YOUR ASSIGNMENT SHOULD YOU ACCEPT IT

 By Caroline Clemmons

I hope you’re enjoying the arrival of Fall. I love the colorful leaves and cooler weather. Someday, I’d love to visit New England at this time of year. Not likely to happen. I’ll have to content myself with a couple of watercolors done by a New England artist, Mrs. E. Van Liew.

Today, I want to encourage each of you to do something for posterity. Doesn’t that sounds important? In my opinion, it is. 

Here goes: Even if you couldn’t care less about genealogy or history, someone in your family’s future will. Start now and write down everything you remember your mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and grandparents telling you about their lives. I mean all the little stories that they told—good and bad—which seemed incidental at the time you heard them. Unless you record them permanently, those stories will disappear.

You don’t have to do any research! 

Facts remain for others to find. Thank goodness for our National Archives, for Ancestry.com, and for the massive archives stored by the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Utah. But, you see, those are just the skeleton of your past. You need the anecdotes to flesh out the body of information and give it life.

Personally, I have enjoyed research because (1) I'm a history nerd and (2) facts made history come alive for me. When you learn where those in your family served in wars back to the American Revolution, those people are not just names and dates—they’re individuals.

For instance, the reason ancestors of my dad's moved to Georgia was because they blew up an English munitions warehouse near the end of the American Revolution. You can understand how this made them extremely unpopular with the English, who put up handbills and issued warrants for the extended family. They had to abandon their former home quite rapidly.

I admit learning this relieved my mind. Previously I had wondered if they lived in Georgia because initially someone in the family had come when Georgia was a penal colony. <g> See, research can be liberating!

As I said, you don’t have to do research. 

Simply write the stories you remember. They don’t have to be in chronological order. Some of the stories will be funny, some exaggerated, and some sad. You’ll discover repeating cycles of strength and weakness. They are part of you. No, finding bad people doesn’t make you bad; that’s not what I mean.

I’ve done my part for my family. My mother-in-law asked me to write a book about her life for her grandchildren. I did, but then we had to have a second set of copies done for other people in the family. Since I did a book for my mother-in-law, I had to do one for my mother, even though I don't think she really cared until it was finished, other than the keeping things equal. (Hero’s parents and my mom were in the same Sunday School class.) My dad had asked me to write a book about his family, and I’d been collecting information for years. Unfortunately, he died before his book was printed. Now I’ve done three family books, and I’m done. My sister-in-law did one about Hero’s dad.

Now it's your turn for your family.  See how I passed the buck... er, I mean baton.

Stay safe and keep reading. Don't forget Sheriff Jesse Cameron and Rosalin Arnold's story comes out the 29th!

PAINTING A PORTRAIT FOR POSTERITY

I‘ve mentioned this before, but here it is again. For years, my brother and I have worked on a family history book for our father’s Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone family. We collected anecdotes, photos, and everything else we could find. I have to admit my brother is better than I am at ferreting out details. I have more anecdotes and photos, and that includes photos of paintings. Yes, we want to know what everyone looked like.

Back when transient artists traveled from home to home painting whoever would pay for their services, there were those who were not, shall we say, in the right profession. For instance, take a gander at the photo below of John Robert Gibson Clemmons and then at the painting of the same man. 

Is the one below of another ancestor and his wife a true likeness? We’ll never know, but we’re using it in our book.

Penuel and Connie Wood about 1775

We’re also using the one below of an early couple in South Carolina. Oh, dear. The distant relative who provided this one, Bill Glenn, said, “You can see where our family gets their good looks.” He’s a nice looking man so he can afford to have a sense of humor about his ancestors.

Painting of Isham and Thurza Wood, about 1840

The thing we wanted to get across is that these old names and dates were REAL PEOPLE. Knowing about their lives brings history of that era alive for us. For instance, knowing that the reason family members went to Georgia is because the men had a price on their heads for blowing up a Tory warehouse during the American Revolution makes that war more personal.

Knowing another branch of the family had their lands Scotland confiscated in 1715 for supporting the Jacobean Rebellion makes that conflict personal. They were sent to Ireland and some came on to Virginia.

