The Power of a Family Tree

with guest blogger - Amanda Cabot

With the current interest in genealogy and tracing ancestors, you may have created a personal family tree or at least considered doing so, but have you developed one for one of your books?  While I’ll be the first to admit that you don’t need a family tree for many stories, I’m here to tell you that they can be extremely helpful and – yes – powerful for some books.

It’s confession time.  I grew up reading sagas.  You know what I mean, those long, multi-generational stories that were popular more years ago than I’m going to admit.  One of the things that fascinated me about them was that they almost always had a family tree in the front of the book.  Those were designed to help readers keep track of who’s who and who’s related to whom in what way.  I was hooked!  But as much as I liked the idea of a family tree, I didn’t have a need for one until I started plotting the Cimarron Creek trilogy.

From the beginning, I knew that my fictional Texas town would be founded by two families from the North and that there would be multiple generations involved in each story.  While I wasn’t writing a saga, there were enough characters involved that I had the excuse I needed to create a family tree.

And so, I did.  Here’s a simple version of the first tree.

The Process

How do you start to create a family tree?  In real life, you collect information about people.  It’s a similar process with fiction, only you get to decide what the facts are.  As I thought about Cimarron Creek, I began asking questions.

• Who were these founding families?  Although I could have had the founders be from unrelated families, more interesting dynamics were possible if they had a common ancestor.
• When did they emigrate to Texas?  That helped determine their ages as well as critical events in the backstory.  After all, a town founded well after the War Between the States would have had different challenges than one where the residents had experienced the war and Reconstruction.
• How many children did the founders have?  While not all of the children play roles in each book, it was important for me to know how many cousins my hero (Travis Whitfield) had and what ages they were.
• What were their professions?  Although that’s not something you see on the family tree or any of the related reports, it was a key piece of information, so I added it to one of the reports I’d printed.

You can see that I changed a number of things as I actually wrote the book, including some characters’ names and ages.  Like the manuscript itself, the family tree was a work in progress.

The Advantages

Why go to this much trouble?  There are a number of reasons.

• It forced me to think about each person as an individual.  While I didn’t include birth and death dates on the chart, they’re part of the underlying database. (More about that later.)
• Because I knew a fair amount about each of the people on the family tree, I was able to include “insider” details about some of them in the book.  The result, I believe, was a more authentic-feeling town.
• Seeing the chart helped me avoid repetition of names or creating too many characters whose names began with the same letter.  While the character chart I always create for my books is useful for that, because of its graphic nature, the family tree made it easier to see duplication.
• The reports I generated provided me with information about each secondary character’s relationship to the protagonist.

Yes, I could have made notes about which people were cousins vs. aunts and uncles, but having the software do the work for me made my life a bit easier, not to mention that I knew it was accurate.  I’ve never claimed to know what second cousins twice removed means.

To Automate or Not

While you can always create a family tree manually by drawing squares on a piece of paper, I chose to use Family Tree Maker software.  (And, no, I don’t own stock in Family Tree Maker, Ancestry.com, or anyone else who’s sold this particular package.)  I’ve used FTM since the days of Windows 95 and have found it relatively easy to learn.  I also like the reports it generates.  While the Outline Descendant report is the one I use on a daily basis simply because it’s so concise, the Descendant report provides an easy-to-understand explanation of who’s who.

One of the advantages of the software is that whether you prefer to start with the current generation and work backward or with the first generation and move forward, you can do it.  You can also start in the middle and work both ways.  Those of you who know me won’t be surprised that I started with the first generation and worked forward, but I’ve used the flexibility of adding descendants on numerous occasions.  And, of course, I like the fact that I can change names, birthdates, and other key pieces of information as my story evolves.

For me, building a family tree was an essential part of outlining this trilogy.  Using automated software made that process easier and resulted in a tree that Revell could (and did) include in the book itself.

Have I convinced you to at least consider creating a family tree for stories that include multiple generations?  If not, here’s one last advantage I found: it allowed Revell to create an interesting graphic for social media.

Don’t you love the different hairstyles for the various generations?

Author Bio:
Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels including the Texas Dreams trilogy, the Westward Winds series, the Texas Crossroad trilogy, and Christmas Roses. A former director of Information Technology, she has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages.  Amanda is delighted to now be a full-time writer of Christian romances, living happily ever after with her husband in Wyoming.  

A Stolen Heart – Amanda Cabot

Blurb

The future she dreamed of is gone. But perhaps a better one awaits . . . 

From afar, Cimarron Creek seems like an idyllic town tucked in the Texas Hill Country. But when former schoolteacher Lydia Crawford steps onto its dusty streets in 1880, she finds a town with a deep-seated resentment of Northerners—like her. Lydia won’t let that get her down, though. All will be well when she’s reunited with her fiancé. 

But when she discovers he has disappeared—and that he left behind a pregnant wife—Lydia is at a loss about what to do next. The handsome sheriff urges her to trust him, but can she trust anyone in this town where secrets are as prevalent as bluebonnets in spring?

Bestselling author Amanda Cabot invites you into Texas’s storied past to experience adventure, mystery—and love.

