Whatcha Talkin' About Willis? Only Ginger Simpson Can Explain.

Happy New Year, Everyone!  As we start another attempt at dieting, saving money or whatever resolutions you made, I've decided that better promotion of my work is going to be my goal...so, to that end, I'm sharing a post from my own blog with you.  I love Ellie and Ty and the tension they create between themselves.  I hope you'll want to find out more...in the meantime, here's a little history:

 

With the help of Books We Love, I decided to re-release the book that was voted best historical romance of 2009 by Love Romance Cafe.  What debuted as Sparta Rose has now become Ellie's Legacy because I definitely thought the story was worth an attempt to garner more readership.  The one thing that surprised me the most when I promoted the book as a "Western" historical romance, was finding out that anything on the east side of the Mississippi river is not considered a western.  Dang!

But then, I was recently reading this wonderful book The Politically Incorrect Guide to The South (and Why It Will Rise Again) by Clint Johnson, and I pretty much felt vindicated in having my story take place in Tennessee and still consider Ellie's Legacy a western-themed novel.

Now please note that all of my references here are attributed to Mr. Johnson who, I must say, wrote a very compelling and moving history of the South.  I learned a lot from this book, especially discovering that the western expansion of the United States is due largely to 140 southerners who had "adopted" God's will that the United States spread from ocean to ocean.  The period of time was between 1830 and 1850, and of the six presidents who served during this period, five were from the south.  The following details were provided by Mr. Johnson's research:

In the mid 1840s - Georgia-born John C. Fremont and Kentucky-born Kit Carson headed explorations of the west, mapping and exploring routes to encourage settlers to travel of California and Oregon.

The Mexican War (1846-1848) was led by Virginia-born generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott.  The president at the time was James K. Polk who hailed from North Carolina and Tennessee.

After the Mexican War, The Gadsden Purchase, made by South Carolinian, James Gadsden, acquired portions of Arizona and New Mexico to hopefully allow for a cross-country railroad stretching from the south to California.

Had not these brave souls from the south had the chutzpah to explore uncharted lands, unlike New Englanders who wanted to limit the size of the Union, we might never have realized life in the old west as we know it.  As Mr. Johnson states, in this case,"we would not have been a United States stretching from 'sea to shining sea.'"

So, I'm quite proud my ranch foreman, Tyler Bishop is patterned after the Stetson-wearing, rope-tossing cowboys of the west.  I can guarantee, if you read the book, you won't see much difference between Tennessee pride and that of those who settled in the areas we recognize from TV cowboy and Indian sagas.  In fact, if you read a lot of historical novels, you might recall that the lion's share of wagon trains began in Missouri with folks headed for Oregon and California.  They don't call "it" the "Oregon trail" for nothin'. 

There are so many things I didn't know about the south...  Little things like: Fourteen of the nation's top Ivy League schools are in the south, and since the inception of the Miss America pageant in 1921, one-third of the winners have been southern. Slavery was not legalized in the south, and the Confederate battle flag is symbolic of Christianity, modeled after St. Andrew's Cross (seen in Scotland's national flag and in the Union Jack of Great Britain.)

 I was born and raised in California, but since moving to Tennessee, I've come to the conclusion I was meant to be here.  Pride, honor and faith is alive and well in the south.

By the way, if you'd like to check out my work, please visit my website where I have all my books featured, along with videos/blurbs. I'm happy to say I'm still alive and kicking, and as long as I am, I'll keep pumping out western historical novels. I'm currently working on two historicals...Yellow Moon and The Well.  Yep...it means a lot of research, but I'm learning as I go.  Oh, and my BWL page is http://www.bookswelove.com/gingersimpson.php.  Note from Ginger....I finished Yellow Moon and will be submitting it soon.

Special thanks to my friend Ronnie Brown who loaned me The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South by Clint Johnson, and again to Mr. Johnson for letting me in on his southern knowledge.  Loved it!

Lady Sippington requests the pleasure of....by Sheila Claydon

As I promised, today I'm going to introduce you to Lady Sippington. I met her in Sydney where she was visiting family and I very quickly learned a lot about her.

She lives in Sippington Mansion which is a grand old house with more rooms that Lady Sippington knows what to do with. She says it's a big house for just one person but she does her best because she believes in looking after things. She also has a maid, Miss Chambers, not because she needs looking after because she's quite capable of taking care of herself, but because she believes in traditions, so Miss Chambers keeps the house tidy and makes the tea.

