Thursday, August 13, 2015

Some Alberta History by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey


I began my writing career as a travel writer and I drove and camped through all of British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon and Alaska, writing about what there is to see and do in those provinces, the territory and the state. I learned a lot of history, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, and met a lot of wonderful people.

The following is about Fort Macleod, along the Crowsnest Highway, from my travel book the Backroads of Southern Alberta. Fort Macleod, coincidently, is the setting for the novel, Illegally Dead, the first book of my Travelling Detective Series boxed set.

After the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the Canadian Government in 1869, fur traders from Fort Benton in Montana travelled north into present day Alberta and set up illegally trading posts called Whiskey Forts. They brought wagon loads of whiskey and guns to trade for furs with the natives. The watered down whiskey, laced with any or all of Tabasco, red pepper, tobacco, ginger, molasses, tea, sulphuric acid and ink, drove the natives wild and they brutalized and killed their own tribesmen, other bands, and some whitemen. Sir John A Macdonald, prime minister of Canada at the time, declared that the area should be safe for settlers moving west and he formed the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873. The next year they marched west and established Fort Macleod, which is southern Alberta's oldest settlement.

The downtown district, on 24th Street between Second and Third Avenues, was declared Alberta's first provincial historical site on May 14, 1984. There are many wood frame buildings that date back to 1890s and some brick and sandstone ones from the early 1900s.
The Empress Theatre opened in 1912 and was used for vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, silent films, political rallies and talking films. It has been renovated, but the original pressed metal ceiling, double seats in every second row, and the old radiators remain. The Empress Theatre Society presents movies or live performances during the summer.


The present-day Fort Macleod is a reproduction, but some of the log buildings inside the Fort Museum are original and house numerous historical native and North West Mounted Police-Royal Canadian Mounted Police artifacts. A Musical Ride is staged four times a day during July and August. Young men and women dressed in replica North West Mounted Police uniforms present an exhibition of horsemanship and precision, similar to the world famous Musical Ride.


Harry `Kanouse' Taylor, a former whiskey fort owner, set up a hotel in Fort Macleod after the arrival of the NWMP-the original name of the RCMP. Due to the changing times and transient population, there had to be certain rules in his hotel. They were:
1. Guests will be provided with breakfast and dinner,
but must rustle their own lunch.
2. Spiked boots and spurs must be removed at night
before retiring.
3. Dogs are not allowed in bunks, but may sleep
underneath.
4. Towels are changed weekly; insect powder is for sale
at the bar.
5. Special rates for Gospel Grinders and the gambling
profession.
6. The bar will be open day and night. Every known fluid,
except water, for sale. No mixed drinks will be served
except in case of a death in the family. Only
registered guests allowed the privileges of sleeping
on the bar room floor.
7. No kicking regarding the food. Those who do not like
the provender will be put out. When guests find
themselves or their baggage thrown over the fence,
they may consider they have received notice to leave.
8. Baths furnished free down at the river, but bathers
must provide their own soap and towels.
9. Valuables will not be locked in the hotel safe, as
the hotel possesses no such ornament.
10. Guests are expected to rise at 6:00 a.m., as the
sheets are needed for tablecloths.
11. To attract the attention of waiters, shoot through
the door panel. Two shots for ice water, three for
a new deck of cards.
No Jawbone. In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash.


The Criminal Streak

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/563677


 


West To The Bay

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WDV1300/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

 

 Gold Fever

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PEOSJR8




The Travelling Detective Series boxed set:

Illegally Dead

The Only Shadow In The House

Whistler's Murder

http://amzn.com/B00KF07FQM





http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 http://thetravellingdetectiveseries.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/writingsbyjoan

 https://www.amazon.com/author/joandonaldsonyarmey

Monday, August 10, 2015

Elegant Birthday Card by Cheryl Wright



Less is more.

This is a philosophy I've used in many areas of my life over the years. I do it with cooking, I do it with writing, and I also do it with my cardmaking.

A lot of crafters I know tend to add so many elements and embellishments that it overcrowds the card, and in the end make it look, well, crowded.