Of course we have the, um, not so upstanding members too. Don't we all? I find them fascinating as well. The fellow below was shot before he could testify in a trial. I guess state's evidence is nothing new. He's one of our part Cherokee ancestors.

Levi Akridge before his 1871 death

In other words, this book has been educational. I’m glad it’s complete except for the editing, though. I look forward to holding the finished product in my hands. I hope other family members are as pleased as I will be.

Have you written your family’s history? If not, I urge you to do so while there are those alive to share anecdotes with you. You can always find the dry details, but those stories will disappear unless someone writes them.

Thanks for stopping by!

I WAS ALMOST DOOMED!

Earlier this week, I completed (I hope) a family book on my dad’s family on which my brother and I have been working the past few years. We had the text done and I was compiling and inserting pages of photos, all carefully labeled. The entire book was complete, I hit save . . .  and disaster struck. 

Turns out I didn’t have enough ram (which I don’t really understand) to save all the pages and pages of photos I’d assembled. Yikes! I feared I’d lost the entire 378-page book. Hero came to the rescue (as he always does) and salvaged most of my work.

Me at four with my dad when we lived in California.
He asked me to write about his family, so I enlisted my younger brother to help. We've finally finished the book.

Then I began the annoying task of recreating lost material. Don’t you hate when that happens? Perhaps you are more computer savvy so that traumatizing incidents like this one don’t happen to you. For your sake, I hope so. I never wanted to be a computer science person; all I ever wanted to do was write my stories. Too late, I realize modern writers have to be computer gurus at times. Thank heavens my renaissance-man Hero is well-informed on this field.

This episode reminds me of a cute cartoon Darling Daughter 2 has on her refrigerator. It shows a housewife mixing a cake to instructions on the television. She has a shocked look on her face as the TV chef says, “For this next part, you’ll need algebra.”

I’m also reminded of the tee-shirt that bears the slogan, “They didn’t tell me this would involve math.”

So, you see my dilemma. The monitor and keyboard are my friends. Those little things going on in the cpu-boxy-thing are a mystery to me. All I want to do is write, not figure out computer problems (or math problems). Thankfully, romantic fiction does not involve either of those. I’m safe—except for this family book. Thanks to Hero, I’m even safe there. 

I hope your year is off to a great start with even better days to come!

***My blog comment contest continues for 2015. Each time you comment, you’re entered in the monthly drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash. Congratulations to Donna Wharton, the December winner.

Thanks for stopping by!

OF TRUTH AND LEGEND BY EARL STAGGS

Earl Staggs

Please welcome a long time friend, Earl Staggs. He and his lovely wife, Carol, are transplants to North Central Texas from the Baltimore area. Earl and I belong to a small mystery writers group. His stories are always well written and often humorous. Earl is a spare bones writer who hates excessive adjectives and adverbs, so I feel it's my duty as a friend to throw in very and really to taunt him if he's going to read my work. What are friends for, after all?

His official bio reads: Derringer Award winning author Earl Staggs has seen many of his short stories published in magazines and anthologies. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned thirteen Five Star reviews online at Amazon and BN. His column "Write Tight" appears in the online magazine Apollo’s Lyre. He is also a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery. He hosts workshops for the Muse Online Writers Conference and the Catholic Writers Conference Online and is a frequent speaker at conferences and writers groups. Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net Website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Here's Earl:

OF TRUTH AND LEGEND

I love history, particularly about people, how they lived, loved, and died and what they did to earn a place in the archives of life. I learn about people from the past by reading books and watching movies and TV. The facts and truths are there, documented by stories handed down through generations or recorded by historians and writers.

But sometimes facts and truths foster legends and once born, legends develop an enduring life of their own. We may call them alternate truths, other possibilities, or myths. Was there really a King Arthur, or was he only a compilation of various myths and legends? Did George Washington really chop down that cherry tree, or is that only a legend forever linked to the truth?

