Featured Author Janet Lane Walters

http://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/

Where to begin?  Hi, I’m  Janet Lane Walters and I’ve been writing for a very long time. My first sale was a short story published in 1968. I’ve gone on to have more sort stories published and when the market dried up, I moved to writing novels. Actually a rejected story set me off. An editor wrote “This sounds like the synopsis for a novel. Learning how to write novels took several years. The first one I wrote was published after 16 rejections with many suggestions from editors and making revisions, the seventeenth time the novel was purchased. That was in 1972. Also had several poems published and four non-fiction books.

Calling myself an eclectic writer, there’s a tendency to dabble a bit in my writing. There are contemporary romances, paranormal romances, alternate world romances, some that combine history with the present day, more reincarnation than time travel. Also among the mix are cozy mysteries, one medical suspense. Also there are two YA series, one for teens and one for a bit younger age written under J. L. Walters for four of them. I tend to jump around when I’m writing and sometimes a series is shelved for a time when a new idea pops into my wild imagination.

Another cover or more to show my eclectic writings. For details and purchase information visit my BWL Author page: http://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/

  

My home is in the scenic Hudson Valley about thirty miles from NYC, on the west bank of the river. I just realized the house is 100 years old and has changed much since we bought it about forty years ago. I can see the river from the upstairs window in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees. Married to the same man for 50 plus years but recently a widow. There are four children, the youngest daughter is an adopted black girl. The children have given me seven grandchildren. Four are black and three are Chinese. The eclectic sort of runs over into the family.

I’ve had many hobbies in the past including knitting, needlepoint, cookie baking, Yoga, composing music and Astrology. Of course there’s reading. That’s been my hobby since I was three and received my first library card. My grandfather taught me how to read.

My Places

https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f

bid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

 http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com

https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/

This Writing Life by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

There are so many aspects to crafting and creating a book. A good plot and memorable characters are the first things that come to mind but a good setting is also necessary. 

The importance of setting is that it anchors the reader in time and space and gives a sense of reality to the reader. I work as much at creating my setting as I do my characters’ backstories. The setting is, after all, the stage you set your characters on, whether it is contemporary, historical, science fiction - you pick your genre. 

Because my stories are mostly Regency romance, I tend to have a mix of city and rural settings. The Season, which appears as a setting in many Regencies, was aligned with when parliement was in session, with the busiest time being between Easter and July, when parliament adjourned for the summer. By then most of the aristocracy, and those who could afford it, were keen to get out of London because of the smell and took themselves off to their country estates or any of the popular spas like Cheltenham or the lesser known Harrogate.  

Country estates are lovely to create and many of my imaginary ones come from illustrations in books like Country Houses From the Air or The English Country House and the very useful Georgian and Regency Houses Explained. I have floor plans for country houses and smaller but no less impressive town houses. From these I can create my settings with a measure of accuracy and viability.

What might be included on any of these estates as far as farms and crops are concerned, are all gleaned from internet searches for letters and records of the big houses, some of them going back hundreds of years, and depend on what part of the country (being England, Scotland, or Wales) the estate is. Building styles change somewhat from county to county depending on what materials are available, or how wealthy the lord of the manor might be.

Weather, with all the light and shade that comes with it, plays a part in my settings, too. For information on a particular year I start with a visit to https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1800-to-1849-ad/ . To pin-point where my characters are for what special days and to create a timeline and consult https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1818&country=9. The weather can affect so many aspects of my character’s mood. If it’s warm and sunny, then likely she is too. If it’s raining, all sorts of events can transpire from that. Think Marianne Dashwood getting soaked in the rain in Sense and Sensibility. Rain heralded my hero’s arrival in Folkestone in my book His Dark Enchantress. It fit his mood and the seriousness of the situation in which his wife, my heroine, had been abducted.

Plants and flowers play a part, too, and for this I use a Reader’s Digest book of English flora, plus Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. It pays to know what plants grow in which part of the country because someone will surely call you out if have a daffodil growing where it never would or a lark singing in central London as this is a bird that likes open countryside.

How I dress my characters also comes into play and for this I use an Illustrated Encyclopedia of

Regency muslin gown at the Costume Museum, Bath 

Costume, Fashion in Jane Austen’s London and just because, The History of Underclothes. YouTube can be particularly useful as well, especially clips like Undressing Mr. Darcy. I guess I’m a bit of a nerd because I do enjoy research and if I come across a particularly interesting snippet, it makes my day. Whether I can use it or not in a book becomes another thing altogether.

