Briana Vedsted's Blog, page 16
July 23, 2013
A Girl Named Cord-Book Excerpt
Here is an excerpt of my book, A Girl named Cord, which is set to be published the end of this month.
Cord pulled away from Jake and held herself as straight as she could, “Why Jake Suncat! How dare you treat me like a little girl! I’m nearly eighteen years old and I’m very capable of taking care of myself! There is no need to coddle me!”
Jake looked sheepish. “I know that Cord, I know. But you’re like a sister to me. Sometimes I forget that you’re not my sister. She’d be about your age by now.”
“You had a sister?”
“Yes, but she died when she was very young.”
“I’m so sorry, Jake! I didn’t know! I—”
“You don’t need to apologize. No one, save for Ghost, knows about her. He was raised here, you know that. Ghost was very close to her. It nearly killed him when she died.”
“How did it happen?”
Jake had closed his eyes and took a deep breath before starting. “Mother and my sister were going to town in the old spring wagon. The horse was young and frisky, and there was a rattlesnake stretched across the road sunning itself. Well, the snake spooked the horse, and Mother was not a very strong person, and she lost hold of the reigns. Pa didn’t know anything was wrong until late that night when Mother never returned. Ghost and I were waiting for our supper, and it surprised us when Pa put on his coat and said he was going out.” Jake made a choking sound and stopped to take a breath.
A familiar voice behind Cord took up the story where Jake had left off. “We were scared when Pa returned crying. He had some people from town with him. There was the undertaker and his wife, and Mother’s good friend, Ms. Wallace, who was a school teacher. Pa took us on his knee and he said, ‘Boys, your mother ain’t coming home. Neither is our little Debby. They’ve gone to be with the good Lord.’ We didn’t understand why our mother would have left us, and Pa was crying so hard that he had to leave. Ms. Wallace took us back to town with her and kept us at her house for a few days. I believe she would have kept us forever, if Pa hadn’t showed up one afternoon and announced that he had come to take his sons home. I guess we expected to run into the house and see Mother sitting there at the spinning wheel, but she wasn’t. I thought I might see Debby, sitting on the floor playing with her little doll. I remember how she used to sit in the sunshine on the doorstep and watch me play with my dogs. She would just sit there and smile at me, giggling every so often. She was so beautiful. Black hair, dimples, and eyes the color of purple lupine flowers. Jake and I would take her to the forest with us and she would toddle around and gather acorns and little rocks. We used to have a fun time, sitting on that old log in the clearing, cracking nuts for her to eat, and we’d take turns carrying her home at the end of the day, because she’d worn herself out, running around for so long. Debby was like a little squirrel I guess, curious about everything and always underfoot.”
Cord turned to look at Ghost, who was staring into the corner by the big window. He said, “Mother’s spinning wheel used to sit right there.”
Jake put his hand on Ghost’s shoulder and finished the story. “It was so different without Mother and Debby around. It took a long time for us to understand what had happened and why they weren’t coming home. I used to stand at the window and hope to see her come walking over the hill, leading Debby by the hand, smiling and waving. But she never did show up. I suppose that’s why I never got married. I never wanted to have to worry about the lives of my wife or my children or what I would do if anything bad ever happened to them. Then you showed up. The moment you jumped out of that stagecoach and I saw you, I saw that pretty little girl all dressed in buckskins, wearing a ten gallon hat and trying to act all grown up. I knew I needed you on my ranch. You brought the light back into my life. I suppose every time something bad has happened to Ghost and me, there’s been some girl that came along to help us out. When Mother died, it was young Ms. Wallace, when Pa died, it was you.”
Cord was on the verge of tears at these heartfelt words, and looking back and forth between Jake and Ghost, Cord knew she was where she belonged.
July 22, 2013
Guest Author Briana Vedsted
Reblogged from By Candlelight:
Today my guest is Briana Vedsted, a writer from Colorado. By clicking on the book cover you will be taken directly to its Kindle page.
If you are an author and would like to be interviewed, check out more at Be My Guest.
What’s your name? Where can we find you? Blog? Twitter? Facebook?
Briana Vedsted.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Briana-Vedsted/311145492338396
Twitter: …
Want to be a guest author and get your name out there, via another wordpress blogger's awesome site? Then go talk to Melissa LeGette!
Blogger spotlight
The blogger I’m spotlight this week is a charming lady by the name of Marie Ann Bailey from over at http://1writeway.com/
She’s a writer who knits and loves cats, and is one of the sweetest, funniest people you could ever hope to meet. Reading her blog always makes me smile. She also writes the occasional poem and tear-jerker, which makes her well-rounded, in my opinion.
Here are a few of her posts you should check out, and if you’re not already following her, you’re missing out!
http://1writeway.com/2013/07/15/the-top-ten-list-of-what-not-to-do-at-a-first-job-interview/
http://1writeway.com/2013/07/13/short-story-rachel-comes-of-age/
http://1writeway.com/2013/07/12/d-meets-yet-another-guest-blogger/
July 21, 2013
A Different Kind of Book Review: The Night I Walked Off of Boot Hill by Briana Vedsted
I'm currently participating in Camp NaNoWriMo but have been negligent with working on my novel. I also owe a number of book reviews. So I thought, why not try to do both? Work on my novel and a book review at the same time. Granted, this is not the kind of book review I would post to Amazon or Goodreads. I'll have to snip away the dialogue and narrative for that, but those reviews will be posted.
