REALISTIC WRITER RESOLUTIONS FOR 2023

 by Judy Ann Davis

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

MAKE TIME FOR YOUR WRITING ~ This tops the list for almost all writers. We resolve to make more time for writing every year, but it’s so easy for life to distract us. We rationalize we have other tasks and chores to do for our kids, our husband, friends, or family. If we wrote only 500 words at day, we would have 15,000 words in a month. One thousand words would net us 30,000, quite an admirable word goal. Don’t feel like writing? Research, writing exercises, outlining, reading for information, and editing also count as part of the writing process since these activities propel us forward.

READ, READ, READ ~ Not only do we need to read in our genre to stay on top of the latest trends and to study other writers’ styles, structure, plotting, voice and pacing, but also we need to read outside our comfort zone. We need to delve into a memoir, a nonfiction book, editorials, the newspaper, and anything we don’t normally read. This will give us a new perspective when we sit down to write again.

GET ORGANIZED ~ Organize your writing space. File that pile of papers you were going to take care of. Clean out your emails. Clean up your hard drive. Back up your data. Review and update your blog, website, Facebook page and Twitter account. Set a timetable for writing a certain project and determine how you’re planning to track your progress.

SET REALISTIC GOALS ~ Stop beating yourself up when you don’t accomplish what you planned. Stop comparing yourself to other writers. Set realistic goals. Maybe you will only accomplish one novel per year. However, you might want to try writing a seasonal short story, or an opinion or a blog piece as well.

EXERCISE ~ Good health is important. Get plenty of rest and find some activity where you can get exercise: swimming, walking, golfing, tennis, zumba, dancing or any other activity that takes you away from the keyboard and gets you moving.

                 Have you made your New Year’s resolutions?
                 If so, share one of them in the comments below.

        

JUNE ~ The Pianist

(Book 1 of the Musical Christmas Series)
NOW ON SALE $0.99

 

Books, Harvest, & the Fair by @JacquieRogers

  August--So Busy!

I Really Do Love Summer

by Jacquie Rogers

Have no doubt about it, I love summer.  Sure, I could do without the 100°+ heat for days and days, but thank goodness for air conditioning.  ♥ 

August is the time of year for rodeos and of course, since I write westerns, it's obvious that I love this sport and can't wait for our local rodeo.  Here's the yearly cycle, we go to our hometown rodeo, then we wait 364 days to go to the next rodeo. LOL.  Actually, we used to go all four nights including slack time (when, for a variety of reasons, the entrants can't compete during the actual rodeo).  These days it's a trial just to get there for one show.

And of course the Owyhee County Fair is going on a the same time.  This year, the power went out so most of the animals were back home by Saturday, the day we went, so that was a disappointment for us.  We did get to see the rabbits and goats, though.

This well-loved goat belongs to a 4-H kid (pardon the pun).

The tomatoes are about to run us out of house and home.  There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to process them all.  I've already given a bunch of them away, but we still have a ton of tomatoes on the vines in various stages of ripening.

So far, my daughter (Hurricane Mercedes) and I have made chili mix, pizza sauce, Indian butter chicken mix, and dehydrated some, too.  I'll be dehydrating more (and other veggies) because dried veggies are ideal for taking with us in the RV--lightweight, compact, and easy to stow.  Home-dried veggies taste great in stews and soups.  Thanks to Hero for giving us an awesome dehydrator!

Tomato powder

My grapes aren't doing so well this year and I really hope they aren't dead, but it doesn't look promising.  The extension agent told us we have a severe infestation of Virginia creeper leafhoppers.  We sprayed yesterday (we prefer not to spray but had to concede to chemicals in this case) and most of the bugs are dead, but Mr R is going to spray again tonight just to make sure.  Then we have a whole bunch of hefty work to do to remove the larvae incubation area and I don't even want to think about it right now.

