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. 

when it does not work out...

 Because of showing some of my impressionistic landscapes, I also saw two paintings (of many), from when I wanted to try painting abstracts, but ended up feeling I did not have the talent for them as they always either ended up as 'something' or were like-- 'so what.'

I decided they would though be good for this topic of creativity because you try something and then find out if it's your thing. Failures aren't always bad, whether in writing or the fine arts. You won't know until you try.

More on writing next blog as I have something new for there.

In looking for images of my paintings, I came across this photo. It is Ranch Boss with his best friend from before he met me even. The friendship is not over though his friend died of the cruelest disease I can imagine, ALS. Fisherman, his nickname, is still missed, will always be missed. The photo was from one of the many times the four of us stayed at a beach house.

Earlier blog is below--

~~~~~

 This week I played a little with oils as I had no subject I wanted to paint. I thought perhaps doing abstracts would loosen up my landscapes. I have a lot of small canvases (Michael's had the packages of 10 on sale). Small seemed more promising than big. At least if they didn't work, I had less invested in them.

I started the first one by covering the surface with a bright orange. As my brush seemed to suggest water, the painting took off from being an abstract to a kind of fantasy sea. Well, at least the colors are abstracted. It is really hard for me to make a painting that doesn't end up being about something.

The second one, I decided to just lay in colors and then what the heck, lay in some more-- basically whatever pleased me. Between laying in the first colors, I thought maybe I'd find some ideas online for procedures by abstract painters.

The problem was I didn't like most of what I saw. A lot of abstracts just seemed to me like wall paper designs or something bright for behind the sofa. Not exactly what I had in mind but I got another idea for this one. What if I tried different techniques besides the painting. Scratching in some shapes, the feeling grew that this was a watery cave with supernatural light and symbols...

Maybe I just am not the type of person who can do non-objective paintings. Or maybe it'll take doing more.

Both paintings are oils on 8x10 stretched canvas.

 

 

Update: When Ranch Boss was helping me with some techie aspects alongside here, he accidentally deleted the list of those I like to read and advise others to check out. Uh oh. So, if you want to be on a rebuilt list, please comment here with your blog url, Frustrating how easy it is with the computer to screw up, as I've done it many times. 

Creative Energy can take many paths

This week, because I had been asked to answer questions, plus provide a few images for an interview, I went looking for some paintings I had done back when I was painting. When I came across the blog below in a site that is no longer public, I thought it fit well with this topic of creativity.

For many creative people, they go through various ways to express their ideas. The beauty of it is how each can seep into the other venues. The experiences I had while painting and waiting for Ranch Boss as he fly fished, an art form of its own, also gave me the chance to wade creeks looking for more round rocks, a hobby of mine. Did you know that all creeks do not produce round rocks? When they do, it takes looking carefully to see how round they are.

The main experiences of creativity for me, besides always writing, were impressionistic painting and clay sculpture. Those two plein air paintings are at the farm. I remember doing both of them as I describe below. As my tremors worsened, both became less feasible. I am glad though for the times I with those modes of expression. 

One thing I hadn't mentioned in the earlier blog is that when I painted at Slough Creek in Yellowstone, we also saw and photographed a grizzly. It had been sleeping on the other side from where I painted and Ranch Boss fished. 

We left that site to look for wolves and more buffalo pictures in the Lamar Valley, Returning, the grizzly had clearly waded the creek from the brush where he'd been napping and was heading out. Lucky for us, he crossed the gravel road, right in front of our vehicle. Then, he headed up the hill to a quieter area with tall trees and no fishermen. Ranch Boss said you can tell by the trail, that a bear knew it well. likely that bear.

While I was painting, a ranger asked if I had seen the grizzly. I described what we saw. He then asked if he had seemed aggressive. Absolutely not, he just wanted to get out of there. Too many people.

 

 

 

from 2010 Yellowstone -- grizzly -- second image on his trail-- Frankly, life for predators is never easy even though bears are omnivores.

 ~~~~

It seemed a good idea when making a trip to Montana and Yellowstone National Park that I would take several small canvases, my oil paints, and the new portable easel along. The truck had plenty of space although there was one difficulty in planning to sleep in the back while in the park. That meant packing light and I kind of thought I had... if I didn't consider the easel.

