Generational Heroines

Grandma was among the first women in America to earn a Master’s degree. Teaching for many years before then, beginning in a one room school house, marrying and moving to a three story school house teaching fifth grade, then again to the next town where she made an incredible mark as first grade teacher, she also raised four children, studying at night after their needs were met. She graduated with her Master’s in Education the same year her oldest child graduated with his Bachelor’s degree.

A strong woman, yes. Not many dared cross her. Yet she had the gentle fun artsy silly side that made her such a wonderful teacher. There is now a memorial tree and marker planted in her honor at her final school, also my grade school.

She has a son and three daughters. I grew surrounded by all of them and their spouses and children. It was a delightful time of noise, wide discussions, gift exchanges, birthday cakes, and little ones running around everywhere. Family was penultimate in my childhood. It was also highly inspirational.

I’m a people watcher. I always have been. I think it could be because there was just so MUCH variety to watch in one house where we all gathered each birthday and holiday. Think of an artist’s colony except with all ages, and you’ll have a feel for it.

The women in my family were always particularly fascinating and each was a heroine in her own right. The styles were different but whatever the style, things seemed to revolve around them individually, more so than with the men. No offense meant to the men but I come from a very long history of strong independent women. Kudos to the heroes who could deal with them long-term. ;-) We have gutsy women who will say whatever they think and those who will hardly admit any feelings; in charge types and followers; women who love to be out and about and on the go and those more like hermits; some have reached what they went after, others are still trying for it or content with what they did accomplish; some went to school to study and some to socialize. Whichever type(s) they are, they have one common characteristic: they  are strong women. Their strength may not be obvious to the casual observer. Sometimes you have to look deep and try to see it the way they do. And they’re family, part of a chain, intertwined.


My heroines always come with family connections, and the way their families affect them comes out in their individual choices and outlooks. They are always strong, but their strength is often quiet and supportive more than feisty and independent. They tend to have highly independent female friends or relatives they admire, and they grow throughout the book, learning to assert their own independence with age and experience.

My heroines stem from reality. We all know that older women are much more likely to appear stronger and more together and less worried about appearances and the shallow things of life. We do grow. So far, all of my heroines begin as young women at that age of emergence, so to speak. Their stories begin at the point they’re truly beginning to come into their own and the reader always sees how they do, what encourages it.

I go a step farther with the concept of growth and family and intertwining in my Rehearsal series. Beginning when Susie is barely twenty, it extends over four books to after she has fully grown and found herself and become comfortable with her place in the chain. It covers more than ten years. Her family is involved throughout, as is her hero’s family and her best friend’s family. Even the minor characters have familial involvement enough to see where they came from and where they’re heading. The sequel to the series is firmly in my head and checks in on the next generation, connecting the effects of Susie’s generation on her daughter’s. Susie is not a highly independent, outgoing type.  Her daughter, however, is fully both. Their stories will mesh, and continue. While Susie’s mother’s story is only touched on in the series, it will likely become its own.

Whether or not the heroine is the strongest and most vivacious character, she is always the center of my stories, even if she has no POV scenes. We don’t need to direct the stage to be pivotal or the main draw, after all. Sometimes it’s simply what we are that steals the show, and what we are is always affected not only by our parents but by the generations of our families.

Do you have a truly inspirational woman in your family who could be a heroine? I’d love to hear about her!

LK Hunsaker
  

"More" Poetry: from a non-poet

I Dream In Color

Running outside
My little feet wrapped
And body bundled against the cold
I fly
Into the snow

I am taken
By its warmth
But more so by its color
I dream
In many colors

The rainbow before me
Lies on the ground
In my backyard so deep
A child
Surrounded in warmth

For years to come
I still dwell
In the hills of rainbow snow
Taken
Home in my mind

A favorite memory
Not for real
They say you can't go back
But I do
And still dream in color.

(Feb 2005)

 
I'm not a poet. By that I mean I'm not trying to make my name as a poet. I'll leave that to those who study the technique, form, style, and work at improving their particular craft. I'm a novelist who likes to play in poetry now and then.