Join the conversation on creating a family tree! One lucky commentor will get a copy of A Stolen Heart of their very own! Remember to stop by and check out the Weekend Edition on Saturday!!

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Surviving Rejection with a Little Help from SARAH

With guest blogger, Amanda Cabot

Rejection. As much as we’d like to deny it, rejection is a part of most writers’ lives. Rejection can come from agents, from editors, from reviewers and even from potential readers. A booksigning where customers walk by, possibly chat with us but don’t buy a book is a form of rejection, isn’t it? While there are many forms of rejection, they all have one thing in common: they hurt. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Having someone say our story, which is, after all, a part of us, isn’t ready for publication or – in the case of bad reviews – should never have been published is painful.

So, how do we cope with it? Besides eating a pound of chocolate, that is. That’s where SARAH comes in. Who’s SARAH, or more precisely, what is SARAH? You’re probably familiar with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s On Death and Dying, the book that first introduced the idea of the five stages of grieving. Further research indicated that it’s not only people who are facing either their own mortality or that of a loved one who experience the five stages. Any traumatic experience can trigger them. I would argue that being rejected is traumatic because it’s the death of a dream.

If we want to survive rejection, it’s important to understand the stages, then identify coping devices that will help us through each stage. Let’s begin.

Understanding Those Oh, So Critical Stages

We’re all writers, so I’m sure you realized that the fact that I capitalized SARAH means it’s an acronym. It is indeed. The five stages of dealing with rejection are:

·         Shock

·         Anger

·         Resistance

·         Acceptance

·         Hope

No matter how often we remind ourselves that rejection is a fact of life, we’re never truly prepared for it. That’s why we find ourselves in Shock. The important thing to remember about Shock is that a person who’s experiencing it may exhibit unpredictable and irrational behavior. This is probably the most dangerous stage since we’re not in full control of ourselves.

Next comes Anger. It’s only normal to be angry. How could that agent/ editor/ reviewer – you fill in the blanks – say something like that? Don’t they know that my story is the most beautiful piece of prose in the English language?

Eventually, Anger fades and is replaced by Resistance. Some refer to this stage as Denial. In it, our energy is still diverted, because even though we don’t want to think about it, the rejection is hanging over us, sapping our creativity.

Acceptance is the first positive stage. In it we admit that yes, we were rejected, but the world didn’t end.

And then comes Hope. This is where we tell ourselves it will be different the next time. The next editor will love this manuscript. And if that doesn’t happen, there’s always another story. At this point, the pain has faded and we’re ready to resume our normal lives.

Things You May Not Know About SARAH

There are two important things to know about the five stages of SARAH. First, the speed with which people progress through them varies. Some will race through the first three quickly, spending little time in Acceptance as they make their way to Hope. Others will remain mired in one of the early stages and never reach Hope.

The second thing to know is that progress isn’t necessarily linear. Although you may have reached Resistance or one of the later stages, it’s possible that a new event will trigger backsliding and you find yourself back a stage or two. Don’t let this upset you. It happens. The key is to know how to cope with each stage so that you’ll be able to reach Hope.

Coping Techniques

So, let’s talk about coping techniques. As I said before, chocolate is always helpful, but it has some downsides, including weight gain, so I advise using it in moderation. There are, however, other things you can do during each stage.

Fortunately, Shock does not normally last too long. The key here is to stay away from your computer and your phone. The last thing you need is to send the agent or editor a nasty note when you’re in shock. Remember that irrational behavior is a hallmark of this stage. Be careful. Be very careful.

When you reach Anger, primal scream therapy and journaling are excellent tools. Call a friend and vent. You might even want to write a letter to the person who rejected you, explaining how totally misguided and incorrect the rejection was. As soon as you’ve written the letter, delete it, burn it or shred it. Under no circumstances should you send it to the rejecter. That’s career suicide.

I’m a firm believer in exercise. A brisk walk, even house cleaning (shudder!) releases endorphins, those wonderful feel-good substances. That’s why exercise is an excellent way to deal with Resistance. So, too, is reading. Escape into a book by one of your favorite authors. You can always claim you’re doing research, but the truth is, you’re helping yourself get through Resistance.

Do you keep a file of positive affirmations? You should. Whether it’s a favorable review of a published story, your critique partner’s praise or simply a compliment someone paid you, you should store it somewhere easily accessible. Reading those affirmations while you’re in Acceptance will help you on the path to Hope. So too will what I call “a trip to the post office.”

Even before you send the manuscript out the first time, you should have a backup plan just in case your submission is met with rejection. That backup plan is a prioritized list of other agents or editors who might be interested in that particular manuscript. As soon as you’ve passed through Shock, send the manuscript to the next person on the list. (I know I’m dating myself, but when I started writing, that involved a trip to the post office. Now a submission is usually as simple as email.) Getting the manuscript out to another agent or editor is the second most important step you can take to reach Hope.

So, what’s the most important step? Always be working on your next project. (Did the bold italics tell you I think this is critical? It is!) If you’re in the middle of your next project, your attention is focused on it rather than the manuscript that was rejected. That doesn’t stop rejection from hurting, but it does mitigate the pain and shorten the time to reach Hope.

