Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 97

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Inspiration for the Book: Behind Restoring Hope and Bound by Honor Bound by Love (Mandan Weddings)

Mandan Weddings

There was the informal way.  The man could bring the woman gifts, and if she accepted them, she could go with him to his lodge or he could go with her to hers.  There weren’t many gifts, and there wasn’t a ceremony involved.

In Restoring Hope, the reason why Woape thought Gary had proposed was because he bought her clothes, a brush, and other items.   He didn’t understand that by buying her things, he was proposing to her in her culture.  This was why she went to his bedroom and went in his bed.  He had proposed with gifts, and she accepted his proposal by going to his bed.  All they needed to do was have sex to make the marriage official.

The downside to this is that it was typically frowned upon by the Mandan culture because they liked it when there were many gifts given over a period of time with a fancy ceremony.   That’s why I decided to show the “proper” way a Mandan was supposed to get married in Bound by Honor Bound by Love.

Ideally, marriage would happen only after the man brought many gifts to the woman and her family, and the more gifts he brought, the better.  He didn’t just propose to her; he essentially proposed to her family.  To have an honorable wedding, the couple would get the permission from her family.  It wasn’t the norm, but some marriages were arranged (as was in the case of Bound by Honor Bound by Love) and it was understood that the man could marry the woman’s younger sisters once they came of marriageable age.  In fact, they had a saying that went something like, “One good son-in-law is worth more than many bad ones.” If the son-in-law was a good one (provided food for the lodge, didn’t bring them disgrace, etc), he was highly respected and given the best (and largest) room in the lodge.

A quick note about arranged marriages.  They were arranged if sacred bundles were involved.  It was a good way for a lodge to acquire a sacred bundle, which then typically ended up in the woman’s family since the man would move into her lodge.  If the man’s family didn’t have brothers or uncles to provide for his family, the woman could agree to move into his lodge.  In Bound by Honor Bound by Love, the marriage between Onawa and Citlali was arranged for the sacred bundle her family owned.  Though I didn’t really get into it in the book, Citlali’s brother was just learning to hunt so he couldn’t be the sole provider for the tribe yet.  So that is why Citlali’s family was glad Onawa agreed to move into their lodge.  Because the original agreement was for Woape to marry Citlali and she ran off (breaking the marriage contract), she lost her possession of the sacred bundle.  This sacred bundle passed down to Onawa, and her father agreed to let Citlali’s lodge own it.

Regarding the proposal, gifts could be anything of value, and the more gifts (and more valuable the gifts) the man brought to the woman and her family, the more impressive the proposal was to the tribe. He could bring horses, dogs, clothing, weapons, food, jewelry…  Anything the lodge could use, he could bring it.  He would give a formal proposal, and if she agreed, they would talk to her family.  When the family agreed, they would have the wedding ceremony.

The wedding ceremony would begin with a meal where the father of the woman would drape a buffalo robe over the groom and bride.  After the meal, they would go out of the woman’s lodge to a lodge dedicated to social functions.  Like the proposal, the more gifts the couple accumulated from guests, the more impressive the ceremony was.  And the couple did not keep these gifts.  They gave them away to the guests.  So in the book, people brought Citlali and Onawa gifts which were put on display for everyone to appreciate and pray over.  Then the couple would select a gift to give to each guest.    The white buffalo robe I used in the story was considered especially important, and if the couple dedicated that robe to the Lone Man, then it was even better.  After this was all done, the man would either go to her lodge or she would go to his and they’d consummate the marriage.

Divorce was very easy to attain except when sacred bundles were involved.  If the husband lived in the woman’s lodge, she would throw his clothes and hunting gear out the door of the lodge and that was it.  If she was in his lodge, she’d take her things and leave.  If she wanted to leave him and marry another man, he was supposed to bless their decision and move out of her lodge.  Under no circumstances was he to get angry or protest her decision for a divorce.  I’m not sure how many men divorced their wives.  From what I read, it seemed that the woman had most of the control in this area.  This was why Citlali felt as vulnerable as he did.  In divorce, the woman kept the children.  In Bound by Honor Bound by Love, Onawa left Citlali’s lodge but she didn’t divorce him.  She thought about it, though.

