Rosanne Bittner's Blog, page 4

        It’s chaos out there, isn’t it? The daily news has become repetitive and depressing. Right is wrong, and wrong is right. You don’t know whom to trust, and car lots and store shelves are half empty because product is unavailable – and that’s because there aren’t enough people working to keep things running smoothly. We hear about an uptick in prices, taxes, and crime, while hurricanes and wildfires prevail. We miss peoples’ smiles because of masks, and we worry about that invisible creature called Covid.

        Life seems to have changed dramatically, but when I study the history of this country, it hits me that things haven’t changed as much as we think they have. There have always been plagues, and there has always been scheming, underhanded corruption in our government. There have always been the greedy, the middle-class and the poor, all struggling to get what they think they deserve. There has always been conflict over states’ rights and how to keep up our infrastructure, as well as conflict over fossil fuels, workers’ rights, women’s rights and voting rights. Nothing has really changed.

 

        Today I had to travel to an appointment that took me along Interstate 94 here in southern Michigan, a trip I have to make often but have hated all summer because of major construction going on. Those construction areas seem to just add to today’s frustrations – people going too fast in zones where you should slow down, semi trucks behind you, in front of you, beside you, and coming at you when there is only a small cement barrier between you and that behemoth bearing down on you. Moments like that make me want to go home – my safe zone. But then, I wonder if someone will even invade that, too.

        We are bombarded from every direction – television, traffic, kids, jobs, spouses, rude people, school, the ding-dong of appliances, phones and doorbells, and, of course, the ever-present internet and all its ways of coming right into our home uninvited, through our computers and telephones, and even through our automobiles. 

 

        Sometimes we just have to take a deep breath and take a moment to enjoy pure quiet. When I got home from that wild ride down I-94 today, I took some groceries into the kitchen and realized how quiet the house was. I was tired, so I just stood there, breathed deeply, and listened to the ticking of the several clocks in my house. I love clocks, and I find that ticking a soft comfort.

        So I just stood there and listened. Tick, tick, tick. Just me. Alone. Silence, but for those ticking clocks. And it was kind of nice. It was a moment that reminded me that life outside the door could seem chaotic, noisy and dangerous. But when you are lucky enough to have a home to call your own, a place where you can walk inside and close the door to that world “out there,” it is something to appreciate. Of course, it’s even nicer when a kitty-cat or a dog greets you lovingly. Creatures who love you no matter what else is happening in the world always make a difference.

 

       Take time out once in a while to just stand and listen. Listen to the clocks. Listen to the refrigerator turn on, or the air. Listen to your own breathing. Remind yourself that life goes by much too fast, so don’t let the outside world make it seem to pass by even faster. Don’t let the chaos create havoc in your own heart and mind. Find your safe zone, breathe deeply, and enjoy that special place. Whatever that place is, don’t let anyone take it from you. And visit it every day, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes. Just stand and listen. Feel your own pulse and be glad you woke up today, alive and well.

        I wrote a blog several months ago titled “PAGE ONE.” It was about how intimidating Page One can be when starting a new book. Well, I am having the same problem with Book #75, which I have started (and did already write Page One). However, every chapter – every page - feels like “Page One” to me – i.e. – the whole book is intimidating because it’s my first big contemporary story. I have a title but won’t give it away yet, so I’ll just call it Book #75.

        Mind you, in today’s times a writer has to be aware of all that’s going on “out there” as far as everybody being offended by just about anything and everything. When you consider the fact that Book #75 contains a host of themes/subject matters/emotional baggage/etc. that could “offend” others, I am a nervous wreck. I don’t even know what genre this story fits. It’s a mixture of murder mystery, faith/inspiration, American Indian customs and beliefs, culture clash, divorce, drugs, hot sex, violence, assassination, Native American fancy dancing, and an Indian/white romance – and oh, did I say culture clash? Yes.

        Book #75 is a romance beyond romance, a love story between two people who never, ever, ever should have thought they could live in each other’s worlds, let alone make it work for the rest of their lives. The hero’s Lakota family and friends insist he needs to leave things alone and stick with the world he knows best – and not mess with a woman who not only belongs to a whole different world, but who doesn’t know beans about American Indian culture. And the heroine’s family and friends feel the same – she has no business loving a man who could never fit into her life, nor she into his.

 

        Ahhh, but we all know that “love conquers all,” doesn’t it? That will happen in Book #75, but not without a LOT of conflict! Bringing these two together might “offend” some readers because of the realistic way I will make it happen. It’s the culture clash that worries me. I am going to be truthful and honest (to the best of my ability and with what I know from years of studying Native American culture, especially the Sioux and Cheyenne). At the same time, I understand all the misunderstandings harbored by many of those who have lived only in the white world – those who have never studied our American Indians, about reservation life, ancient customs and beliefs, and problems today’s Indians have with our government (little has changed in the last 250 years!). The heroine in Book #75 is a blond, blue-eyed New-Englander who is, of all things, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution – i.e. a descendant of original pilgrims! I mean, really? These two would have been enemies 250 years ago, and that is what will make this a very powerful love story. They absolutely do not belong together.