The bottom line of all this is simple. If you let rejection by others defeat you, you’re admitting that they’re right. They aren’t. Don’t ever, ever, ever stop believing in yourself. You are unique. You see the world differently from everyone else. You have a story to tell. You are a writer! 


Hi, Everyone! Audra here. Doesn't Amanda make an awesome cheerleader? I know she's talked me out of the hole a time or two. What better way to celebrate her great pep talk than with a couple of giveways! Leave a comment and mention whether you'd like to win one of two ecopies of On Lone Star Trail.

BACK COVER COPY

A woman without a future. A man running from the past.

One enchanting place where broken dreams are mended.

If there’s one thing Gillian Hodge never wants to see again, it’s a man on a motorcycle. Her last encounter with one left her right hand crushed, ending her promising career as a concert pianist. Unsure about the next phase in her life, she heads to Rainbow’s End Resort for some R&R when a sudden thunderstorm causes a motorcycle to crash right in front of her.

When TJ Benjamin’s wife died, he lost more than his best friend; he lost his faith. He has spent the past year wandering the country on his motorcycle, trying not to think about the future. When he finds himself stranded with a busted bike and a reluctant rescuer, he has to wonder about God’s sense of humor.

As these broken people collide, they find that a bright future is still ahead—it just might not be the one they imagined for themselves.

BIO

Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels including the Texas Dreams trilogy, the Westward Winds series, the Texas Crossroad trilogy and Christmas Roses. A former director of Information Technology, she has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages.  Amanda is delighted to now be a full-time writer of Christian romances, living happily ever after with her husband in Wyoming. 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

www.amandacabot.com

https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.cabot

https://twitter.com/AmandaJoyCabot/

http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com/

So You Want to Write a Contemporary – Seven Questions with Amanda Cabot

Happy birthday, Seekerville!  I’m delighted to be part of your seventh birthday celebration, and in honor of that, I thought I’d pose seven questions I think everyone who wants to write a contemporary novel should ask.  Let’s get started.

1.  Are you planning to use a real or a fictional location?  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Real locations engage readers immediately, but if you choose one, be certain you’ve got all the details right.  The last thing you need is a reader telling you there’s no bakery at the corner of Fifth and Main.  Fictional locations, of course, give you more flexibility.  You decide what building is on which corner.  The downside is that you have to do more work to create a fictional location.  If you a choose a fictional location, I strongly recommend creating a map of it.

2.  Will your story be set in a specific year or in what is sometimes called the ‘timeless present’?  This is a key question and one that will play an important role in your answers to the next couple questions.  The advantage to using a specific timeframe is similar to that or choosing a real location – reader identification.  The disadvantage is that, depending on how many details you include that are date-specific, your book may feel outdated within a couple years. 

3.  How much technology will you include?  If you’ve chosen a specific date for your story, there is no reason not to include references to all the current technology.  Readers who pick up the book twenty years from now may be amused by what seems antiquated to them but was state-of-the-art in 2014, but they’ll know that they’re reading a period piece.  On the other hand, if your goal is to create an evergreen story, you’d be better served by minimizing references to things that will likely be dated.  The same advice applies to pop culture references.

4.  How much slang are you planning to use?  Although our goal as authors should always be to create realistic dialogue, I’d recommend minimizing the use of currently trendy words.  Not only will they date a book quickly, but five or ten – not to mention twenty or thirty – years from now, they may create confusion for readers.  Unlike references to outdated technology, antiquated phrases could actually make dialogue difficult to understand.  Consider the word ‘rad,’ which the online slang dictionary says dates from the eighties.  How often do you hear it now?  How would you react if you read, “Those are rad shoes.”?  Would you think it was a typo and should have been ‘red’?

5.  Are you sure you’re not violating any intellectual property rights?  While I’m sure no one who’s reading this would willingly plagiarize another work, there are other opportunities to unwittingly be in violation of the law, one of which is trademarks.  Before you name your heroine’s dress shop, you should be certain that the name you’ve chosen isn’t trademarked.  Although a trademark is often a logo, it can also be a name set in a specific type font.  While it’s unlikely you’d be sued for unknowing use of a trademark, we live in a litigious society.  My advice is to do a trademark search for each establishment you name.  If there’s a match or a close match, change your name.  I feel so strongly about this that I’ve included a link to the trademark electronic search system (TESS).  http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4805:dy7z5k.1.1 Use it.

6.  Do you think there’s less research required for a contemporary than an historical?  When aspiring authors tell me they’re writing contemporaries because it’s easier with no research needed, I do my best not to laugh.  The reality is, all writing requires research.  It’s true that research for contemporaries is different from historicals, but it’s still essential that your details are correct.  If anything, readers are more critical of contemporary authors who get their facts wrong because it’s so easy to get them right.  Do you have a scene involving a fire investigation?  Interview a fire chief to make sure you’ve used the correct terminology and have properly described the procedures the investigators use.  Is your story set in a real location you’ve never visited?  Besides studying the related web sites, you might call the Chamber of Commerce to learn little known facts that will give your story added authenticity.  Research, research, research.  Yes, it takes time, but your readers will thank you.