The following is a very simple card, while at the same time it's quite elegant.





This card took less than ten minutes to make, and would be great to make multiples of.  (For instance, I could make several of these for Combat Cards in a very short period of time.)

You could easily change up the greeting and it would work for several different celebrations. 

Products used:

Background:  Kaisercraft's new "Roses" embossing folder
Tag: Kaisercraft Tag Shapes Decorative Die set
Butterfly: Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly
Greeting: Stampin' Up! Blooming with Kindness (now retired)


 I hope you've enjoyed this card. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!















Links:

My website:  www.cheryl-wright.com 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cherylwrightauthor 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/writercheryl
BWL website: http://bookswelove.net/authors/wright-cheryl/

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Rescuing Barbie by Killarney Sheffield




CLICK TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON

Rescuing Barbie

For those of you who may not know there is more to Killarney Sheffield, historical romance author, than meets the eye. For example did you know I am a former show rider, farrier, colt starter and riding coach? I no longer do any of that professionally, but I do still dabble in horses. In addition to breeding Appendix Quarter Horses, I often take in wild and/or abused horses to train and rehabilitate just for something to do. Today I would like to share with you the story of Barbie an abused mare I just rescued.

Barbie is an American Quarter Horse from Idaho USA. I was approached by her owner to take her after her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumour, spent a year in treatment and was finally given just a few months left to live. When I heard Barbie’s story I sat in my truck and cried tears of sorrow for this little mare. It seems she was halter trained as a two year old and had a very promising show career ahead of her. One day she was being difficult to catch (she is a timid mare so she could have been spooked). The man chased her into a barn and because she was frightened she refused to let him halter her. In anger he roped her by the neck and snubbed her head tight to a pole in the ground. She could not move or breathe and in her panic she fought for her life, injuring her one front knee. The man waited until she choked out and then untied the rope and when she fell to the ground pounced on her to halter her. I am assuming he probably beat her as well. Poor Barbie was then tossed out in a field injured and scared for the next two years until I came from Canada to pick her up. I brought her home and put her in a stall in my barn across from a quiet old mare for company and have been working with her every day.

The first day Barbie stood up against the back wall and refused to eat or drink. When I stepped into the stall she would throw her head and pin her ears threatening to hurt me. I would talk softly to her and leave feed and water. The second day I took her a small bit of oats in a pail. She refused to eat until I set it down and left the stall. The third day I was moved to tears when I entered the barn and she nickered at me! I was so excited about her greeting it was hard not to jump for joy and scare her. I entered the stall with the pail of oats and she took a couple steps out of her corner and ate out of the pail in my hands! It was a great day. The fourth day not only did she greet me with a nicker, but she had eaten all her hay from the night before. I entered the stall with her oats and she came right to me to eat out of the pail, and I managed to stroke her cheek on the sly with my hand in the pail.

The fifth day she greeted me and came to eat her grain. However, when I offered her a treat from my palm she pinned her ears and charged at me. I stood my ground and issued a firm “no!” She stopped inches from me, calmed down and finished her grain. Was I scared at the sight of a 1,000lb mare charging? You bet I was! I knew by her soft eye she would not hurt me. She was merely saying in her horsey way that I had entered her personal space and she wasn’t comfortable with it. An abused animal is the same as an abused child, her only intent is to protect herself and she wouldn’t harm me unless I harmed her. Now a neighbour came by and said he would have thrown the pail at her because she’s mean. This is where I stopped him and explained if Barbie was mean she had had endless chances to hurt me and not taken them, and that if I had thrown the pail at her she would have associated me with pain and fear. This would have destroyed all the work I had done to convince her I am safe and will not hurt her.

On day six I entered her stall and was brought to tears when Barbie gently lipped a treat from the palm of my hand for the first time, without pinning her ears and threatening me when I held it out to her. We are making progress! It is slow and sometimes bitter sweet, but baby steps and lots of love are what’s needed to teach a frightened, abused mare to love again. 

