Authentic Romantic Historical Fiction

Tag: characters (Page 1 of 2)

Today I Discovered…

But First…

Don’t forget that a week from now, on July 20, from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm, I’ll be at the Payson Book Festival, sharing Table 45. Have you discovered this great family friendly event? Come on up to the cool pines. I look forward to seeing you there!

And now…

A couple of days ago I discovered a Case Logic folder hiding in a bookcase.

A discovered Case Logic folder
Today I opened it up to check out the flash drives inside.

Look what I discovered inside: Old flash drives
On one of them, I discovered a lot of old files that aren’t on my current computer, including snippets from the third novel I wrote, which became the fifth novel in The Owen Family Saga, Trail of Storms. I thought you might like to see how this novel and its characters evolved.

This segment, written back in May of 2006, was entitled “Hardy.” The first part included a man named, yep, Hardy. The second part, a memory about James Owen, made it into the novel pretty much intact. The name “Hardy” in the first section, however, did not. Nor did the actions described in the snippet.

Leave me a comment if you know which final character Hardy became, and give us his name. This may be a trick question, so you may need to haul out your copy of Trail of Storms to check.

Hardy

Hardy Lundeen was gorgeous; there was no doubt about that, except for one tiny little flaw. His right ear was half gone. Other than that, he was a strapping blond, six-foot-one in height, and gloriously handsome.

He knew he was good-looking, and he made the most of it with his infectious grin, which turned up a bit more on the left side than on the right.

Jessica noticed him when her family joined the wagon train in western Missouri. Hardy was a single man, headed to California to make his fortune after the war. His Yankee twang was foreign to her ear, but he was a gracious victor, and did not mention anything about the past unpleasantness. Others in the party were not so generous, but the rigors of the journey ahead forced the participants to band together for safety in numbers.

Hardy sought Jessica out one evening, shortly after they had set out on the trail. He asked if he might accompany her on a stroll about the camp, and Mrs. Bingham said yes, if Luke went along, too.

Hardy offered his arm, but Jessica kept her hands clasped together as they walked from fire to fire, greeting other travelers. He chatted cheerily to her about his boyhood in Vermont: hunting, fishing, grubbing crops out of rocky soil.

“I hear California has soil down three feet, and no rocks to hinder a man’s plantings,” he said, grinning. “That’s the place for me.” He paused as they walked in the darkness between two wagons, then asked, “What part of California are you headed to?”

Jessica replied in soft tones. “We’re actually goin’ to Arizona, once we get far enough along the trail. Tucson City.”

“Arizona, hmm? I hear that’s a hard place. Full of snakes and heat enough to boil a man’s brains. Or a woman’s.” He looked down at Jessica. “California sounds more fitting for a lovely young lady like yourself. How about you–”

Luke coughed behind them, and Hardy dropped the subject. Yet, he persisted in calling each evening.

Jessica couldn’t help comparing him to her lost James. He and Hardy were about the same height, but James had dark, crisp hair that curled around his ears if it grew long enough. He was handsome in a different way, and had two perfectly good ears, although she knew he had a bayonet wound in one shoulder. At least it wasn’t a wound you could see.

She sighed. James was gone, lost to her. She remembered the nausea that had swept though her when James told her he was leaving and she was staying. They had clung together, hidden behind a clump of lilacs, tempted to fulfill their love, but when James’s kisses grew hot and insistent, she pushed him away, weeping.

“I can’t, James. You know that. You could leave me with a child, and that’s impossible for me.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and she allowed him to kiss them away, but kept her body from touching his.

“Ah Jessie, Jessie.” James’s groan seemed to come from his toes. “How can I leave you?”

“It’s your pa’s doin’. You’ve got to obey him. Even if you don’t like it. I’ll never forgive him,” she whispered, then gave him a soft kiss and a shove. “Go away, James. Don’t come again. Just go.” She fled for the house.

*~*~*

Leave your comment below. I’d like to know how many people know who this character became. Or is there more in this text than is readily apparent?

Copyright 2019 by Marsha Ward

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Sample Saturday

I’ve been dealing with winter storms and power outages and 18-20 inches of snow piled up around my place, so I am treating myself to a bit of diversion by bringing back Saturday Sample today.