How do we separate legends from truths? Fortunately, as a writer, I don’t have to. The truth is, I don’t want to. My job as a writer is to write an interesting and entertaining story, and it doesn’t matter if it is based on the truth, a legend, or a combination of both.

Available at Amazon

Not too long ago, I came across a legend that fascinated me, and I used it as the basis for a short story I called “Where Billy Died.” It could be my best story ever. It’s also one I talk about when people ask the question all writers are asked:

“Where do you get your ideas?”

Here’s what I tell them.

My wife and I took a day trip with friends to the small town of Hico, Texas, a couple years ago. There I learned a local legend. They contend and have convincing evidence that one of the most famous outlaws of the old west did not die at the wrong end of a gun as history books claim. History claims Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Old Fort Sumner, New Mexico, when Billy was only twenty-one years old.

Not true, according to the Hico legend. They claim Billy lived out his final years there and died in 1950, a month after his ninetieth birthday. I visited the museum devoted to him and stood on the exact spot where they say he dropped dead of a heart attack. The museum has pictures of him when he lived there under the name “Brushy Bill” Roberts. There are newspaper articles and write-ups covering his attempts to obtain the pardon from the state of New Mexico which had been promised him many years before. There are also stories there about how he eluded death that night in Old Fort Sumner and wound up in Hico some sixty years later.

 It didn’t matter to me whether Billy died in New Mexico at age twenty-one, or in Texas at age ninety.


I was fascinated by the legend and knew I had to use it in a story someday.

“But,” I reminded myself, “you don’t write westerns.”

That’s true. I don’t. Not that I won’t someday, but for now, I write contemporary mystery stories. That meant I had to come up with a contemporary story incorporating the Hico legend.

It took a while, but I eventually came up with a story about a modern day skip tracer named Jack who travels from Philadephia to Hico to bring back a young bail jumper named Billy Joe Raynor. Piece of cake, thinks Jack, until he discovers he has a tail. The chief bonebreaker for a New Jersey mobster has followed Jack to Hico. Is it because Jack beat up the mobster’s brother, or because of something young Billy Joe did before he skipped town? Jack only knows he’s tangled with the hulking bruiser before and will have to again. Jack doesn’t know he’ll also get tangled up in Hico’s legend about another young outlaw named Billy and that the past and present will merge in a surprising conclusion. Three different legends surrounding Billy’s life and death are mentioned. One of them saves Jack from his predicament in Texas and fixes his marriage problems back in Philadelphia.

If you have an opportunity to read “Where Billy Died,” I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Available at Amazon

and at Smashwords

Legends abound, forever intermingled with truth in history, and they’re often more provocative and interesting than what may really have happened. One legend, for example offers that Butch Cassidy may have escaped his storied death in Bolivia and lived to a ripe old age back in the US. Another one proposes that John Wilkes Booth lived in Texas many years after that night at Ford’s Theater.

Are these legends true or merely fanciful variations of the truth born and nurtured over the years? I don’t know and, as a writer, I don’t care. To me, they are more of the tempting nuggets in the gold mine of history begging to be written. I hope I live long enough to write more of them.

Earl Staggs

“Where Billy Died” available for $1.99 at http://untreedreads.com/

Read two stories for free at: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/


“The Day I Almost Became A Great Writer” – Loaded with laughs and a message to writers.


“White Hats and Happy Trails” – About the day I spent with a boyhood idol, Roy Rogers.

A SENTIMENTAL LOOK AT A MID-1800'S AUTOGRAPH BOOK




Whenever I watch "Antiques Roadshow" or any other show in which family treaures are displayed, I cringe. Our family has very few things handed down through the years, and none of it is monetarily valuable. We do have one momento I treasure, though.

Those who know me are aware that I have been researching my family almost from the time our eighth grade American History class was asked to do a short pedigree chart. Unfortunately, I did not learn to keep good records and ask pertinent questions until after those who were well informed in our family’s history had passed on. Luckily for me, a kind third cousin once removed (see, doesn’t that sound like a dedicated family historian?) passed me a family heirloom. Not our direct line, but from an ancestor’s first wife. 