Victoria Chatham

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Featured Author Dean L. Hovey

https://bookswelove.net/hovey-dean/

(click link above to purchase any of Dean's books)

I’m Dean Hovey and have been an author with BWL Publishing since 2019. I live in Minnesota but spend my days with my fictional characters. Doug Fletcher and Jill Rickowski are rangers who investigate crimes in National Parks across the U.S. Their first mystery was Stolen Past, set in northern Arizona, involving the deadly fall of an antiques dealer. Washed Away followed with Doug and Jill investigating deaths in an Arizona flash flood.

Research is the lifeblood of any author and I spend nearly as much time doing research as writing. At any given time, there are half a dozen search pages open on my computer as I write. I joked with a reader that I’m probably on an FBI watchlist for researching questions like how fast a body decomposes in the Arizona desert and what bugs are present when a body decomposes in the trunk of a car during a Minnesota summer. I had a wonderful discussion with a Wyoming coroner about the procedures for investigating a climbers fall from Devils Tower. Readers have said it’s those details that bring them into the story and make them feel like they’re a part of the action.

Part of my writing process is creating a backstory for each character. That backstory helps me write dialogue appropriate for their personality and life experiences. The downside is engaging with the characters and finding my emotions tweaked by events in the book. I’ve written with tears streaming down my face as my characters face challenging, unhappy, or emotional situations. I’ve chuckled as the Whistling Pines recreation director deals with crazy senior citizens and uncomfortable situations like those that arise in Whistling up a Ghost (to be released by BWL this coming October). I mentioned my character attachment to Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River. He quoted an old writer’s adage, “No tears in the writer. No tears in the reader.” As he put it, “If you’re not invested enough in your characters to evoke your emotions, the readers won’t feel those emotions either.” 

When speaking to a library group, I read a few paragraphs that reflected the character of Doug Fletcher. I read two sentences and sensed the adrenaline rush he’d experienced when rescuing a woman from a car in an ice-covered pond. I had to set the book aside and take a drink of water before going on. That passage had been rewritten a dozen times, but it still moved me.

I was approached by a reader who told me he’d been caught up in Washed Away, finishing it at midnight. He’d tossed and turned until one a.m. wondering what was going to happen to the characters after a cliffhanger ending. He got up and said to himself, “I’m worried about fictional characters who only exist in Dean Hovey’s head. Go back to bed!” We laughed about that when we met the following day. He bought a copy of Dead in the Water to read about the Fletchers’ next adventure on Padre Island National Seashore. Discussions like that keep me energized.

A reader submitted an Amazon review saying Jill and Doug had become his new best friends; people he’d enjoy having over for a beer. I laughed, but it made me reflect on my characters. I had a woman physically “buttonhole” me and tell me exactly what she expected to happen with two of my characters in the next book. I laughed, but it made me realize how deeply she’d become invested in those characters. I read mysteries when I’m not writing, and I’m loyal to my favorite authors because I like the characters. She reminded me that my readers feel the same way.

A reader emailed me after reading Washed Away, asking when I’d decided to become a romance writer. The question floored me. The relationship between the lead characters had developed so naturally, their dialogue guiding the story, that the resulting romance was an unintended outcome.

Fans of the Fletcher series have followed their investigations through five books, the most recent, Devils Fall, took them to Devils Tower National Monument. Doug’s been talking to me a lot during this COVID-19 shutdown, telling me he’d like to visit some of the more obscure National Parks, so he’ll be back next January, investigating a suspicious Black Hills death in Prairie Menace. Future BWL books will take him to The St. Croix National Scenic Waterway (Minnesota), Effigy Mounds National Park (Iowa), and Everglades National Park (Florida). Spoiler Alert: Jill Rickowski becomes his life partner. Her whispers have led to her growing role in future books.

My police consultant, Deanna Wilson, has warned me not to mention that I’m hearing Doug and Jill’s voices speaking to me. Apparently, the police put people who hear voices into 72-hour psychiatric evaluations. 

Happy reading! Dean Hovey

My First Novel was Too Long by Diane Scott Lewis

When I decided to write a novel as an adult (I'd written many stories as a child) there was no internet, no easy access to information. I plunged ahead, (secretly, at work) writing on and on, with little thought to plot, structure, and novel length. I had no idea publishers and agents were so picky about the length of a novel. I'd seen and read huge tomes in the library, Gone with he Wind, for one. Why couldn't I write a 200,000 word epic?

Escape the Revolution

Add in all that stellar research to make my historical saga real, the word count increased. When I read a few How-To books on novel writing, imagine my shock. I had to cut it down, or cut it in two.

I even entered a contest and the judges were impressed but told me a twenty page synopsis was far too long. My story was too 'busy'. I had a lot of editing to do.

I read books on style and structure, took workshops, and attended Writers Conferences. I rode the subway in Washington, D.C. to research my time period (eighteenth century, French Revolution in England) at the Library of Congress. A writer's paradise, all those books!