It's funny, I suppose, since I've been writing poetry much longer than I've been writing novels. My first was in high school after a successful day of marching band when we won first place in a parade. We did that often but this was my first time. As an expressive outlet I wrote a little ditty that started:

We are closer
Almost here
All the traffic
Hope for cheers...

Well okay, but it was my first and I was about fourteen. From that came an explosion of teenage angst stuff that I won't bother retyping, and some holiday stuff ... only spurts of thoughts. With my youth and naivete, I was taken in by one of those companies looking for poets only so they could sell you their "anthologies" *sigh* - ah well, it helped land a feature in my local paper! I had just graduated high school by then and was on the front page in an article that showed off my creative tendencies. It included the "published" poem and a drawing I'd done that received a blue ribbon in the state fair. Talk about feeling important! ;-) Maybe it wasn't so much, in the grand scheme of things, but it was encouraging.

I have to always give credit to my poetry background for helping to give me a jump start into an eventual writing career. I'm still not a poet, but I still write poetry at times. I love the quick expression, the hidden meanings (sometimes so hidden readers are left scratching their heads - oops), and the free-writing creative emotional release. I love the way when I write poetry it surges the feel of it through my prose, as well. It makes me a better novelist. Anything that taps such deep inner feeling will do that.

I'll share one more, a fairly recent one (bypassing the I Once Ate A Cat poem) that came from a prompt since I also love grabbing a prompt and simply planting myself in front of a blank sheet of paper and letting the words come out as they will. This has no editing - it's true free writing, an exercise I highly enjoy:

More

Deeply, you love me, you say
More than I
But wait
You cannot, I say
More cannot exist

Strongly, you show your pain
Your tears
Won't sway
I believe, I say
More cannot exist

Take heart
Take strength
Take all I am
All I have, within
I have no fear, I say
You stay

Stay within bounds, unwound
Unseen are
My tears
I have no fear, I say
While you are near

Deeply, I love you, I swear
More than you
I dare
You cannot, you say
More cannot exist

Strongly, I hide my pain
I smile
On display
You believe, you say
In my strength

But wait
My strength
Belongs to you
All I have, within
I get from you, I swear
You cry

More, I say
And smile
More exists

(Feb 2007)

LK Hunsaker
www.LKHunsaker.com

Midsummer Poetry Week, Day One

Welcome to the start of our Midsummer Poetry Week on the Lindsay's Romantics blog! Here to open are two poets from my own local writing group: Alan Calder and Margaret Maguire.


The Chemistry of Love

Sin from thy lips? Oh trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
William Shakespeare


Two specks of nubile dust coalesce
In the infinity of space and time
A low probability event, it happens
Anywhere called destiny
Or is it really down to chemistry?

Hands melt together in warm caress
Fingers knot round fingers
Keeping in fond light touch
Enough to fan the next flame

In the dark quiet corner
Lips seek out soft quivering lips
The passport gateway to all else
Four slivers of flesh colliding
Teasing, searching, sensing
Pouting, puckering, pressure
Signalling passion explodes in
A hormone high tide that
Sweeps them far upstream on
Waves of strident urging molecules

Phenylethylamine sets them on fire
Dopamine makes them feel good
Norepinephidrine makes their hearts race
The level of sinister serotonin drops
A symptom of another form of
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Or the up phase of manic depression
Plato said it was a mental illness

A cocktail chain that binds them
Drowning them in each other
Lifebelts invisible in their blindness
Two hermit crabs outside their shells
Nature’s drug fuelled purpose
Storm troopers from its Ministry of Population
We know what it wants, it isn’t pious
Our ancestors whisper in our ears

Addicts in that chemistry of life
Cast on that sun kissed beach
They build a castle in the sands of lust
But who would want to say
‘I’ve fallen in lust’
With its Biblical bad press and baggage
Better to call it Love-Stage 1
In love with the idea of being in love

But beware of the withdrawal symptoms
If you’re abandoned there by your mate
The opposite of love is empty grief
Only you can say whether it was better
To have loved and lost than never loved at all
If you break up try not to break down

But who told dopamine and friends to strike?
Not every kiss leads to short term bliss
Is there a winged messenger?
A chemical cupid twixt lip and life
A pheromone that throws the switch
To say that A’s ok a compatible genetic mix
But B’s a frog, get real, no chance