 

        This will not be an easy book to write, but I have published numerous Indian/white romances over my 40 years of writing. However, they were always set in the 1800’s, an era I am comfortable writing. It’s all I know, so moving into contemporary is not easy for me. As I do so, I guess I just have to take my chances as far as worrying about offending readers. I don’t consider writing the truth and honest emotions and typical misunderstandings offensive. We all struggle with such things, and it’s not our fault. All races and cultures have so much to learn about each other’s beliefs and religions and basic makeup, and the more we learn, the more tolerant we become. No one changes overnight, and not all people are willing to accept differences. It’s a sad statement to make, but that’s how it is, and showing that in a story is just part of real life.

 

       Wait until you find out how the hero and heroine meet in this story! It’s unusual and exciting, and it’s instant high voltage. Although it’s not noted verbally, it’s damn well felt physically and emotionally. BOTH will be thinking – “Good God, now what do I do? I’d better get the hell out of this as fast as I can.” But neither can let the other go. And BOTH come with a busload of personal baggage that just makes it all even more difficult. The hero has been through hell from losing his wife and her unborn baby to an assassination he is sure was meant for him. He was gravely wounded and fought to get off opioids, and he is possessed with a determination to learn who did this to him. He’s a grieving widower who has no desire to find another woman … until he meets the heroine, who in turn is NOT looking for another man after a really ugly divorce from an ex who physically and mentally abused her.

 

        And so, the story begins. I have put this off for too many years, so I’ll take the risk of “offending” someone and write it. I think the theme of “love conquers all” is always a winner. I hope you do, too.

 

 

      I love writing about family, especially series stories where the primary couple in Book #1 is still front and center, but I go into the lives of their children and even grandchildren, and how all of them are affected by events surrounding that main couple. In my OUTLAW HEARTS series, Jake Harkner is an outlaw when he meets heroine Miranda. Throughout the rest of the series a reformed Jake goes to prison, then becomes U.S. Marshal. Children are born and grow up and have children of their own, and through it all Jake’s past keeps raising its ugly head to create problems and challenges to the Harkner clan. These problems have a way of bringing the family closer, and I love those family ties, especially Jake’s relationship with his son. It is so touching.

 
       Sometimes we writers live vicariously through our books, because our lives and relationships are seldom as “perfect” as we make them out to be in our stories. But the fact remains that we are born, we live, we have children, then grandchildren – and now our first great-grandson has come into the picture. Little Bannon was born July 21st, and it warms my heart to know the bloodline goes on. Hubby and I were once the “young couple” – then the parents – then grandparents – and now our oldest grandson has had a child.  (The photo at the top is of  me, my oldest son, and HIS son, my oldest grandson Brennan -- and here I am with Brennan's son Bannon!)

 
       It’s called the circle of life, and it’s a joyous fact. We celebrate weddings, the birth of children, the birth of grandchildren … and on it goes, so that in spirit, we never really die. A part of us goes on, and everything I’ve experienced in my 76 years now goes into my stories because I’ve “been there.” I know how to write young love, as well as eternal love and what it takes to hang in there together through the tough times. I know how to write a wife’s heart, a mother’s heart, and a grandmother’s heart, as well as the experience of being a sister and an aunt. I know the pain of childbirth, the ache of losing one’s parents, and the shock of learning about a son on drugs and realizing two sons can be raised exactly the same way but turn out as different as night and day. All that is a good source for story ideas.

 

        In real life, problems don’t always get solved. There isn’t always a happy ending. But I try to always give a happy ending to my stories, because readers need that. I’ve heard from many readers who tell me one of my books helped them get through their own bad days, or a personal trauma or sickness, and I’m glad of that. I’ve been called an “emotional powerhouse,” and most of that emotion comes from writing reality and writing about family.

 

        Hey – I’m Italian. It’s always family first.

 

 

 
      I have often talked about how writing has been a catharsis for me through numerous “life” challenges over these many years. In return, I have also heard from many of my readers about how one or more of my books helped them get through the same types of problems - emotional crashes, health problems, marriage problems, the challenges of children, death in the family and numerous other depressing experiences.  

        I just read an article by Jennifer King Lindley called FICTIONAL THERAPY, published in the June 2021 edition of HEALTH magazine. The article brought to light all of the above, and I’m so glad I’ve had the ability and opportunity to use my writing for both my own problems and to help others through theirs. 

 

        In Ms. Lindley’s words, “Losing yourself in a novel isn’t just relaxing – it can actually help you process your own worries and emotions.” She points out that reading encourages you not to dwell on your misery, but rather focus on the positive. In reading about fictional problems that truly are very real in everyday life, you realize that others have gone through some of the same tragedies we have, and they came out the other side of those problems triumphant.

        Such successes in life are probably made more positive and real in reading romance – stories that present typical life challenges and nearly always end with joy and happiness. In Ms. Lindley’s words, “We work through our own emotions by living through the characters’ passions and crises.” How true!

