Victorian life an U.S. Army fort

We've all seen the movies of the gallant US Cavalry charging down a hill toward a wagon train being attacked by Indians, or saving a stage coach from outlaws. Just when all seemed lost, the bugle would sound and help was on the way. Army life was no picnic but without the brave men of that long ago era, the move west might never have happened.

By 1844 Americans began to spread out, leaving their towns and crowded cities to "Go West young man." And so the expansion west begin, mostly in the form of long slow moving wagon trains that cut across the long flat plains, the hot dry deserts, along the ridges of the America's majestic mountains.

These families, just as their parents and grandparents before, wanted their own piece of land. By setting forth to explore the west, they encroached on land belonging to various tribes, some hostile, some not, for hundreds of years. The first few years of the migration didn't stir up too much trouble, but as the wagons kept coming, the Indian's began to resent their land being taken. Many tribes decided to fight back in hopes of making the trek West not so appealing.

The United States government decided to establish military posts along the Oregon Trail for the protection of the emigrants. In 1846 Congress approved "An Act to provide for raising a regiment of Mounted Riflemen, and for establishing military stations on the route to Oregon," and Fort Laramie in Wyoming was reborn. Early in 1848 Fort Kearny was established on the south bank of the Platte near the head of Grand Island. Later that year news of the discovery of gold in California raced through the country like wildfire, resulting in fevered preparations to move westward increased the urgency of extending the chain of forts.

Life on a military fort was not an easy one. When the plains were peaceful, It was a life of endless drills interrupted by a series of bugle calls. The calls were so frequent that horses and dogs understood them and even a military wife's life was set by them. Officers may have graduated from a Military academy such as West Point or may have served in the Civil War and had been granted military title for their service. Many of the men who made up the forts regiments were hard working boys, some may have never before ridden a horse or others enlisted to hide their identity. Fighting Indians may have seemed glamorous but the excitement soon wore off as week long campaigns turned into months.

Researching

Hi, Welcome to my historical writing blog! I hope my advice for writing will help you get from that frightening blank page to a 300 plus word novel and onto the book shelves, whether web based or real.

Congratulations! You've decide to follow your life long dream of writing your novel. Some people have the idea in their head for years before finally putting it down, while others contemplate the notion, but get overwhelmed with where to start. I find the best way to start your novel is plot it out before you start to write. To start at the basics, your novel will need to breathe with life, so choose a topic you're passionate about. If you read a lot of science fiction, romance or political/legal thrillers, for instance, that's a great place to start. In other words, use what you know.


The genres these subjects can fit into are endless. If you have a great legal murder mystery but you want to throw in a romantic twist, go for it.

Writing is a solitary activity so choose some place where you're comfortable and you can get inside your head without being disrupted. For me, all noise making instruments must be off, with beverage and chocolate within reach.

Okay, ready?

Your novel, whatever genre you decide, will need a beginning, middle and satisfactory end. If you're planning on a trilogy, that's great, but word of caution, it's easy to get overwhelmed plotting book two before you've even written book one. Like my mother always said, "first things first."

I am a historical romance author. Once I get down the basic bones of a plot, I begin to research. Now, warning-I'm a research nut. I easily get bogged down in the fact finding and find an hour has gone by and I haven't written anything, but I have found the most amazing information on 19th century hairstyles for women. If that is your genre as well, a word to the wise, make sure your facts are accurate. You don't want an other wise great novel rejected because of a scene where someone is cooking and pulls their pot roast out of the oven when gas stoves wouldn't be around for another 20 years.

Novel research whether online, library or interviewing involves much more than 10 seconds with Google or a quick interview over lunch. Research is called re-search for a reason:  repetitive and continuous searching. Why do you need to re-research? Because even though it's on the internet, doesn't mean it's correct information.

Here are a few steps to researching:

1. It's best to combine "hard" and "soft" research for the best broad search. Hard research is proven facts, figures or statistics, where soft research is opinion based, cultural or personal experiences. By combining the two you get the whole enchilada. Take for example if you have never had a baby but you are writing a scene where your main character is a doctor and helping delivery a baby. The medical information of terms, techniques, instruments make the character shine as a doctor, but your soft research of what a person goes through while giving birth make the scene realistic.
 