If you would like to follow along with daily updates and pictures of Barbie’s journey to discover love, please feel free to follow me on Facebook at Killarney Sheffield. 


Killarney Sheffield, because love makes you believe.
A Courtesan's Desires- 2013 Epic Ebook award finalist. Inventing Love- 2012 P&E best Steampunk winner. Love's Magic- 2013 The Great Romance Contest finalist & 2015 RONE nominee.  
Current releases from Crimson Romance: Through Gypsy Eyes.
Current releases from BooksWeLove: The Cracksman's Kiss, Stand & Deliver Your Love, To Love A Horseguard, The Courtesan, Sprockets, Silks & Savages, Love's Lies, Marie's Second Chance, Rags To Romance and Tween/teen YA series The Cowboy Capers.
Coming soon: Singed (sweet erotic romance) and Two-Twenty-Three (post apocalyptic romance)
Books available online world wide and in Coles, Chapter & Indigo stores across Canada.
Follow me: on Twitter at @authorkillarney, Facebook at Killarney Sheffield, on the web at http://www.killarneysheffieldromanceauthor.com/  
 

Friday, August 7, 2015

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night by Tia Dani

                                                          Call Down the Darkness

"Hey, Tia. We need to get back on track. We missed our July blog at Inside Book We Love."
"Oh, dear." Tia frowned. "I remember writing something about our dads."
Dani nodded: "Yes, that was for Father's Day."
"Oh-oh." Tia glanced at her blank monitor. "I think we're really behind."
"Ya, think?" Dani said in her usual snarky tone that generally sent Tia off into a peal of laughter.
(Laughter echoed around Tia's office for several minutes.)
"Seriously, Dani. We really need to come up with a blog topic."
"Definitely. Okay, let's do it. And here's a vow we can take." Dani held up her hand. "We, Tia Dani, are committed to blog faithfully, whether it be raining, sleeting, snowing—"

"Wait! Wait..." Tia turned to look at her. "We live in Arizona and its August. I doubt we'll have to deal with sleet or snow. Actually, I'd love some rain, but really, when have we had to battle with the elements instead of writing?"

Dani let out a long sigh. "I don't care then. What do you want our vow to be?"
"Hmm...Okay. How about this? We commit faithfully to blog regularly whether there are persnickety Internet problems—"

"Persnickety?" Dani laughed. "Now that's a word one doesn't hear every day."

"Hush, now. I'm thinking." Tia drummed her fingers next to her keyboard. "Besides, I like persnickety...it has character. So, don't interrupt me. I've got more to add to this vow."

Dani waved her hand. "Add away, dear Tia."

Tia began to type furiously. "Whether there be persnickety Internet problems, cranky computers and—"

Brrrring, brringgg

Dani jumped up. "Hold that thought. Gotta answer my phone. Hello?"

Oh, great. Tia thought. This will take a while. Every time I get a great idea, her phone has to ring. "I'm going to the bathroom."

(Ten minutes later Tia is rummaging through her cupboard for something to snack on.)
Entering the kitchen, Dani shoved the phone into her back pocket. "So, what were we saying?"

"I forgot. Here, you want some potato chips?" Tia tossed a freshly opened bag onto the kitchen counter. "I'm hungry."

"Of course. You have to ask?" Dani dipped her hand into the bag and pulled a handful of chips. "You know...I had an idea for a story last night. You want to hear about it?"
"Sure." Tia scooted out one of the bar stools and hopped onto it.
Dani grabbed the other stool. "It's another paranormal. But nothing like we normally write?"
"Really?" Tia looked at her with eyebrows raised. "Since when have we ever done anything normal?"

"That's true. Every story we come up with has a tendency to take on its own life." Dani reached for another round of chips. "Anyway, here's the idea. Three women own a book store and the hero comes in as an author, who's researching werewolf stories."

"Why?" Tia munched several chips at once.

"Why what?"

"Why three women? Which one of them is going to be the heroine?"

"I don't care." Dani brushed potato chip crumbs from the front of her black T-shirt. "Besides, what does it matter who's to be the heroine? I'm just telling you my idea for a story. We can iron out the fine details later."