 
        According to the research conducted and used in Ms. Lindley’s article, reading for just six minutes reduces a readers’ heart rate and muscle tension. Reading can also make a person more tolerant of others and more patient with their own tribulations. It can also ease loneliness and bring us into the world of the characters in the story, helping us think about others instead of ourselves.

        

       The article points out that in today’s world of tweeting and Instagram and Facebook and constant, constant “instant” news and world-wide tribulations, it has become more difficult to slow down and concentrate on reading a whole novel. However, if we keep ourselves trained to read at a slower pace and zero in on the story at hand, absorbing it at perhaps twenty to thirty minutes of reading at a time, we will begin to want more and find ourselves reading more and more every day because we allow ourselves to become immersed in an entirely new and different world that takes us away from too much reality on the internet and TV.

 

        Let reading be your cure for what ails you, your catharsis, your medicine that soothes the soul and can even take away some of your pain, both physical and emotional. I hope I’ve been able to do that for many of you in the past, and I will try to continue doing so in the future with new stories that take you on a journey from reality into fiction that in turn becomes your reality.

 

Enjoy!

 

NOTE:  For all of you who follow my blog via email --  as of July, the email subscription service will be discontinued!  I invite you to join  Rosanne Bittner's Heart of the West Street Team, where I post all the latest news, including links to new blogs; or, you can contact  me at [email protected] to receive an email with the URL whenever I post a new blog.

 

COMING IN LATE FALL 2021:

 

 

            Recently, I thumbed through my file cabinet filled with all my written notes for every book I���ve written, and it struck me what a long journey I have taken with my writing. There are some really old files in that cabinet ��� old notes I���d forgotten about. I found one folder titled HARVEST OF OUR SINS. I wondered what the heck it was, because I never wrote a book with that title. I looked in the folder, dated 1991, and all the notes were for the story that became OUTLAW HEARTS! The note paper was old and worn, the notes faded, but there it was. So my beloved Jake has been on my mind for 30 years!

 

        I don���t remember intending to call that first story HARVEST OF OUR SINS, but it makes sense when you think how far my character Jake Harkner has come from his sinful past. I do remember what started my idea for the OUTLAW HEARTS series. I distinctly remember standing in front of the bathroom mirror in our old house on a small lake in Coloma. I was drying my hair ��� getting ready to go to my day job ��� and, as always, I was thinking about what I should write next. The simple idea came to me ��� an outlaw who tries to change his life, and the woman who helps him do that ��� the ���bad man with a good heart��� theme I love to write. I didn���t have any pen or paper with me, so I quickly wrote the idea down on the back of a check book with an eyebrow pencil. True story.

 

        Now, 25 years after that first book was published, I have finished a sixth book to the series. I never dreamed, or intended, that the first book would turn into a series, but Jake haunted me for the next 20 years. I knew I had to write more about him and his beloved Miranda. I knew what would happen in a second book, and then I found an editor who agreed to let me write it. Of course, I knew after #2 that there had to be more. I had to keep following Jake and Randy and their children and grandchildren.

 
       As I looked through all those old folders, and remembered starting my writing with an old manual typewriter, I wonder sometimes how on earth I wrote so many books while working full time, helping my husband clear property we had purchased that needed a lot of work, helping pick 40 acres of asparagus that my husband farmed, and raising two active boys, taking care of ageing parents, going through brain surgery, two broken wrists (at the same time), other surgeries, a move to Colorado that didn���t work out, a move back to Michigan, and countless other ���life��� events. 

 

        I moved my ���office��� from a corner of the bedroom in our then-very-small house to a corner of the living room, to a cottage on our property that we decided to rent out, so I moved back to a spare bedroom in the little house when one son moved out, then to a bedroom in our current home, then to a big office at our family business. We left the business, so back home I came ��� to a corner of the living room, then an area in the kitchen, then back to a spare bedroom that used to be a playroom for the grandsons ��� who are now grown. That���s where I am now. The above picture of me at a typewriter was taken when I first started writing in the corner of my living room, back around 1980. I had long hair and was a LOT skinnier then!

 

        I have learned that it doesn���t make any difference if I have a big, plush office, or just the corner of a room. I can write anywhere. I remember finishing a book in a hotel room in Las Vegas before we bought our condo out there. After that, I had an office in a spare bedroom in the condo until we sold it in 2017. I���ve worked on books in countless hotel and motel rooms. I never travel without my laptop and a small printer. In Vegas I used to take several chapters to a new manuscript with me to the casino and sit at a Starbuck���s and proofread and edit while my husband spent 3-4 hours in the poker room. I���m not a big gambler, so I used that time to work on my writing.

 

With Dee Brown in 1986
        I can write anywhere and everywhere. My mind is always, always actively thinking about the next book, or the next chapter to the one I���m working on. If I���m not writing, I���m studying for research. I seldom read regular books. I read for research, and for me, that���s more entertaining than reading regular books.

         I look through old pictures and remember numerous conferences and book signings and meetings and years and years of traveling for research. In this blog I am including a picture of me with Dee Brown, the author of BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, my ���Bible��� of sorts for all my books about the American Indians. I recommend EVERYONE read that book. The picture was taken at a Western Writers of America conference in Montana around 1986. I remember Janelle Taylor, who also wrote Native American stories around the same time and for the same publisher (Kensington Books) back in the 1980���s. We have some good memories. That is Janelle, standing beside me in the orange suit, at yet another big writers conference. I don���t even remember which one it was. 