2. Use Different Search Engines and Keywords

Here comes the legwork. Google is great, but there are other search engines out there that can help broaden your search. Use 3-5 keyword combinations. Stay patient and keep changing your keywords. ask.com, Clusty, Surfwax are a couple great engines or you can try the US Government Library of Congress.

3. Bookmark and Stockpile any possible content you wish to keep.
 
This sounds like a duh, right? You find this great site on cars of the 50's but you forget to save it and can't remember where you found it. Bummer, right? Get in the habit of bookmarking the site as soon as it looks interesting. This can be slow, tedious as you organize your information into necessary piles so you can easily find and sift through them later.


4. Filter and Validate the Content.

This is the slowest but most important step of all. You must filter and examine all your information to make sure it's correct before you site it or use it in your novel.
Carefully consider the author or source, and even the date of publication. Is the author an authority with professional credentials? Does the page have its own domain name like NASA or is it an obscure page or someones blog?

Be patient, skeptical, curious, and double check. Now, get to researching!  If you have any questions, you can email me. Good luck!

Who wrote the book on love-and why?

I've fought being a romance author. Silly, isn't it? Romance book sell far more than any other paperback or ebook out there, and they're so fun to write. So why do, I find myself pausing when it comes time for me to say I write romance. Why? What's wrong with romance? Over the summer I had a book signing in San Diego at a writing conference. When a woman came up to my table and and with a smile asked me what romance author inspired me to write my book. Though my novel is considered a romance, the authors that popped into my head weren't romance writers. I thought of my two current favorites, King and JA Jance.

Okay, yes, I do write historical with mysterious sub plots woven through. As much as I love to research my period, the sex scenes are the most fun to write. I love the touching, the discovering, the blushing, the tingling skin just burning to be caressed. Who doesn't remember a time when you discovered those feelings. Those new feelings of raw lust and want are the reason men and women have affairs. They yearn to be rediscovered and to discover.

I remember how embarrassed I was when my mom and dad read my first book. I imagine it's as hard for parents to picture their kids having steamy bed messing sex as it is for us to think of our parents doing "The dance without any pants." Okay, so I don't write bodice ripping scenes where the heroine throws her forearm across her head and swoons naked into her gorgeous lovers arms. Not because I'm prude but only because they're not historically accurate. If an English nobleman met that fiery vixen, he'd have to get through close to and depending on the era, ten petticoats before he could feast upon the family jewels.

So again, I ask myself, why do I feel embarrassed to say I believe in the notion of two falling head over heels in love. I'm lucky to have experienced that wonderful feeling several times in my life, so why not write it? Finding romance or if you just enjoy the chase lowers our stress levels, it's good for our heart skin and mind. and with all that is happening around us at this time in our lives, we're lucky to have it, right? As a society we spend countless hours in search of that special someone to grow old with or if you would rather, Mr. right now.

So, really who doesn't want that? And if you can, why not write about it?

Time for the resolutions

Well, that time has come again. I prefer to believe the magic this new year possesses is much like this beautiful spring like January we have here in San Diego. Birds are chirping, the sky is bright blue as far as human eyes can see. Life is good in our new house.

A neighbor found out that I was an author and brought by a biography her aunt wrote back in the 70's about her childhood here in our new town. I loved it! The road we now live on was named after her great grandfather, a pioneer farmer who at one time plowed and grew crops on where our house now sits. She wrote about her first car ride, the night she saw her first aeroplane, how patriotic America once was during the first World War.

Their life was so different in the hard work they all had-back breaking labor that gave you a sense of pride when they went to bed. I thank you Merry for sharing your Aunt's life with me. Now, back to researching West Point.

Goobye Momma

Thank you Mom for all you did for me during your life.

Your courage, your spirit and humor helped countless people and will be terribly missed. I can't believe I'll never hear your laughter or another funny story or hear you singing a song you can't remember all the words to, so you just make them up. My heart is broken with you gone, but I know you are able to see dad in heaven with perfect vision. You're probably chatting it up with Saint Peter, asking him if you can touch his wings or his hair and making everyone up there love you as they did down here on earth. I miss you now and forever.

