How important is the ending? Tricia McGill

Find all my books here

The book is nearing completion and you have tied up all the ends, but that last paragraph is eluding you. It has taken me a long time to reach this last paragraph of my latest book due to the extensive amount of research required. As the end looms I have been pondering on which way to finish the journey. In the past, I have had little trouble finding a way to tie up all the loose ends, but with this time-travel, I am unsure which way to go. Stay in the past? Return to the future and begin the journey all over again?

Writers are advised to start the book with a great paragraph that makes the reader itch to find out just where this story will go. I believe endings are just as important. Pondering on the final scene of some great books of the past the first that sprang to mind was the last words from Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. His, “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn,” will be forever remembered as one of the greatest ending lines after Scarlett asked him, “Where shall I go? Of course, that was only the concocted ending for the movie. The last line as written by the author was from Scarlett, and read, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

One of the books I read as an eight or nine-year-old child was A Christmas Carol. The edition given to me by one of my sisters was illustrated and I can still remember the ghostly face of Marley, his former business partner on Ebenezer Scrooge’s doorknocker as depicted at the beginning. Most people know the last line of this book well, with Tiny Tom observing, “God bless us, everyone.”

Being a writer of romance, of course I mostly look for a happy ever after, not so much of the couple riding off into the sunset, but being a romantic at heart, I do tend to show my protagonists at least ending very happily together. There is nothing more satisfying than reaching the final page of a book with a sigh, along with a feeling that you were enjoying it so much you couldn’t wait to finish yet when you did you were sad to see it end.

Here are a few of my favourite endings, some well-known and loved and some not so:

"I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth." Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

"She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously." The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck 

"God's in his heaven, all’s right with the world,' whispered Anne softly." Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery

 "Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this." Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

"And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea." Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

 "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them."  Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 

Find some more amazing endings here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/entertainment/books/best-last-lines/

Visit my web page for excerpts of all my books 

The Cariboo Road by A.M.Westerling

One of the things I enjoy the most about writing historical romance – along with writing about love, of course! – is doing the research. Accurate research was especially important when I wrote Barkerville Beginnings, Book 4 of the Canadian Historical Brides Collection issued by BWL Publishing in honour of Canada’s 150^th birthday. The participating authors were instructed to write a story that combined fact with fiction. The challenge was on! I chose to write about Barkerville as I visited there a couple of times while on vacation.

Barkerville was a gold rush town in the interior of British Columbia that sprang up in the 1850’s. During its heyday. it was thought to be the largest town west of Chicago however, now it’s a ghost town and known as the Historic Townsite of Barkerville. Here I am on main street and below that is the Barkerville church:

 

During the early days of the Cariboo Gold Rush, getting there presented a serious challenge to the miners as Barkerville was located 400 miles north and east of Yale. Thick underbrush clogged the mountainous route and some of the mountain passes still had five feet of snow in April. Parts of the journey north were extremely dangerous and horses and their owners would often fall to their deaths over the mountains or drown in the swift and deep waters of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. Below you can see the Fraser River and how high the road was built to traverse the Fraser Canyon:

However, the success of the gold fields and the great influx of people made it necessary to improve access. The governor at that time, Governor James Douglas, determined that a safe road was required and the Royal Engineers were engaged for the task. In October of 1861, Colonel Richard Clement Moody recommended that the Yale to Barkerville route through the Fraser Canyon be built for the benefit of the country. The Royal Engineers assessed the route and suggested it be built in sections: Yale to Spuzzum, Spuzzum to Lytton, Lytton to the Lillooet Junction, Lillooet to Fort Alexandria, and Quesnel to Barkerville. It was a particularly difficult section to construct because of mud, swamp and fallen trees. You can still see a portion of the original road outside of Lytton:

When it was completed, some people called it the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Rose, a young single mother running from her vengeful ex, and Harrison, a young viscount running from scandal, are the two main characters in Barkerville Beginnings. They meet on the final section of the road between Quesnel to Barkerville.

Intrigued? You can find Barkerville Beginnings HERE.

Or better yet, check out all the great titles in the collection! HERE

Featured Author Jay Lang

Jay Lang is the author of four Lesbian thrillers published with BWL Publishing Inc., including the February 1, 2021 new release Storm - now available in pre-release at all the primary retailers and in print from Amazon.

