by Molly Owen | Dec 13, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
One of the things a writer friend of mine says that people always ask her is where she gets her idea. If you’re like she and I, it’s not getting the ideas, it finding the time to write them all.
The story for Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold grew out of the location. Having driven through Durango on several occasions, I loved the place. Doing research on the history of Durango brought up the city’s connection with Wells Fargo. And reading about Wells Fargo I found that the company in the era of my story did in fact, have detectives.
Wow, what a great idea – my hero, Wes, could be a detective for Wells Fargo. Many of the incidents that happened or are related to my hero as a Wells Fargo detective actually occurred (although I’ve used my hero, with changes in times and place). This is why I love research.
The Wells Fargo connection also gave me some of Wes’ backstory/background. To communicate between office and various other businesses in San Francisco (giving me where my hero grew up), Wells Fargo employed boys to carry messages at twenty-five cents a message. This would be Wes’ first job, connecting him with the company. This allowed Wes to advance in the company eventually becoming a guard for the iconic green box (green painted box wooden box bound with strap iron and sealed with a hasp and lock) which became a trade mark of the company. His foiling of a robbery ended up with him becoming a detective for the company. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Nov 13, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
While you’re writing one book, ideas for other stories pop into your mind. So you make notes. 
The idea for Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold came from the location of Durango, so looking into Durango history, I chose the 1880s. To the location and time I added some general plotting. But a story is told through the character, so they must have names.
I already had the name of my heroine, Julie (a cute blonde girl that I used to work with). But Julie is not really historical for that time, so making the backstory (all that happens to you character before the book starts that make them who and what they are) that her father was a fan of Shakespeare, so named his daughters Cordelia (King Lear) and Juliette (with Romeo). I don’t actually say this in the story, so if you caught the Julie and Cory connection – good for you.
Once I had the heroine’s name, I needed a hero for her. One that would contrast and eventually connect with her character. My hero’s name is Wes, to underline ‘the west’ where the story takes place (and short and easy to type – always a consideration). I didn’t want Wes to be short for Wesley (too Princess Bride), so made it a contraction of his last name, Westmoreland. Again the sub text of connection with the wide open spaces of the west.
Julie’s Uncle Frank is named after a nice guy I used to work with. Other character names seem to just pop up full blown. Landham Kennedy, the villain’s name came just that way. There were a lot of Irish immigrants in the United States which accounts for the Kennedy. But I don’t think Landham is his real first name, but one he took when he came west. I see Kennedy and his friend/hanger-on Rickman as hiding their southern roots of being poor white trash. Both Clare and her brother, Lieutenant Sullivan also had ties to the wave of Irish immigrants in the 1840s.
Wes’ friend Kate Valdez is obviously part Mexican, which would be realistic for a woman in either California or Colorado. Kate just sounded like a good, solid name for an old friend.
In case you’re interested, the title comes from the silver and gold mined in Colorado, but also my heroine (with the silver blonde hair) and my hero (with the golden blond hair).
Do you have any unusual stories about how your characters get their names?
by Molly Owen | Oct 12, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
When I was starting to write Kentucky Green, I made a collage. This idea was suggested at one of our chapter workshop. I found it to be a good exercise as I’m a very visual person. Once I decided on Kentucky, and who my hero and heroine were and what they looked like, that’s when I started looking for photos for my collage.
I used a 2’ x 3’ bulletin board, so I just stapled or pinned the things I found to the board. As I wrote or found more items, I just kept adding things (when I finished the story, I decoupaged all the items to a poster board so it’s permanent).
The best place for photos of scenery is in National Geographic. When our Friends of the Library have their annual sale, I look through boxes of old National Geographic magazines. For ten cents I buy all the ones with articles on a place I might want to set a novel.
You can see how important setting is to me by all the scenery on the collage. Several of the photos sparked scenes in my novel. Dan and April stand together looking out over the land, the line of ridges that march over the land. The photo of the ferns (from a story about Kentucky in National Geographic) also plays into the story.
