How to keep 3 children happy for one week without really trying... by Sheila Claydon

Anyone who reads my books knows that children frequently feature, usually as background or secondary characters, but occasionally battling for prime place with the hero and heroine as in Double Fault and Kissing Maggie Silver, so it stands to reason that I like them.

Sometimes this liking leads me down unexpected paths. For example, when I was younger I never thought I would spend months in Australia helping to care for my youngest grandchild, nor that I would attend school sex education meetings for my middle grandchild when neither of her parents were available because of work commitments. Then there are the concerts and the prize givings, the birthday parties, collecting grandchildren, and sometimes their friends as well, from school, and the sleep-overs... the list goes on and on, as any grandparent knows.

This week, however, could have been a real challenge. 3 children aged 15,10 and 3, 2 dogs and a husband all staying together in a cottage on a working farm in very rural Wales. How easy was it going to be to keep children of such disparate ages interested and happy. The older ones brought their technology of course, but the Internet in such a remote place is unreliable to say the least. So is the weather!

I need not have worried. The resident donkeys and goats arrived at the kitchen window for breakfast each day and for the price of a few bags of the cheapest carrots and apples kept all 3 children occupied for hours. The younger ones also learned how to chop the food and how to keep their fingers safe as they fed their new friends. Then there were the alpacas in the next field, and poor old Sunny, the one male alpaca who had been banished to live with the donkeys while his babies were growing up, much to his disgust.

There were the ducks too, and the ducklings, and the chickens and newly laid eggs. And a field of swishy grass behind the duck pond that was exactly like the grass in one of the 3-year-old's story books, which made the whole holiday just that bit more exciting.

Then there was hide n'seek. Bales and bales of newly cut silage waiting to be bagged provided hours of fun, as well as comfortable places to stretch out in the sun. And for the little one, the sight of the tractor moving the bales a few days later made it even more interesting.

Then, on the sunny days, there was the local sandy beach. Fortunately it wasn't just any old beach. It had a freshwater river running into it, with small fish darting through the weed. So a couple of 99p fishing nets later everyone was happily engaged. And when they were all fished out there was the river to splash in, or jump over, or sit in.

A barbecue was another hit, especially as it was in a wooden Hobbit House that was complete with benches covered in furs, and lit by fairy lights, just like the one Bilbo Baggins lived in in The Hobbit. This came courtesy of the farm and provided high excitement both before, during and after the event.

Nobody was bored, nobody wanted to go anywhere 'exciting', and everybody loved being muddy and dusty and not having to care what they looked like, and that included the adults! Even a walk in the rain offered excitement, what with the muddy puddles and dripping hoods.

All it took was a few bags of carrots and apples, 2 fishing nets, a hay field and a whole lot of friendly animals. Now I need to see where I can add that to the mix in my next book!

You can find Sheila's books at Books We Love on her 

Books We Love Author Page 

and you can find her at 

Sheila Claydon on facebook

Writing My novels by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

 

I have never worked with a solid outline or arc for my novels, whether they are mystery, historical or young adult. And this is mainly because I find that my characters seldom end up the way I first pictured them and the plot never takes the route I thought it would. I do start the story with a character in his/her everyday life so the reader can get to know them then I put in the trigger that is out of the control of my main character or starts the mystery. This puts the main character on his/her quest for a solution.

I do have scenes pictured where characters are going to have a certain conversation or be at a certain place but unexpected conversations or character twists surface as I am writing the story. Some of these are surprises or mishaps or problems that get in the way of my character’s quest. I strive not to make these predictable nor so far out that they don’t make sense to the story. They should leave the reader with the thought that (s)he should have figured that would happen. I find that it is no fun to read a book where you can foresee where the story line is headed and what is going to happen before it does.