What I learned was that the easel was not needed and was in the way. It takes too long on a fast trip like that to get it out and set it up-- not to mention it was not necessary as I actually like sitting on the ground with a canvas propped against a rock and mixing my paints right on the canvas. So next trip, no easel unless I have a trailer along to carry the extra supplies and plan to spend more than one night in a location.

The other thing I learned was that wet oils are a problem to transport. The need for a small box that will hold the oils apart from each other and protect everything else from getting paint splatters is obvious.

I have to get used to the curiosity some feel when they see someone painting on location. I was asked by one man if I was a painter. How does one answer such a question? I said I want to be but thought that I need to decide if I am; or if I am not than what am I doing?

All in all I enjoyed the painting and felt good that I was able to do it in places I love very much while my traveling partner was fishing and enjoying his time also. First painting is at Rock Creek, east of Missoula, Montana. Second is Slough Creek in Yellowstone National Park.  Both are 8"x10" oils on stretched canvas.

 

Diablo Canyon

 Because your question searches for deep meaning, I shall explain in simple words. ---- Dante Alighieri

created by Elena Ray, purchased from Canstock

There were several aspects to what made Diablo Canyon the key to everything that had come before, It was both a place and a goal. It also was part of what this earth and its nature is all about. Of course, also for me, with some changes to the novellas, it became the novel.

For the novel, mysticism was important, but so, was the physical reality of the earth on which we live. Is it really, what we think? We know that it's made up of many chemical aspects (names most of us have never heard). Our flesh, all that is below, and around us is made up of atoms/nucleus and whatever, is beyond that. What holds it together and gives it form is energy. This is the reality of life even though we operate on a physical level as though that what we see and feel, is all there is.

What makes Diablo Canyon important, beyond what I ever intended is the question of  the importance of physical ley lines. Do such energy lines exist? And if they do, how might that impact human life? In the book, the climax uses not only energy, what we see, but the spiritual stories that grew from the beginning of humans collecting them from religion and mythology. Are those stories fiction or might they reflect a reality that a more 'sophisticated population' rejects?

In the ending of Diablo Canyon, is presented a question. How do humans, even those with spiritual powers ,fight evil, that which would destroy or dominate them-- or can they?

The story, of course, depicts all of this, but there is something else. In some ways, the cover is about marketing, but it also can be the heart of the book, inspiration for reader and writer.

For Diablo Canyon, I came to see it needed more than images that would show the romantic couple, but go beyond for how they would fight wrong? Could a cover, one with three couples do that? Or might one couple depict the book's theme?

As usual, when putting together a cover, I looked at a lot of images. Most, I had purchased years earlier with no precise idea of how I could use them. Then, I came across two that worked for what I believed  the book needed.

The hero, of the book, was a 'druid', running a detective agency to solve problems that went beyond the physical. The image had to look like someone who could take charge. The one I found had an expression that looked as though he could deal with whatever was needed. I liked how his hands were tucked into his belt, but fist like. That expression in his eyes said he was looking for how he would use his power. He was in no hurry to rush into action, but would be ready at the instant he knew the time was right.

The heroine, his love interest, had been in the second book. Except there, she was an angel and spirit guide. To deal with what was happening in Diablo Canyon, the powers above, requested she become a human to bring strength to the needed warriors, along with her own, to fight for right. Some humans today think the spirit world has all the powers-- what if they were given the power to use and expected then, to do it. This one-time angel didn't feel she had those abilities, but turned out, she had a lot more going for her than she knew. It's all about ... energy.

For readers and writers, covers can impact the stories for which they are supposed to represent. I think this one did that for me. The rings in my dream are on it because they represent a love that hovers over a canyon that could lead to destruction or happily ever afters. And the hero and heroine on the cover, depict two ways of dealing with a huge problem. There is the suppressed power as the man waits for that moment where it will be unleashed. Then, the drawing up of spiritual energy by what might seem delicate hands.

 Having three novellas, then a novel with the spice the others didn't have, bothered me, in how I promote them. Four books? Three? One? If someone doesn't read the whole blurb and buys the novellas and then the novel, they might feel they were cheated. The novellas do have one extra feature-- Dante's quotes fit each chapter. What a philosopher/poet he was.

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

Dante Alighieri

 

 

  Images purchased from Romance Novel Covers, and Stencil.

 Diablo Canyon

An Audio Book?