Sallie circa 1869

Her name was Sarah Margaret Bailey, and she was called Sallie. She was a cousin to our ancestor, but I can't remember offhand how many times removed. Anyway, the heirloom is an autograph book about six by eight with a dark blue cover decorated with painted flowers and leaves of abalone shell. After all this time, the handwriting is fading until it’s barely legible. Some inks retained color better than others. Most legible are the pencil inscriptions. I love reading the remembrances for their odd spellings, strange punctuation, and saccharine sentiments. I’m positively fascinated by this book! Sallie was dearly loved by her family, and by mine. I see her as a carefree young miss at school, then opening her home to friends and soldiers during the Civil War. Some of the entries thank her for time spent in her home, which may mean an hour or a day or longer.

Southern Belle

This little book lets us see into the life of a lovely Southern belle in northwest Georgia, at school before the Civil War began, a young woman whose callers were soldiers, who became a bride, a mother, and a young woman on her deathbed. The inscriptions change in tone. Please let me share some of them with you:



The flowery words of a dashing suitor:

Ah would the hands that write these lines
Were fondly clasped in thine
Ah would the lips that read these words
Were once more pressed to mine

Those happy hours with thee I spent
Those like I nere shall see.
If fortune smiles or darkly frowns
Still Ill forget thee not
Farewell the word I scarce can write
Farewell to love and thee
On by-gone days then think of me
Farewell remember me
Your friend

Silly words from a discouraged would-be beau:


Miss Sallie wont believe me when my love to her I swear
She teases me so very much I believe I’ll pull my hair
I’ll tell you what the fact, if she keeps on treating me bad
I believe I will go crazy. I know I will go mad.
Yours in a hurry

From a female school friend:


Miss Sallie               Jan the 27 1860


In memory’s tears
O, May I share
One lonely vacant spot
Of all the names recorded there
Let mine not be forgot
Your Sincere friend


Then, the Civil War began, and the ancestor she later married wrote:

Confederate soldier

To Miss Sallie
A place in thy memory dearest
Is all that I claim
To pause and look back when thou hearest
The sound of my name.

Others tried to sway her heart:

To Miss Sallie
But once I dared to lift my eyes,
To lift my eyes to thee
And since that day beneath the skies
No other sight they see


In vain sleep shuts them in the night
The night grows day to me
Presenting idly to my sight
What still a dream must be

A fatal dream – for many a bar
Divides thy fate from mine
And still my passions make war
But peace be still with thee.


And another:




To Sallie dear,
Oh may each flower that greets the spring
And glistens in the sunny light
And every bird with sportive wing
Whose song is measured by its flight
Bloom brighter when thy form is near
Sing sweeter when thy face they see
A life of joy without a tear
Is what I wish and pray for thee

As the war progressed, our ancestor sounds war weary and fearful of death. Definitely not an eloquent, flowery suitor, is he?


Remember me when I am gone,
think of me sometimes,
pray for me often
& I’ll remember thee


But he’s the one who won her hand in marriage. Family lore is that she didn’t recover from a second pregnancy. The last entry is when her first child, a boy, was almost two. Childbirth carried so many serious complications in 1870, especially for the “proper” ladies who wore tightly laced corsets. We are only speculating, of course. Would the following cheer you if you were gravely ill? I think not!


What shall I wish for thee?
What helping invoke? I might wish that thy barque would glide sweetly o’er the bosom of Life’s
Troubled ocean, without a ripple to disturb its easy course. And that thy fair and beautiful brow
Would never receive the fingerprints that time always writes to mar the beauty of loved ones –
Again I might wish that your life might always be one bright dream of pleasure – But how vain
Would be that wish – There never was a bright eye but it was dimmed by tears – not a true and
Happy heart -- but it had its share of sorrow – for we are all mortals and we are doomed to some
Trouble at least. So I will not make vain or silly wishes. But let my heart dictate my wish – You
Have suffered long and painfully – none know what agony you have endured. But now I hope
your sickness is at an end – and that you may soon rise from your bed with the same good health
you enjoyed in the days of long ago – and that you may realize what it is to be a devoted wife &
Mother – for little Ossie needs a Mothers love. But should it so please God that my wish may not
Come to pass, may you submit humbly as becomes a christian – knowing that “He doeth all
Things well – and in ______ resignation acknowledging His supreme power say “Thy will not
mine be done” – Then at last when He sees fit –for you to linger no more in this “vale of tears” –
may your soul wing its way back to the “God who gave” – There to await the loved ones in the
Spirit-land


Very truly your friend




Thank you for reading. Please stop back again soon!