Sample Scene Sunday: Restoring Hope

This scene in Restoring Hope has to do with the Mandan culture and their views of getting married.  In Bound by Honor, Bound by Love, there was one way of getting married which I shared in this post.  However, there was another way, and this scene goes into it.  Tomorrow, I’ll share their views on getting married.

That night Gary went to sleep, not expecting anything unusual to happen.  For sure, he didn’t expect someone to slip into his bed.  When a warm naked body pressed against him, he initially assumed he was dreaming.  Unlike his other dreams though, this one seemed particularly vivid.  Part of him struggled to wake up, to find out if it was really happening.  The woman snuggled in his arms and began kissing his face.  She started at his cheeks and before he knew it, she was kissing him on the lips.  He finally stirred enough so he could kiss her back.  The problem was, unlike his other dreams, he could actually feel everything.  Her lips were soft, as was her flesh.  By the time he realized that he was not dreaming after all, he was caressing her breasts.

Startled, he bolted up in the bed and tried to get out of it.  Since he was tangled in the sheets, his attempt to distance himself from the situation resulted in him falling onto the hardwood floor with a loud thud.  He tried to stand up but tripped and fell again, this time landing on his stomach.

The door to his room flung open and his aunt and sister gasped.

“What is going on in my home?” Aunt Erin demanded, holding the kerosene lamp up.

Once he was able to successfully stand up, he saw Woape frantically wrapping the robe around herself.  Then it dawned on him that he’d been doing things with Woape that he’d never done with a woman before.  Well, of course it had to be her.  No one but her would even think to come to his bed.  But why?  He glanced at his sister who stared at him and Woape in shock, her hand over her mouth.

“Gary, what is the meaning of this?” his aunt asked, her eyes a steely gray.

“Wh-…I…” He shrugged.  “I don’t know what she’s doing here.”

His sister finally took her hand down and clucked her tongue.  “A likely story.”

“It’s true.  I was asleep and…” Oh, for goodness’ sakes!  The last thing he wanted to do was give them any details!  “I didn’t know she was in my bed.”

His aunt didn’t look convinced.  “You aren’t stupid.”

“I was sleeping!  When I woke up, she was next to me.” And no, he wasn’t about to say any more than that!

“Something was happening,” Julia insisted.  “A woman doesn’t get caught naked in a man’s bed unless she’s planning on something she ought not to do until she’s married to him.”

“Really, Gary.  I thought I raised you better than this,” Erin scolded.

“We didn’t do anything,” he said.

They rolled their eyes.

He looked at Woape who didn’t look as ashamed as he thought she should for pulling such a stunt.  Didn’t she realize how weak a man’s will was when confronted with a naked woman in his sleep?  She was lucky he had the sense to wake up and put a stop to this nonsense!  He waited until Woape looked at him before he asked, “What were you thinking?”

“Wife,” she replied.  She pointed to Julia who still stood there with her eyes wide in disbelief.  “Sister.”

It took him a good thirty seconds before he realized what she was saying.  “Wife?”

She nodded.  “Wife.  Gary ibero.”

“You think we’re married?”

A Poll Regarding a Sequel to Suddenly a Bride

I don’t currently have plans to write Runaway Bride (which would be the sequel to Suddenly a Bride).  While it’s taboo to discuss finances on a blog, a big part of my decision to write or not write a book has to do with whether or not people will buy it.  The reason this matters is because I am now the sole provider for my household.  I have a husband and four children to support.  I once had the luxury of writing without thought to making a profit, but I don’t have that choice anymore.  And if I couldn’t make a living, I’d have to work outside the home which means I wouldn’t be able to write like I do now.  So you see how I’m pretty much in a corner.

So here’s the thing.  If I wrote a sequel, I would ask $3.99 for it. (I would not offer it for free.)  I’m asking $3.99 for all books published from this point on.  I might run a giveaway for the paperback version, but I have no plans to run a giveaway for the ebook version of the sequel.