 

With Janelle Taylor
        Now I look at shelves of my own books, and I look through all those old files, and I feel like all those characters lived and told their stories through me. If I lived to be 200, I���d be writing more and more books. My biggest fear is dying before I write all the stories I still want to write, and I struggle with which one to write next. I have at least 5 solid stories in my head right now, including a WWII story, a contemporary, and more Outlaw Hearts stories, as well as sequels to several of my older books. I have to calm myself down sometimes and remind myself I can only write one book at a time, so just pick one and get started.

 

        Forty years ago, when I started writing, I had a lot more energy and stamina. I wrote just as many books per year (actually more) as I do now as a retired person with no kids around to interrupt my thoughts. I used to write with the TV blaring right beside me, and two boys wrestling on the living room floor. I am still able to block out everything around me, but sometimes it helps to put on my earphones and listen to my ���mood music.���

 

        What has changed today is age, of course. It���s much harder to sit for hours without getting up, and I���m paying for that now with a bad hip, but I���ll work it out. I get tired easier, but as long as my brain and my fingers keep working, I will keep writing. When I look through all those old notes, I get nostalgic. I literally miss all those characters. They are like old friends who have moved away. I want them back. I want to continue their stories. And if God lets me live long enough, I will write those sequels.

 

        I remember when I wrote my first book, a 3,000-page disaster called WINDS FROM OREGON, I decided then and there that I was going to sell a book no matter what. I wrote eight more books with no luck. It was the ninth book that sold (SAVAGE DESTINY #1, SWEET PRAIRIE PASSION). Kensington Publishing asked me to make a series out of that story. ���Of course!��� I said, but I had no idea what would happen in any of the stories. I just knew I���d just sold four books, and that���s all that mattered. Four turned into six. Then a few years later I wrote that seventh book ��� EAGLE���S SONG. From there on it was non-stop. I knew my passion, and nothing was going to get in the way, so I wrote every extra minute I could find. I turned 24-hour days into 48-hour days, and I slept 2-5 hours a night ��� for years. I think back on all of that, and I just take a deep breath and wonder how I did it. I have no memory of most of it ��� no memory of how I found the time and energy to write all those big books while living a very busy life. It���s no wonder I feel kind of worn out now.

 

With Maura Kye-Casella
        I feel I should mention certain people who have been with me through all of it ��� namely my husband Larry, who always believed in me. My two sons, Brock and Brian, who put up with a ���mentally absentee��� mother a lot of the time, my mother (now deceased) who supported me and who loved to travel with me to book signings and conferences, my writer friend Lucy Naylor Kubash (in the picture with me at the end of the blog), with whom I have traveled and shared hotel rooms countless times at conferences and book signings over these nearly 40 years, and Michelle Crean, my web site designer, who started out as a fan and recommended I build a web site to keep in touch with my fans. My first agent was Denise Marcil, who kept me published for many, many years, and now my current agent, Maura Kye-Casella, who helps me keep up with today���s publishing demands and who helped me start publishing with Amazon. That���s me in dark turquoise standing with Maura at yet another writers conference. A lot of things have changed in the publishing industry over these many years, and an agent is a big help in keeping the writer informed of what will and will not work for his or her genre.

 

        And, of course, there are my many fans out there who have supported me over the years. I���ve been writing so long that some of them have passed, but they will always remain in my heart. If I named them all, this blog would be five pages longer. Some day we will all get together in Heaven and talk about writing and some of their favorite characters.

 

        I have discovered I feel very unfulfilled and restless and bored when I am not working on a new story. Writing feeds my energy, lifts my spirits, gives me purpose to stay healthy, and helps me realize I am still important in this world of the internet and god-awful politics and video games and the speed at which people live their lives today. Sometimes I want to just yell, ���Slow down! Life is too short for all this craziness!���

 

        I prefer life like you see on Andy Griffith, a rocking chair on the front porch, where you sit and listen to the birds, watch all those busy people go flying by in their cars, smell the fresh air, and think about the next story I���m going to write. As of that sixth OUTLAW HEARTS story ��� BLAZE OF GLORY ��� I will have had 74 books published. God willing, I will reach 100 before I leave this world and go join all my characters in the after -life.

With Lucy Kubash

 

            Recently, I thumbed through my file cabinet filled with all my written notes for every book I’ve written, and it struck me what a long journey I have taken with my writing. There are some really old files in that cabinet – old notes I’d forgotten about. I found one folder titled HARVEST OF OUR SINS. I wondered what the heck it was, because I never wrote a book with that title. I looked in the folder, dated 1991, and all the notes were for the story that became OUTLAW HEARTS! The note paper was old and worn, the notes faded, but there it was. So my beloved Jake has been on my mind for 30 years!