Tia shook her head. "I don't know. What about the hero? Why did he come to that particular book store? You know the rule. In romantic fiction, coincidences aren't supposed to just happen."

"Tia!" Another long drawn out sigh followed Dani's exclamation. "Turn off that analytical brain of yours and just listen to me. I'm telling you my idea, not the whole bloody story."

"bloody…oooh…that's right. How awesome. A bloody werewolf story. I like that.

Okay...so…there's three women and one man, right?"

"Right. We start out with this spooky prologue. Up at the lake. A dark night."

"Which lake?" Tia stopped munching and looked at Dani curiously. "Where's the story supposed to take place?"

"Who cares, right now? Anyway, there's a full moon—"

"I hate to say this, but if there's a full moon, it won't be a dark night."

"Fine. Then it was a dark and stormy night."

(Both break out laughing.)

"I like the full moon idea, Dani. We'll stick with that."

Dani shifted on the bar stool. "Are you ready to listen now? It's a really great idea."

"Fire away."

"Here goes. Back to wherever we were."

"It was a dark and—"

"Forget that. We're back at the lake and the moon was full."

Tia suddenly laughed and potato chips flew everywhere. "Sounds like a song. Stagger Lee, right?"

"Right...but I believe the moon was yellow."

In typical fashion, Tia cleared her throat and started singing. "The night was clear, and the moon was yellow..."

Together they finished the last line. "And the leaves came tumblin' down..."

(This time they both broke out in hysterical laughter.)

Tia fanned her face and took a deep breath. "I almost inhaled a chip after that one."

(Five minute break here while they drink iced tea and talk about nothing in particular.)

Dani suddenly remembers why she was there for the day. "Let's return to my story."

"Right. So what else happens?"

"It's a werewolf story, but comes with a catch."

"Oooooookay?" Tia gave her friend a doubtful look, thinking there were all kinds of "catches", but knew she had to hear Dani out. In other words...KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT!

"And, here's the deal. Our werewolf is really a–"

Woof. Whine…woof...whimper.


"Dang it." Tia hopped off the bar stool. "Why does this always happen when we start to roll on something? Now, the double D's have to go outside." (The double D's are Tia's two Dachshund pups. Diva and Darcy.)

"No problem. I'll tell you the rest of the story while we're outdoors with them."

Fifteen minutes later—after both puppies who "really" had to go, and then greet their favorite mailman with a thousand doggie licks, Tia and Dani are back in the office in front of the computer.

"You know, Dani. Your idea has a great premise. I think we should run with it. I'm going to put the major plot points down." She looked at her computer screen. "Omigosh! I forgot we were doing this earlier."

Dani groaned. "Oh shoot! That's right. We were going to come up with something for a blog."

Tia flexed her fingers over her keyboard and grinned. "Don't worry. I think I have just the title for it."
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT....

And, this is really a glimpse at how we work together. You don't have to worry, we won't write a story with the title, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. However, we do have a new book just released from Books We Love. Call Down the Darkness   It has Apache legends, past life regressions, a evil shape-shifter, and some passionate romance.
  
To find out more about the writing team Tia Dani and our books visit us at:


Tia Dani is the writing team made up of good friends, Christine Eaton Jones and Beverly Petrone. Together they create endearing and realistic characters, humorous dialogue, and unusual settings.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

I am SO over this summer...by Jamie Hill

Buy at Amazon
Click cover to read more or buy at Amazon

 Where I live, the heartland of the USA, we see all four seasons. Autumn, or as we generally call it, Fall, is my favorite. One hundred-degree Fahrenheit temps of the summer begin to cool off and welcome fifty-degree evenings bring sweaters and football season. The flowers that I watered all summer, trying to keep them alive, finally flourish with cooler air until they eventually freeze and die off. Pastels and 'welcome' gnomes are replaced by pumpkins that will see us through to December.