Who would have thought to write a review like it was part of a story? No one other than the lovely Marie Ann Bailey!
How to craft a "reluctant hero" for any genre: what to watch out for
Reblogged from Creative Writing with the Crimson League:
The topic of today's post is character: in particular, epic, heroic characters. We most associate such characters with genre fiction: fantasy and sci-fi, but really, I define an epic character as an inspiring character, and that can be found in any genre.
The "hero" character is a type, for sure, which means writing a hero is always tricky to do in a way that comes off as fresh and original.
This is so helpful! Victoria, you are brilliant!!!
July 20, 2013
What an awesome new cover!
Wow! I have a new cover for my book, The Night I Walked off of Boot Hill! Can you believe it? Dirk Porsche from over at http://shiggyenterprises.wordpress.com/ really, really hated my old cover. So do you know what he did? He made me a new one! It is so beautiful, in an eerie, dark sort of way. I love it. I never would have guessed I’d meet such a talented artist here on wordpress who would do this for me. And apparently, he had a lot of fun doing my cover.
So, what do you think? Is it better than the other cover?
The Official Website of Briana Vedsted
Okay, so now that my work on the novel, Me and Billy the Kid, is officially done and awaiting the okay of my editor and project managers, I’ve got a link to share with you all. It is the address of my new, ‘official’ website through Tate Publishing: http://me-and-billy-the-kid.tateauthor.com/
On my new site you can pre-order my book, stay up-to-date on all the events and book signings I have scheduled (none just yet), read reviews (soon to come!), and find out more about how the book was ‘brought to life’, as well as read more about little ol’ me. Oh yeah, and you’ll find some short excerpts from the book there, too!
July 19, 2013
Done editing!
I am finally done editing my book, Me and Billy the Kid! Hurrah! So that means all I have left to do is wait! LOL
Here I am with my pride and joy! 
July 18, 2013
The Tagging Pliers
Here is my column for the Fence Post Magazine this month. Enjoy! Seems like you’re getting the pre-release version…again!
Pliers are one of the most useful tools ever invented. There are pliers for fence building, for plumbing, for electrical work, and most importantly, for tagging livestock. A good pair of tagging pliers is a rancher’s best friend during calving season.
Well, this year, about halfway through calving season, Devil had some fences to build on some other property and he asked me to keep an eye on the herd. Of course, I agreed.
After Devil fed cows in the morning, he’d do a quick drive-through to make sure all was well, and then he’d be gone for the rest of the day. Around one o’clock I’d make my way down the road to where the cows were being pastured and ride through them, checking for sick animals, new calves, and chasing in anything that might have gotten out.
Armed with my faithful four-wheeler and my trusty sidekicks, Tuffy and The Hatter, I made my rounds. If there were any new calves, I’d let Devil know that evening and he’d tag them the following morning. We had ourselves a pretty good system worked out. And then one day I decided to change it. There had been a calf born one morning and Devil asked me to check on her that afternoon. The cow that’d calved was a beautiful red cow with a black nose and white belly, and was the daughter of one of the founding members of Devil’s herd.
Mother and baby were fine. The calf was up and about and doing great. That’s when inspiration struck. I’d tag the calf! Had I done it before? Well, no. But I’d seen Devil do it a thousand times, and it didn’t look very hard, so why not give it a shot? Besides, the cow seemed to be pretty placid. I told The Hatter my plan and he laughed, “I’m going to have to get a picture of this!”
I ignored his lack of faith in my tagging abilities. I returned to the shop and dug through box after box of tags until Tuffy reminded me that Devil had the tagging pliers in his truck. He also had the calf’s tag. Not to worry! I found on old pair of tagging pliers and made up a new tag. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. Wouldn’t Devil be proud that I’d tagged the calf so he didn’t have to? I could already envision his grin when I told him the exciting news.
We went back to the pasture and drove around until we found my target. “Piece of cake!” I thought to myself as I stepped off the four-wheeler and approached the baby. Unfortunately, the calf was a little faster than I’d anticipated. But after chasing it around for a while, I managed to get it on the opposite side of the sideroll than its mother. I pulled the tagging pliers out of my back pocket and tried to hold the rambunctious calf still long enough to tag it. About that time, Mama had had enough. She charged the sideroll and made it half-way to my side. Bellowing at the top of her lungs, Mama’s head was not two feet away from me as I held her poor baby hostage. And as luck would have it, as I attempted to tag her calf and make a quick get-a-way, the tag fell out of the pliers. Not daring to pick up the fallen tag and try again, lest Mama could squeeze under the sideroll, I let the baby go.
Tuffy and The Hatter, ever watchful and clever, jumped on the four-wheelers and managed to corral the calf and keep Mama at bay long enough for me to finish the job.
As it turns out, tagging a calf isn’t as easy as the old-timers make it look.*
