Stranger than Fiction

Tess...American Civil War Bride #1

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Ursula...American Civil War Bride #2

The real life Edwin Booth is featured as a neighbor of my heroine Ursula Buckley in book 2 of my Brides of the American Civil War series, Mercies of the Fallen.  The first book of the series is the Laramie and Chatelaine Award nominated Seven Aprils.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Did you know that Edwin, an actor like his notorious brother assassin John Wilkes Booth, saved Abraham Lincoln's son Robert from serious injury or even death? 

Edwin Booth as Hamlet...his most famous role

The incident occurred on a train platform just before the end of the Civil War. While a group of passengers were purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor, Robert recounted,  “There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.”

Edwin Booth and Robert Todd Lincoln

Edwin Booth did not know the identity of the man whose life he had saved until some months later. The fact that he had saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son was said to have been of some comfort to Edwin Booth following his brother's assassination of the president.

Five Changes in My Writing Life since 2010

                   

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I enjoy year end lists. Even better are lists at the end of a decade. Here's my list of five changes to my writing life that happened in the ten years from January 2010 to January 2020.

1. I became a published author. Prior to 2010, I'd published short stories, poems and articles. They all helped me feel like a real writer and led me to teaching writing courses and workshops, but the term 'published author' is generally reserved for those who have published a book. This was a milestone I longed to achieve. After years of work, my first novel, was published in spring 2011.

2. I stepped up my social media presence. I was on Facebook before Deadly Fall was published, but only had a small number of Facebook friends, all people I knew in my real life. After my book publication, I started accepting requests from virtual strangers and posted (too many) notices about my literary activities and accomplishments in the interests of promoting the novel. I also joined Twitter and had my son's friend create my author website, which automatically tweets my website posts. In addition, I've dabbled in Link-In, Goodreads, Pinterest and Instagram. It seems that just when I get onto one social media site something else becomes the hot new thing.

Social Media can make me feel pulled in all directions

3. My office moved to a different room in my house. Okay, I'm cheating here because my home office changed when my husband retired in fall 2007. But it took a few years for us to settle into our new routine. When he was working, as soon as he left for the office I'd go to my den upstairs to write. My retirement gift to him was our den, a sunny spot that looks out to a green space. I moved my work to our north-facing guest room with a street view. I figured that if he had an appealing room for his various computer activities, he wouldn't distract me from my writing, while I don't need the view while I'm forming stories in my head. The plan worked. After breakfast these days, he goes to his den and I huddle in the corner of our guest room. But lately, I've felt an urge for a brighter, more scenic and spacious room of my own for writing.

re

Jane Austen wrote pretty good novels at this small writing table with its view of the clock in the family sitting room. 

4. I became a regular at a writing festival. Calgary's When Words Collide Festival For Readers and Writers launched in August, 2011. I went the first year, since it's held in my home city, and haven't missed a year since then. This coming August will be the festival's 10th anniversary. I'm bound to find whatever I'm looking for as a writer there, whether it's information about the craft or getting published or promoting my books. Toss in a little fun for a winning combination.

Dressed for the festival's banquet, Roaring Twenties theme

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5  At When Words Collide, I found my publisher. BWL published my second and third novels and there's a fourth one in progress. In November, BWL released a new edition of my first book, retitled A Deadly Fall. The re-publication brings the 2010s full circle and seems a fitting end to the decade.

Books & Best Sellers & Movies Oh, My! by Karla Stover

Author of: Wyners Way
                  Murder; When One isn't Enough
                  Murder on the Line
                  and a miscellaneous bunch of things available to download for 99 cts. off Amazon




A writer in my district of garden clubs had one of her books made into a Hallmark movie. I would love to have those bragging rights (though maybe not as a Hallmark movie)  but I'm not sure that many books turn into movies these days--Harry Potter and Marvel comic books excepted.

When I was young, one of the local TV stations ran movies about the time I got home from school and if I liked the film, I always checked the credits to see if it came from a book. The Uninvited was a good book and a good film though the star, Ray Milland, was much too old to romance the heroine, Gail Russell.

Meet Me in St. Louis was a lovely movie and more or less faithful to the book with two exceptions: it omitted the family vacation and fiddled with the ending a bit.

Greta Gerwig has a new version of Little Woman out. I wonder who owns the rights because they must be making a ton of money. Beginning with the silent film days, it's been made into movie a bunch of times. I liked Katherine Hepburn as Jo and June Allison was okay. I missed Winona Ryder's version. PBS has its own version, so do the Japanese. It's been turned into a Broadway play, a ballet, and an opera, not to mention various adaptions on television.

Anne of Green Gables is another book frequently adapted for film, television, and radio. Some of the books have been stand-alone movies, and there is even a book about Marilla in her pre-Anne years.

I liked both the written and film versions of Gone With the Wind, but a really good novel, Forever Amber was a lousy movie.

In my opinion, The Shining was much scarier in book form than the movie but Silence of the Lambs had a better movie ending than did the book. And A Year of Living Bibically is so enjoyable I'm rereading it but the television was canceled after showing only eight of its 13 episodes.

