A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to…

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

The Grocery Store.

Yup, earlier this week a writing friend and I did groceries together. What better way to kill two birds with one stone–brainstorm murder and mayhem, and okay, romance, too, AND stock the cupboards.

The trouble began as we were walking into the store, and I told my friend that I could kill her father. [meaning the heroine’s father, of course]

My friend stopped dead in her tracks, turned to me and said, “You can’t do that!”

The jaw of a woman exiting the store dropped to her chest. I kid you not.

Playing it up, I, of course go on to explain how easy it would be. We can lace the chili with the poison. He’ll never know.

Okay, I’m just kidding about that last part.

But seriously, the woman started reaching for her cell phone. We’re thinking 9-1-1. Cop cars swerving into the parking lot. “Honest, officer, we’re writers.”

Being a quick thinker, my friend says loudly, “I won’t read another one of your books if you kill her father!”

After a good chuckle, my single friend muses, “What a great way for a heroine to meet the next cop hero!” LOL–I’m reading between the lines on that one! The heroine, huh? Hmmm.

As we strolled through the store it was very tempting to see how many others we could drag into our plot. A grocery store is a great place to dream up plot twists for a murder mystery. Hee, hee, hee.

Your Turn: Where did you meet your significant other? Or if you’ve yet to meet him, where might you imagine the meeting happening?

BTW: If you missed the news in my comments on Wednesday’s post, 
Linda Ford currently has a free read on the Harlequin site called A Cowboy’s Promise. Happy reading!

Author Interview – Linda Ford

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

I had the privilege of meeting fellow Canadian author, Linda Ford, a few years ago at an American Christian Fiction Writers’ Conference. Then our paths crossed again in 2010 when her flight to another ACFW conference had a connection in Toronto, and we actually ended up on the same plane one seat in front of the other!

I remember that year well, because it was my first conference as a contracted author! Linda was already writing for Love Inspired Historicals so our paths crossed often that weekend at various meet and greets.

She’s shared much writing wisdom with me since, and was an awesome supporter of my debut launch.

Since I used a question from her latest release, The Cowboy Tutor, on Monday’s blog, I invited her to share how she came to write the series. Take it away Linda…

I’m not sure what got me started on the idea of these stories. My brainstorming file suggests I was concerned with the circumstances of young women during the Depression.

Here is a bit from that file:
Mrs. Morgan has 3 lovely daughters who seem destined to be spinsters due to the lack of suitable single men. Most of them have been whisked away to relief camps or ride the rails looking for something better than what the Depression offers. But Mrs. Morgan isn’t about to stand by and see her daughters denied the joys of marriage and a family. So she devises a plan…

I’ve always had an interest in the Depression, partly because my parents and grandparents lived through it. I heard of the challenges they faced and saw how they’d learned to adapt. I also did human interest articles for a newspaper and interviewed a number of seniors. They all told stories of strength, heroism and inventiveness in dealing with the Depression. I know they probably didn’t look back at the time as ‘the good old days’. But I loved the feeling I got of people who faced incredible odds with humor and came out as victors.

I’ve learned some interesting tidbits in my research.

First, in Canada we also call it the Dirty 30s (because of the violent dust storms.) I thought everyone was familiar with the term but my editors weren’t.

Paper was expensive so used carefully and as many ways as possible. Letters were written across the page then the page given ¼ turn and more words written across the original. I found it almost impossible to read.

Groceries came wrapped in brown paper, tied with string. The paper was folded carefully and used over and over. The string was added to the ball kept in the kitchen drawer and rationed for use.

I grew up on the prairies and have lived most of my life in an area that was deeply affected by the Depression. In fact, we don’t have a county, we are called the Special Areas. Most of the land is owned by the government and leased to farmers and ranchers. Before the Thirties, many settlers came to the area and broke a few acres.

But then the rains failed to come. The land dried up and contributed to dreadful dust storms. The settlers walked away leaving the banks with unpaid mortgages and loans.

The government bailed them out and took over ownership of the land. The people of the area still face many of the same challenges of the Dirty Thirties.

As my family drove along the various roads there were many empty farm sites. Some were only an empty cellar but there were leaning barns and weather-worn houses. I never saw any of these without wondering what had happened to the people who once owned them.