 

        I don’t remember intending to call that first story HARVEST OF OUR SINS, but it makes sense when you think how far my character Jake Harkner has come from his sinful past. I do remember what started my idea for the OUTLAW HEARTS series. I distinctly remember standing in front of the bathroom mirror in our old house on a small lake in Coloma. I was drying my hair – getting ready to go to my day job – and, as always, I was thinking about what I should write next. The simple idea came to me – an outlaw who tries to change his life, and the woman who helps him do that – the “bad man with a good heart” theme I love to write. I didn’t have any pen or paper with me, so I quickly wrote the idea down on the back of a check book with an eyebrow pencil. True story.

 

        Now, 25 years after that first book was published, I have finished a sixth book to the series. I never dreamed, or intended, that the first book would turn into a series, but Jake haunted me for the next 20 years. I knew I had to write more about him and his beloved Miranda. I knew what would happen in a second book, and then I found an editor who agreed to let me write it. Of course, I knew after #2 that there had to be more. I had to keep following Jake and Randy and their children and grandchildren.

 
       As I looked through all those old folders, and remembered starting my writing with an old manual typewriter, I wonder sometimes how on earth I wrote so many books while working full time, helping my husband clear property we had purchased that needed a lot of work, helping pick 40 acres of asparagus that my husband farmed, and raising two active boys, taking care of ageing parents, going through brain surgery, two broken wrists (at the same time), other surgeries, a move to Colorado that didn’t work out, a move back to Michigan, and countless other “life” events. 

 

        I moved my “office” from a corner of the bedroom in our then-very-small house to a corner of the living room, to a cottage on our property that we decided to rent out, so I moved back to a spare bedroom in the little house when one son moved out, then to a bedroom in our current home, then to a big office at our family business. We left the business, so back home I came – to a corner of the living room, then an area in the kitchen, then back to a spare bedroom that used to be a playroom for the grandsons – who are now grown. That’s where I am now. The above picture of me at a typewriter was taken when I first started writing in the corner of my living room, back around 1980. I had long hair and was a LOT skinnier then!

 

        I have learned that it doesn’t make any difference if I have a big, plush office, or just the corner of a room. I can write anywhere. I remember finishing a book in a hotel room in Las Vegas before we bought our condo out there. After that, I had an office in a spare bedroom in the condo until we sold it in 2017. I’ve worked on books in countless hotel and motel rooms. I never travel without my laptop and a small printer. In Vegas I used to take several chapters to a new manuscript with me to the casino and sit at a Starbuck’s and proofread and edit while my husband spent 3-4 hours in the poker room. I’m not a big gambler, so I used that time to work on my writing.

 

With Dee Brown in 1986
        I can write anywhere and everywhere. My mind is always, always actively thinking about the next book, or the next chapter to the one I’m working on. If I’m not writing, I’m studying for research. I seldom read regular books. I read for research, and for me, that’s more entertaining than reading regular books.

         I look through old pictures and remember numerous conferences and book signings and meetings and years and years of traveling for research. In this blog I am including a picture of me with Dee Brown, the author of BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, my “Bible” of sorts for all my books about the American Indians. I recommend EVERYONE read that book. The picture was taken at a Western Writers of America conference in Montana around 1986. I remember Janelle Taylor, who also wrote Native American stories around the same time and for the same publisher (Kensington Books) back in the 1980’s. We have some good memories. That is Janelle, standing beside me in the orange suit, at yet another big writers conference. I don’t even remember which one it was. 

 

With Janelle Taylor
        Now I look at shelves of my own books, and I look through all those old files, and I feel like all those characters lived and told their stories through me. If I lived to be 200, I’d be writing more and more books. My biggest fear is dying before I write all the stories I still want to write, and I struggle with which one to write next. I have at least 5 solid stories in my head right now, including a WWII story, a contemporary, and more Outlaw Hearts stories, as well as sequels to several of my older books. I have to calm myself down sometimes and remind myself I can only write one book at a time, so just pick one and get started.

 

        Forty years ago, when I started writing, I had a lot more energy and stamina. I wrote just as many books per year (actually more) as I do now as a retired person with no kids around to interrupt my thoughts. I used to write with the TV blaring right beside me, and two boys wrestling on the living room floor. I am still able to block out everything around me, but sometimes it helps to put on my earphones and listen to my “mood music.”

 

        What has changed today is age, of course. It’s much harder to sit for hours without getting up, and I’m paying for that now with a bad hip, but I’ll work it out. I get tired easier, but as long as my brain and my fingers keep working, I will keep writing. When I look through all those old notes, I get nostalgic. I literally miss all those characters. They are like old friends who have moved away. I want them back. I want to continue their stories. And if God lets me live long enough, I will write those sequels.

 

        I remember when I wrote my first book, a 3,000-page disaster called WINDS FROM OREGON, I decided then and there that I was going to sell a book no matter what. I wrote eight more books with no luck. It was the ninth book that sold (SAVAGE DESTINY #1, SWEET PRAIRIE PASSION). Kensington Publishing asked me to make a series out of that story. “Of course!” I said, but I had no idea what would happen in any of the stories. I just knew I’d just sold four books, and that’s all that mattered. Four turned into six. Then a few years later I wrote that seventh book – EAGLE’S SONG. From there on it was non-stop. I knew my passion, and nothing was going to get in the way, so I wrote every extra minute I could find. I turned 24-hour days into 48-hour days, and I slept 2-5 hours a night – for years. I think back on all of that, and I just take a deep breath and wonder how I did it. I have no memory of most of it – no memory of how I found the time and energy to write all those big books while living a very busy life. It’s no wonder I feel kind of worn out now.