I will run this poll for a week.  Spread the word to anyone you know who has read Suddenly a Bride and ask them to vote on here.  I will not accept repeat voting (I had someone admit to doing that on another poll I did), and this skewed the results.  And please vote ONLY IF you would actually read it.

Take Our Poll

Updates on What I’m Writing and I’ll Be in Kansas City, Missouri Next Month

I have now hit the halfway point with two works in progress (I’m working on four total but the last two at slower paces and as I get around to them).  Since I hit the halfway point on the two main ones, I feel that I can safely mention them on this blog.  I don’t think they’ll come as a surprise since I mentioned them in my October newsletter and have mentioned them on this blog already.

A Most Unsuitable Earl

I decided to change the title of A Most Unsuitable Husband to A Most Unsuitable Earl.  The great thing about this book is that it’s a comedy.  I love writing serious works, but it’s also nice to laugh.  Fortunately, the hero’s reaction to a lot of things happening around him is what makes it a comedy.  Long ago, I’ve learned it’s not the circumstance a character’s in that makes things funny; it’s how the character reacts to the circumstance that can make something funny or not.  And a lot of it depends on the character.  Some characters have a tendency to exaggerate in a comical way while others tend to take things seriously.  Ethan (our hero in this book) is definitely the type to exaggerate everything.  :D

Mitch’s Win

Mitch’s Win is the book I plan to submit to a publisher or two.  I don’t know if this book has any chance or not.  I’ve already decided I’m keeping the sex in the book and keeping mention of going to church in there, too.  The two might not work together for a publisher.  I decided to embrace self-publishing for my romance titles back in 2009 because I mixed my Christian values with steamy romances, and I found that I couldn’t go with a publisher and keep the two together.  Will I still find the same roadblock?  I don’t know.  But I do love self-publishing so it wouldn’t be a problem to keep self-publishing.  The only drawback is that a publisher does offer as a buffer between some things happening at online bookstores.  (I don’t want to go into detail, but let’s suffice it to say when you self-publish, you are your only advocate and that can be stressful.)

I’ll be in Kansas City, Missouri Next Month

Next month, I’ll be going to the Heart of America Christian Writer’s Network’s annual fall conference in Kansas City, Missouri.  So if any of you happen to be in the area, it’d be fun to say hi and sign some books for you.  :D

The conference is from November 8-11.  I’m going with Janet Syas Nitsick (a friend and fellow author who lives in the same town I do).  We’ll be giving a workshop together, which we started preparing yesterday.  I’m both excited and nervous since this will be my first public speaking engagement as a writer, and I’m glad Janet will be there since she has experience in this area and can walk me through it.

So if any of you are in that area, let me know!  :D

Nothing is Sexier Than a Historical Western Hero

So now that I’ve written fantasy, contemporaries, Regencies, and I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing is sexier than a historical western hero.

The ideal hero.

Now, I should offer the disclaimer that when I say “sexy,” I don’t mean, “Let’s talk about sex.” To me, the quality of being sexy isn’t about how a man looks when he takes off his shirt or his sexual prowess in the bedroom.  (You’ll notice the picture of my ideal hero is of a man who is fully clothed.)  I understand that the word “sexy” is often used on a physical level.  It’s like hearing a woman say, “Oh, he’s eye candy.  I’d have sex with him.” What I mean when I say “sexy” hero goes a lot deeper than that.  Sexy is about attractiveness in personality.  It’s what defines a hero’s character, especially in how he treats the heroine.

The historical western hero, esp. the cowboy or farmer represent qualities that I find desirable in men, and these are qualities I like to give every hero I write about.

1. He works hard.

This is the kind of man who isn’t afraid of hard work.  If it takes from sunup to sundown, he’ll put in the hours it takes to provide for his family.

2.  He protects his loved ones.

He guards the wellbeing of his family and friends to the point where he’d sacrifice his life if it means keeping them safe.

3. He believes his word is his bond.

If he says he’ll do something, he does everything in his power to do it.