 

For the blog, in the midst of the Holiday season, I hadn't planned to write about one of my books that had Christmas at its heart. But, then Ranch Boss, who does the marketing, had gotten information on having books also available in audio.

The reason I'd never done it was the cost and the fact the books, especially my smaller ones (novellas) hadn't sold that well. How would I pay for someone to narrate the stories? Why would they want to do it without a proven market for a possible share, which might be of nothing (and there is a lot of work involved for narration).

But Amazon approached us with another way to get an audio book that didn't require money up front, but did take a percentage of the book for Amazon. Since Ranch Boss liked the idea, I left it up to him.

On the creator end, it requires checking the book for where different speeds might be required; then listening to a selection of possible voices, all computer generated. Ranch Boss let me listen to some of them and the one, he had liked best, seemed like it fit the narration. 

He said that this is not AI but rather just computer generated. I do understand the difference that the story is mine, not artificially created.

As it turns out, I don't know a lot about the technical end of this, but the woman's voice sounded good. We were to listen to the reading and make sure it fit the story. There was, as was promised, no upfront cost, but a lot of work, which Ranch Boss did, since I've been editing another series. That one we aren't sure if it'd work as well for audio since it's much longer. One at a time is the best process anyway.

The way this works with Amazon is we establish the price, which if the customer has credits can be very little. It also is very little if the reader had earlier purchased the book, where Amazon will have the record, and the price then is $1.99. 

It's an interesting dilemma as a writer whether this is a good idea or not so much. I do like this story. It follows after a full-length novel, From Here to There, and is set on the same ranch where most of the earlier story takes place. The second one is about a family needing healing and ranch life around the holidays, plus the now married couple from the earlier romance.

I guess, I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century... Is that a good thing? 

If you had bought the Kindle, check out this link: A Montana Christmas, where you will find the novella and option for the audio book. There is a sample of the audio to listen if you are curious what computer generated sounds like. Since this is brand new to us, go to the link and Amazon will tell you what price any of it will be for this week since we are putting the Kindles on sale.

The book leading up to the story is at: From Here to There. It's both a romance and about what the American West is all about for those who may not already know. While the story takes place mostly in the modern West, it also is about what that has meant in this country, with much of it impacting values today-- some good and some maybe not so much. 

Both books are on sale at 99¢ from the 21st 'til the 30th.

This is a nice coincidence that today is the Solstice. The celebration for that happens to be in the novella/audio book. For those who don't know of such for the Solstice, it involves a fire to bring back the light. We are on our way from this day forward.

image from Stencil

What do they look like?

This blog will be carrying on the last topic about heroes. There, I discussed qualities of heroic men and woman. The code they live by is important in the book. Then, it comes down to what they look like where it comes to sales. Even if you use symbols or scenery, how will those impact the cover. Part of marketing is finding what will be seen. For some authors, covers happen before the book is written, for others, it's when it's finished.

When I began bringing out my romances as an independent author, I had to deal with exactly that since I wanted to make my own cover images for paperbacks and eBooks. I had described these characters in the stories, but hadn't tried to see them. as movie stars or people I knew.

To begin, I thought I could paint the cover images. After all, I was a sculptor and painter. Although I had also earlier written some historical romances, the ones I first put out were contemporary stories. It took time not only to figure out their faces but also their bodies. Sometimes, I wanted settings that fit the stories. Mostly, I did them in digital painting, something I'd been doing for a while. What could go wrong?

 

Turned out, apparently, a lot was wrong for readers. I was at that time in Amazon forum groups and learning more what not to do, than to do. The readers I talked to said they thought these covers looked too amateurish. I figured, since I was new to the game, that they probably knew better. 

 

To fit, what I was being told, was the beginning of my journey into the world of models for stories-- all kinds of characters but especially the main protagonists. It felt strange to be looking at faces and bodies while thinking-- nope not suitable enough or wow, that's the one!  I was rejecting people I would never know. It felt like a beauty contest. To begin, I didn't like it much, but I grew into accepting it.

Some of my characters had problems built into them. I had one heroine where she was no great beauty in the book, didn't care to be, and the images i found did not win favor when I used them. One of my heroes saw himself as ugly and had a very rugged look that the heroine saw as handsome to her. Now, I happen to know that to be true. People who might seem unattractive, based on features, sometimes have something that goes beyond that. Maybe it's charisma, but whatever it is, those kind of model images didn't exist unless they headed into villain territory.