I would get lost in imagining their struggles, their disappointment, and lost dreams.

Sandra again, thanks so much for visiting with us today, Linda. I enjoyed having a glimpse into your creative process, and the extensive background work and research that contributed to the story’s realism.

Your turn: Do you have any questions for Linda?

Faith in Times of Crisis

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
Title links to blurb

This past week I read The Cowboy Tutor, a Love Inspired Historical by fellow Canadian author Linda Ford. It’s the first of a three book series, releasing January to March, about how a mother helps her three daughters find husbands during the Great Depression.

I have never read a Linda Ford book that I haven’t liked, and this book was no exception. I read it in one sitting, staying up until 1:30 am to finish it!

From a family of three sisters myself, I enjoyed watching the interplay between the three vastly different personalities. But what resonated with me the most was how firmly the heroine believes that God will see her through every crisis in her life.

She works hard, extremely hard, to keep her family together and from losing their home. Considering the world’s current economic situation, our faith is increasingly being challenged by similar crises.

Your Turn: These characters lived during the Great Depression. Times were tough. What similar challenges are you or people you know facing today? How have these strengthened, or made you question, your faith?

Did you live through the depression or hear stories passed down from parents and grandparents?

I remember many stories my grandmother used to tell, and to this day I have a difficult time parting with clothes or fabric that could be recycled into quilts for the day when we can’t afford heat…of course, considering we live in a drafty old farmhouse and keep the thermostat at 63F most of the day, it’s little wonder!

FUN FRIDAY – PROMISES, PROMISES

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

This past week my mother-in-law dug out the greeting cards that my sweet hubby made for his parents when he was a little tike. My father-in-law took great pleasure in pointing out how his son had twice written that he wanted to buy his dear old dad a car. 
Isn’t that sweet? 
Those expressions of generosity were, of course, quickly followed by something like “but I hope being with me will do.”
LOL. This feeds my fiction-writer’s mind with all kinds of fodder for a hero’s backstory.
For myself, I can’t remember ever wishing to give my parents anything so grand as a car—it must be a guy thing. I always loved it when my children drew me pictures, or when they wrote about how much they appreciate the things I do for them.

Oh, and sometimes they’d give me coupons to redeem for vacuuming or washing dishes or some such chore. Of course, they were always really great about doing chores anyway, so I never actually had to redeem them. Hmm, now that they’re getting busier and not able to help out so much, maybe I’ll have to dig out some of those old coupons. I hope they didn’t put an expiry date on them!!

Your Turn: Do you remember a special or humorous card you gave your folks as a child or that you’ve received from a child?

THE TIME IS not NOW

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
Have you noticed that every January an epidemic of posts about how to organize your life and manage your time populates blogs?
I blame calendars.

How can we resist the urge to plan better when faced with a pristine new calendar filled with panoramas of places we’d love to visit, or with scrumptious images of dishes we’d love to try, or adorable pictures that make us smile every time we look at them?

These days…I use calendars for another reason—to plot my characters’ actions.

After all, as much as many of us would appreciate an eight-day week or an early Friday now and again, a writer can only take fiction so far.
By fitting the scenes of my book into corresponding days on a calendar, I ensure I don’t have a dreaded eight-day week or a Friday two days after a Monday.  
Meticulous historical authors working with specific dates will go as far as to note the times of the full moons and new moons, sunrises and sunsets, high tides and low tides. I merely ensure I don’t have two full moons in the same month, although I pay special attention to those sunset times!

The current book I’m plotting features a heroine who is helping her folks with their flower shop, so I’m on the lookout for a floral calendar that will give me added inspiration.


Your Turn: What’s your favorite kind of calendar? Do you use calendars in less-than-usual ways?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
I don’t know about you, but for me, this past year felt as though it zipped by. Even my youngest thinks so, although my eldest…not so much. 
I guess not having the luxury of sleeping through the night in almost nine months would skew anyone’s perception.

When my children were young, I’d write a little note to my children each night to share something cute they’d done or said, or to tell of some milestone they’d reached, or to journal the special way we’d spent the day. I pasted these notes into scrapbooks with photos and gave them to each of my children on their twelfth birthday.