For the climax my character goes through the action of resolving the problem or solving the mystery. This has to be fast paced and sometimes at a risk to the character. By this time the reader should be rooting for the main character and wanting him/her to succeed without injury. Hopefully, too, this is where the surprise comes in, where the reader goes. “Wow, I didn’t see that coming." or "I never thought it would be that person.” I have even been surprised or saddened or happy by the ending of my novels and have said that.

 

I believe that if my emotions are rocked, so, too, should be those of the reader.

Yahoo!

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase, please visit Books We Love Author Page.  

My hometown of Calgary is in the midst of its annual 10-day festival, billed as The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth--The Calgary Stampede. Local stores are decorated with bales of hay. Bank tellers sport cowboy hats and bandanas. Every day, you can have your pick of a dozen pancake breakfasts sponsored by retail malls, companies, churches and politicians.   

It's a city-wide party, comparable to the carnivals in Venice, New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro. I'm told that Calgary's birthrate always spikes in April, nine months from now. 

The week before this summer's Stampede, I participated in a reading and discussion with three other authors of books featuring the Stampede and/or Calgary's western heritage. About eighty people attended our event titled Side-saddled: Local Writers Take on the Stampede, which shows how much Calgarians like to talk and read about themselves.   

Part of our goal for the night was to look beneath the hoopla to some of the controversies surrounding the Stampede. One that we couldn't neglect was animal rights. Every year, horses and cattle die during training or at the rodeo or chuckwagon races, often from a heart attack or a broken leg that requires they be put down. Animal rights activists stage protests, calling for the abolition of these grueling competitions.   

Chuckwagon - a modern day Chariot race

In my novel, Ten Days in Summer, set against a backdrop of the Stampede, I touch on this issue through my protagonist Paula's daughter, Erin, aged twenty-two and an animal lover.   

        A small safety pin remained pinned to Erin’s pants, beneath two other black ribbons.
        "Is that a new style?" Paula asked.  

“It's to honour the animals who’ve died at this year’s Stampede—so far,” Erin said.  

 Paula, too, felt sad when she read about a horse having a heart attack or crashing in a chuckwagon race. Unlike Erin, though, she didn’t think animal deaths were a reason to abolish the rodeo and chuckwagon events at the Stampede. Did humans treat animals better elsewhere? Paula had once made the mistake of joking to Erin that cattle participation in roping and wrestling competitions was better than their alternate career path: meat. Erin wouldn’t talk to her for days.

During the discussion, our panel tended to agree with Paula. Author Aritha van Herk, who researched the Stampede for her book Stampede and the Westness of the West, noted that deaths of chuckwagon horses were usually due to the genetic weaknesses of these thoroughbreds. If they couldn't be chuckwagon racers they would go to Europe as horse meat. 

The Stampede's macho culture also came up in our discussion. Aritha mentioned that during the festival's early years, almost 100 years ago, women competed in the rodeo events with considerable success. Now they are banned from both the chuckwagon races and rodeo, aside from the lower status barrel racing.

Side-saddle riding tricks in the Stampede's early days 

Young women can become a Stampede Queen or Princess, subject to the usual beauty pageant requirements. Except, instead of a bathing suit contest, they must be able to ride a horse. Our current mayor of Calgary also learned to ride for the two hour downtown Stampede parade. A Calgary mayor would be scorned if he or she refrained from riding without a very good reason. 

To lighten the mood, our emcee Shaun Hunter inserted occasional fun questions. 

Which do you prefer? Cowboy hat or boots?  I was the only one who chose the hat, which I find comfortable as well as practical for shade and bad hair days. 

What was the name of the first horse you rode? The others gave their answers right away: Starburst. Sunshine. I was stumped. Being a city girl, I have only been on a horse twice, when my youthful friends dragged me to a riding stable in the country. I was more focused on not falling off than relating to my horse, which no doubt contributed to my riding difficulties.   

At the evening's end, Shaun asked the audience to vote for their favourite Stampede cheer by shouting along with her. 

Yahoo! She shouted with enthusiastic audience members. 

Yeehaw!

 The winner? Yaaaaaahoooooo!