Grapes of Wrath

What have I been reading lately?  Well, nothing for fun but Pioneer Theater in the Boise Basin: 1863-1899 is the latest research book for me.  The author, Charles E. Lauterbach, Ph.D., writes a scholarly book jampacked with information, and in an entertaining style that keeps me engaged.  Highly recommended!  And now Honey Beaulieu is bound to take advantage of this information. ☺

And finally, we did spend several days at Mr R's high school class reunion.  He graduated from Nampa High School, class of 1967.  Yes, he's MUCH older than I am. Hahaha.

NHS Class of '67 in front of the Idaho Hotel
in Silver City, Idaho

Speaking of Silver City, my next readers' event will be on July 15, 2023--not sure if it will be in Homedale again, or in Silver City.  I'll keep you posted.

Until next month, Happy Reading!

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If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

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Lost Manhood Restored! @JacquieRogers #researchrabbithole #HeartsOfOwyhee

Sometimes the Rabbit Hole Pays Off!

by Jacquie Rogers

Every once in a while, research tosses me a gem and there's no way I can pass it up.  So it was with Dr. Liebig's Lost Manhood Restorer.  When I saw the ad in an 1885 newspaper, I knew it absolutely had to go into the next scene.

The scene I'd just written in Much Ado About Marshals (Hearts of Owyhee #2) had the town gossip all huffy because she didn't think taxpayers' money should go to the new town marshal. 

“And while we’re speaking, I’d like to voice my protestations of hiring a wounded marshal. Half a man, he is, not being able to walk and all. I certainly do not approve of city monies going toward paying a man who isn’t capable of satisfactorily performing his duties.”

  The new marshal was, indeed, wounded, and the heroine--who'd vowed to marry him--took it upon herself to heal him as quickly as possible.

To back up a little, the book is about Daisy, who wants to be a lady detective, but she's stuck in Oreana, a dinky town in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory.  Worse, her parents are insisting she marry.  What to do?  Ever enterprising, she cooks up a plan to build a new jail (the town did) and hire a new marshal.  Then she plans to marry him.

But the new marshal arrives wounded, and what she doesn't know is he's not the man she hired at all--this man is wanted for robbing the bank in Silver City.  What's more, her sister was working in that bank and she's the one who shot him!  But he goes along with it, mostly because he's wounded and can't get away.  

Now to get back to Daisy's dilemma.  Here's the scene.  She needs the drool-worthy new marshal to get back on his feet in a hurry, and while she's stocking shelves in her father's store, she sees a bottle of Dr. Liebig's Lost Manhood Restorer.

***

“Sarah, I think we have our answer! Listen to this. “Nervous Debility, Impotency, Seminal Losses, Physical Weakness, Failing Memory, Weak Eyes, Stunted Development, Impediments to Marriage, etc. from excesses or youthful follies, or any cause, speedily, safely and privately cured.”

“He doesn’t look too nervous.”

“No, but maybe he doesn’t show it.” Daisy concentrated on the next word, trying to decipher its meaning. “Do you suppose Impotency means general weakness? After all if a medicine is potent, that means it’s strong. So impotency would mean that a man has lost his strength.”

Sarah nodded. “Must be. And he can’t be all that strong with a hole in his leg.” She picked up another bottle, unwrapped it, and studied the label. “Why on earth do you need a cure for not wanting to be a preacher?”

“Huh?”

“Well,” Sarah explained, “it says Seminal Losses. I guess that must refer to men who have quit seminary school.”

Daisy shrugged. She didn’t know, either, so she studied the label again. “This medicine sounds like just the thing to speed his recovery, especially if it removes any Impediments to Marriage—although I don’t know how on earth it could do that. Mama says love potions are hoaxes.”

“But it couldn’t hurt.”

“It might help.” Daisy stuffed a bottle in her apron pocket. 

“How are you planning to pay for it? Aren’t you going to tell your Dad?”

Daisy shook her head. “He won’t mind. I’ll just record it in the account book.” Where, she didn’t know — maybe on Mrs. Courtney’s account, but she wasn’t about to let her father in on her plans to marry the marshal until she had the marshal bagged good and proper.