A CHALLENGE--WRITE YOUR OWN HISTORY!

Queen Elizabeth I

I love family history. No, I don’t mean endless pedigree charts of names with birth and death dates. Who cares if we’re related to Queen Elizabeth or Lizzie Borden? I mean that I love the real history part.

I am the historian for my extended family. I collect all the anecdotes I can find--the interesting stories of who did what when and why, no matter how scandalous. Actually, I have to admit the scandalous tales are more interesting. LOL I’ve published two family books: one on my mom and her family and one for my mother-in-law. Now my brother and I are at work on a more industrious tome for our dad’s family.

In addition to locking those tales in for perpetuity, I’ve been amazed at some of interesting things I’ve discovered. Remember how boring it was to learn dates in history classes? But if you learn, for instance, that your ancestors fought in the American Revolution and the details of their involvement, that part of our country’s history becomes real to you. Reading about it goes from chore to family story.

I have an autograph book from 1860-1871 that covers the time a woman in my family was at a Gerogia academy for young ladies, through the Civil War, to just before her death from childbed fever eleven years later. That and learning that her husband fought in the Civil War and was at Gettysburg brought that time in focus for me.

I’m NOT saying your history changes who YOU are! Not at all. Nowadays most people don’t care if your ancestors came on the Mayflower, were here to greet them, or came on an Irish coffin ship. We’re valued by the kind of person we’ve become. Sure, being born wealthy is nice--not that I’d know--but we value people for how they manage whatever talents they’ve been born with.



Here’s a challenge for each of you. Set up a PC folder for Family History. Start with the names of those ancestors you know and write them down. Nothing formal, just start telling the stories your family passed down or those you remember. Then ask older relatives to tell you what they remember about growing up and stories their parents told. You can even record them if they you have trouble getting it all down while they're talking. I have a wonderful story of an relative's move from Hill County, Texas to Greer County, Oklahoma in 1899 as recorded by her granddaughter in the 1970's.



You too have stories: funny ones and sad ones and some barely believable. In fact, the other night at dinner, friends and I were talking about some things that had happened to us that sounded incredible--too incredible to use in a fiction novel because no one would believe the story. But who’s going to know these wonderful stories from your family’s past if you don’t record them?

Thanks for stopping by. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

KRISTINA MCMORRIS, LETTERS FROM HOME, AND A FREE BOOK!

Kristina McMorris

Readers, please welcome a fascinating author as my guest. Kristina McMorris is with us to talk about her debut novel, LETTERS FROM HOME. Kristina lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two young sons. She has garnered more than twenty national literary awards since writing her first novel, LETTERS FROM HOME. A graduate of Pepperdine University, she spent twelve years hosting weekly television shows, including an Emmy® Award-winning television show at age nine. Prior to her literary career, she was the owner of a wedding/event planning business and public relations director of an international conglomerate.


Caroline: Tell us about growing up. Were you the shy kid or the one full of mischief? Only child or from a large family? Did you move a lot or live in the same house all your childhood?


Kristina: Given that my father is a Japanese immigrant, he really was hoping for a son for all the usual cultural reasons (carry on the family name, bloodline, etc.). What he ended up with was three daughters who love to give him a whole lot of grief. As the oldest of the crew, I was very outgoing and didn't get into much mischief at all. Come to think of it, I'm sort of regretting that now! We lived in the same suburban home for most of my youth. Not until we sold the house toward the end of my high school years did I discover that it was built on the edge of what used to be a cemetery. Poltergeist flashback, anyone?