Do we really want to know that?
And have to find a mate in a lab
Dating adverts, chemical formulae
It might save time for lonely moths
Who never seem to find the flame
Pheromone free zones perhaps?
Let’s leave this part a mystery

Once you’ve found it will it last?
Not that drug fuelled phase
That keeps the heart cuffs on
The tide goes out to leave an itch
To scratch in four to seven years
Time to make a babe or three
And move on to Love- Phase 2
But some are primed to seek others
To extend the human gene pool

So then the love struck junkies
Addicted to that initial ecstasy
Need that aching surging rush
They start afresh along the shore
Condemned to play there forever
Singing that same old song again
Does anything grow in salty sand?
Or is that backward moral bollocks?

If you’re lucky and patient
You will find the soothing peace
Of deep and everlasting love
The novelty of the sandy beach
Must move onto firmer ground
Built on a million memories
And foundations of all things shared
No high pressure chemistry
A gentle balm of endorphins entwines
And oxytocin keeps the cuddles going
It’s in our psyche to work for
What nature makes us desire

A long journey not a sporting event
Evolving with the seasons
Each with its different rhythm
Facing life with one mind
All an investment in fusing souls
Together till death do you part
In hope to meet again
And do it all another time

Alan Calder


My Life long friend

To start our journey I send a kiss
For a life of wedded bliss,
Our first home sparkling and new
A love so faithful and true.

Our lives to spend together come
What may to stay forever,
This we will learn from one another
Truth, love, joy and sorrow.

The journey is never going to end
With you my life long friend.
Many explorations to be done,
The future’s going to be such fun.

We may travel far to distant lands,
Or simply stay close at hand.
When life has gone, we will journey
On through all eternity.

Margaret Maguire

[Pictures by Victor Harris from the garden of Barry Kellington.]

Family paves the way

The first love that many of us are fortunate to know is that of family – our parents, siblings, and the immediate extended family of grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Though this surely is a different type of love than the passionate romance novel genre concentrates on, it is often the basis for what we expect in life. Often the relationships, good or bad, that we had with our parents, the relationship we see between our mom and dad, and the friendships we shared with our siblings will mold us giving us expectations or wariness in all of our future affairs.


As a writer I have always enjoyed creating characters that were products of personal history, such as Paige in Bartlett’s Rule whose life of abuse led her to make poor decisions and suffer more pain. Or like Julie in Final Sin who had a loving but sheltered and nearly suffocating childhood and chose to rebel and live a little on “the wild side”. In Courage of the Heart, Davie seemed to have an eternal optimism and easy rapport with everyone she met because of the huge and very strong family she grew up with.


The greatest gratification I got was exploring the dynamics of the Hughes’ family and everyone involved with them in both Forgotten and Within the Law. Although Forgotten began as one stand-alone book with no intentions of continuing the characters, I fell in love with my characters – especially Tom Hughes; I had to give Tom his own happily-ever-after in Within the Law. So while the two books are really separate love stories, they are also a continuing saga connected by cousins Caitlyn Smythe and Tom Hughes.


In Forgotten we have a young woman who grew up in a loving environment and even though she lost her parents to a tragic car accident when she was only twelve; she became a member of her aunt, uncle and cousin’s home. We also have Brandon who grew up with his material needs well met and was starved for the emotional bonds he so wanted. Caitlyn can’t understand Brandon’s lack of desire to reconnect with his father, and Brandon has no concept of family and doesn’t understand Caitlyn’s need for trust and complete acceptance. When Caitlyn’s cousin/brother Tom counsels Brandon, we learn of Tom’s own love tragedy.


In Within the Law, Tom has finally come to grips with the past and sees a chance for a new beginning. Alli is filled with self doubts and doesn’t believe that she is the type of woman that family-minded Tom needs in his life. Brandon and Caitlyn are there for Tom and Brandon shows his true nature, his loyalty and love of family. Malcolm and Keisha, friends from Forgotten, also return as nearly adopted members of the family.


