Candace Simar's Blog, page 5

I grew up not far from the old Fort Juleson site near Underwood, Minnesota. In 1876, after Custer’s defeat in Montana, the Upper Midwest braced for a Sioux attack. It was only 14 years after the U.S./Dakota War, and it remained fresh in their minds.

Rumors were rampant. Newspapers falsely reported Indian raids in other towns. Many feared for their lives, and left Minnesota for more settled areas.

In Otter Tail County, Civil War veterans banded together to make a stand. They chose high ground and built a defensive position. Legend has it that farmers left their harvest in the fields and fled to Fort Juleson—along with their families and livestock.

They waited for attacks that never came.

You can see the flag flying on the north side of Highway 210, just east of Underwood. It’s easy to imagine the settlers coming from all directions to the safety of the fort. I tell the story in the 4th book of the Abercrombie Trail Series, Blooming Prairie.

I’m invited to Fort Abercrombie’s opening day for their 2023 season. It’s always fun with Civil War reenactors drilling and firing the cannon. Fort historians offer golf-cart tours for a small fee. The museum is filled with artifacts of the six-week siege in 1862. The history comes alive. Opening day is an excellent time to visit Fort Abercrombie in Abercrombie, North Dakota, south of Fargo.  I’ll be there from 10am to 4pm. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Fort Abercrombie is one of my happy places. The historical site is a North Dakota treasure with its rich history and natural beauty. My great grandfather drove the stage to the fort in the 1860’s, and inspired the Abercrombie Trail Series. It’s hard to believe the peaceful spot was once a battlefield between the U.S. and Dakota. The U.S./ Dakota war occurred in 1862, between the Civil War battles of Shiloh and Antietam. The Union was losing that summer, and resources needed for the Civil War robbed the Sioux of their treaty payments. The result was over the earth I come, all-out war, by the Dakota against the United States.

The Abercrombie Trail Series and Follow Whiskey Creek tell the tragic story through the eyes of Scandinavian immigrants. Birdie (book 3 of the Abercrombie Trail Series) won the Spur Award in Juvenile fiction. Follow Whiskey Creek (previously published as Escape to Fort Abercrombie) won the Will Rogers Gold Medallion in juvenile fiction.

I worked hard to wrap a good story around the historical facts of that time and place, creating painless history lessons about the Civil War, US/ Dakota War, Shiloh, Dakota history, Minnesota history, Scandinavian immigrants, and North Dakota history.

The Score It! results are in. The literary analysis measured four areas of writing style for comparison: Authorial Vocabulary (voice); Expressive Complexity (choice and distribution of word lengths and expressive style); Grammar (parts of speech chosen including use of prepositional phrases); and Tonal Qualities (use of functional words such as a/an/of).

The results are unexpected. My writing style strongly resembles three current authors. One writes political thrillers, another writes for middle schoolers, and another writes traditional westerns.

Never in a million years would I have matched my writing style with David Baldacci, the best-selling, political-thriller writer. My writing voice was a 99% match to his, expressive complexity was a 92% match, grammar came in at 98%, and tone at 87%.  I checked out an audible version of his novel, THE TARGET, and listened to it over the weekend. It had a strangely familiar feel about it, somehow comforting.

David Baldacci is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers. -Wikipedia

If you’re a David Baldacci fan, I want to hear your input! Are we a match?

Check out my books that resemble David Baldacci’s writings!

Who writes like me? What books in today’s market resemble mine? These questions are crucial to publishing and marketing these days, but leave me stymied. I know I want to write like Kristin Hannah or Anthony Doerr, but my frontier fiction wasn’t exactly in the same category. Sandra Dallas and Jane Kilpatrick write in my genre, but my writing style is different. I never know how to answer the question—and with new books coming out, I need to know.