 

Over time, I put together backgrounds with the closest models that worked for me-- kind of. I got better at the search as I went along... kind of.

 

 

How does one find that when what matters most for the readers will be some escapism? Sometimes they were okay with say a plump heroine but even then she had to be pretty. Ugly or plain wasn't good enough. While it works for life, not always for romances.

 

I recently read that Generation X (I think that's the right one), didn't like When Harry Met Sally because the hero wasn't good looking enough to attract the heroine who was more beautiful as a woman. As a much older woman, I have to wonder on that one if they had good eyesight. He was very attractive; but frankly looks aren't the bigger issue for many successful, romantic relationships. 

 

She's too pretty. He's too handsome. Come on, a lot of qualities matter far more in lasting marriages, but then that's not escapism, is it!

 

So,what I came to believe, is that for covers to attract readers, the models had to be ideal as a male or female type or forget the cover working. Interesting conundrum between the text and the images. Meanwhile, keep in mind why the readers need for what they are looking.  

 

When I began, the most difficult to find were blond males, who looked tough even to me. It's not like you can use a real movie star. I think there are more blond men now when I go to the sites, but I eventually found what I needed-- if not wanted.

 

When you write your book, you might create the cover first. It might even help you develop depth with the protagonists. I know those who do it that way as inspiration. 

 

Oh, add to that, getting the right fonts can be as important as the characters. Readers are quick to find something that makes them not bother to even try the book sample.  It has been claimed that potential readers only look for 2 - 4 seconds and go on-- hmmm.

 

Of course, many writers pay someone to do their covers and there are good sources for that. I personally wanted to do mine and still do, even if it loses some readers. To me, the art involved in a cover is part of the whole creative process. It expands the complexity of getting into it all. 

 

The images here are some of my original covers, all for my contemporary novels, which for a long time, have only adorned my computer. You know rules and marketing ideas have changed with time. I am reconsidering if maybe, for my contemporaries, which by the way aren't selling well anyway, these may reappear. For now, the current covers use models, you can find those with a search for Rain Trueax books, from contemporaries, to historicals, to paranormal/fantasies. If I make a change, with my editor's agreement, it will only be to the contemporaries. The others have sold pretty well.. for me. 

 

What got me was when I looked at the current cover for From Here to There, I expected to find a cover I didn't like as much. I liked this one better than what I had created and was considering changing-- which I didn't share above. 

 

This is a bit of a complicated story, with two love stories, one today and one in the past, the bigger one a love of the West. but still, now what to do? Maybe nothing, but this is the nature of writing and then publishing-- when it's all your choice. This one uses a model with a background photograph we took on one of our trips through the mountain west.

 

As a writer, what I like about using covers that I painted is they are not someone else's. They are the imaginary people I created. I like that. I do not want them to be a movie star or model. I want them to be these characters, the ones my imagination brought to reality, the issues they are facing. This one though does not tell you what she looks like, just her life.

 

Here's the big key to writing, in my opinion. Be flexible and aware of what works for your own imagination and muse. Trying to follow someone else is not being creative. It might sell, but it's not the joy of being a writer, not for me at least.

What is a hero?

 purchased  from Canstock-- the Green Man

Hero definition from Merriam-Webster dictionary: 

 a: mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability

 b: an illustrious warrior

c: a person admired for achievements and noble qualities

 

d: one who shows great courage

 

If someone is writing an adventure romance, the hero matters very much, if it works or not-- be that any genre. Here is the truth, as I believe it to be from being a long time reader of romances and writer of adventure romances. Characters feel pretty much real, for the most part, but heroes are way above real. They are as the dictionary says-- warriors and mythological. They carry the action of the story and make it all work. In many cases, they make the story fun to write or read.

 

This is where the Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell can come into play. For writers, I highly recommend the book. He studied the form of the myths that have lasted through time. What about them can be used in plotting a novel for today? Now, I have to qualify this as it's not the critically approved novels. This is about the adventure stories, be the romances or suspense, from Clancy to Robards.

 

The first time the reader meets the hero, he may not seem very heroic. But as the adventure takes off, he will take on the mantle. He will be willing to sacrifice whatever is required to save his people and best the villain at his own game. 

 

Does a hero have to be a man? For my books, he will be, but the heroine (again can that word be used today as it once was?) will also fight for the victory, sometimes even save the hero. She will grow into her own challenges and be much more than a sweet little homemaker, though she might be that also -- or not.