As you can see, I used a lot of images from the film The Last of the Mohicans. Although the film is set a generation earlier than Kentucky Green, the images work. My hero, Dan, is often dressed just like Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis). The center image is actually the cover for the audio tape of the motion picture sound track (the sound track now upgraded to a CD in my collection) which I used a back ground music while I wrote.
I have the major photo of the hero and heroine on opposite sides of the collage, to represent how they are in opposition at the beginning. One of the problems I had in the first draft of the opening, was that the heroine kept apologizing. Too wimpy. So I found the picture on the upper right hand side. This woman is not one to go around apologizing, and her hair do is pretty close to how April wears her hair (a double good photo!).
If you’ve read the book, you might be able to pick out other items that appear in the story. And I had some visual images to send in for the cover. If you’re a write and having trouble with your story, you might try making a collage.
by Molly Owen | Sep 13, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
When I started to write Kentucky Green I had an idea of the time (1794) and place (Kentucky frontier) for the setting as well as some vague plot ideas. But the hero and heroine only become real to me when I find out, or give them their names. Part of the names came from my family history and part comes from my study of history. Like they say, write what you know.
For my hero’s back story (all the stuff you know about what made your character who and what they are at the start of the book) I gave him a Scottish grandfather, so his last name is McKenzie. Grandfather, as so many Scottish immigrants to America settled west of the Appalachians Mountains, where the land reminded them of the hill of Scotland. Grandfather married a Shawnee Indian woman, so the hero’s father was a half-breed, so my hero is ¼ Indian, and therefore subject to some racial prejudices. Looking at historical characters of the time, Daniel Boone stands out – not only was he a person active at the time and place I wanted to set my story, Boone was also noted as being much more open minded and known to treat people for who they were, not for their race. So I imagined that my hero’s father and Daniel Boone went hunting together. (my family history tells of one of my great, great, however many greats grandfather used to go hunting with Daniel Boone. So, if Boon treated my hero’s father well, so it was obvious that he would name his son after a friend, which was a common way to name at that time. So my hero is Daniel Boone McKenzie. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Aug 13, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
The first book I wrote was actually Kentucky Green. I know a lot of writers tell about the story they wrote in the first or second grade and how they always wanted to be a writer. But that’s not me. I always wanted to be a history teacher and ended up with a couple of history degrees and taught US History and Western Civilization at the community college.
For me, teaching history was really story telling. All about people and places and events. How people lived, what was important to them. Everyone said ‘you know all these stories, you should write a book’. Since I’m a rotten typist (and only an average speller) writing didn’t sound like too much fun. The thing that finally drove me to write was when my husband bought a computer/word processor (remember when they called it word processing?) which took away my excuse.
So being an academic, I took a writing class and learned about genres, and how popular the romance genre was. The instructor said to write what you like to read (well, duh!). I’d always read historical novel, and looking back I can see that they contained a strong romance even if they weren’t ‘romantic’.
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by Molly Owen | Jul 13, 2012 | Blog, Terry Blain
I’m not one of those that always wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a history teacher, and did so at the college level. And teaching history is a lot like story telling with all the characters and events. Everyone said, “You know all these stories. You should write a book.” Since I’m not the world’s best typist, the idea of typing a story didn’t appeal. Then my husband bought a computer – and so with word processing and spell check, I decided to take the plunge.
I wrote several manuscripts – back in the old days when you had to print it out and mail it to the editor/agent. What a pain. So part of the dream is today it’s so easy to write and submit via the internet. The dream? No more postage and trips to the post office.
I joined a critique group, and learned the craft as we made our way through our first manuscripts. We all belonged to RWA (Romance Writers of America) which gave information on craft and the business of publishing. I attended as many conferences as I could and took workshops. The dream? Not only am I signing at the RWA Readers for Life Literacy Signing at the National Conference, my critique group and I am giving a workshop.
And finally, since I retired from my day job, have a home office and recently sold my first work on proposal. I at my computer, writing on my WIP, with my dog at my feet. This is living the dream.
What’s your dream of writing? Here’s hoping that you someday can live your dream.
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