In both books, readers meet the family that created Tom and Caitlyn. Sylvia Hughes is a loving mom who meddles (with love) and is proud of her children. She considers Caitlyn to be her own daughter and comes to adore Brandon as well. Walter Hughes, Tom’s dad, is patient and tolerant of his wife and even a bit bemused by her meddling. He is a staunch supporter of both Tom and Caitlyn and I think he is a perfect example of stability.


The Hughes family represents love in every possible form. They are accepting and understanding, they sometimes fight, but they are always there for each other. The core of this family had a lot to do with the happy endings for their offspring.

Dating

What do you think about dating in your books?

I don't mean dating as in going out for dinner. Heck, we write romance. There should be some dinner dates or something going on in there! I'm talking about book dating -- specifically, the way some editors say not to add anything to your novel that will "date" your book, such as listening to your 8-track tapes or mentioning currently popular bands. [This doesn't apply to historical fiction, of course.]

I've been pondering this since it came up on a writing list. A writer was wondering whether to use a brand name or not because of trademark violations and dating the story. (It's not a trademark violation if you capitalize the brand name to show it's a brand name.)

But why is dating a story so horrible? Maybe I'm a bit of a rebel, but I purposely date all of my novels. I have specific time periods in mind and make sure to make references to that time. My series even has dates as chapter headings. Why is this a bad thing?

I love reading novels and being pulled back into the time frame of the story. Think of the romances of the Seventies (for those of us old enough to remember the Seventies). Didn't they have that luscious timeframe feel to them? I vividly remember being in a story where I had to take a term and put it into context because it was not applicable to the time period in which I was reading it. But that's part of the fun of reading. It puts you elsewhere. It opens your small world and makes it larger.

It may depend on the story, but with mine being largely music-based and dealing with social and cultural issues, the time periods in which they are set are important to the story. I use specific band/musician references in all of them, and generally brand names, capitalized. Am I making them short-lived that way? I don't think so.

David Copperfield is wonderfully dated. So is John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Still, they're timeless. I believe part of the timeless appeal is the wonderful real sense of the times.

My Rehearsal series is set in the 70s, moving into the 80s as the books progress. The single-mother issue wouldn't be as big an issue now as it was then. Neither would the heroine being half Native American (termed as "Indian" in the series since it was still called Indian back then). The issues raised are dated, and so, the books have to be, also. Maybe in a hundred years, if someone is reading it that far into the future (I can only hope), she won't know who Eric Clapton and The Beatles and Donny Osmond are without looking back into history. But maybe it will convince her to look back into history. Maybe it will spark an interest to help rediscover some of those bands and the era in which they ruled.

What do you think? If you run across a band or song name or product or expression you don't know, does it annoy you or does it persuade you to research a bit and check it out?

Shouldn't we, as authors, be helping to build a biography of our times to leave to the future? Fiction has always helped me see real life and times of the past better than history books. I want to do the same for future generations. And yes, I remember the Seventies well enough to catch the true flavor of the time. I think it was well worth capturing, and it's been a lot of fun revisiting that incredible rock/pop music.

Rehearsal: A Different Drummer
LK Hunsaker
mainstream romance

http://www.lkhunsaker.com

When a Thing becomes a Character

What happens when part of a setting is so completely integrated into a story that it magically transforms from a Thing into a Character?

Take this rock wall from a photo I snapped somewhere along one of our road trips. It could simply be part of the setting -- background detail to help ground the reality of where our characters are and what they see, maybe even showing how they feel about it that defines them somewhat. This is the typical use of description, even when it's describing such a gorgeous scene as this wall.

On the other hand, it could become such an important part of the story that the story wouldn't be the same without it. It could be a catalyst for a character to change. Maybe he passes it every day and ponders it for miles afterwards, so much so that it becomes a part of him. Maybe he becomes as rigid and strong as that rock wall while allowing enough subtle growth to let himself flourish like the hardy vegetation hanging on to its side.

I used this device in Finishing Touches, my novel about a young artist fighting against being an artist because she marries one and feels she can't compete with him. Throughout the story, she often refers to the huge window in their loft that allows her to look out at the world while staying safely closed within. To my delight, one of my readers picked up on the characterization of the window and how it helped define Jenna herself. It reflects her struggle to look out or to stay in, her urging to explore her art and use it, or to give in to her insecurity of not being good enough. This theme reaches beyond art and into other areas of her life.