 

With Maura Kye-Casella
        I feel I should mention certain people who have been with me through all of it – namely my husband Larry, who always believed in me. My two sons, Brock and Brian, who put up with a “mentally absentee” mother a lot of the time, my mother (now deceased) who supported me and who loved to travel with me to book signings and conferences, my writer friend Lucy Naylor Kubash (in the picture with me at the end of the blog), with whom I have traveled and shared hotel rooms countless times at conferences and book signings over these nearly 40 years, and Michelle Crean, my web site designer, who started out as a fan and recommended I build a web site to keep in touch with my fans. My first agent was Denise Marcil, who kept me published for many, many years, and now my current agent, Maura Kye-Casella, who helps me keep up with today’s publishing demands and who helped me start publishing with Amazon. That’s me in dark turquoise standing with Maura at yet another writers conference. A lot of things have changed in the publishing industry over these many years, and an agent is a big help in keeping the writer informed of what will and will not work for his or her genre.

 

        And, of course, there are my many fans out there who have supported me over the years. I’ve been writing so long that some of them have passed, but they will always remain in my heart. If I named them all, this blog would be five pages longer. Some day we will all get together in Heaven and talk about writing and some of their favorite characters.

 

        I have discovered I feel very unfulfilled and restless and bored when I am not working on a new story. Writing feeds my energy, lifts my spirits, gives me purpose to stay healthy, and helps me realize I am still important in this world of the internet and god-awful politics and video games and the speed at which people live their lives today. Sometimes I want to just yell, “Slow down! Life is too short for all this craziness!”

 

        I prefer life like you see on Andy Griffith, a rocking chair on the front porch, where you sit and listen to the birds, watch all those busy people go flying by in their cars, smell the fresh air, and think about the next story I’m going to write. As of that sixth OUTLAW HEARTS story – BLAZE OF GLORY – I will have had 74 books published. God willing, I will reach 100 before I leave this world and go join all my characters in the after -life.

With Lucy Kubash

 

  

       A Happy Mother���s Day to everyone! I think Mother���s Day is lovely and special, and so many mothers through the centuries have made sacrifices for their children in a hundred different ways. They deserve this special day.

        Now that so many mothers are compelled to work to help support the family, it is difficult to keep up with motherhood and daily life. But so many mothers manage to do just as good a job being mom, even when working full time, that they deserve to truly be loved and honored for what they do.

        My mother died years ago, but I still feel her ��� around me, inside me, flowing through my spiritual being. I am part of her, and death doesn���t change that. But death does bring us to the reality of what a precious gift we had when our mothers were still alive. I will always wish I had given my mom more hugs in her last years. My mom was always there for me if I was sick or had surgery. Today I would love to be able to sit in my garden behind the house and have coffee with mom and just talk.

        Above is a picture of my mother at 90. Wasn���t she beautiful? She never did look her age.

        I hope you will give your mom extra hugs and attention today and keep her in mind and in your prayers. Maybe you feel she made some mistakes in raising you, but we all do our best with what we know, and all mothers love their children with their heart and soul. No one is professionally trained to be a mother, but the loving comes naturally.

        The end of July I will be a great-grandmother! Having a great grandchild reminds me that life goes on, and we don���t stop at being just mothers. We become grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and we love those grandchildren just as much as our own. It makes my heart happy to know that my blood continues into a second and third generation.

         So, when a mother dies, she truly is not gone. She lives on and on in her children and grandchildren, and in their loving memories. God bless all mothers today, and all grandmothers.

 

 

  

       A Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! I think Mother’s Day is lovely and special, and so many mothers through the centuries have made sacrifices for their children in a hundred different ways. They deserve this special day.

        Now that so many mothers are compelled to work to help support the family, it is difficult to keep up with motherhood and daily life. But so many mothers manage to do just as good a job being mom, even when working full time, that they deserve to truly be loved and honored for what they do.

        My mother died years ago, but I still feel her – around me, inside me, flowing through my spiritual being. I am part of her, and death doesn’t change that. But death does bring us to the reality of what a precious gift we had when our mothers were still alive. I will always wish I had given my mom more hugs in her last years. My mom was always there for me if I was sick or had surgery. Today I would love to be able to sit in my garden behind the house and have coffee with mom and just talk.

        Above is a picture of my mother at 90. Wasn’t she beautiful? She never did look her age.

        I hope you will give your mom extra hugs and attention today and keep her in mind and in your prayers. Maybe you feel she made some mistakes in raising you, but we all do our best with what we know, and all mothers love their children with their heart and soul. No one is professionally trained to be a mother, but the loving comes naturally.

