Everything You Need to Know About Kansas by Stuart R. West

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SECRETS OF KANSAS

When I tell people I write books set in or around Kansas, I’m either hit with dumb jokes (“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.”) or derision (“Do they have electricity in Kansas?”). Then they ask “why Kansas?” Besides the first rule of write what you know, Kansas holds a lot of variety and interesting locales for a thriller writer. Really.

So instead of explaining it time after time, I’m going to condense it into a basic primer. Here’s everything you need to know about Kansas. You’re welcome.

FACT: Cowboys and Indians (at least the “traditional” Roy Rogers types) aren’t running rampant through our dirt streets. Back in my college days, I had a friend from Venezuela who told me when he first came to Kansas (and don’t ask me how a Venezuelan ended up there!), he expected shoot-outs in the streets, barroom brawls, and guys in one-piece long-johns with a back flap.

Folks, Kansas isn’t the old Wild West. Not anymore. And it’s not all farmlands either. For instance, I live in a suburb ten minutes away from downtown, Kansas City, Missouri (where my book Chili Run takes place), and ten minutes from the growing, thriving megalopolis of Overland Park, Kansas (where the Zach and Zora books take place). If I feel like going farmland/country (see Ghosts of Gannaway), I can hit that in about thirty to forty minutes.

See? Variety! Everything a thriller writer could possibly want (excluding shark tales, natch).

CLICK HERE FOR KANSAS DONE UP OLD-SCHOOL

 FACT: Kansas still has active pockets of the Ku Klux Klan and the mafia. Not really a selling point, just an unfortunate fact. And good-to-go villains should I ever need them. (Not everything’s up to date in Kansas City.)

FACT: It’s illegal to sing the alphabet on the streets at night in Topeka, Kansas. Don’t ask me why, but it’s true.  It’s also against the law to catch fish with your bare hands so take your penchant for noodling elsewhere, ‘cause it’s not wanted in Kansas. Here’s the best one: at one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on top of cherry pie. Thank goodness they changed that law.

FACT: Kansas is host to the world’s largest ball of twine, the world’s largest prairie dog, and possibly even more disturbing, the world’s largest hairball! That’s right! Kansas is known for its culture, too! (The hairball in question was taken from a cow’s stomach, weighing in at 55 pounds.)

FACT: Thank goodness plans to build a “Land of Oz” tourist attraction in Kansas were scrapped. Not only would it have done more damage to Kansas’s beleaguered reputation, but the last thing we needed were thousands of munchkins causing havoc in the streets. True riff-raff, I tell you.

FACT: Kansas alcohol laws are among the strictest in the United States. Prohibition lasted until 1948, longer than any other state. Until 2003, you couldn’t buy alcohol on a Sunday or have a glass of wine with dinner. Grocery stores still prohibit the sale of alcohol (unless it’s 3.2% beer). There’re some really strange, detailed laws governing alcohol. The legislators had a whole lotta’ time on their hands since they weren’t drinking.

FACT: Kansas led the way in feminism and civil rights! The first woman mayor in the United States was elected in Argonia, Kansas in 1887. And the first black woman to win an Academy Award was Kansan Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind. Take that California and New York!

FACT: Kansas has the largest population of wild grouse in North America and I don’t even know what a “grouse” is.

FACT: Kansas is home to two “Big 12” colleges: The University of Kansas and Kansas State. Oddly enough, they hate one another. I should know. I lived through the KU/K-State riots in the ‘80’s. Just like in the old Wild West, people ran through the streets smashing windows and beating people. I guess not too much has changed after all.

There you have it, everything you need to know about Kansas and then some. And, of course, you can read all about the seedy, secret underbelly of Kansas in my books. 

I dunno…maybe I should just move.

CLICK FOR KOOKY KANSAS COZY COMEDY

Location, Location, Location by Jamie Hill

I like to set my books in real cities because I believe readers relate to places they know, live, or have visited. My cop series is set in Wichita, Kansas, which is a large enough city that they probably have plenty of crimes and good cops to solve them. Actually, around the time I was writing the first book, Family Secrets, the BTK killer had just resurfaced in Wichita and was soon apprehended. I added a mention of him, a "Did you work on that BTK case?" type of thing, for a touch of realism. But that's as far as I went with him. His crimes were horrible and touched the people of Wichita deeply. I didn't want to remind them too much.