An email invitation to a free webinar by Bowker Identifiers attracted my attention. The title Learn to Know Whose Books are Like Yours seemed tailor-made for me. I spent a fascinating afternoon listening to the webinar and learned that each person’s writing style is unique like a fingerprint. Unlike genres, writing styles cross genres and are useful for targeted marketing. They recommended submitting a writing sample to Score It! linguistic software. The technology will compare my writing style with other authors. In other words, I’ll find out who writes like me.

It’s worth a try. I submitted a writing sample.  I’ll keep you posted on results!

Candace Simar likes to imagine how things might have been. She combines her love of history with her Scandinavian heritage in historical novels that examine the early days of Minnesota and North Dakota. “I write historical novels to share painless history lessons about the fascinating and unique history of our region.”

My final and perhaps most surprising match from my SCORE IT! writing style evaluation is my match with Ernie Altbacker, author of The SHARK WARS SERIES for middle-schoolers, plus a long list of screenwriting credits!

EJ Altbacker is an Emmy nominated screenwriter who has written for such shows as Spooksville, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Ben 10, Spider-Man and others. He currently writes for Lego Nexo Knights and the upcoming Justice League Action among other ‘super secret stuff’ he can’t tell you about yet. Handy Andy Saves the World follows EJ’s popular six-book kids adventure series, Shark Wars. –Official EJ Altbacker Website

My voice matches his at 93%, Expressive Complexity at 99%, Grammar at 90%, and Tonal Quality at 96%. His genre is far removed from my frontier historical novels, but I find it fascinating that our writing styles are compatible.

I’d be interested in hearing comments from those familiar with Ernie Altbacker’s work and mine. Do you think our books are similar?

The Score It! people claim that writing styles attract more readers than genres, and that those who enjoy an author will also gravitate toward those with similar styles. Time will tell!

My Score It! results also matched me with Tabor Evans, a western writer.

Tabor Evans’s Longarm series–with its “new slant on the Old West”, remains one of the most popular of all the “adult Westerns” commanding an impressive part of the popular Western marketplace. The series was written by “Tabor Evans”, a house pseudonym used by a number of authors at Jove Books. Lou Cameron helped create the character and wrote a number of the early books in the series. The first book was published in 1978 and new ones were added at a rate of approximately one a month through 2015.

My voice matches the illustrious “Tabor Evans” at 98%, Expressive complexity at 89%, grammar at 83%, and tone at 99%. This connection was less surprising than the David Baldacci match. After all, frontier fiction is part of the western genre, and I do have a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for BIRDIE, a Spur finalist award for BLOOMING PRAIRIE, a Will Rogers Gold Medallion for ESCAPE TO FORT ABERCROMBIE, and a Peacemaker Award from the Western Fictioneers.

I’ve not read any books by Tabor Evans, but I will do so soon.

Candace Simar is a Spur Award winner and Spur finalist from the Western Writers of America for her Abercrombie Trail series. Shelterbelts was a finalist in both the Willa Literary Awards in Historical Fiction and the Midwest Book Awards. Escape to Fort Abercrombie holds a Will Rogers Gold Medallion and a Peacemaker Award from Western Fictioneers.

Pencil to Paper: Write Your Way Through Winter! With award winning author Candace Simar  We are excited to offer our third annual Pencil to Paper, a four week writing series. Give yourself the gift of writing with this casual, fun and supportive group. Advance your writing skills and connect with other writers.   Thursdays, Noon […]

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Writing for the Truly Terrified! Join us for a two hour fun and friendly writing workshop Thursday, April 28 from 10 to noon, CST/11-1 EST/8-10 a.m. PST. Instructor Candace Simar, Award Winning Writer REGISTER: CLICK HERE:Cost $40 Do you want to write, but don’t know how to begin? Ten percent of the population has a […]

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What could be better than sitting around a table with others who are also passionate about the writing craft? The mentor program started in October is a year-long program to study the basics of good writing. Once a month, five writers gather at my house for Mentor Monday. It’s truly a delight. Message me if […]

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