Tea, you see, is Lady Sippington's raison d'être. She knows a lot about tea - how to pour it (right hand on the handle, left hand holding the lid), how to hold it (pinch the teacup handle with finger and thumb and it's pinkie down not pinkie up), and how to serve it (with finger sandwiches, scones and an assortment of delicious cakes on a tiered stand). She can even tell a person's character by the tea they drink. She says a person who likes a strong breakfast blend is steadfast and reliable whereas romantic and creative people choose Earl Grey, and someone who orders extra strong tea with lemon can be stubborn and demanding. Of course I don't know if this is true but you don't argue with Lady Sippington. I mean how can you argue with someone who knows precisely how to serve and eat a scone.

Apparently you have to place the scone on your plate, then break off a piece and apply the cream by turning the spoon over and moving it slowly downwards. You then take the jam spoon and drop the jam on top of the cream.

She knows so much about the different types of tea too. Just recently, when she was hosting afternoon tea at Neiman Marcus White Plains, she happily conversed about Jardin Bleu, Gout Russe, Vanilla Decaffeinated, Green Yellow Lemon, White Anji, Chamomile and even Nutmeg Chai Latte, as well as Breakfast Tea and her beloved Early Gray. I had no idea there were so many and she tells me there are a whole lot more.

I could talk about Lady Sippington all day without doing her justice, so I'm going to let you find out all about her for yourself. You can find her at http://ladysippington.com, where she gives advice about tea and some recipes too if you are interested in serving a real English afternoon tea. If you live anywhere near White Plains, New York of course, you may be able to take tea with her at Mariposa, where she hopes to make it the best teatime experience in Westchester.

With thanks to Nina Daryanani, a tea loving English girl living in New York.

Books We Love New Releases from Ginger Simpson and Killarney Sheffield

Yellow Moon by Ginger Simpson

Yellow Moon, a Lakota maiden, accompanies her family to the Sun Dance and becomes promised to a Santee warrior who’ll soon be chief. While accompanying Thunder Eyes’ clan back to his tribe, she and the other women are stolen by the Crow, and while in Plenty Coup’s camp is told she’ll become his second wife rather than be a slave. She finds friendship and help at the hands of his first wife, a Cherokee captive called Pretty Shield. 

When Thunder Eye’s comes to rescue his betrothed, she begs him to take her newfound friend along, and the two women eventually become sisters-in-law. When the Crow come to extract their revenge, fate changes their destiny in a big way. 

 

Available Now

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S3V102K

 

 

Rags to Romance by Killarney Sheffield

 

Finny Donelly is not lady-like, in fact she isn’t a lady at all, she was born in White Chapel, the slums of 1858 London. When Devon Dowell, an adventure seeking lord stumbles upon her he figures she is sure to teach his overbearing, society climbing stepmother a lesson about meddling in his affairs. He couldn’t be more wrong. When Finny collaborates with Lord Dowell’s sister to win his love he gets more adventure than he bargains for. Can the scrawny girl in rags really be his dream lady? 

Available January 31 from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S6LH5ZI 

 

 

Is it Spring Yet? by Nancy M Bell

Is it Spring yet? I know, I know, it's only mid-January. But Winter Solstice, Alban Arthuran, has passed and the days are becoming longer with each sunrise and sunset. In some places the snow drops and crocus are thinking about waking up. Not here on the Alberta prairies though. Still, the sun is shining and I want to think about Spring today. The renewal of the season always gets my blood stirring and creative juices churning. I thought I would share a poem with you that came about one April morning when I was walking the dogs. I hope you like it.