Her artist spouse, who she loses just before the story begins, paints a scene of them wrapped in only a blanket looking out at the river below. The window, here, becomes a metaphor of the exposure Jenna feels because of his professional career, because she becomes known as his wife and attracts another young artist who is a fan of his work. Still, it keeps a boundary. She may be exposed but she's beyond anyone's bounds to be able to reach. Or so she believes.

The window becomes a character. The story would hardly be the same story without it.

I'm sure other authors here have used the same technique. I'd love to hear about their character objects in the comments!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finishing Touches is available as a Trade Paperback and as an Ebook. Find its website for more information at LKHunsaker.com/FT/main.htm

Love and Murder & other thoughts from Chelle Cordero

I’m a gal who thoroughly enjoys a good, trashy romance novel complete with genre specific happily ever after endings; I am also a sucker for a good psychological thriller. So I tend to write suspense into my romance novels and indeed there is a lot of intrigue woven into Forgotten, Within the Law and Courage of the Heart. The first of my 2008 trifecta of novels was Bartlett’s Rule, an emotional drama involving the sensitive issue of rape and recovery.

During the mid 90’s I was enthralled by the movie Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman – it was a tense psychological crime mystery which also included lots of gore. Movie goers sat on the edge of their seats with each twist. I wanted to be able to create that level of tension, to captivate audiences in the same way. And so was born the idea of Final Sin, a story of horrific crimes and obsession. Alas, I wove a love story in because I am just too much of a romantic and the thought of Dudley Do-Right rushing to the rescue of the fair Nell is just that, romantic.

Final Sin
by Chelle Cordero

Deputy Sheriff Commander Jake Carson has his hands full with the investigation of a brutal multiple-homicide, a troubled son and a vindictive ex-wife when he meets young, free-spirited paramedic Julie Jennings. He is immediately drawn to her and finds himself unexpectedly falling in love. Julie finds herself just as drawn to him. When Julie becomes the object of an obsession, it puts both of their lives in extreme danger.

Final Sin opens at a crime scene. Two young women are staked to the ground in a dark, isolated shack – one is already dead, the other barely alive. And there is a third victim, a young man, burned when he tried to save the lives of his female companions. Julie Jennings and her paramedic partner Matt respond to the scene after a 911 call reports a burn victim. They had no idea what they were really walking into. Deputy Sheriff Commander Jake Carlson shows up to lead the investigation and begin the search for the perpetrator of the cold cruelty in that cabin.

That’s how they meet.

He wondered why it had taken him so long to realize that she was the one.

Usually he was able to tell with just a glance, but then he had been wrong before and had chosen women that had disappointed him terribly. It was so hard to suffer when they let him down.

It was only after he had thought about her while he watched another ambulance crew bring their patient in that he realized how gently she had tended to her patients, how light her touch had seemed, that he knew for sure. He knew that she had been sent to him for one purpose.

She really cared.

She was the one.

That’s how the obsession begins…
~~~~~~~~

As a writer I find it terrifying to switch genres when I have already met a comfortable level of success with another – but as a writer I found it impossible to avoid the draw of penning something that, I hope, will stimulate readers the way that Se7en did with me. I laughed when an early reader informed me that she began to read Final Sin while alone in her house and actually got up at one point to retrieve a kitchen knife to keep beside her.

At the same time I wanted a sensual and deep love story written between Jake and Julie. As most lovers do, they both have pasts and “baggage” to complicate their lives. There are antagonists like Jake’s ex-wife and her new husband, sympathetic innocents like Jake’s son, and friends who may mean well but don’t always say or do the right thing. Let’s not forget, there is also the killer. And there is danger.

Final Sin is already available for pre-orders on both Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com. It will actually be in print by May 1; it will also be available for Kindle and as a .pdf ebook.

I sure hope that I pull this one off…
~~~~~~~~

My wonderful editor put together a ChapBook which includes the first chapters for each novel through Final Sin – it’s FREE for the download, just go to http://tr.im/hv3I
I hope that it will intrigue you.

Thank you for stopping by,
Chelle
http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/