Caroline: Makes you wonder what happened to the graves, doesn't it? Tell us about your acting and television career and other jobs you found interesting.


Kristina: At the age of nine, I started a five-year stint of hosting a kids' television show for Oregon's ABC-affiliate. It was an interesting way to grow up—spending every Tuesday memorizing scripts, then Wednesday evenings at the station, doing homework between shots, and filming on-location reports over the weekends. As a result, I became very comfortable interacting with adults and developed a strong work ethic early on. I still have fond memories of playing with the weather monitors, thanks to a kind meteorologist. After college, I stumbled back into the industry while living in Los Angeles, and had some great and memorable experiences. Maybe one day I'll write a tell-all book. Hmm….


Caroline: Truly a child star, what an interesting life you've led! Have you always wanted to write?


Kristina: I wish I could say I was at least an avid reader before believing I possessed the skills necessary to pen an entire novel (a decently enjoyable novel, that is). But honestly, I was a movie buff instead. Only due to blissful ignorance did I venture down the crazy literary path before realizing how little I knew about…well, all of it. By then, it was too late to turn back, and thankfully so.


Caroline: I noticed that your book is a selection on Book Movement for book clubs. What prompted you to write LETTERS FROM HOME?


Kristina: When gathering family recipes to compile a cookbook as a holiday gift one year, I decided to interview my grandmother for the biographical section. She soon revealed a secret stack of letters my late grandfather had sent to her while he was serving in the Navy during World War II. That collection was the nugget that inspired my debut novel.


Caroline: That sounds wonderful! I’m very interested in family history. Which reminds me of a project in which you’re very actively invovled. Would you tell readers about United Through Reading?


Kristina: In honor of my grandparents, and all the other families kept apart by tours of duty, I’m donating a portion of my book’s proceeds to United Through Reading, a nonprofit organization that video records deployed U.S. military personnel reading bedtime stories for their children. You can learn more about the program at http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/military


Caroline: That’s a commendable program. I noticed that the same organization also has a unit that allows grandparents to tell stories to their grandchildren. Tell us a little about LETTERS FROM HOME.

Kristina: LETTERS FROM HOME features a Midwestern infantryman who, in the midst of World War II, falls deeply in love through a yearlong letter exchange, unaware that the girl he's writing to isn't the one replying. Sharing equal spotlight are three female friends whose journeys toward independence take unexpected turns as a result of romance, tragedy, and deception—and the repercussions each woman faces from her choices. At its core, it's a story about sacrifices made in love and war, and the chance encounters that change us forever.


Caroline: Such a gorgeous cover! With your marketing experience, did you have trouble selling your manuscript?


Kristina: In the beginning, absolutely! Although I've always remained passionate about the premise of my book, my craft had a long way to go. Also, when I first set out to find an agent, WWII was not a "hot" genre for women's fiction, to put it mildly. But eventually the market shifted, thanks to a handful of popular novels set during that era, and they opened a door for books like mine to make it to the shelves.


Caroline: All your readers will be grateful this book is available. What is your current project?


Kristina: I recently turned in my second novel to my editor, a women's fiction story titled BRIDGE OF SCARLET LEAVES. It's about a female Caucasian violinist who secretly elopes with her Japanese-American boyfriend—against societal molds and families' wishes—the night before Pearl Harbor is bombed.


I'm very eager to share this one with readers, since it features some shocking aspects of history that most people have never heard about, as well as heroes who are too often passed over. Also, being half Japanese, I was able to infuse a unique perspective of living between worlds.


Caroline: Sounds intriguing. I love learning new aspects of history. Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers?


Kristina: LETTERS FROM HOME includes a book club discussion guide and 1940s recipes. And I'm happy to meet with reading groups in person or via phone/Skype.


I hope your readers will swing by my website, where I offer a lot of special highlights, including excerpts from my grandfather's World War II letters.


Caroline: What a great segue for me to ask where readers can learn more about you?