        The end of July I will be a great-grandmother! Having a great grandchild reminds me that life goes on, and we don’t stop at being just mothers. We become grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and we love those grandchildren just as much as our own. It makes my heart happy to know that my blood continues into a second and third generation.

         So, when a mother dies, she truly is not gone. She lives on and on in her children and grandchildren, and in their loving memories. God bless all mothers today, and all grandmothers.

 

 

        We often talk about an after-life. What happens to us after death? And, of course, people have a thousand answers, depending on their religion. Personally, I believe in a Heaven. There have been too many testimonies from people who came near death or actually did die but were revived, and most of their stories are too much alike to deny there is “something” out there waiting for us. Most speak of a very warm feeling of incredible love, as well as a bright light that seems to be drawing them in. I also believe that the spirit within us, that mysterious life on the inside that forms our personalities and shines through our eyes, is something that never dies. It just gets transferred to a new body. I simply cannot believe that all that energy within us, and all those feelings we have, the knowledge, the talents, the unique personalities, didn’t just happen. We are born with specific personalities that sometimes show up at birth. My older son took forever to be born, and he has a relaxed, laid-back personality. My second son practically fell out before I reached the hospital. He couldn’t wait to be born, and he’s led a fast-moving life ever since.

        This all leads me to wonder – was there a “before” life? Did we all live in an earlier time? I wonder sometimes what creates our idiosyncrasies. For instance, I have a penchant for coats. I almost never go into a clothing store without looking at the coats, summer or winter, but especially winter coats. I have often joked that I must have frozen to death in a previous life, or at least lived someplace where it was always very cold. I have enough coats for ten women. In fact, I just gave some away because we usually go someplace warmer in the winter (I live in Michigan), but the last couple of years we stayed home. I have coats for fall and spring chills, coats for colder weather, coats for much colderweather, and coats for North Pole weather. We get it all here in Michigan.

        Then, of course, I have raincoats and lots of sweat shirts and sweaters. I have flannel pj’s and warm slippers and an electric blanket. I can’t stand to climb into cold sheets, yet I like a cold bedroom for sleeping, as long as I’m bundled into my electric blanket. And the cold weather doesn’t bother me. It’s my husband who wants to get out of Michigan in the winter. Me? I like the cold and love lots of snow.

 

        And there are people who are just the opposite. They hate the cold and love the heat. They love beaches. I hate them, although I love the view of the Great Lakes here in Michigan and the smaller lakes. I just don’t “do” hot, sandy, sticky beaches where I sweat to death. I’d rather sit on a cool porch to watch the water, but I have no desire to be “in” the water. Some people love swimming. I hate it. I can’t stand being wet all over, my hair plastered to my head, water in my ears, a bathing suit stuck to my skin.

 

       Why is that? Why is everyone so different in such things? And what draws us to things like buying too many coats? Or hating being wet? 

 

       Sometimes I have dreams (to me they are nightmares) about flooding. My house is under water. Or rain is pouring through holes in my roof. I have never had such experiences in my entire life, so why do I dream about it? I refuse to live near a river. You couldn’t give me a million-dollar house on a river. I like to live high and dry. I’d live at the top of a mountain if I could. Our current home is on an extremely high hill, and the ground is all sand. No lakes or rivers nearby, no chance of having so much rain that water from a lake or a river could reach our house. And when it pours down rain, I keep watching the ceiling, especially in in the area of the house that has a cathedral ceiling. I literally fear a leaky roof. We have no second story, and we have no basement. To me, basements are moldy and damp and spooky, and if water is going to come into your house, it will start in the basement. I have dreams about opening a basement door and seeing water all the way up the steps.

 

       Why is that? Was I flooded in a previous life? Did I drown? Or was it something else? Was it cold weather that killed me? 

               Yes. I’m an eccentric. Most writers probably are, or they wouldn’t be crazy enough to spend hours and hours in front of a computer on top of working full time and taking care of a family. I did both for a lot of years, but I’m retired now. However, I will never retire from writing. I love it too much.

         And there again, where do we get our talents? Why do I love to write, while others love to sing or dance or act or paint or work a farm or sail the seas or join the military or be a magician? We don’t all have the same loves or the same talents, so what causes us to have these unique needs and desires and dreams?

 

        I seldom wonder about the “after” life. It’s the “before” life I wonder about? I am part Native American. And I write about Native Americans and almost always about the American West, where I have always longed to live, especially Colorado. Is there a Native American spirit inside me? Did I once live among the Cheyenne in Colorado? I’ve written many books about them.

 

        The Bible says that when we die, all these questions will be answered. I don’t really want to have to die to find out, and yet part of me looks forward to finding out. A lot of our talents and inner spirit comes from those whose blood we carry. Sometimes that spiritual connection makes us the way we are, whether we like it or not. No matter how much you try to force people of two different backgrounds to live together, they will always have their own unique spirit and personality, because they can’t help but carry it forward from those who went before them. 

 

        I have no idea why I wrote this particular blog. It just hit me today as I wondered about all the coats I own. Most women own 2-3 coats and are perfectly happy with that. But I’m not. I need a red coat, a black coat, a navy-blue coat, a brown coat, an animal-fur coat, a suede coat, and I need boots and shoes that go with those coats. I need short coats, long coats, light-weight coats and coats that keep me oblivious to the cold.