 

I have personally had a hard time writing women that are stronger than the men. I also don't like writing victim heroines, where she is on the run or is in danger from a direction she didn't recognize. It is one of my weaknesses as a writer, that I prefer writing the male protagonists. I have to work to make my female characters more interesting.  I think that's a product of my age-- as in how we grew up with the movies and television shows.

 

One of the criticisms I got when I submitted my books to publishing houses back in the 1990s was the heroines had it too much together. They wanted the heroine to be in danger and then could the hero save  her? If it's a romance, the reader knows the answer, which is part of the appeal in the world of today where in real life, heroes and heroines too often end tragically. 

 

One of the appeals of romances is the difficult life many people are experiencing. A romance novel guarantees a happy ending. Who doesn't want that when life so often does not deliver it? A romance will, and even better if it's a suspense or adventure romance that will take us along for the journey with danger, maybe a few deep breaths or even tears, but it will work out.

 

Back to the hero. While in real life, our life partners may be a hero to our family and life, he is not what we will find in a romance novel. The guys there often appear on covers and they are gorgeous, muscular, often shaved chests and faces.They look like they can take care of any emergency. A popular genre lately has been with them being billionaires. Have you seen most real billionaires? That is not usually on the cover.

 

Of course, since this is a romance, there needs to be a man who knows how to appeal to a woman. If he didn't already know, he will learn. That might sound like fantasy, but it happens in real life too. What would a romance be without romance. When writing such books, I believe don't go overboard with too much lovey-dovey. Other things demand his and her attention. That's the challenge and the adventure.

purchased from Deposit Photos

Many (maybe most) romantic heroes are alphas, but that does not mean brutal or too controlling. Frankly if he is, the heroine will walk away or rise up in power to remind him that's not a good idea. Unless the stories are erotica, maybe, but even then she allows what is happening. Romance heroines are only abused by villains. This was not necessarily the case when these kinds of romances first grew in popularity, but today if any rape happens, it's not the hero doing it.

 

Repeating, real life heroes don't generally look like the books. Readers don't want them to, They are for escapism. When writing, it's part of the fun that you can control what happens. I can think of some real life serial killers that were quite good looking. Don''t make the mistake of thinking beauty guarantees goodness-- in males or females. 

Do writers fall in love with their heroes? I never have, but I do enjoy writing about them and that is true if they are a school principal or a cowboy or a marshal or a billionaire. They are imaginary creations and make writing enjoyable for writers and readers.

 

Personally, I believe we need to know the background of the hero. What led him to risk his life for others? Did he have a happy childhood or was it less than ideal? What he was is not all of who he is, but it has impacted it. The writer should know what it was as again, it's part of the escapism of being a writer that we can create what feels real and yet is exciting in a background sort of way. All that we know about a character does not have to appear in the pages. The emotional impact of it though will.

 

Over the years, I've read  sociological studies on who reads romance novels. What does it do to them? Does it it ruin marriages? Overall, the results seem to be romances are read most by those in high pressure jobs, like say nurses.  Marriages are not damaged by reading those books, as they are escapism, not wanted to be real, just to take a break from reality. They might though hide the covers if on a subway, train or bus as there are a lot of jokes around romance novels and those heroes and heroines :).  

You know men have their own escapes but they are different with suspense or macho heroes like a Tom Clancy book. One way or the other, neither sex want to live these escapes. Their lives are generally pretty good. My experience in talking with men who do give romances a try is they are surprised at the action in them.

Heroes come in many forms from the ones who spiritually save the world, the lovers (not only of women but of life and children) and those who are warriors that believe this is sometimes the only way for a good life.  

 

When you are writing a book, it all takes time to work through what is best and what works for the writer's own life. While writing and imagining what is to come, the world fades away into a new world and characters.

 I bought this image from Deposit Photos because it fits one side of the hero; but then, I worried if it had been made by AI. Is there a way to tell? It would never probably work for one of my book covers, given where my books are set. I can still enjoy the beauty and power of it, the energy that it takes to change the world when all seems going awry. What is a hero willing to sacrifice?

 

 

 

Chasing Characters

 

From 2007, this is a photo that Ranch Boss took, illustrating the inspirations I draw around when writing. In this case-- art (3 prints, 1 original oil), an old saddle, music, rocking chair, and out the window toward the creek. Music needs to be soundtracks with no lyrics to produce energy and not distractions.