4. He stands up for what he believes in.

Even in the midst of adversity, this is the kind of man who stands by what he believes.  The rest of the world may change around him and he might face persecution for standing his ground, but he remains firm in his convictions.

5. He shows respect to others.

He treats others the way he’d want to be treated.  He’s polite and kind.  If he sees someone who needs help, he steps in to offer a helping hand without thought to any reward.

6.  He honors his father and his mother.

If his parents need assistance, he’s there to lend a helping hand.  He remembers that they once took care of him, and in their old age, he returns the favor.

7.  He’s tender in his affections to his wife and children.

He lets his wife and children know he loves them.  He hugs and kisses his wife outside the bedroom, and he’ll hug and offer comfort to his children.

So those are the main qualities I think makes a hero sexy.  I understand that no man is perfect, but these are qualities I believe are important for all of my heroes to strive for.  It seems to me that historical westerns best portray the type of man I like my heroes to be.  He’s masculine.  He’s smart.  He’s strong.  He has integrity.  He’s the head of the family, but he leads his family with gentleness and love (not with an iron fist).

Of all the genres I’ve written, it’s easiest to portray my ideal hero in historical westerns, mostly because the historical mindset of the United States best supports this type of hero.  It’s why I love writing and reading historical westerns the most.  

Inspiration for the Book: Bound by Honor, Bound by Love (Citlali’s Dream)

Citlali’s life revolved around his heritage, so his dream (which I presented in the Sunday Story Sample) was interwoven with the religious beliefs of his tribe.

The Mandans had a couple variations of the creation story, but in each one the Lone Man was a central figure.  He and the Creator had a disagreement, and the Lone Man took the land north of the Missouri River and the Creator took the land south of the river.  They both created different things, but the Lone Man was responsible for creating people.

He was also responsible for protecting the Mandan people, and when the great flood came, the Lone Man built a wall around the Mandan tribe so they survived it.  This was why Citlali dreamt of the impregnable wall that surrounded the tribe.  No one could get in and no one could get out of the tribe.  In this case the Lone Man’s wall symbolized the struggle Citlali and the chief faced in trying to protect their culture while the white man’s influence got stronger and stronger around them.

When Citlali had this dream, there was a conflict between him him and Onawa.  He knew that by following the chief’s orders, he was pushing her away from him since he was making her choose between him and her family.  He was afraid she was going to choose her family, and in his dream, she did.  In his dream, she tried to climb the wall but couldn’t get out, so she opted to dig a hole and go underground.

In the Mandan myths, they believed some Mandans lived under the ground.  One Mandan myth gives the account of the underground Mandan tribe as being the original tribe.  One day, someone climbed a grapevine and found the surface of the earth.  He returned to tell the others about the wonders he found, and they followed him up the grapevine.   When half the people were on the earth’s surface, the grapevine broke, so half the people were stuck under the ground forever and the others were stuck on the earth’s surface.

So in the dream, Onawa found the underground tribe, and the people there helped her get to the surface.  While there she met the Lone Man who was their creator, and he led her to the sacred bundle.  Sacred bundles were very important to the Mandans.  They would marry to acquire them into their lodges (which is why Citlali married Onawa at the beginning of the book).  It was a sacred bundle that brought Citlali and Onawa together (at their wedding), and in his dream, it was a sacred bundle that would permanently tear them apart.  And when she opened the sacred bundle the Lone Man gave her, she ate the corn inside the sacred bundle and became a white woman.

By becoming white, she had embraced the white man’s way and fully removed herself from Citlali.  During this time (the early 1900s) in the Mandan history, there was a struggle the Mandans went through to preserve their way of life, and they struggled to have more full-blooded Mandan children, which was why the men were encouraged to have more than one wife (women outnumbered the men).  As we know from history, this was a lost cause.  The last full-blooded Mandan died in the early 1970s.

In the book, Citlali was having to come to terms with the inevitable reality that the white man’s influence had penetrated the Mandan’s way of life so deeply that there was no going back.  That’s why in the dream, Onawa became white and forgot him.  Citlali had to make the choice between his love for Onawa (which included accepting the changes coming to the tribe) or the chief’s mandate (which was an effort to do everything possible to keep the Mandan line pure).