7.  Why do you want to write a contemporary?  If your sole reason is that you’ve been told contemporaries are selling better than historicals, I’d suggest reconsidering.  I know some authors are very successful in writing to the trends, but they’re in the minority.  The single most important reason for writing any story should be that you love the story, that it haunts your thoughts and wakes you in the middle of the night.  If that story just happens to be set in modern times, congratulations – you’re meant to write a contemporary.  But if you dream of times gone by, if the characters that demand to have their stories told wear high-button shoes or subdue unruly hair with Macassar oil, think again.  Contemporary stories may not be right for you.

Since I promised Audra seven questions, I’m not going to number this last one, but there’s one more I want to ask.  If you were considering switching from writing historicals to contemporaries, has this post changed your mind? 

Hi Everyone, Audra here. I'm always excited to have Amanda Cabot as my guest in Seekerville. Amanda has been an historical author for many books. At Bluebonnet Lake is her first contemporary romance for the inspirational market. Leave a comment and check the Weekend Edition on Saturday to discover the winner of a signed copy of At Bluebonnet Lake.

Her life is set to warp speed. His is slowing to a crawl. But love has its own timing.

Marketing maven Kate Sherwood’s world is fast-paced, challenging, and always changing. The last thing she wants to do is grind to a halt at Rainbow’s End, a dilapidated resort in the Texas Hill Country. Still, she cannot deny her ailing grandmother’s request to visit the place where she and her deceased husband spent one glorious week fifty years ago. There, Kate meets Greg, who appears to be the resort’s unassuming handyman. But there’s more to Greg than meets the eye—billions more, in fact.

Kate isn’t looking for romance, but she can’t deny the sparks of attraction that fly every time she and Greg are together. Could there be a future there? Or will Kate’s long-sought promotion take her back to the big city?

Amanda Cabot invites you to step into a place away from the pressures of the day. You might be surprised by what you find at Rainbow’s End.

Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels including the Texas Dreams trilogy, the Westward Winds series, and Christmas Roses. A former director of Information Technology, she has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages.  Amanda is delighted to now be a fulltime writer of Christian romances, living happily ever after with her husband in Wyoming. 

So, You Want to Write Historical Fiction

with guest Amanda Cabot.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to write historical fiction, read on.  If it isn’t … well, you’re welcome to continue reading.  In fact, I hope you will, because otherwise Audra will regret the fact that she invited me to blog today.  We can’t have that, can we?

I don’t claim to have all the answers – far from it – but I do know that if you want to write historical fiction, there are three basic questions you need to answer.  

What kind of historical fiction do I want to write?

Brilliant, bestselling, award-winning are not the answers I’m looking for, although there’s no doubt that’s what we all hope we’re writing.  Instead, I challenge you to identify the category of historical fiction that most appeals to you.  There are undoubtedly other ways to divide historical fiction, but I’ve split them into two groups: fictionalized history and period fiction.
Fictionalized History

In fictionalized history, the events of the period play a critical role in the story.  Just to further complicate things, I’ve divided fictionalized history into two sub-categories.  

• In the first, the main characters are well-known historical figures.  Jill Eileen Smith’s Wives of King David series is a good example of this.  

• You’ve probably guessed that the other sub-category features protagonists who are fictional or less-known figures.  Consider Diana Wallis Taylor’s Journey to the Well.  Though the heroine is a Biblical character, without Diana’s book we wouldn’t even know her name.  I’d call her a less-known figure.  

Regardless of the sub-category, real historical events form the framework of the plot in fictionalized history.  So, you might ask, what differentiates this from non-fiction?  The emotions.  Are you familiar with the journalistic Five Ws?  Using those terms, readers of fictionalized history know what happened, where and when.  The book provides the answer to why and makes the who come to life.

Period Fiction

In contrast to fictionalized history with its focus on real people, the main characters of what I call period fiction are fictional.  Historical personages, if any, play minor roles in the story.  Similarly, historical events form the backdrop, not the framework, for the story.  Most of the historical fiction books currently published by either the CBA or the secular market fall into this category.

The difference between fictionalized history and period fiction is critical, particularly where reader expectations are concerned.  While readers of fictionalized history want to delve more deeply into the story of real people, readers of period fiction want to be transported to a different time.  They want to learn about that time but from the view of ordinary people rather than historical personages whose biographies they might be able to find in the library or on Wikipedia.

Which category is the right one for you?  Only you can answer that question.  The key is to write the kind of book you love to read.  While it’s true that the market for period fiction is larger than for fictionalized history, if the story that’s burning in your heart is fictionalized history, write it!

That leads us to the second question.

How much history should I include?

I wish it were otherwise, but the answer is that oh, so frustrating “it depends.”  Readers of fictionalized history expect more references to actual events than do readers of period fiction.  In either case, it’s important to remember that you are writing fiction and that the primary focus of fiction is entertainment, not information.  If all a reader wants are the simple facts about a particular event, she can find them in the non-fiction section of the library or bookstore.  If on the other hand, she wants to live those events through a character’s eyes, she’ll choose fiction.