 

        The only other thing I need is my precious readers, who understand that I’m a little crazy but love the books that craziness creates. I just finished book #74, BLAZE OF GLORY, and I just know my readers will love this sixth story about Jake Harkner and his family from my Outlaw Hearts series. It is full of action and romance, and the J&L Ranch in Colorado is growing bigger all the time, as is the Harkner family.

 

        Hey, they live in Colorado, my favorite state in the entire country. I ache to live there . . . and here we go again. I love, love, love the America West but was born in Indiana and raised in Michigan. Michigan is a beautiful state, but my spirit – I just know – belongs out west. I cry for the want of living there, but the family and all connections are here, and I’m too old to pick up and start all over, so here I am in Michigan, but aching to be in Colorado. I am convinced I lived there in a “before” life. And my characters become so real to me that I believe they truly once lived and are spiritually telling me their story.

 

        I guess that’s a topic for another blog.

 

 

 

        I have seldom been able to write a short story. I’ve tried. I’ve written stories for anthologies, such as MISS CHOCOLATE AND THE LAW, in an anthology titled LOVE BY CHOCOLATE. I wrote INDIAN SUMMER, a prequel to my novel, FULL CIRCLE. Then there was A CHICK-A-DEE CHRISTMAS, for the anthology, CHRISTMAS IN A COWBOY’S ARMS (my story was a fifth story to my Outlaw Hearts series); CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE, for the anthology LONGING FOR A COWBOY CHRISTMAS; THE TOUCH OF LOVE, a bonus story for my MYSTIC INDIAN trilogy; and FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE, in an anthology called CHERISHED LOVE.

        Now I have written TROUBLE RIDES A FAST HORSE, for an anthology titled LOST AND FOUND, a book published as a fund-raiser for the GRAND RAPIDS ROMANCE WRITERS GROUP (not affiliated with Romance Writers of America). The other short stories mentioned above were all novellas, roughly 15,000 – 20,000 words. TROUBLE RIDES A FAST HORSE is only about 5,000 words in length, which is the shortest story I have ever written.

 

        Writing a short story is very hard for me. In every single idea I have ever had, I see a full novel. I could take any one of the above short stories and turn them into a 90,000-100,000 word novel. Whether long or short, I get very involved in a story’s characters, and I want to flesh them out, stay with them far longer, come up with surrounding characters, back story, goals and motivations that need a long story to be worked out.

     

   But that’s just me. My sons say I could make a four-page letter out of something that would take 2-3 sentences to explain, and they are right. I have written letters I have had to cut and cut and cut in order to get them down to one page of the most pertinent information. I have never been a fan of reading or writing short stories, but I know there are plenty of great stories out there, and I admire anyone who can write them and write them well. My good friend Lucy Kubash does a great job with short stories, though she is capable of writing wonderful novels also. If you look her up on Amazon or through Google, you will find listings of many of her anthologies made up of several of her own short stories. They are worth reading, and I admire how she manages to get a lot of story-telling into just a few words. It’s a talent not all writers have, and I am one of those who does not have that talent.

        I have no idea why or when I wrote TROUBLE RIDES A FAST HORSE, but it was so short that I never tried getting it published. It was just a title that I loved and I wanted to write something to go with the title, so I wrote TROUBLE, which is a contemporary story about a teenage girl with boyfriend troubles. Her grandmother tells her a story about her own boyfriend troubles when she was young, making the story something like “what goes around, comes around.” If we are patient and trust in God’s will, life will turn out like it’s supposed to.

       I hope you will order LOST AND FOUND and read TROUBLE RIDES A FAST HORSE, as well as short stories by fellow writers Diana Lloyd, Diana Stout, Jae Nel, K. D. Norris, Lisa Campeau, Martin L Shoemaker, Natalia Baird and Patricia Kiyono. The book is not only full of great short stories, but your purchase will help raise money for our writer’s group, which helps us pay for inspiring speakers, keeps our web site going, helps us sponsor contests for new writers and a host of other events that help both published and unpublished writers. That in turn helps us keep publishing books for our readers to enjoy.

       I also belong to the Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America, and we also hold fund-raisers to help raise money for the same reasons, including a yearly Retreat from Harsh Reality, a program that inspires both writers and readers. Please visit both the Grand Rapids Romance Writers Group and Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America online to learn more about both groups. MMRWA’s Retreat this year will be held via Zoom, but it will be interesting and informative and worth attending.

       For some great summer reading, please purchase LOST AND FOUND, and be sure to look into the benefits of belonging to GRRWG and/or MMRWA.

          And happy spring! The weather is finally turning beautiful! I will be spending the summer with final edits to my sixth OUTLAW HEARTS story – BLAZE OF GLORY and I will also be working on a WWII story and a new contemporary! No short stories are planned anytime soon. I have some big, big stories in mind!

 

 

 

~   *   ~   *   ~   *   ~ 

 Order LOST AND FOUND from Amazon