Onawa giving birth to the white child had a double meaning.  One was that he would never had a place in his child’s life (because Onawa was pregnant at this time in the book), and two was that he saw a day when his descendants would no longer be full-blooded Mandans.

So there you go.  That’s the symbolism behind Citlali’s dream.  :D

Sunday Sample Scene: Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

For today’s sample scene, I thought I’d choose a dream that Citlali has in Bound by Honor, Bound by Love.

The dream has a couple layers in it that has to do with some of my research of the Mandan Indians.  Since I wasn’t able to describe the meaning behind this dream in my book (because that would break the flow of the story), I will give the meaning behind it in my next post.  :D

Citlali closed his eyes and waited for Onawa to come to him.  Seconds turned into minutes, and by the time a half hour had passed, he gave up counting the seconds.  She was in no hurry to see him, and who could blame her?  He was lucky she bothered coming back to his lodge at all.

He finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.  In it, he caught images of an impregnable wall that circled the entire village.  All full-blooded Mandans were locked inside, and Onawa was unable to see Julia, Woape, her nieces, and her father.  She tried to climb the wall to get outside, but when that didn’t work, she dug a hole until she reached the underground tribe of Mandans who never made it to the surface of the earth.  They showed her a passage that took her above the ground, and the Lone Man led her to the river where a large sacred bundle led her to the people she loved.

Woape and her father and nieces were all white.  Their heritage had been removed from them, and Onawa took the corn from the sacred bundle and it transformed her into a white woman.  She gave birth to a white child.  Woape asked who the father was.  Onawa said the chief of the white man was the father, adding that she loved him.  When Woape asked about Citlali, Onawa said she never knew someone by that name.

At that point, Citlali woke up, his heart pounding loudly in his ears.  He had no idea how long he slept, but beside him, the bed was still empty.

Bound by Honor Bound by Love is Now Available!

It’s now live on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords for anyone who wants to read it!

Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

I don’t know when it’ll be up on Kobo, Sony, Diesel, or iTunes, but I hear Smashwords is getting books up faster to these channels.

Inspiration for the Native American Romance Series

Bound by Honor Bound by Love should be available in a day or two on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  I just uploaded it today.  I already have it on Smashwords, but I’m waiting until it’s up on the other channels to give out the links.

On Sunday, I’m going to post the dream Citlali has in the book, and on Monday, I’ll give the background behind the dream because a lot of his dream stemmed from the Mandan myths and things that were going on in his life at the time.

But for today, I thought I’d give the overall background for the entire Native American Romance Series.  :D

Believe it or not, it all started around May 2009 when I wrote Meant To Be.  Yeah, I know.  Meant To Be never coincides with the Native American Romance Series, but there was a romantic subplot in Meant To Be between Cole Hunter and Penelope.  Cole Hunter was the bad guy turned good in Meant To Be.  I found I enjoyed Cole and Penelope’s story so much, I wanted to write their story in more detail, especially Penelope’s background.  So I wrote the novella “A Chance In Time.”

I was chatting with a friend who said it was sad that Penelope was unable to have children, so I decided to give her a child through adoption.  But to do this, I need a pregnant woman.  That’s why Penelope brought the Mandan Indian woman the white people called “Martha” to her home after Cole left for Fargo.

But as I wrote “A Chance In Time,” I knew that Martha hadn’t been raped by a white man.  I knew that Martha had loved the white man who was the father of her baby, and I knew that no one else would ever know the truth unless I wrote Martha’s story.  The original plan was for Martha to die in childbirth so Penelope would get a child that way.  Since I decided to let Martha live, I had to find another way for Penelope and Cole to have children.  Someone told me about orphan trains from that time period, so I decided to have Penelope and Cole adopt two Mandan children.