Jay Lang grew up on the ocean, splitting her time between Read Island and Vancouver Island before moving to Vancouver to work as a TV, film and commercial actress. Eventually she left the industry for a quieter life on a live-a-board boat, where she worked as a clothing designer for rock bands. Five years later she moved to Abbotsford to attend university. There, she fell in love with creative writing. Hush is her first published novel. She spends her days hiking and drawing inspiration for her writing from nature.

In Hush, Jade Banks thinks she has finally found happiness. A home on a beautiful little island, and a good woman, Annie, by her side. But that all changes when her father dies and leaves her brother, Denny, in charge of the family fortune—a brother Jade knows is seeking to destroy her. After a night away, Jade returns home to find Annie hurt. A short time later, a body is found in the bay. Over a hellish few weeks, Jade is caught up in a police investigation while her insecurities and paranoia push Annie away. With the intention of restoring peace to their lives, Jade gathers clues that point to the murderer. However, she is not prepared for the shocking truth revealed by a shotgun blast that echoes over the bay.

In Shatter Jules Gordon has spent the past fourteen years as a recluse after her mother was brutally murdered and her father framed for the crime. Things seem to improve after she accepts a job as a private investigator for a local firm where she meets the enigmatic Katie, and a passionate romance develops. However, just as Jules’ life starts to show promise, she receives a call from a parole officer who tells her that her father is being released from prison. Apprehensive, Jules lets her father move in. Her father, now terminally ill, divulges the name of the man who framed him. In a twist of fate, while investigating her first case, Jules believes that she’s stumbled on the trail of her mother’s murderer. As Jules slowly unravels the truth, her pursuit for retribution turns deadly. A game of cat and mouse leads her deep into the underworld, and she realizes that she has been played for a fool as she stares into the eyes of the true killer 

In Shiver, Freedom Jones is a day away from being evicted from her Calgary apartment. So, when her criminal foster brother Johnny calls in a panic, she is not keen on adding more drama to her problems. Nevertheless, she goes to see him, and Johnny presents Freedom with a strange wooden box. Before Johnny can explain further, there’s a pounding on the door, and Freedom watches from under a bed as her brother is murdered. Freedom escapes and seeks refuge in Vancouver with Lola, a friend of Johnny’s, only to find that the woman only wants what’s in the wooden box: nine flawless diamonds. Freedom runs, leaving the box behind and the nine diamonds hidden in her pocket. From there, Freedom travels to the Sunshine Coast where she meets Skye. The women fall in love, and Freedom discovers how true happiness feels. 

In Storm, After taking the fall for her former lover, Paisley Stewart comes out of a stint in prison only to stay in another: her childhood home on Vancouver Island, where memories of her homophobic childhood linger. To her relief, her parents plan to vacation in Florida for part of the summer, leaving her to take care of the rental cabins. However, the relief is short-lived. She has a co-landlord: the know-it-all Ivy Logan, a family friend and childhood enemy. Little do they realize that their friction is setting off sparks, and a summer romance blooms. However, their happiness doesn’t last. Ghosts from Paisley’s past emerge, and what was once an idyllic dream becomes a living nightmare. The girls find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives, and Paisley must decide—how far will she go to save the woman she loves?

Why Write Historical Romance? by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

Authors are often asked questions by their readers or followers. I find the usual one asked of me is: why do you write historical fiction and romance? Let’s face it – with all of the details that need to be exact, writing historical fiction can be challenging. So why do it?

I freely admit to not having started off as a history buff, having found it to be the most boring subject when I was at school. Dates wars or invasions and the succession of kings didn’t matter to me at all as the subject had no relevance to my life at the time.

Jane Austen was a must-read at school and, at that age – ho hum. Sorry, Austen fans, but that is the truth. I have since returned many times to Austen, reading her books from a totally different aspect and discovering the treasure trove of minutiae they contain. The same applies to Georgette Heyer. The first of her books I ever read was Frederica (which I consider her best) but then I collected and read all her Regency romances without ever considering that they were, in fact, history books. A stylized history, maybe, but history nonetheless. Second readings of many of her titles gave me a whole new appreciation of the Regency era (1811 – 1820) beyond ladies’ dresses and gentlemen’s sporting preferences.