Winter is a wonderful time of year with the holidays and crisp, cold air. Snow is beautiful as long as I don't have to drive in it, and even better now that we've hired some nice young men to come and clear it away for us. We also get our share of ice, and a few years ago purchased a whole house generator so we won't be left without power. The kicker--a generator will run everything except computers, which don't like 'dirty power'. Oh, the horror. Hope I never have to put that trial to the test.

Just when I think I can't stand one more day of freezing cold temps, spring arrives. The thermometer soars to the mid-fifties and people everywhere change into shorts and tank tops. (The same weather that brought out the sweatshirts in the fall.) But spring is welcome and winter coats stored away for another season.

Before the calendar even sees June, the heat begins. There's usually a solid week between turning off the furnace and turning on the air conditioner. Especially this year, when I turned on my attic fan for the first (and only) time and a bat flew into my bedroom. I was shocked and he was even more so. Fortunately, he was either stunned or just slow, because I was able to catch him in a big butter tub and release him outside, probably just to return to my attic that night. By the way, we're still looking for a handyman to fix the mesh in our attic which apparently let the bat get in. (I'm sure there was just the one.)

That was the beginning of my summer fun. Then there was the fall my husband took outside, resulting in a torn rotator cuff and an arm he hasn't been able to use all summer. (Surgery forthcoming, when he is cleared for it.)

So we're battening down the hatches, closing down the deck and other summer details in anticipation of his being in a sling for twelve weeks. I'm actually cool with it, It's easier to hunker down in front of my computer when I'm not feeling guilty that there are things I should be doing outside. 

I am SO over this summer, ready for cooler weather and football season. And Netflix with the window open.

Find all my titles at Books We Love: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/

and find the links and blurbs and other good stuff here: http://authorjamiehill.blogspot.com/  


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Stuff Like Toilet Tissue by Katherine Pym

CLICK TO PURCHASE



As a writer of historical fiction, I come across moments of, ‘When was this invented?’ And ‘Can I use this?’ There are certain things we take for granted, and while writing, it’s hard not to incorporate a few things we use every day.


Like...
Safety Pin

How hard would it be for an enterprising individual to come up with a safety pin? After all, since the days of early mankind, people secured their fabric or skin clothing with a tool of some sort.  In Egypt, pins were made of bronze with decorative heads, but they could still prick you. Fibulas and brooches date back to the Mycenaean era, which were closer to the safety pin, but close doesn’t mean you win the Kewpie Doll. Needles were also used from the dawn of time, and in London the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers had the power to seize your needles if they did not have their stamp of approval.

Apparently, the safety pin was a brain twister, for the first one came late in man’s existence, in the year 1825. The inventor was Walter Hunt (USA).
Toilet Tissue
The 19th century seemed to have been an awakening of sorts, for along with the safety pin, several items were invented during that time frame we take for granted. In 1857 toilet tissue was invented by Joseph Gayetty. He used hemp paper as a prevention of the ‘piles’, and charged 50¢ for a packet of 500 sheets.

But when reading a novel, one doesn’t often come across the hero or heroine going to the bathroom and using, what? on the backside. I have read of a protagonist in a time slip novel, though, going into the past where there isn’t much to keep the teeth clean. Authors of these tomes don’t often mention a gentleman and his lady kissing / clanking their fuzzy teeth. 


Toothbrush
The toothbrush was invented a bit earlier than the 19th century by a fellow in Newgate prison with not much to do during the day. He must have been fairly cash fluid though when he asked a prison guard to procure some items for him. This was in 1770. William Addis (UK) found cleaning his teeth with an old rag unpleasant and not very thorough. He bored little holes in a discarded meat bone, “tied them [hard bristles] into tufts, put glue on the ends, and wedged them into the holes...” Upon his release from prison, Mr Addis manufactured his invention and became an overnight success.

If I wrote in this era, I’d have to find out when Mr Addis started his venture, and when did the toothbrushes go on sale. One simply mustn’t write of something like this prior to the time it actually happened. Tsk tsk.

Back to the 19th century of ingenious people.

On the near subject of toothbrushes, in 1892 another person from the USA invented the toothpaste tube, thinking to stick your toothbrush into a jar of tooth cream that everyone under your roof used was unhygienic. Dr Sheffield was a dentist. My source does not say if the collapsible tube was made of lead or not.