Now, comes the next stage for a creative path where it comes to writing fiction, which could lead to short stories, articles, even YouTube fiction, or go onto a novelette, novella or full length novel. When looking for distractions to someone's personal life, where life is less than what they want, fiction writing/reading can be one way. 

Where it comes to creating, I have tried many paths, the ones where I spent the most time were painting, sculpture, and writing-- the latter where I think I've learned the most as I've done it over the most years-- from a kid to at this time of my life. 

My books are not bestsellers; so if that is your goal, maybe look elsewhere. If it is to find yourself carried away from your daily grind and find a creative work that inspires you, read on. I don't have a formula but rather a way of life, a rewarding part of my experiences. My hope is to inspire readers to find that also. For me, it has been writing adventure romances, both historical and contemporary.

People sometimes ask writers if they use real people in their stories. It is one of the risks of being a friend to an author. I do use real people but always mixed in with other aspects. It's nice to create characters a combination of fantasy and reality. Having known a variety of 'people types' through my many years, I can draw on a type, without turning it into a 'stereotype'. 

What to me is interesting about types is how in real life (or what we call real), people can be a type but there are more aspects to who they are. I think this works best in writing also. 

An example, I have one secondary character in my Arizona historicals where he made a great juxtaposition to the hot hero (in my romances all the heroes are hot even if they didn't appear to be on the first sighting of them), who teased about him being his mother since he'd never known a real one. That secondary turned out to make a hero for his own book (a novella), later in time, and readers got to see a second side to him that was there all along and they could reread and find it. Uh, yes, he was what can be considered old at almost sixty, but that didn't mean the fire was out. 

image purchased from Canstock to fit that character as I saw him

Humans have roles they often play in life, and hence it is with characters in books. Making characters feel real but still interesting  (let's face it, a lot of us are not that interesting as we go about our lives) is part of what makes time with those people enjoyable to readers and writers-- maybe escapism, which we can all use now and again. 

As a writer. I spend more time with my characters than any reader ever will-- which is why I want them to be interesting, especially when fleshing out the personalities of secondary characters. Make these people feel they could have lived and through them, we get to experience a different life.

As writers, we observe what is around us, which involves the terrain but also the community. I am very much a dreamer, as in a nighttime dreamer. My dreams are full of characters and experiences over which I have no control-- that I know of anyway. I find it amazing, when I wake up, what my brain or the muse has put together for a vivid night full of activity. Many nights, it's like watching a movie until dawn. 

Rarely do I have nightmares. I think that's because I don't watch horror movies or stories where violence is in the offing from the time I have turned on the remote. I know it can be a very successful genre like with Stephen King type writers. I just cannot spend that long with such danger. On the other hand, I love suspense in my stories and a good villain makes for a very interesting writing experience for me and worthy challenge for the protagonists. I guess there is a thin line. ???

Besides accumulating characters for books, there can be a lot of time between the original idea for a story and beginning to write it. I believe while we want it to feel real, we also want it to be an escape from daily reality. There is that thin line again. 

A big part of that working involves having meaningful main protagonists; for a romance, that means love interests, which my books mean hero and heroine (if we can still use those terms). So, next blog will involve those main characters, the ones that keep people reading and make them feel good for the adventure they just went on.

One of our photos in Montana and another example of what I love out here.Those black dots that you see in the distance are cattle. Up close, it's a herd of antelope. Some prey species travel individually and some in herds or flocks.

Finding A Creative Path

The image of the eagle and a dramatic sky, on an earlier blog, which I had bought some years back from Canstock, is one that inspired me. I had never used it in a cover or trailer for my books, but sometimes we need things for ourselves that help us reach out and up. Old or young, we can do that. 

The one above here is one that I personally found amusing (though likely the one who posted it was deadly serious), and that we took maybe more than twenty years ago. It is another image of the American West that some would find scary or irritating. I've never been in that store because that day we were on our way to Jerome, Arizona, but I've been in others very like it in other places in the West (that I might someday write about (if I can find photos to back up the story). Keep in mind that a creative path might not have in it all of what you expected.

We can pull up memories from our own lives, from earlier years-- especially when going through dark times. I've shown what I look like now. For the blogs to come, I'll share some of my earlier photos and memories that help me with creativity today with the hope it will encourage you to find your own soul places.