***

I couldn't copy the entire advertisement because the original was longer than letter-size, and the copier would only copy that much.

So sometimes falling down the rabbit hole of research pays off later in the book or even later in the series.  You just never know when a tidbit might be just the ticket to a fun new scene.

Happy reading!  I hope you enjoy Cole, Daisy, and all the others in the Hearts of Owyhee books.

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A Full Birthday Month for me! by Paty Jager

This is my birthday month and I feel like I should be doing something special, but I'm so far behind on my deadlines and as this post posts, I'm headed home from a 7 day trip where I did research and attended the Wild Deadwood Reads reader event in Deadwood, SD. Finding a fun birthday month thing to do... my brain can't comprehend!

I had planned to have the second book in the Silver Dollar Saloon series out this month. Lottie Mae will be coming out next month, July. That is how far I am behind on my scheduled deadlines, a month. If I want to be true to myself, I'm almost two months behind. I should be writing the next Shandra Higheagle book right now, but I'm still on the last book in line to be written.

I'm starting to see a pattern. Last year at this time I was a month or two behind my planned schedule. Does this mean I need to start giving myself more time per book? I would think so, but I want to keep my readers happy and writing in multiple genres and series, I have to get at least one book in each series out in a year.  I prefer 2-3 in the mystery series and 1-2 in the western romance series.

Because I am also writing a new series which will debut the first of 2019, I need to add that to the mix. Aii Yii!

This wasn't supposed to be a blog about my writing woes! Sorry!

I'm excited about the Wild Deadwood Tales anthology that is available in print and ebook and all the proceeds go to the Western Sports Foundation. I'll give you a run down on how our signings went at the rodeos in Deadwood in next month's post. All the stories in this anthology are great!

Another exciting thing for me but not all the authors who were in Debra Holland's Montana Sky Kindle World, is that Amazon is phasing out the Kindle Worlds. This means I get my rights back to  Isaac: Letters of Fate book. I have to go through and take out all of the Montana Sky elements that were in it, but I will finally have book 2 in the Letters of Fate trilogy to put in a box set with the other two. I'm excited because Isaac was my favorite book in the series.

And the last amazing thing to happen is my book, Haunting Corpse in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series is a finalist in the Daphne du Maurier contest through Romance Writers of America. I'm excited that my mystery has been valued good enough to be a finalist. While readers have been telling me how much they love the series, to have a book do well in a contest is icing on the cake.

And if you are another June baby, Happy Birthday this month to you!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32 novels, 6 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”
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Top photo: Depositphotos

RESEARCH IS A TRIP!

One of the fun parts of writing is a research trip. Today’s writers are fortunate to have Google and the myriad of resources that come with the internet in addition to the local library. I take advantage of the wonderful reserves at my fingertips, yet nothing is like actually being there. As one of my friends from this blog, Jacquie Rogers, said, “I need to smell the air.”

Obviously, we can’t always go smell the air. I write the Loving A Rancher Series of western historical romances set in Montana, yet—shhhh, don't tell—I’ve never been in that state. In fact, I'm working on book 7 in that series now, THE RANCHER'S PERFECT BRIDE, for release later this month. 

I’ve been through lower Utah, but not the part in which an upcoming couple of books for the Widows of Cougar Creek Series, GARNET (September 2018) and BLESSING (March 2019), are set.

I wrote PATIENCE, BRIDE OF WASHINGTON, for Kirsten Osbourne’s American Mail-Order Bride project. For each of these books, I’ve depended not only on the internet and books, but on friends who have lived in or visited those places.

But today I’m discussing research trips. 

                      Going there. 

                                                  Smelling the air. 

                                                                                  Setting feet firmly on the landscape.