Here’s a tidbit from a piece I’m working on that I hope to publish later this year.
~~~

Julia Helm wiped the streaming tears off her cheeks, then climbed up onto the wooden spring seat of the farm wagon weathered almost white. Jonathan’s firm hand on her elbow steadied her some, but the overwhelming sadness that had brought the tears remained. She looked at the stone house, the wooden barn with its wide doors, the early spring fields smelling of molding corn stalks. Why this sadness? I’ll see it all again in two months.

She pulled her brown wool cloak more tightly around herself and wrenched her gaze from the house. Couldn’t she just tell Jonathan she had changed her mind? Tell her brother to unhitch the team of gray horses while she ran back inside the house and into her small, cozy room to curl up in the comfort of Papa’s upholstered chair? Cousin Camilla didn’t need her help to prepare for her wedding. Virginia was so far away. The trip would take two weeks! Two weeks of travel behind the rumps of the horses, being jostled and jolted until her young bones couldn’t stand another yard, let alone another mile. And all for what? Camilla’s gratitude? The chance to see Aunt Susannah again?

The wagon groaned and creaked as Jonathan climbed into the wagon seat on the other side, pausing before he lifted the leather lines to lean over and tuck a brown woolen blanket under her far knee. “Mind you tell me if you get cold,” he said, and grinned at her like a crazy man, his breath clouding around his ruddy face underneath his knitted cap.
~~~

What do you think? Does it engage your interest? Tell me if you know who the characters are.

Until the next time, stay warm and healthy!

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Counting a Few Blessings

Once in a while, I have to sit back and count my blessings. Among them is a daughter who doesn’t mind if I bend her ear to listen to a scene I wrote. Her feedback is so helpful, and her responses are genuinely what I worked for.

I’m also grateful for wherever it is I get my inspiration for characters (there are several theories to consider). For the current work-in-progress (WIP), I’ve looked up settler and long-time Shenandoah Valley folk to borrow their surnames. They just fit.

When I started this crazy adventure story back in my late teens, I had no idea that a real family named “Owen” (no s) actually settled just across the mountain from where I plopped down my characters in Colorado Territory. I didn’t know that fact until thirty-some years later. I had no idea that the surname “Owen” was that of several Confederate soldiers who originated from the Shenandoah Valley. I had no idea I would eventually write about the American Civil War as it impacted MY Owen family.

Blind luck? Serendipity? Whatever I owe this whole shebang to, it’s very special to me, and I’m grateful for the experience.

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2016 Publishing Plans Update

Back in January, I outlined on another blog my 2016 plans for publication. Things didn’t go quite as I had thought they would, though. As always, life happened, and shiny things came along and . . .

The Zion Trail eBookCover_300WI stayed on track for the first planned effort. I released a novel, The Zion Trail, on February 19, followed on March 25 with the print edition (yes, there was enough reader demand for a print version). This book features Julia Owen’s first cousin, Elijah “Lije” Marshall, and is the first novel in a trilogy labeled “Promised Valley.”

From there, things got interesting.

Instead of letting me finish and publish Mended by Moonlight and purchase a cover for a story featuring “gloves” so it could appear, other Characters horned in and gummed up my plans by demanding their time in the spotlight. So . . .

Blood at Haught Springs web 200W 05072016Wes and Lonnie Haught got their moment when I released the novella Blood at Haught Springs on May 27. These Characters have no relationship at all to the Owen Family. They live in frontier Texas. This is the first of three works in the “Men of Haught Springs” series. The ebook contains two bonus short stories, Cottonwood Cowboys and No More Strangers.

marshaward-72dpi-200wWith Mended by Moonlight still unfinished when the calendar approached July, I chose to publish Faith and the Foreman instead, which is a stand-alone novella that was first seen as part of the Old West Collection, A Timeless Romance Anthology Book 9 from 2014. These Characters are also unrelated to any of the Owen family, as they live in frontier Arizona. A bonus story, The Usual Game, is also set in Arizona, in the early days of Statehood.

marshaward-72dpi-1500x2000_2016-09-08-250wThen somebody mentioned in a review their displeasure that the book they’d read from The Owen Family Saga seemed to be out of order. I agreed. I’d had my struggles with putting Gone for a Soldier as Book 5 in the series, since chronologically, it is Book 1. I decided the best way to address the problem was to publish the books of the Saga in chronological order, as one huge ebook. I polled several of my author friends on whether I should do such a project, and they thought it was a great idea. On September 30, I released The Complete Owen Family Saga as an ebook. All the favorite Characters from the series are intact. Sales so far have validated the idea of publishing this box set containing the five Owen Family Saga novels in the best reading order.

I don’t know if I will publish anything else this year. I am working on three projects at the same time, bouncing back and forth between what I presume is a novel, a novella, and a non-fiction project. If I finish one of them before the year is out, it will be published. Otherwise, 2017 is right around the corner!

In the meantime, to get purchase links to your favorite online vendor for all of the above books, go to the Simple List at the Bookshelf.


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