When deciding which historical facts to include, my theory is that less is more.  Include the events that shape your protagonists’ lives and omit the others – no matter how fascinating they might be – unless they have a direct impact on your characters.

How do I make my book feel historical?

Although there are numerous techniques, I’d like to suggest three.

• Judicious use of historical-sounding dialogue.  Notice the word “judicious.”  Depending on the period you’ve chosen, authentic dialogue might overwhelm the reader or – even worse – slow the book as the reader tries to translate it into modern English.  Overuse of “thee,” “thou” and “ye” can become tedious.  On the other hand, the occasional “whilst” instead of “while” and “four-and-twenty” rather than “twenty-four” gives the dialogue an historical feel without becoming burdensome to the reader.

• Era-appropriate analogies.  If you’re writing a story set in the nineteenth century, you’d hardly describe something as being at “warp speed.”  However, consider the following selection from Vickie McDonough’s The Anonymous Bride.

“They crossed the street, shoulder to shoulder, like a trio of gunslingers looking for trouble.”
With the reference to gunslingers, is there any question that we’re in the nineteenth century?

• Telling Details.  Sometimes it’s the smallest of details that adds historical authenticity to a story.  I like the way Stephanie Grace Whitson needs only one sentence in Sixteen Brides to bring the nineteenth century to life.

“Button hook in hand, she sat down and lifted Caroline’s foot into her lap, quickly unhooking each of the ten buttons running up the side of the stylish black leather boot.”
Another author might simply have mentioned the button hook, but the inclusion of “ten buttons” and the notation that they’re “running up the side” gives the passage a feeling of authenticity that can’t help but intrigue readers.

Have I confused you or – even worse – discouraged you?  I hope not.  The bottom line is that while writing historical fiction is not easy, it can be very rewarding.  Not only does it give you a chance to bring earlier times to life for your readers, but it’s also a chance for you to learn new things as you do your research.  If you’re at all interested in writing historical fiction, I urge you to do so.  After all, who can resist the lure of “once upon a time”?


With Autumn's Return

She’s planning on instant success. What she didn’t plan on was love.

When Elizabeth Harding arrives in Cheyenne to open a medical practice, she is confident that the future is as bright as the warm Wyoming sun. Certain she’ll have a line of patients eager for her services, she soon discovers the town may not welcome a new physician—especially a female one. Even Jason Nordling, the handsome young attorney next door, seems to disapprove of her chosen profession.

When a web of deceit among Cheyenne’s wealthiest residents threatens to catch Elizabeth and Jason in its snare, they must risk working together to save one of Elizabeth’s patients, even if it means falling in love.

Amanda Cabot:

From the time that she was seven, Amanda Cabot dreamed of becoming a published author, but it was only when she set herself the goal of selling a book by her thirtieth birthday that the dream came true.  A former director of Information Technology, Amanda has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages.  She’s delighted to now be a fulltime writer of Christian historical romances.  Her Texas Dreams trilogy received critical acclaim; Christmas Roses was a CBA bestseller; and a number of her books have been finalists for national awards, including ACFW’s Carol award. 

www.amandacabot.com

http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com

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With Autumn Returns is a January release from Revell. Today Seekerville will be giving away one print copy on the January 14 release date. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.

Author Beware – It’s Not as Easy as it Seems

 Happy New Year, everyone! Audra here. I'm so excited to welcome the New Year with my special guest, Amanda Cabot. Mark your calendars, Amanda and I will be booksigning together in Cheyenne, WY on Saturday, February 13, 2012 at the Cornerstone Book Store. If you're in the area, stop by! We'd love to see you!!
Author Beware – It’s Not as Easy as it Seems

Using Real Locations for Your Book’s Setting

What was I thinking?  I’d just finished writing the Texas Dreams trilogy and had loved creating the fictional town of Ladreville, so when my editor asked me to propose a series set in Wyoming, why on earth did I choose Fort Laramie and Cheyenne for the settings?  Did I have a sudden memory lapse, forgetting that the one time I used a real city as a location for one of my secular romances, I agonized the entire time I was writing it, worrying that I’d get hate mail from a reader, telling me that such and such a street wasn’t cobblestoned at the time of the book?

The truth is, I chose real settings for two reasons.  I haven’t queried other authors, but I suspect that if they use real places for their books, their reasons are similar.  So, what were my reasons?  The allure of reality and increased marketability. 

Let’s start with the allure of reality. “Real” fiction would seem to be an oxymoron, wouldn’t it?  After all my Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines fiction as “something invented by the imagination or feigned.”  And yet, even though the stories are fictional, I know that readers of historical fiction enjoy learning facts about the time period and that their enjoyment is enhanced when they have the opportunity to read about places that they may never actually visit.  I could have set Summer of Promise at a fictional fort in Wyoming, but using Fort Laramie, an important and well-known location, gave the book added appeal.  That’s the reason I asked that the back cover copy specifically mention Fort Laramie rather than simply saying ‘Wyoming.’  It’s too soon to tell, but my hope is that readers who haven’t picked up my earlier books will be intrigued enough by the Fort Laramie connection that they’ll read it. 