Jefferson Reading Room, Library of Congress

I submitted to agents, editors, and small presses: no one wanted this huge epic. One offered to read it over if I could cut it down to 70,000 words.

I learned to tighten my writing, delete characters (painful), move the action along, cut out unnecessary words, structure scenes: they all need a beginning and end, no rambling. And I made my story into two books. There was the perfect break. My heroine leaves England to find her mother in America, but her past will follow.

Hostage to the Revolution

Thus, my two novels on the adventures of a displaced countess, running from revolutionaries in 1790, into the arms of a man who may have murdered his wife. Cornish taverns, evil rogues, a neglected child, a man of mystery, and a determined young woman who strives to remake her life.

To purchase my novels, and my other BWL books: BWL

Find out more about me and my novels on my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Scott Lewis lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty puppy.

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of American Women Winning the Right to Vote by J.Q. Rose

 

Deadly Undertaking by J.Q. Rose
Romantic suspense, Paranormal

Click here to find mysteries by J.Q. Rose at BWL Publishing

💗💗💗💗

Hello and welcome to the BWL Authors Insider Blog!! 

In my mysteries, my heroines are strong, capable women who stand up to obstacles in their lives. Today we are celebrating strong, purpose-driven women who banded together to fight with everything they had to gain a say in their government. The 19th amendment which is the law that allows American women to vote was ratified and certified 100 years ago this month.

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of American Women Winning the Right to Vote by J.Q. Rose

Groups of women fought and struggled to win women's suffrage in the mid-19th century in the USA.

 Image courtesy of pixabay artist fotshot

The 19th amendment to the US constitution was passed by Congress on June 4 and ratified on August 18, giving American women the right to vote in the USA. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1918. Although the amendment became law in the land, it did not eliminate state laws in place that kept black Americans from voting due to the requirement to pay taxes and pass literacy tests. It would take another fifty years to gain suffrage for black women.

Women began organizing, petitioning, picketing and parading in what today we would call protesting, to achieve awareness and support for laws to allow women to vote in the mid-1800s. Several Western states had passed laws by 1912 due to men's support of the suffrage movement.

Wyoming hoped to attract females to their state filled with gold miners--a ratio of six men to one female. But just as in contemporary politics, an ulterior motive played into the decision. Wyoming's political party in power allowed the vote, figuring if they gave women the right to vote in Wyoming elections, the ladies would vote for them!

According to ourdocuments.gov, " Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see the final victory in 1920."

Vote!!

2020 is the USA presidential election year. Please be sure to vote this year. We owe it to our sisters who sacrificed so much to obtain the right to vote.

In the 21st century, many women in the world do not have a say in their government. We can support women globally and come together during Women's International Day on March 8, 2021. The Women's International Network is a "global community of women helping women live their best lives through celebration, self-improvement and service." Click here to learn more about this organization.

Click here to visit JQ Rose online

Travel Ban

Find me and my novels here...

 Life in the time of pandemic has changed.  With children and grandchild living on another coast, my biggest challenge has been not being able to travel to see them.  

                                missing this little California fellow!

My husband and I share a love of travel, of seeing the world from a new perspective, learning about  new cultures, people, history. Here in Vermont we share a border with Canada and have beloved cousins there. No go, though only a few hours from the border! Our European dreams have been feasting on Rick Steves’ travelogues through beautiful counties on the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and along the Arno, Rhine, Danube. We now count on documentaries with drone flights across jungle claimed lost cities and imaginatively drained oceans in search of ancient cultures and shipwrecks.

                         guiding art lovers along trails that painter Thomas Cole hiked

Once upon a time, we conducted art tours through the mountains loved by the Hudson River School artists. Now we head to remote state parks and find beaches too crowded for us to get out of the car.

                                           The Piddocks have a lovely spot

Lately we’ve found a cure for our wanderlust...we've been taking walks through local graveyards and cemeteries, in search of lives that genealogists are trying to track down. You can find lists of such requests on FindaGrave.com.  Claim them to start your search. The oldest gravestones in our area are in church yards. We have seen some beautiful stone carvings from early America and our Federal period.  And the names! Sometimes the stones even the stories of lives well-lived or cut short by childbirth, disease, sudden violence. 

                                         The Ellis grave includes their wedding date...

Later in the the 19th century cemeteries were established in garden-like settings, for picnic visits with deceased loved ones. We found ourselves talking to the people on our lists, scraping away lichen from their stones to make out their dates. We were rarely in the company of the living except for an occasional groundskeeper or romping dog.  Ah, socially distanced mask freedom!

                                           keeping watch over fallen comrades

When we return home, I go on FindaGrave.com and log in our images of discoveries. 

A pleasant surprise? Within hours, my email inbox is usually full of messages from far-flung relatives with profound thanks.  

We recommend grave hunting to everyone.