas novella for this year. I cannot type well on the laptop. I am used to a large monitor and though it has a nice sized one, hitting the wrong keys constantly had it changing text size. There was no desk, as there would be in many hotel rooms, but rarely is found in home rentals; so I typed on the hassock in front of a big stuffed chair in the master bedroom. Hard on my back and very inaccurate for how I hit the keys. If I rent a house again there, I'll bring my little portable desk and wireless ergonomic keyboard.  

Because I had worked the ending for the book, I typed the last chapter on Monday after getting home Sunday. I have some editing to do, a cover to create, but it's off to the first of three beta readers with a goal of next week for its publishing.

Meanwhile, my suggestion for readers here is to try to turn off the political thinking for awhile. We are on our way to Christmas, and it's a time to be thinking about a joyous season, a time of love, of beauty, of giving. 

I do get how many people are upset and say they aren't willing to let this election go; but frankly, we only hurt ourselves when we hold onto anger or fear. Now is a time to join organizations, which are ready to fight for each American's rights and give our own angst a vacation. This is true not for the sake of others but for ourselves.  There will be a time to act, to write letters, to demonstrate, to make the argument why something is the wrong thing to do. It's not yet. It's when this new government gets in power and begins to move in directions we feel are detrimental. Now though would be a good time to encourage more to run for office with the viewpoints we share with them-- 2018 will be coming faster than we think.