April Earth

I saw the Earth breathe today
A pale pearl vapour rising from the plowed field
She exhaled as the east wind billowed
Her flowing breath across the raw mud

Shimmering in the April afternoon sun
Her breath shed diamonds as it hung
Above the snowy prairie

The Earth’s cold wintry breath
Mating with the warm spring sun
Birthing the moist mist dancing
In the strength of the moving air

The Raven’s shadow flashes across the snow
As he flies over head borne on April’s breath

*********


I came across another one that seemed fitting while I was looking for April Earth. This one is called February's Breath

************

February’s Breath

February’s breath is caught
In the blue embrace of strengthening sky and sun
The fairy filigree of the tree’s breath
Clings to their delicate fingers in frosty stillness

The exhalations of the earth and her children
Hang manifest in the blue silver air of early morning
Argent mist connecting field and sky
And binding all between them

The sky and wind reclaim the moisture
They lent to the earth in return
For the perfumes and bright colours
Of the prairie flowers and the dancing grain
Earth’s children who partner the wind in summer’s waltz

Here it begins in the chill breath of February
Bound beneath the iron frost and silent snow
The cold mist of earth reaches for the southern sun
Hanging in pearlescent drifts over the crystal snow

Voices whispering among the dry grasses
Soft sigh of the drifting snow
where the wind sifts it like sugar
sacred geometry figures fleeting over snowy crust
February’s breath pregnant with the promise of spring

*********

I hope you enjoy them. Below are a few pictures of my beloved prairies. The building is the East Longview Hall for those of you have read Christmas Storm, this is where Cale and Michelle attend the Travelling Mabels concert when Mary swipes Michelle's truck so she'll have to ride home with Cale. The rainbow was taken after a Travelling Mabels concert driving up the Cowboy Trail (Highway 22) toward Cochrane. It was a beautiful ending to a great day and I just wanted to share it with you. The sunset is a Chinook sunset, the frosty prairie is what it looks like here right now.

You can visit me at Books We Love, on my webpage, or my blog. There are links to my books on the Books We Love site. Til next month, take care. May the wind be always at your back and may you be in heaven an hour before the Devil knows you're dead. Saliante

Casting Your Characters - Using Astrology - Capricorn by Janet Lane Walters #BooksWeLove #MFRWauthor

As many people know, I use Astrology to understand my characters. I use three elements. I suppose I could cast a chart for each character but this might be difficult since many of my characters reside in fantasy places. Then there's the math involved. I am not a math person.

So I thought my next eleven posts will take a look at the twelve signs and some of the traits these characters might share. Since it's January and Capricorn has a few weeks to go, I'll start here. Remember that when using these traits, women are a bit different than men as far as how they use the traits. Also villains may turn positive traits into negative ones. So can heroes and heroines. Characters are complex just like those who write and read them.

Capricorn sun -- The character's inner nature. This hero or heroine would be quiet, thoughtful and serious. They have a deep mind with good reasoning ability. He or she would be generally practical and would like to investigate all manner or things. They can act with dignity. The hero or heroine is ambitious but is often disappointed but never completely disappointed. He or she often meets heavy obstacles in the path of desire and often butt their way to triumph over obstacles.

Capricorn ascendant - This is the face shown to the world. This hero or heroine would be contemplative. He or she looks after their own interests with determination and persistence. They have organizing ability and can be cautious and calculating. This character would not be demonstrative in showing their feelings. They find sympathizing with others hard. They are self-reliant. He or she can meet with delays and disappointments in their search for wealth, power and position.

Capricorn Moon - This is the character's emotional nature. This hero or heroine would come before the public in a positive or negative way. They are often cold and calculating. He or she can have administrative ambitions. There is often a poor control of appetites. He or shecan also inspire confidence.

I can be found here. wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com//
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 Books can be found here http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Janet+Lane+Walters
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While I have many books, This is my favorite cover.

Amber Chronicles Kindle edition. Magic, dragons, amber towers and more in this fantasy collection,

The Amber Chronicles

Amber Chronicles Collection: Emme, a witch and the heir to the throne of the world called Amber is banished from her home to find love. She believes she can command a man to love her but this does not work. Angry at being told no by the...

amazon.com

Monday Was Wash Day by Roseanne Dowell

      Dedicated to my mom who taught me more than how to do laundry. This was my second published work, published in Good Old Days Magazine in May 2004. 

      Bright and early every Monday, Mom and I went to the basement. As I stood by her side she taught me the proper way to sort clothes- whites, towels, colors, work pants and jeans. We pulled the old wringer washer from the corner  to the stationary tubs. She filled it with scalding hot water and turned the machine on to start it agitating. After she added whatever soap was on sale at the time, she always added a bar of Fels Naphtha that she

let me grate on an old grater. The long curls of soap slid off the grater into the water. I loved

watching the scorching water swallow them up as it agitated into suds.