Dorothy Church 12-25-25 to 9-21-11

Dog gone embarrassing

You can't tell me that animals don't know what they're doing-not after the embarrassing so called "graduation" Molly just put my husband and I through. Hundreds of dollars spent just to get my lab to respond to commands such as Sit and Stay, Heel and Off. I'd be happy to just have her listen to Off, but no...the petstore training center was like all the other California educational schools tonight; passing students that deserve to fail.

Yes, I said it-my seven month lab deserved to fail. She couldn't have been any worse if she had squatted and peed in the store. Oh wait, she did.

For the last class of Molly's continuous education, the trainer tested all the dogs on little races, like fetch and puppy push ups (sit, lay down, as many times as they can in a minute) The day before she did 17. Now we couldn't get her to do more than two.

Like other good parents, my husband and I worked with Molly for weeks, and she did great. We felt ready and were proud to display our dogs pending diploma. The trainer explained that our puppies would be tested that evening as though we were going through a canine good citizen award test. She would have to show she could greet people without jumping, walk on a leash without pulling, stay while we disappear (by the end of the class, my husband and I were tempted to run from the store) and finally, they must be able to wear the little graduation cap and poise for picture.

I knew we were in trouble five minutes into class when a fellow pet owner handed us a home made zip lock baggy filled with dog treats and Molly jumped up, ripped the bottom out of the bag, spilling all the treats and then gobbled them up like free donuts at a weight watchers meeting.

"Focus!" I commanded, holding the one remaining treat before me, hoping against hope to hold her nonexistent attention. The embarrassing part of this was I was the one who kept getting reprimanded. "Julie, don't shout at the dog, Julie, don't keep repeating the same command, Julie, don't hold the leash so tight, etc.

Throughout the night, Molly greeted everyone by jumping on them, and when the trainer watched her heel down the cat food isle, she proceeded to pull treats off the shelves. At one point she felt as though she was finally staying by my side but when people began laughing and pointing, I looked down to find she had pulled a pot of growing Kat nip off the shelves and was holding the muddy clump in her mouth.

We felt doomed, she would never graduate. When the class came to an end, our trainer gave away "the most improved dog" award. Up until this last class, my husband and I felt sure this would be Molly. She had grown into a loving calm dog, an important part of our family. Now as we sat there, too embarrassed to look up, we couldn't believe it when Molly's name was called. She won? We smiled apologetically, all the while, my husband still trying to get her to sit and stay long enough for a photo. While other's clapped unenthusiastically for our wild sweet pooch, Molly merely wagged her hard rutter-like tag, pulled the gradation cap off the dog next to her and trotted proudly away.

I'm baaack...

Okay, I'll admit it, I've been slacking on my posts. Actually, slacking is an understatement. I'm not going to lie and say I just haven't had the time. Honestly, if I have the time to paint the toenails on my lab, I have the time to pretty much do anything.

I have been busy though, mainly being keeping a very active puppy fed, exercised and trained. I've started a new job and now Kyle and I are house hunting. I would love to have a house for a change as opposed to a condo with a meddling HOA to tell you what to paint and what not to hang on the walls-not to mention paying their outrageous fees every month. I will miss my wonderful neighbors though. But Molly will finally have a nice big yard to run in!

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Though we have found a house, and our offer has been accepted,... the bank still has to okay the deal.

The real news is my new novel is coming along very well. I traveled to Los Angeles recently for my first Civil War re-enactment and had a blast. I was pleased to realize I had done a bang up job on my research for A Soldier's Embrace. I knew I had exhausted every source I could for saddles, medicine, clothing, towns, Victorian mannerisms, etc, so I felt safe adding the information to the novel, but I was thoroughly excited to know I was correct in even the small details like the coins thrown at the soldier's that read "good for one free screw."

I met wonderful ladies who take so much care to be as authentic as possible, right down to black skillets with filled with potatoes, tomatoes, unions, and bell peppers. If it weren't for the flies hovering, it looked great.

Next week I'll be attending the Historical Novel Society conference in San Diego along with having my first book signing! I'm so excited and to be honest, more than a little nervous. I also will be meeting with agents, so I have my pitch and I'm tightening up my synopsis.

Wish me luck!