No, I am not the woman  in that photo today, well I am underneath some wrinkles and gray hair. About twenty years ago, I was her, standing there with my husband holding the camera, knowing we were staying in the motel just outside the park.

Today, it's holding those memories, not with regret that they are gone, but with joy that they ever were my reality. They can be pulled back in a time when such moments are not possible at my current age. I don't need them to be as I have the creative impulse that stays with me. Also, having been some special place, I can easily pull up the smells and feeling of the breezes, not just the view. I can use that when I write some of my books... or in a blog.

Finding our own creative path is not the same as for others. We should not want it to be, just be glad our path ever existed. The above photo is one of many we took at Monument Valley. I had always wanted to see it since it had been the background in many movies, especially John Ford westerns.

I wanted to learn more about its history, which added to the storage inside my head. I thought I'd be back, but never worked out not because of force but rather other opportunities. 

For the coming blogs, I will share not only the pieces of my life that benefit me today, but also the creative paths I follow today-- some with frustration as I deal with the march of time. 

There are various reasons why I've never set a book in Monument Valley, but I have used country near it. The Valley itself is owned by the Navajo nation, where they control access. Fortunately, visitors can drive the road and stop for many photos as we did. More good memories.

For me, the big thing is not thinking of such moments with regret. Just be glad they ever existed. Some people want to travel to Europe or other places across the ocean. I never did and turned down the opportunity whenever it arose. Ranch Boss has been around the world but always for work.

What I yearned for was to experience the American West, not as it once was, but as it is today. It is still there for those who want to look and are willing to be tough enough to spend time there-- and sometimes it can take some toughness-- to sleep under Western stars like Chris LeDoux sang about. 

We drove into the Wyoming country where LeDoux had his ranch, where Butch Cassidy and his gang had hidden away from the law. Beautiful land. I could never live there due to lack of money and not having been born there; but I could spend time there, take photographs, suck in the fragrances of sage and juniper, look at distant mountains knowing in some of them were grizzlies, black bears, cougars, and smaller predators as well as many mammals, where it is their country. 

 Again, with those memories, I feel lucky and sometimes write a book set out there. All of my books are dominantly set in the American West, the land west of the Mississippi. I've been to the East and the South and seen the beauty there too; but the West is my country, in my blood and what I most want to share with others through my books or this blog.

This link is to one of LeDoux's songs. Really worth hearing if you never have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SDXnQj_4_4

On writing and other thoughts

 

When I began to think about this thing of writing, I saw several ways to break it up. That has expanded a bit as I came across a good article in a Missoula, Montana newspaper, about an author who thinks a lot like me in terms of the writing world from her perspective based on her experiences. I related to a lot of it, though there are also differences. Here's the link to the article.

https://missoulian.com/entertainment/books/as-a-professional-romance-novelist-she-publishes-books-at-a-furious-pace-it-s-never/article_856af382-1abc-5322-9484-cf4a252aa56a.html#tracking-source=home-entertainment

Another article I had recently seen is something we all need to consider-- how much will we let AI, as in ChatGPT, influence our reading, world, and what we do.

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11775455/FOCUS-ChatGPT-launches-boom-AI-written-e-books-Amazon.html

It turns out that Amazon already has 200 books written by what is basically a bot-- and that's only the number where the author shared how they wrote the book. ChatGPT already has 100 million signed up-- or what it had when I read the article, with probably more by today.

This is a big deal for authors dependent on making an income from their creative work. But even for someone like the author in the first link or me, we want our books to be seen. Selling is how that happens, but the most important part is that others read our work-- and ideally like it. If the system is crowded with bot generated work, how will that influence what is out there.

Those who use something like ChatGPT, can turn out books like hotcakes. Are they as good as those by creative authors? Who knows. Not for my reading taste, but then I am not fond of reading formula writing either and it's been around a long time.

Stephen Hawkins wrote his concern that robots and AI would take over the world. I don't see how it could but maybe it could take over creative writing and what will it do to children as they find they don't have to write their essays-- something many of us learned much by doing whether successfully or otherwise.

More next blog about my own writing life as this time, I hope you will read those links.

We have been reading a new book by Rick Rubin-- "The Creative Act: A Way of Being." Here is one of the many worthy quotes from it.

"The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and the mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible."