But that still left me with what to do with Martha and sharing her story.  I decided that Martha’s real name was Woape (which means Hope), and I started her story.  I had no idea how she was going to end up pregnant and alone, but I knew that had to be the central part of the story.  My original plan was to have a white man rescue her, marry her, die, and leave her pregnant and on the run from the Sioux Indians who were feared by the Mandan Indians.  The Sioux had a tendency to be violent while the Mandans sought peace whenever possible and only resorted to fighting when they were attacked.  (This was based on my research.)

I was able to connect Woape up with Penelope in Restoring Hope, but (as you all know), I couldn’t kill Gary off.  So I opted to make everyone think he was dead.  My original plan was for Woape to return to the tribe, marry Citlali, and learn to love him.  But since Gary threw a wrench in those plans, I had to go with the alternate route the characters took me on.  This led to the subplot of Gary’s sister, Julia, and Chogan searching for him after they realized he wasn’t dead after all, and it offered Julia a means of atonement for her sins.  While I was finishing Restoring Hope, I knew Julia and Chogan could have a great story, but it would be better off if I didn’t go into it until I wrote their book.  I also realized I wanted Woape’s sister was in love with Citlali and thought it would be fun to see Citlali happy.

So I wrote Brave Beginnings to give Julia and Chogan their story.  That book turned out to be a lot longer than I expected since Ernest took a prominent role.  With my writing, the characters take over.  They’ll do what they want, and my original plan was for the book to be a novella where it ended with Julia choosing Chogan and marrying him.  But it turned out Julia wanted to marry Chogan right away, and Ernest was upset and wanted his revenge.  So I let them lead the course through the book, which was actually better than I hoped since Citlali got some time in that book that helped me figure out who he was.  I never got a good handle on Citlali until I wrote Brave Beginnings.  It turned out he wasn’t anything like Woape or Chogan thought.

The final book in the Native American Romance Series is Bound by Honor Bound by Love, and since it is the last book, it had to complete the underlying themes I had started with Restoring Hope.  The main theme was the historical reality that the Mandan tribe suffered greatly from the Smallpox epidemic, and they struggled to replenish their numbers by encouraging the men to have more than one wife (so one man would marry the oldest female and her younger sisters).  This was the norm at that time.  It was also permitted for the females to marry as young as fourteen to start having children sooner, but I couldn’t bring myself to make Onawa that young so I opted to make her sixteen.  The same was true for Woape.  She was around sixteen to seventeen.  This was a matter of historical accuracy since they did allow a couple women to wait until they were sixteen.        On the same side of the coin, Gary and Citlali had to be younger than my average hero so there was no huge gap in ages.  My average hero is 23-25 and my average heroine is 20-22.  (Keep in mind, that’s the average, not the rule for all of them.)

In addition to the Mandan’s struggle to preserve their lineage, I also wanted to address more of their customs.  I had plans to write about a buffalo hunt, but given the fact that Citlali wasn’t much of a hunter, I had to stick with more of the politics in the tribe, which stemmed directly from the first chief.  There were two chiefs in a Mandan tribe, and though Citlali was young, his dedication to the tribe and his cool head enabled him to be the second chief by the time Brave Beginnings was written.  Upon the chief’s death, he’d become the first chief and choose a second chief.  But since he was not the first chief, he had to take his orders from the first chief, and this provided the conflict necessary for the book.

The final theme was tying up the happy endings for all the couples who were a part of the series.  So I went into what happened with Woape and Gary, Julia and Chogan, Julia’s Aunt even found someone (I always felt she needed a man), Penelope and Cole (and their children), and Onawa and Citlali.  Penelope and Cole were briefly addressed in Restoring Hope, and I wanted to answer the question about the background of the Mandan children they adopted in Bound by Honor Bound by Love.  So I brought them back to answer the question of “how did those children end up on the orphan train?”

The series does end on a bittersweet note.  Citlali and Onawa get their happy ending.   A happy ending for the hero and heroine is a must in a romance (in my opinion), but the reality of what happened with the Mandans couldn’t be ignored while I wrote the series either.  Since the last full-blooded Mandan died in the 1970s, there was no way I could end the series on a completely joyful note, but what I tried to do was provide a resolution that was realistic and respectful of the Mandan legacy.