And that leads me to the second point: increased marketability.  Revell has a superb marketing department, but I still think it’s my job to help them.  One way of doing that is to get my books into places that wouldn’t normally carry fiction.  Fort Laramie’s gift shop is a tourist’s delight, filled with books and souvenirs.  The books, it should be noted, are mostly non-fiction.  I knew it was a long-shot, but I really wanted them to carry Summer of Promise, so I approached the Historical Association.  The general manager was intrigued by the premise of the story, and she loved the cover.  (Note: the background is a scene from Fort Laramie.)  But, since we’re dealing with the National Park Service, there’s a rigorous selection process.  Not only did several people on the staff have to read and review the book before they could consider carrying it, but the park superintendant asked them to answer one key question: “Are the details in the book authentic?”  It was only when the readers could answer ‘yes,’ that the Historical Association could order copies of my books.  And now that they’re going to carry it, I’ve approached other museums, using Fort Laramie’s decision as an inducement for them to stock copies of Summer of Promise.  I have no idea how many additional sales this will mean, but each new reader is important. 

We’ve talked about the advantages of choosing real locations for a book.  Now I’d like to debunk two myths.  “Of course you should use a real location.  It’s easier,” one author told me.  I disagree.  Although it’s true that you don’t have to invent street names and other details about the location, the opposite side of that argument is that you need to know all those details.  Simply having a general idea and then fudging won’t work.  Which is the perfect segue to the second myth: readers won’t catch small errors.  Trust me.  They will.  That’s the downside of increased marketability.  Among the new readers that you’ll attract by using a real location are those who are experts on that location.  While they might forgive a few discrepancies, chances are that if you make serious errors, they’ll tell you and – even worse – the world.  Are you willing to risk having reviewers post your inaccuracies?  It’ll happen.  And even if your mistakes aren’t paraded for the online world to see, there’ll be negative word of mouth.  None of us can afford that.

So, how do you avoid bad reviews and what I call hate mail?  There’s no panacea, but I have a few hints.

Read everything you can about your location.  I find the reference section of the library to be a particularly good source of information, especially when I ask a librarian for assistance.  Searching the card catalog reveals many books, but librarians are the experts.  They’ve pointed me toward books that I would never have found otherwise, books, I might add, that have proven invaluable.  Those included diaries of people from the time period which provided a number of important details, including the weather on specific dates.  Readers may not know that my descriptions are accurate, but I do, and that helps me overcome those worries about hate mail.

Look for picture books.  The adage about a picture being worth many words is true, and never more so than when you’re trying to discover what buildings or streets looked like many years ago.  I’ve found the Images of America series to be extremely helpful.  Not only are there hundreds of old photographs in them, but the commentary is typically written by local history experts.  While I borrow most reference books from the library, the Images books are ones I own, because I find myself referring to them almost constantly during the writing process.  (And, no, I don’t own stock in the company.)

Visit the site at the appropriate time of year.  Although I had made two research trips to Fort Laramie before I wrote the book, one was in late summer, the other mid-autumn.  Since my book began in June, I knew I had to return to the fort then.  I was so glad I did!  Not only did I discover that the grass was green then, whereas it had been golden brown on my other visits, but I was able to see how much higher the river was.  Those and a myriad of other details made their way into the story, adding the authenticity that readers expect.  I know it’s not possible for everyone to travel to a location, especially at a specific time of the year.  If you can’t, search for local residents who can help you with details.  Which leads me to my next hint.

Enlist local experts.  Although I’d read stacks of books about Fort Laramie and had visited it several times, there were still things I didn’t know.  As an example, most visitors to the fort are familiar with Old Bedlam, the large white building that served as the bachelor officers quarters for much of the fort’s history.  The problem was, at the time my story took place, Old Bedlam had been converted to apartments for married officers.  I could find no reference to the building that was used as the BOQ at that time period, so I consulted the fort’s librarian.  She and one of the park rangers pulled out maps and records, and when they couldn’t find any definitive information, they helped me to choose a plausible location.

Don’t make assumptions.  This is actually a corollary to my first two points.  On one of my visits to the fort, I took a picture of two uniforms displayed in the fort’s museum.  One was clearly marked ‘infantry,’ and since my hero was a lieutenant in the infantry, I used that picture as my source, describing the single-breasted coat in great detail.  The problem was, once the Images of America book on Fort Laramie was published, I started studying it and discovered that many of the soldiers wore double-breasted coats.  Why was there a discrepancy?  Again, the fort librarian was of immeasurable assistance.  She provided me with a book that detailed Army uniforms during the nineteenth century.  Half an hour with that book revealed that the uniform in the museum display was for an enlisted man, while the double-breasted coats I saw in the pictures belonged to officers.  My description had to be changed.  Would a reader have caught the error?  Possibly not, but I’m glad I discovered it.

Lastly, if you take liberties, tell the readers.  There are times when an author wants to bend history for the sake of the story.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  After all, we’re dealing with fiction.  But if you do decide to stretch the truth, perhaps by placing a real person in a city where he or she might not have been, mention that in a note to readers.  They’ll appreciate it, and so will you, because your note will forestall criticism.