This is what those people lose out on when they allow a bot to write their books or essays. I wonder though what it does to those who read such works. It would be more fair to readers and writers if it was required that the book was written by a bot. As it stands, there is no such requirement. Unless a reader is familiar with the author, they might have no clue from the blurbs.

by Diane: Update #1: My process in making a new painting goal

Clearing the way for an exciting new direction 

 is one of the best parts of exhibiting my paintings.

Studio before hanging my exhibit

 

Thirty paintings stacked against the wall

waited to be hung at Albany Public Library January 5 - February

Love seeing my work in a large space like the library! The spaciousness of the library gives me a different perspective in which to self-judge my direction!

With a good many of my paintings gone, I have room to clean and organize my work space. 

   For my quest to make a resolution  in addition to house cleaning, I watched the DVD Netflix documentary, "Monk with a Camera."  For me, an admirer of Buddhist philosophy, but with no plan of becoming Buddhist, a movie about a convert stimulated my questioning the psychological health of playing with art as I do.



Inspired by my 2002 painting
of a China /Tibet
 monk's studio, I am removing all
but the most necessary 
tools from my work space
to make a  relaxing,
 soothing, contemplative,
painting place.
 Easy to use while I continue
 as a care giver
the next two months.
 

        
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"Monk with a Camera" is a 1914 documentary about the spiritual journey of photographer Nicholas Vreeland, the grandson of Vogue magazine editor, Diana Vreeland and Ambassador Frederich Vreeland. Nicholas rejected the life style of privilege that he was born to especially the glitz and expectations of high society.  Seeking the advise of the Dalai Lama, he moved to India where he in earnest studied at the Rato Dratsang Monastery.

      

        He worried that the more he took pictures, the more he would want to take them.  Making art would be intoxicatingly presumptuous of his importance. As a monk, in contrast to being a photographer, his identity was abandoned first by shaving his head of hair. Without hair on his head he felt in a sense naked of identity. He lived a sparse existence with only the most necessary things needed to live. He gave up his immaculate perfectly polished expensive shoes. After years of being a monk when charged with elitism because he was polishing his sandals like he used to polish his shoes showing off his elite superiority.  He explained the difference,"Polished sandals last longer." 

          As a monk if he spent his time taking pictures, he would be thinking as a photographer even without a camera in his hands.  If he was thinking like an artist photographer much of the time, his ego would be gratified so gretly that he would wipe away the humility of being a monk. In becomming a monk ones former identity is abandoned and individualism does not exist. Photography in addition would become an addiction.

      

         In my opinion being immersed in a pictorial art form is transforming  my values. I gradually  become resistant to advertisements. I do not desire most material things. The longer I have marketed my paintings for sale, the less my ego feels stroked by sales and more and more my art is about sharing my experience.

         Maybe I should take from Niki's first Buddhist teacher Kyonal Rato who at age 80 bought a chest full of windup music boxes in the shape of stuffed animals. He enjoyed orchestrating the play of these boxes to make a pretend musical show. And at more than 90 years of age he took child-like pleasure with his toys but kept them segregated from most of his life. His separating play just like the young Tibetan students at the monastery who played a board game on Mondays.  The China Tibetan Monks also were playing "football" (soccer). Buddhist Monks play. And  I feel confirmed in my art journey. Shouldn't I consider painting serious play fulfilling a basic human need to play?

 

       Another Netflix video "ADVANCED STYLE" by Ari Seth Cohen has one parallel philosophy - "Money cannot buy style."  The video exposes the under recognized fashion sense of individuality in seven women in their 60's through 90's. They embrace shopping to build outfits expressing themselves as art. They flourish showing they are better than the advertised merchandise trying to sell the latest fad to all.  They have found the zest of being alive and vibrant in the  same New York City that Nicki rejected.
         The ladies of "ADVANCED STYLE" celebrated the importance of being individuals while Nicholase Vreeland rejected the importance of the individual when he became a monk.
 

       Also pertinent to my considering a different direction for this period of care giving is a Great Courses selection, "THE SHAPE OF NATURE" of lectures by Professor Satyan L. Devados inwhich the most important concept is that form and function is interrelated.  For me as an artist, the design of my studio space is the form in which my art making is the function. 

       In my next update, I plan to share my self critic of my work at the library and hopefully show  progress in rearranging my studio. Maybe even new paintings.