I believe that the exercise helped me to treasure each day, even when operating on only a few snatched hours of sleep. Through the years since, I’ve journaled off and on. It helps me gain perspective. 

With the feeling that the years are racing away, I think it’s time to resume the habit—a new year’s resolution of sorts.

Your Turn: What about you? Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Do you journal? How has it impacted you?

Christmas Greetings!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

I couldn’t resist sharing a picture of our very own Canadian (the birthplace of hockey, eh?) shepherd keeping watch over her fields. *grin* 

I pray you all enjoy a blessed Christmas. 

I am taking a break from blogging over the holidays and will be back to my regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule beginning January 2nd. Hope to see you then.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a poem by William Ellery Channing entitled My Symphony.

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
     and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
     and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
     act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
     and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
     do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
     grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony. 

Your Turn: The last word is yours! What do you think?

The Hero’s Journey…Death & Rebirth

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

This week my pup won a best actor award for her portrayal in my daughter’s stunt video for a college course. (Not sure what that says about the rest of the actors in the video, but…Bella does tend to steal the show.) Click below to view a clip.

In the actual movie clip, she closed her eyes and didn’t complain about being wounded while going down. But ah, these temperamental actors. This was the best I could get.

The portrayal got me thinking about the classic hero’s journey as originally described by Joseph Campbell. He observed that in most classic tales and myths, the hero must come to a kind of death, also referred to as the abyss, or the belly of the whale.

According to Campbell, the belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero’s known world and self. By entering this stage, the hero shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.

The emphasis is mine, because it struck me in a fresh way as I read this. When I contemplate my hero’s journey, I usually think of him as being thrust into this stage by circumstances and the consequences of the difficult choices he’s been forced to make. Isn’t that how most of us feel when suddenly confronting death or dire situations? 

Yet, the hero inevitably has a choice as to how he or she will face, or refuse to face, the situation. By willingly entering the belly of the fish (so to speak) he or she shows a willingness to undergo a metamorphosis. Just as Christ willingly went to the cross that we might be reborn. (Okay, perhaps this would have been a more timely Easter post. *grin*)

Stanley Williams in his book The Moral Premise calls this turning point the moment of grace. That is the point where the hero realizes that the value he’s clinging to leads only to physical detriment, and chooses to embrace the virtue that will lead to betterment. (Unless of course, the book is a tragedy!)

In my pup’s case, she chooses to “die” because she has learned that she will be rewarded!

In life’s journey we face many “deaths to self” or “moments of grace”. These are the fodder of fiction.

Your Turn: Are you skirting the edge of an abyss in your life’s journey? What choices do you see before you? Is there some way I can pray for you? Have you experienced a life-changing metamorphosis, a kind of epiphany, after journeying through a difficult valley?

Special Note to my Newsletter Subscribers: I emailed my newsletter on Friday with the link to Rick & Ginny’s Christmas story. If you subscribed and haven’t seen the email in your inbox, please check your spam/junk mail folder. I hope you enjoy the story!

And the Winners are…

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Congratulations to the winners of Stephanie Guerrero’s debut novel Shades of the Orient. 

The winner of the signed print copy is Loree Huebner!

The winner of the Ecopy is Victoria Dixon!

Please contact Stephanie at warriorranch@yahoo.com with your mailing information (or myself at the link near the top of right  hand column) Thank you to all who visited. 

If you have a Kindle, Shades of the Orient is currently only 99 cents at Amazon.  (a $24 saving off the print copy! Stephanie is offering a 30% discount on signed print copies if you contact her directly)
The Ebook isn’t up on B & N yet for Nook, but hopefully will be soon.

Woo hoo!!!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

I finished the quilt for my grand daughter!!!

What do you think? It’s made of doubled flannelette squares so that both sides show the design. The back of the quilt (on the left) are smooth seams, while the front (right side of photo) have the seams and edges all clipped for a raggedy effect.

I just know my ever inquisitive little one is going to love fluttering her fingers through those frills.

I wish I could! After spending hours and hours clipping the edges of 72 squares, my fingers can barely move!!!

But I think it was worth it. I can’t wait to cuddle up with my little grandbaby. ~big grin~

Your turn: Did you or your kids have a special “blankie” as a child?