If I’ve made using real locations as settings for your stories seem like an overwhelming burden, let me assure you that it’s not.  It can be fun to learn the details of a real place and share them with readers.  A real location can help you market your book.  And it can attract new readers to your books. 

Would I do it again?  Maybe.

Though she had planned to spend the summer in Vermont with her sweetheart, Abigail Harding cannot dismiss her concerns over her older sister. Charlotte's letters have been uncharacteristically melancholy, and her claims that nothing is wrong ring false, so Abigail heads West to Wyoming. The endless prairie seems monotonous, but when her stagecoach is attacked, Wyoming promises to be anything but boring. Luckily, the heroics of another passenger, Lieutenant Ethan Bowles, save the day.

When circumstances--and perhaps a bit of matchmaking--put Abigail and Ethan together, there's certainly attraction. But Abigail is planning to marry another man and return to life in Vermont as soon as she is finished attending to her sister. And Ethan loves his life in the Army and the wilds of Wyoming. When summer ends, will Abigail go back East? Or will she fall in love with this rugged land herself?

A former director of Information Technology, Amanda Cabot has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages. She is now a fulltime writer of Christian historical romances. Amanda is delighted that her Texas Dreams trilogy received critical acclaim, in part because of their historical authenticity, and that the staff at Fort Laramie found her research so accurate that they’re carrying Summer of Promise, the first book in the Westward Winds series, in their gift shop.

Great info, Amanda! Whatever you're writing, historical or contemporay, suspense or Amish, never take research for granted! Seekerville is offering a prize package today. So leave a comment and winner will be announced in the Weekend Edition.

Welcome Amanda Cabot

Welcome Amanda! It's always wonderful to have debut authors come for a visit. Although this isn't really a debut for you, Seekerville can still help in launching your new historical series. Glad you came to play with us today!

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Whatever time it is, I’m delighted that you’re here. This is turning into an exciting year for me. Not only was my debut CBA book published last month, but now I’m debuting on Seekerville. What fun! Thanks, Audra, for inviting me to join you.

Amanda, you’ve had an interesting career journey through life ranging from writing, to French major, to computer programmer, to information technology. How does someone with the soul of an artist mesh together with information technology?
We’ve all heard the phrase, “for love or money.” The information technology career was the money part. It helped pay the mortgage and the grocery bills. Writing – ah, that’s definitely the love part. I love writing, and when I’m not working on a book, I feel as if a piece of me is missing.

I almost hesitate to admit this, but as strange as it may seem, I think there are similarities between IT and writing. Both involve communicating. Admittedly, when I was a programmer, I was communicating with a machine – definitely not as much fun as with real, live human beings. But when I became a manager, the communications were more direct. That’s also when my skill at writing fiction came into play. My budgets were noted for being works of fiction, and whenever someone hadn’t met objectives for the year, I’d get a call, asking how to word the explanation so that the miss wasn’t so obvious. Never doubt the power of the pen!

How have your professional experiences influenced your writing?
One of the good/bad things about my day job was that I was a very frequent flyer. The good part was that I was able to visit a lot of different places, and some of them provided inspiration for books. For example, I was sitting in a restaurant in Phoenix, eating alone (one of the bad things about all the traveling), when the Muzak started playing “Stranger in Paradise.” “What a great title for a book,” I said to myself. (No, I haven’t gotten to the point where I talk out loud and cause strangers to stare.) That started the whole process of asking questions. “Where’s paradise?” Answer: Hawaii. “Why would someone be there and feel like a stranger?” The answers to that question turned into a book. Even though I changed the title, the story begins in Hawaii and the hero and heroine are definitely strangers there.

Another time I was in southern Italy on business, and my host gave me a tour of the city (Bari, for anyone who’s got a map at hand). One of the places we visited was an old cathedral where, he told me, injured Crusaders returning from the Holy Land were nursed back to health. I was writing a medieval romance at the time and used that snippet of information as what I term a “throw-away line.” The villain says to the hero, “I thought you died in a hospital in Italy” or something like that. Would you believe that one of my readers didn’t think there were hospitals in Italy during that era and had to do some research to learn that I was right? That experience made me obsessive about facts. The last thing I want is a reader telling me that such and such a street wasn’t cobblestoned at the time I’d written about it. That’s part of the reason why I prefer to create my own towns rather than using real ones. But I’ve digressed. Sorry!

You are one of two romance authors featured in 2009 Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market. How did you get selected?
I’d love to say that the editors begged me to be featured, but reality is that Mary Hagen, the author of the article, had read and enjoyed my books and wanted to write an article about me. She pitched the idea to the editor of NSSWM and – obviously – was successful in convincing them that I was worthy of being interviewed. I was thrilled, because one of the first pieces of advice I give to aspiring writers is to read Writer’s Market. I believe it’s an invaluable resource, and so it was a true honor to be part of it.

Writing Christian romances is a new venue for you. Having received admirable success in other romance markets, what made you consider such a major change?
I never thought of myself as a slow learner, but that was the case with writing for the Christian market. For over ten years, readers have suggested that I write for that market, but I demurred, not believing it was the right one for me. It took the death of a dear friend to convince me that it was time to write about God’s love as well as that between a man and a woman. Watching her during her final months and seeing how her faith strengthened her was the turning point for me.