Whitcomb Judson
One item I’ve always wanted to know about was the zipper. Now, the trouser fly (buttons) was incorporated quite a bit earlier by someone in Asia Minor so that he could gain entry quicker. To replace buttons with the zipper would make the entry gain quite speedy. Another intrepid American, Mr Whitcomb Judson, invented this in 1893 when shoes and boots were fastened with buttons.

Here you are in a hurry and you can’t find the button hooker-fastener thing. Then, when you do find it, minutes tick by as you fasten one tiny button after the other all the way up to the top of your shoe or boot.

Mr Judson invented “2 thin metal chains that could be fastened together by pulling a slider up between them. He patented this clasp locker or unlocker for shoes”. Judson was also the founder of the “Automatic Hook and Eye Company”. Along with his partner, they wanted to do away with all things fastened by buttons. Of course, these new zippers were primitive. It took a few more years to make them what we see today in men’s trousers and women’s skirts, along with shoes and purses, you name it, if it can be fastened by a zipper it is.

Quill & Inkpot
Other items an author of historical novels must be careful about are the writing implements your hero or heroine use. Prior to 1662 Pencils comprised of a graphite stick, wrapped with string to keep your fingers clean. After this date, pencils were mass produced in Nuremberg Germany. Quills were used almost exclusively for quite literally years and years.

The 19th century had a lot of ups and downs with writing utensils. After several failed attempts by other gentlemen, the metal nib did not grasp the populace until somewhere in the first half of the 19th century (John Mitchell in the UK). The fountain pen was invented about the same time as the metal nib, but this didn’t take hold until 1884 by an American named Lewis Waterman.  By 1885, Waterman had produced 200 man-made pens. 
Fountain Pen

Then, and finally, the pencil with an eraser. In 1858 this was invented by Hyman Lipman (USA). Until Mr Lipman’s invention, you had to carry an eraser along with your pencil (cumbersome!). He merely glued a bit of eraser to the top of the pencil, and voila, a new invention was born.

Many thanks to:
http://pencils.com/
The People’s Almanac by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, Doubleday & Co., Inc., New York 1975
All pictures come from Wikicommons, Public Domain

         Jasper's Lament


Sunday, August 2, 2015

KANGAROOS HOPPING BY - MARGARET TANNER


I WAS A PIONEER FOR A SHORT TIME – MARGARET TANNER
I write historical romance, so this experience was very relevant for me.

My husband and I have just returned from a short stay at a place called Halls Gap in the Grampians, which is a climber’s paradise. Steep rocky cliffs overhanging thickly treed valleys. Mile upon mile of brooding bushland, silent except for the occasional bird call. One could easily get lost here, and perhaps, as happened in the pioneering days, you would never be seen again. It still looks like an untamed wilderness even now, except for a couple of small hamlets. I could almost visualise the pioneers hacking their way through the heavily treed countryside. The terrain was steep and unforgiving. In some places a fall meant death.

I have to confess, we stayed in a cabin, which you could barely discern from the road, it blended into the background so well. It had all the modern conveniences EXCEPT the heating was an enormous open fire. Hubby and I looked at each other, who was going to light the fire? Thank goodness there was a basket of kindling and a pile of neatly stacked logs. Wielding an axe was beyond us, our pioneering blood was just too diluted.

I am very proud of the fact that I lit the fire at my first attempt. I wondered if I might not have been a boy scout in a previous life, or perhaps my pioneering blood wasn’t quite as diluted as I had thought.

It was truly an amazing feeling toasting our toes in front of this roaring fire, watching the logs burn, and smelling the wood smoke. It brought back a lot of childhood memories of staying with my grandmother and various aunts in the country. They not only had open fires for warmth but they also had wood stoves for cooking. And boy, could these women ever cook.

I actually felt quite close to my heroines while I stared into the orange flames, most of them had to conquer the wilderness with the hero.