Lost Maples

My youngest daughter and I love short trips with diversions. For us, everything is “on the way”. When I was working on THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE, we went to a writer’s conference in San Antonio and came back to North Central Texas via Lost Maples National Historic Site near Bandera, Texas. Hero pointed out that this was not “on the way” for anyone but us. I confess that’s true. We were glad we'd been in person because seeing photos could never convey the sense of awe we experienced there.

Irish Traveler caravan from
a living history park
The wagons have an amazing amount
of storage and decoration.

A trip which inspired that novel was when Hero and I went to Ireland for the first time. We were fortunate to have had an unusually knowledgeable guide who had a university degree in history. I became fascinated with Irish Travelers and with displaced Irish from different periods in history. 

I also referenced one of those periods in Ireland in OUT OF THE BLUE, in which a young Irish woman from 1845 leaped from an Irish cliff and landed out of the blue in a modern Texas lake.

Not my best photo ever shows the windmill
and one of the homes moved to the
Ranching Heritage Center

Hero and I grew up in the West Texas city of Lubbock. One of my favorite resources for western historical romances is the Ranching Heritage Museum at Texas Tech in Lubbock. This is a wonderful place for anyone who loves Southwestern history.

Hero and I visit the WASP Museum
Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas

One of our recent research trips was to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. I was doing research for my latest release, TEXAS STORM, in which the time traveling heroine was a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) from WWII who trained at Avenger Field. This was the only all-women's air training base in the United States, although there were men there as instructors and ground crew. Reading about the place online and from library books helped a great deal. 

Replica WASP Barracks

Seeing the replica barracks and the many displays made a huge impression on me. I believe it added to my ability to convey the heroine's point of view in TEXAS STORM, book 3 of the Texas Time Travel Series, that is available at https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Storm-Time-Travel-Book-ebook/dp/B07CYT9KT5/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1527946588&sr=8-3&keywords=Caroline+Clemmons

I love learning new things from travel. Where are your favorite places to visit?

DON'T read my files or history! by Paty Jager

As I get older and help my family members and friends go through the effects of someone who has deceased, I am struck with the knowledge one day this could be me.

And boy will my family find some interesting things! Especially in regards to my writing. I write historical western romance and murder mystery.

The murder mystery makes sense. I have books on poisons, how to strangle someone, and different calibre of guns and the size holes they would make. I have files on my computer where I copy and paste information that comes across a crimescene loop I'm on. Like what kind of bleeding could one expect from a stabbing, how heavy of an object will crush a skull. You get the drift. It's not your average grandma's files or books.  The history and bookmarks on my computer look like fodder for a nonfiction book on how to kill your neighbor. 

And while my family may cringe, then grin, knowing it was information that helped me write books that made me happy, they might be a bit embarrassed by other elements I've "ahem" researched.

ghost tour building

Did you know that some of the first condoms were made from intestines? And that lemon halves were inserted into a woman/prostitute to prevent her from getting pregnant? If the "covering" didn't stop the sperm the acid of the fruit would kill it. I tend to look up information of a personal nature that I want or need to know for a book. I was ecstatic, when this summer while on a ghost tour of a brothel during the Wild Deadwood Reads, we were handed a pamphlet with prices and services  in the Capacious Capsulation Parlor of the early 1900's.  When I arrived home, I handed it to my husband all excited to have come across prices. He glanced at it and shook his head, muttering, "I hope the grandkids don't see this."

I'd give you a sample, but I believe this blog is PG or  nothing more than R rated. All the wording for the "services" wouldn't be appropriate here.  But the service prices range from $0.49 to $30.

This little flyer is in my files along with a few other items that may or may not turn my children's faces red. LOL 

As I've said many times since I started writing, the part I love the most about writing a book is the research. It is a never ending learning experience even if the information I learn will only ever be used in one book, one scene, one paragraph, one sentence. It was the hunt and the thrill of the find that makes me dig and question when I write a scene and wonder "what if".

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32+ novels, novellas, and anthologies of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”


blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest
 

photos: Canstock and Paty Jager