Once the soap dissolved, we put the white clothes in first. Mom pushed them into the water with her wash stick, an old broom handle, being careful not to splash herself with the steaming hot water. She closed the lid. While the clothes washed, we strung the clothes line in the basement on cold or rainy days and outside in the warm sunny weather, which was limited in Ohio.

 Back in the fifties, we didn't have a dryer so everything had to be hung. Besides, Mom said there was nothing like the smell of fresh laundered clothes straight off the line in the warm weather. She climbed on a stool made especially for her and pulled that line so tight someone could walk across it and then gave it another yank before securing it with a knot.

Back into the basement, we scrubbed the two stationary tubs, and filled them with water.

Mom added bleach to the first tub and the other held plain rinse water. After the clothes washed for about 15 minutes, Mom used the wash stick and pulled them out of the washer, the water still being too hot to touch. She put them carefully through the wringer. My job was to make sure they didn't wrap around the rollers, which sometimes happened anyway causing it to pop, separating the rollers. We untangled the clothes and she re-tightened the knob. It was always very frustrating when that happened and took valuable time away from a busy day.

We let the clothes soak for a few minutes in the bleach pushing them around with the stick, so we wouldn't slop the bleach water on ourselves. After we rinsed them, we drained the bleach water and added fresh water and rinsed the clothes again, changing the rinse water after every load. We rinsed the clothes thoroughly by lifting them in and out of the water up and down repeatedly. It looked like fun until she let me do it.  I found out how hard it was and how heavy wet clothes were. It was backbreaking work. After the last rinse, Mom sent the clothes through the wringer and I guided them into a basket that sat on a bench next to the washer. The next load to go in was the towels, as most of them were light colors or white. While they were washing, we hung the first load.
I helped by handing my mom clothespins and the clothes, saving her from bending over. She

always tried to make a game of it, singing and teasing to help make it fun. About halfway through she sent me to the garage for the wooden clothes props which we hooked under the line and raised it up, so the clothes didn't hit the ground. No matter how tight Mom pulled that line, the wet clothes made it sag. The clothes props had a groove in them to hold the line so it couldn't fall out as it flapped back and forth in the breeze.

She hung the work pants with pant stretchers in the legs, to keep them taut and made the

crease. As soon as the clothes were dry, we removed them to make room for new ones.  Most days the last load of laundry was on the line by noon. It usually didn't take them long to dry. We snapped them hard when we removed them to get rid of excess wrinkles and folded them immediately, then Mom sorted them onto piles for each of us kids to put away. The clothes that needed ironed were sometimes taken off the line damp or sprinkled with water, rolled into a ball, and stored in a plastic bag. Tuesday was ironing day.

 You can find Roseanne's books at   Books We Love or Amazon 

These are a few of my favorite covers ...

As promised, here are five of my favorite BWL covers that I have created.  Now keep in mind, I said five of my favorites - not my top five favorites.  As a cover artist, I often pour a little of myself into each cover.

It's just so pretty!

LOL

Seriously though, one of my favorite covers to date would have to be Ring Around the Rosy by Roseanne Dowell.  I love the way the red and the gold compliment each other.  The background has a nice kind of mysterious focus to it.

The bleeding rose just enhances it.

Amazon

* * *

Up next is Into A Dangerous Mind by Tina Gerow.

Amazon

With this one, I quite simply love the couple.  They are sexy, mysterious, and I love the holding hands.

Again, we have a nice contrast of red with another color, in this case black and the peach skin tone.

Here's the full print wrap - just for fun.

* * *

 Changing focus, let's look at a futuristic - Vijaya Schartz's Alien Lockdown.

With this one, the black is nicely contrasted with the grey/blue of the text and the stars in the background.  The futuristic corridor is faded into a star field to give it that kick.

I also love the woman - she is sexy and sassy and has attitude.

Plus - leather.  Yeah.

Amazon

* * *

 Another nice cover with a black focus is A Novel Murder by Ginger Simpson.  In this case, the background is black and white, then the foreground of white and peach.

I love the image of the woman with the guy, the couple is so sexy, and I love the almost innocence of the woman on the computer.

Amazon

* * *

 And for my fifth pick ...

Victoria Chatham's His Dark Enchantress.

It's bright, sexy and the woman makes this cover for me.

Amazon 

Here's the print edition.