I asked several people from the Wichita area about neighborhoods, locations by the river, various aspects of the city that I could include. I tried to steer clear of actual addresses because I didn't want a reader saying, "That's my address in Wichita!" And that's the very reason I make up business names, Like Moe's Diner and Sister Theresa's Shelter. If I wanted to make Sister Theresa the bad guy (or nun, so to speak) in the end, I didn't want the real Sister Theresa saying, "Hey now!" So while the story is set in Wichita and a few of the main streets are mentioned, as well as neighborhoods, the rest is purely fictional. Recently a reader told me she was from Wichita and while I changed the names, there was indeed a diner and a shelter like the ones I wrote about, and she could picture them as she read.

Mission accomplished.

My Witness Security series is set in Topeka, but the city won't play a major role. These people are in hiding and generally aren't going to be out doing the town. They'll also be traveling to other locations, in the first book they went to Chicago. Book two takes the characters to LA. Both towns I've visited and hopefully am able to capture their essence.

I took a different tactic with my Blame Game series, creating a fictional town for the characters to live in. I had a certain real town in mind and gave the fictional town of Marshall features of that place I knew well, but I had the freedom to jiggle them around as I desired. What I like about a fictional setting is as long as I'm consistent, I can create any details I want. No one can write me and say, "Excuse me, Fifth Street never intersects with Prospect Blvd." In my fictional town, maybe it does.

Find the first book in each of my series' here:

Family Secrets, A Cop in the Family: http://amzn.com/B004478IN6 

Pieces of the Past, Witness Security: http://amzn.com/B00K5XAGY2

Blame it on the Stars, The Blame Game: http://amzn.com/B00EOA5G3I

Jamie Hill

http://bookswelove.net/jamiehill.php

http://www.jamiehill.biz/

 

Sharing the Dream – by Tia Dani

As part of the "Inside Books We Love" blog, we hope to create interesting information that isn't full of self-promo, but will give our readers a chance to know who we really are. They'll discover how we work and play, learn how we struggle with balancing our everyday lives, how we draw our stories out of our heads, then finish them into a well-loved published book. And we do it all without losing our precious friendship.

Who are we?

First and foremost we are a dedicated writing team who loves playing with words, creating "What Ifs", and are following a shared dream.

We are wives, moms, and grandmas.

We didn't start out to be a writing team, but the process evolved over time during our friendship. We met in 2002 at a local RWA chapter and after several years passed we wrote and submitted a short story together just to have some fun. To our delight the story sold. From then on we kicked our writing into high gear and found a way to stick to a writing schedule, plus stay motivated to complete and submit a full manuscript. Also we decided working together might be a fun way to learn all the technology of submitting and editing online. We don't know about you, but we find it more fun when you work with a buddy.

While having all this fun we discovered something else about ourselves. We have this unique quality of being more than friends sharing common interests. We understand each other. We think alike, and often finish each other's sentences without missing a beat. Yet, we still maintain our individuality. It's these differences which makes our writing strong. Beverly (who writes as Dani) has the uncanny ability to bring out the perfect "What If?" scenarios that can make a great story tick. Christine (Tia of our team) excels in arranging all those "What Ifs" into a semblance of order. Tia calls it stacking the dominoes, (Future workshop).

Writing stories together is more than just being co-authors for us. Team writing, as with any type of business partnership, takes a lot of trust in each other and a strong commitment to the partnership. It's hard work, but for us, we couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

 Our latest book, Time's Enduring Love, is a time travel published with BWL.

 Time's Enduring Love

By Tia Dani

Libby Strammon believed her life was on track. A young woman of the tumultuous 1960's, she worked hard to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor so she could open a practice in the small Kansas farming community where she was raised. But when a perilous storm sweeps her back a hundred years into the past she is forced to rely on her instincts while navigating the changed world that a hundred years difference has wrought.

Kansas Volunteer, Lieutenant Matthew Dome's magnetic attraction to the slightly odd woman who appeared out of nowhere wars with past promises made—promises he'd failed to keep. He yearns to have the fascinating spitfire by his side, but can't let go of the past and his guilt long enough to convince himself she belongs in his life.

When circumstances send Libby and Matthew into danger, and a buried secret is revealed, Libby races against time to choose between returning to the 20th century she is familiar with or remain with Matthew who loves her but failed her once before?

"I was excited to read a novel from two authors I consider friends/mentor, both exceptional women in their own right have together created a novel worth the read! Quick paced, delightful banter, enjoyable characters, and an entertaining plot. Absolutely loved it. I couldn't stop reading it until I was done completely. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys romance with historical background settings. Can't wait to read their next novel." ~A.S. Johnson, author~ Amazon, 5 Stars

If you're interested in learning more about Tia Dani, please visit our website and friend us on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tia Dani

www.TiaDani.com

http://bookswelove.net/tiadani.php

https://www.facebook.com/tiadani.author