Kristina: My website: http://www.kristinamcmorris.com


LETTERS FROM HOME Trailer is at: http://www.tinyurl.com/McMorris


You can read a LETTERS FROM HOME excerpt at: http://www.kristinamcmorris.com/home.php?pg=excerpt_letters_from_home


Caroline: Can you provide a buy link to your publisher?


Kristina: http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=18739


Free Book to One
 Lucky Reader!


Caroline: Thank you so much for being my guest today, Kristina.


Readers, Kristina has graciously offered a copy of LETTERS FROM HOME for one lucky person who leaves a comment. (Please include your email so I can contact you if you win.)


Good luck, and keep reading our books!

We Are Not Alone--A Family Affair

Friends and I went to lunch today after a meeting. We were discussing family, helping one another, and being alone. One of my friends is divorced, one a widow, and the other and I are happily married. Each of us has children who we think are the greatest children in the world. But we didn't argue over who's child was the most brilliant, the sweetest. (What would be the point, when I know mine are?) We were talking doing things on our own.

Fortunately for me, my Hero husband and my two Darling Daughters are very supportive of my writing passion. Hero keeps the computer working and the house running and does errands so that I can keep writing. Darling 1 helps with research, promotion, with my blog template, and with all kinds of questions. Darling 2 is also good for research. It's as if I have an auxillary staff. LOL Wow, I've always wanted a staff.

Not all writers are so fortunate. I remember one Harlequin writer several years ago who was well on her way up the ladder whose husband resented her spending time writing and killed her. What a shock that was to the writing community! Pardon my prejudice, but I always think that sort of thing happens to people who don't read. Maybe her husband didn't read books, even though she wrote them. Very sad situation, for she was a young woman. Readers and Writers should live to a higher standard in my opinion. Don't ask me why I think that. I know it's not logical but I can't prevent the thought. But I digressed.

The point of this is that success at writing takes more than one person pecking away at the keyboard. I don't mean monetary success because, let's face it, I'm not raking in the dough here, folks. I mean success at productive output. Pages written. Books completed. Books marketed. Family members must cooperate and support the writer if in no other way than not interupting. So, if you're a writer, thank your family. If you're a reader, thank a writer--and a teacher. LOL

Don't forget to leave a comment for the Saturday prize drawing. Put your email in the comment. Follow or tell me you're a follower for an additonal entry. You know the drill.
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Family History as Story Material

Don't forget, dear friends, my May 31 prize giveaway is drawing near!!! Each comment on a May blog enters you in the drawing. Signing up as a follower counts a second entry. Be sure and include your email address and tell me if you also signed up as a follower. I'll draw early on June 1st.

Now to talking about family history as story material. You realize, I'm sure, that I don't want you to write a book in which all your relatives appear in their most annoying form. No, we do have to continue to be a part of our family. My intent is to suggest that events in the life of someone in your family may spark an idea for a character or a plot. For instance, my grandmother once told me a short anecdote about a girl her age in her little village in Tennessee. The girl had a horrid life and the other kids taunted her mercilessly. The girl quit school rather than be subjected to the ridicule. My grandmother's story touched me and I thought how nice it would have been if that little girl had found a better life after her years of misery. That sparked the character of Pearl in THE MOST UNSUITABLE WIFE.  

Darling 1 has decided to write a nonfiction book about an event that happened to my grandfather, who had to shoot someone to defend himself and his family. Unfortunately, the man he killed was his wife's uncle. Not a pleasant story, but one that began years before at the end of the Civil War with family animosity. Apparently, my grandparents were from feuding families and left Georgia for Texas in an attempt to escape the anymosity.

I am amazed at the number of historical writers who use events in their family. My friend Jeanmarie Hamilton has a fascinating family tree that includes many early Texas settlers. Ashley Kath-Bilsky's ancestor was an early Pinkerton agent.

Family lore can apply to contemporary writers, too. How many of us see tragic things happen to relatives and recognize a chain of events as a cause. Why not rewrite life and create a happy ending? 

What about your family history? I'll bet you have the seeds for innumerable stories.