In my novel, Fiery Possession, published by Books We Love, my heroine, Josephine (Jo) Saunders was an American who braved the wilderness to help her brother, and immediately clashes with the hero. It is selling for 99 cents at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and in most places that sell e-books.

FIERY POSSESSION
American Wild West versus Australian Frontier.
Hate, lust and murder. How can Jo and Luke overcome these obstacles and allow love to flourish?



Margaret Tanner writes action packed romances set in frontier Australia.


 

 

 

 

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Writing Fantasy, We Could Make Believe by Shirley Martin


http://amzn.com/B00BEZULQS
CLICK TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON


     The game of just supposing is the sweetest game I know-o
     Our dreams are more romantic than the world we see

     And if the things we dream about don't happen to be so-o
     That's just an unimportant technicality

Or so wrote Oscar Hammerstein for the musical "Showboat" in 1927.  (Jerome Kern wrote the music.)

All fiction writing is make believe, but perhaps writing fantasy is even more so. Some years ago, a fantasy critic remarked that writing in that genre was more difficult than writing in any other. This may be a matter of opinion, yet writing in the fantasy genre has its own challenges.  The reason? A wrtier of fantasy is free to create worlds and any type of characters he/she desires. A fantasy writer could create characters with purple skin who walk on their heads, but even fantasy novels must have a certain degree of realism.

When someone creates fantasy, she must consider what races she wants to inhabit her make believe world.  There are so many fantasy races one can create.  Think of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series, with Gimli the  dwarf, a multitude of elves, those nasty, ugly orcs, and even walking, talking trees.

A fantasy writer must create an imaginary world with its own culture, mores, religion, etc.  Many fantasy novels use the Middle Ages as their world, with castles and knights. I've read several novels based on the Roman Empire and one centered around an Aztec-like culture.  Since I've found the ancient Celts to be a fawscinating people, I've based my Avador series on their culture, with my own variations.  Unlike the Celts who for the most part lived a primitive life, my Avadorans inhabit cities with palaces and temples of religion.

One necessary ingredient of a fantasy novel is magic. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, magic is a power that allows people to do impossible things by saying special words or performing special actions.  It is a use of means (chams or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces.

So a fantasy writer creates her own world with its own characters, culture, and religion. But she must still tell a story.

In my fantasy novella, "Allegra's Dream" the hero, Rowan, fears that Allegra is in danger. For her safety, he takes her to another world, a place outside normal space and time.  As I wrote one chapter, I intended to have a dragon play a part in this world.  At first, I considered having the dragon capture Allegra, after which Rowan would kill the dragon and rescue Allegra.  But then I considered that scenario too mundane.  Gee whiz, heroes slay dragons every day. So I gave the story a different spin.

Grenalda, the green dragon, does indeed capture Allegra and carries her off to a cave.  Alerted by Allegra's screams, Rowan rushes to rescue her. Then unexpected things happen.

"You can't have her," said Grenalda, "she's mine."

"What?"  A dragon that talks?  Now he'd seen and heard everything. . .

As it turns out, Grenalda just wants company.  "I want her."  The beast hung its head.  "I get so lonely here. I don't even see other dragons. I just wanted to make friends."

"Well, you've picked a mighty peculiar way of making friends. . ."

After Grenalda releases Allegra, Rowan prepares to leave.

A look of sadness came over the dragon's face.  "Can't you stay awhile?  Talk to me?"  Tears ran down her face, dripping on the limestone, where they hissed like acid.

Eventually Rowan and Allegra develop a plan with Grenalda and show her how she can make friends and help others.



For me, fantasy novels are fun to write and fun to read. If you go to Amazon and click on Books, then type in 'fantasy novels' you'll find an almost infinite list of books for your reading pleasure.  And I'm hoping you'll choose some of mine.

Besides fantasy, I've written historical and paranormal novels and novellas. Please check out my website here. www.shirleymartinauthor.com
You can also find me at my publisher's website, http://bookswelove.net/authors/martin-shirley
My Twitter handle is https://twitter.com/mshirley1496
And Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/shirley.martin716970



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