I started digging around in non-fiction history books, checking for myself anything I queried whether it was a style of dress or manner of speech and found I loved the research. At that time in my life I had no more thought of writing a book, historical or otherwise. But, in those odd and forgotten facts I came across snippets of past lives that really fascinated me. How other people lived, loved, how a table was laid and what cutlery they used and all the events that surrounded them came to life in an amazing way. More latterly YouTube has provided a visual and sometimes harsh view of life as it was lived in several eras.

Books We Love is fortunate to have a wealth of historical authors. Do you want to know more about Mozart? Check out Juliet Waldron’s book Mozart’s Wife. How about a taste of ancient Sumer? You couldn’t ask for more in Katherine Pym’s Begotten. A.M. Westerling’s Bakerville Beginnings takes us back to the gold rush days in British Columbia, and Diane Scott Lewis offers a background of the French Revolution in Escape the Revolution. There are many more historical titles, all offering  fascinating glimpses of past lives.

There is no doubt that history offers a rich and varied tapestry from which to draw inspiration for plots, characters and yes – happy-ever-afters.

Victoria Chatham

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Writing in the time of Covid

 Having spent a number of days dipping a canoe paddle into the water, setting a book on the St. Croix National Scenic Waterway was logical. My protagonist, Doug Fletcher, is a former scout who grew up in Minnesota, so putting him in a canoe on the river was a no-brainer. Heck, there are even two scout camps along the river within a few miles of Stillwater, Minnesota. As a former resident of the Twin Cites (St. Paul and Minneapolis) he'd obviously know Stillwater, the camps, the river, and the risks of canoeing. Then came the hard part - what's the mystery?

The book opens with a honeymoon couple paddling down the St. Croix. A silly mishap causes their canoe to tip. Doug and Jill Fletcher, US National Park Service investigators, get a call at their home location, Padre Island National Seashore. The superintendent of the St. Croix park makes a frantic request for their assistance. VIPs are expected and she needs to know the fate of the missing couple before the VIPS arrive.

I had fun writing this book. Jill Fletcher whispered to me, offering hints about the plot, the scenery, her evolving relationship with Doug, and her anxiety about her new investigator role. In many respects, the characters told their stories and I was the scribe who recorded the events. 

I'd awake and rush to the computer (I may have started the coffee pot along the way) and spend an hour or two (or four) recording the thoughts as they came to me. The evolving dialogue steered the story, flowing into my rough outline. 

And Covid helped. Like the rest of you, I was mildly paranoid. With the encouragement of the Minnesota Governor, I sat at home, isolated from the outside world. Without the distractions of library and bookstore speaking commitments, I focused on writing. Jill and Doug Fletcher have been my friends for over a year, and they've shared their joys, their fears, and their deepest emotions as I recorded them. Thanks to Covid, they became my point of outside contact. I put myself in a canoe alongside them as we paddled, pushed along by the gentle St. Croix current. I felt the burn in unused muscles, saw the natural beauty of the river, and felt the sun on my back. I also endured the swarms of mosquitoes in the backwaters, the anxiety of the search for the missing couple, the terror of being on the water miles from the nearest landing as thunder rumbled in the distance. 

There's more to a book than the writing. I spend hours doing research into which diseases ticks and mosquitoes carry and the history behind the Park Service's acquisition of the property along the St. Croix waterfront. Which areas of the river are restricted to canoes and which allow motorboats? How fast does an empty canoe or lifejacket drift down river? Where would a pair of rangers meet a local cop for lunch? Which motel would they stay in? How far is their motel from the park headquarters and is it faster to drive to the park headquarters on the Minnesota or Wisconsin roads?

I contacted Chris, the ranger at the Andersen Boy Scout Camp, Mike, an fellow Eagle scout, Deanna, my consultant on all things cop and horse related, and others. Natalie and Anne proofread.

Finally, the manuscript went to Jude Pittman, at BWL Publishing. Michelle Lee designed the cover. Susan Davis edited and made the book even better. 

Greg Peterson, a reader, texted me to tell me how much he loved Jill and Doug Fletcher. He said they'd become old friends he'd like to have over for a beer and conversation. Another reader told me she wished Fletchers were her relatives. They're so nice, loving, and comfortable. My heart swells when I hear feedback like that. I'm pleased to be able to share the Fletcher's stories with you, the reader. Jill whispers to me. Right now she's telling me to end this before I give away the Down River ending. 

I hope you read and enjoy Down River and the other Fletcher mysteries. Doug and Jill will be back later this year.