Writing historical romances takes a certain amount of research. How do you create an historical world for your characters to live in?
I read and read and read some more. I’m a huge fan of libraries and suspect that I’m one of the heaviest users of ILL (Inter-Library Loan) in Cheyenne. It’s a marvelous way to get books that are out of print or aren’t readily available. I once read that the best way to start research was in the children’s section, because those books presented the essentials, and I’ve found that to be true. I’ll pick up histories from the children’s section when I’m still working on the overall timeframe, then “graduate” as it were to the adult section for the details I need.

Perhaps it’s because I’m a Sagittarian, and we’re noted for being travelers, but I always visit the areas I’m writing about, even when I plan to create a fictional town, as I did with Ladreville. For me, the on-site research is important, because it gives me a feel for the terrain, the color of the sky (yes, it varies by part of the country!) and local idiosyncrasies. I believe those details help bring a location to life for readers.

Paper Roses is the first book of your Texas Dreams trilogy from Revell. Tell us about the book and maybe a peek at the other two books to follow.
I refer to Paper Roses as my mail-order-bride-meets-Cyrano-de-Bergerac book, but I suspect no editor would have bought it if I’d described it that way in my proposals. Here’s the blurb that helped sell the book:

Socialite Sarah Dobbs never thought she’d be a mail-order bride. But, then, she never thought she’d be destitute, shunned and her young sister’s only hope for a normal life. Drawn to the Texas Hill Country by the poetic letters she calls her paper roses, Sarah believes her secrets will be safe there. But the town is deeply divided and harbors its own secrets, including the identity of the person who murdered Sarah’s fiancé. There’s no one she can trust, not Clay Canfield, and certainly not God. He’s abandoned her.

Talented physician Clay Canfield has only one desire: to find the man who murdered his brother and exact vengeance. He’ll never marry again, especially not a woman burdened with a child. As for faith, that’s not for him, any more than it is for Sarah.

But God has plans for Sarah and Clay, plans that challenge everything they hold dear.

As for the second book – if Paper Roses was my mail-order-bride book, Scattered Petals (working title) is my marriage-of-convenience book. Only, in this case, it’s a matter of inconvenience. Great inconvenience for the hero and heroine.

As part of the titling process, my publisher asked me to describe the book in two sentences. For someone who’s hard-pressed to stay within word count limits, that was a challenge, but here’s what I wrote for them.

All her life, Priscilla Morton has longed for adventure, and so she heads for Texas, never dreaming that the adventure will leave her alone, badly injured and dependent on a handsome rancher who reminds her of her worst nightmare. Zachary Webster knows he’ll never marry, for that would involve admitting the biggest mistake of his life, but how can he refuse to help Priscilla, even if she’s a reminder of his sin?

(You’ll note that those were two rather long sentences.) All three books are set in the same fictional Texas town and feature characters who are introduced in the previous book. Since one of the things that annoys me as a reader is having to read books in order, I’m careful to have each of mine – even when they’re part of a series – stand alone.

Crossings Book Club is producing a special edition hard cover copy of Paper Roses. Tell us about this wonderful news.
I was absolutely delighted when my publisher told me that Paper Roses had been selected by the prestigious Crossings Book Club and even more thrilled when I learned that they’d be issuing a hard cover edition, since I know that many readers prefer hard backed books. I do, too, but they’re often not affordable. Fortunately, Crossings has given Paper Roses an attractive price, so members who want books that can stand up to many readings can get one and still be able to afford groceries.

Would you share with us a writing technique you’ve learned along the way?
One of the most valuable things I learned when I wrote two books for a now-defunct writer-for-hire company was to create a chapter-by-chapter outline of each book. These are very brief sketches – more like notes to myself – showing which scenes will be in which chapter. I consider the outline a road map, helping me get from the beginning of the book to the ultimate destination: ‘the end.’ It’s also invaluable for pacing the book, making sure that I don’t go too long between events in a subplot and that I have cliff hangers every so often.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here’s the outline I did for the first chapter of Paper Roses. Each of the cells in the table is a scene.

Sarah and Thea arrive in San Antonio. She’s feeling abandoned again. Thea looks for Papa, renewing Sarah’s determination that her sister will have a normal life.

Delayed by a horse’s colic, Clay travels to San Antonio to meet Sarah. When Thea calls him Papa, unpleasant memories return. Clay tells Sarah of Austin’s death.

Sarah’s shocked. It can’t be true! She tells Clay she and Thea will not return to Philadelphia (they can’t). Clay says she can live at the Bar C until she marries. She’s angered and says she’ll pay for their room and board … somehow.

I highly recommend chapter-by-chapter outlines!

How can readers find you on the Internet?
I love hearing from readers. Truthfully, that’s one of the greatest pleasures a writer can have, and so I encourage readers to visit my web site: http://www.amandacabot.com/. I’ve put email links on both the first page and the “contact” one. Don’t be shy, readers. I want to hear from you.

Thanks for graciously joining us, Amanda. Amanda is also giving away a copy of her debut book, Paper Roses. If you'd like to be included in the drawing, please include your email!!