A Google search has lists of authors whose books were adapted to film; frequent favorites include Agatha Christie, Daphne Du Maurier, and Dashiell Hammett. Google also has people who advise writers on selling their books to various producers. Maybe we should all send them copies of our books and see what happens.

Water, Water Everywhere

Find my books at Books We Love

The sky darkened and with no more warning than a single roll of thunder, the rain began. It washed down the roof, overflowing the gutters and splattering through the screens to wet the bricks of the patio.

We quickly moved the seat cushions to the other side of the porch but I left one on a wicker chair. I love summer storms and wasn’t about to huddle inside. Rain continued hard enough to wash away the spilled charcoal dust from the grill where my birthday dinner had been cooked. The remnants of the party disappeared, but not the warm feelings of contentment I tucked away in my heart. 

The rain lessened then grew stronger again and yet the sun shone on a patch of green grass along the side of the house. Pitter-patter; drip-drip. You know what it sounds like running down the gutter pipes and dripping off the house. If it continues, I will sleep out on the porch tonight. I can’t hear the rain inside behind bricks and insulation. It reminds me of summers past, camping at the lake in a canvas tent. “Don’t touch the roof,” Dad admonished as it would make the canvas leak. Yet someone invariably would. If there wasn’t lightning, we’d play in the rain; even swim in the lake. After all, it was summer and we were at the lake to get wet.

Another round, coming hard enough to rush down the street like an overflowing river. A curtain, obscuring the trees across the way. The smell of rain. You can’t describe it but anyone else will understand exactly what you mean.

“Why are you out here?” my grandson asked.

“Writing about the rain.”

“Why?”

“Because I love a good storm.”

*************

I recently read a book about how water can make you happier, healthier and of a better frame of mind. While most of the book was more scientific than I could understand, the gist was that we need water in our lives. Not only to drink, but to be near, in, on or even under water. While I don’t live near a body of water, I realized how often I write about water in its various forms in my novels.

“Hold on to the Past” takes place on a river. “Spinning through Time” has a dramatic and tragic scene on a frozen pond.

“Prelude and Promises” is set on a small island, thus surrounded by water. “A Game of Love”, set in Boston, has a close connection to the Boston Harbor. And the list goes on.

I also love writing thunderstorms into my novels; water cutting rivulets down a dirt street; ominous cracks of thunder awakening my characters in the middle of a dark night. You don't have to wait for the next time it rains to curl up with a copy of “Love in Disguise” and find out just how diverting the rain can be when it keeps Max and Abby from pursuing a killer.

Best wishes for a wildly wet new year!

Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/romance-authors/baldwin-barbara/

Reindeer & antlers by J. S. Marlo

J.S. Marlo's BWL Books

I don't usually write my blog more than a week ahead of time, but I'm making an exception with this one. I was going to post about my New Year resolutions, which I haven't made yet since it's only December 14, when I saw this post on Facebook about Santa's reindeer.

What I was doing on Facebook when I have a million things to do at this time of year is a discussion for another time, but the post caught my attention. Aside from the fact that reindeer, just like deer, don't usually have an "s" in their plural form, it struck me as odd that female reindeer don't lose their antlers, so I did some research.

Female reindeer can grow antlers, just like their male counterparts, making them unique in the deer world. However, not all females have antlers since growing them costs a lot of energy. In habitats where food is scarce or of poor quality, antlerless females dominate. Now, why are female reindeer different from the other female deer?

The female reindeer use their antlers to defend food in small patches 
of cleared snow, and those with the largest antlers tend to be socially dominant and in the best overall physical condition. The females also shed their antlers every year, but unlike male reindeer who lose them late autumn after the rut, female reindeer retain their antlers until spring because access to food is critical during their winter pregnancy.

So, does that mean female reindeer are pulling Santa's sleigh?  Not necessarily. It happens that most of the reindeer used to pull sleds are castrated males because they are easier to handle than "full" reindeer. Castrated reindeer have antler cycles similar to those of the females, only losing them in the spring.

Conclusion: Santa's reindeer are either female or castrated male reindeer. 

Other interesting facts about reindeer:

- There are 14 subspecies of reindeer, two of which are extinct. 
- Reindeer are domesticated or semi-domesticated caribou.
- They live primarily in the Arctic, where winter is drastically colder and darker than the summer.
- Their hooves are soft during warmer months, but in the winter, they become hard and sharp for breaking through the ice to forage vegetation.
- To adapt to seasonal changes in light levels, the part of their eye behind the iris changes color from gold in the summer to blue in the winter.
- They travel up to 3,000 miles and swim long distances along the way.
- They have two layers of hair to keep warm: a dense woolly undercoat, and a top layer of hollow air-filled hairs which float.  Their hair have been used to fill life jackets.

This is a reindeer's hoof print... which I'll try to draw in the snow for my granddaughter.

Happy New Year 2020 !!!
JS


BBC Wildlife: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/why-do-female-reindeer-grow-antlers/ 

J. S. Marlo's Website