Emilie Richards's Blog, page 91

How Skilled Are We at Choosing a Mate?

The three major characters in No River Too Wide are not as diverse as they first appear.

While they are varied in age and outlook on life, Harmony, Jan and Taylor have one major thing in common. Each woman is examining exactly what she looks for or looked for when choosing a man to love.

Falling in love is a wonderful theme. We have an entire classification of genres dedicated to this: the romance novel. I wrote many romances myself and was happy to do so. But No River Too Wide isn’t a romance novel, although it certainly has romance in it. No River is about the way we select the men with whom we want to spend our lives, the men with whom we want to fall in love.

If you do a quick Google search on “choosing a mate” you’ll find more advice than any sane person could want or use.  For instance Psychology Today proclaims that when choosing a mate, pay attention to the person you become when you’re with the person you love. (Good advice, I think.)  Both Jewish and Christian websites stress the importance of choosing according to character.

Wikipedia explains it all scientifically: “Five mechanisms that explain the evolution of mate choice are currently recognized. They are direct phenotypic benefits, sensory bias, Fisherian runaway, indicator traits, and genetic compatibility.” Want to know more about that? (I didn’t.) You can find that article here. 

No River Too Wide, of course, is a novel, and as the author I make more than a few observations about the relationships between men and women and what to watch for. Without ruining the story for you, here are a few:

Learn to take care of yourself and be wary of a man who makes you feel incapable.
Physical violence is intolerable, as is allowing your partner to isolate you from your friends and family.
You can’t force yourself to fall in love. Logical choices are important, but so is physical and emotional attraction.
Some things can be forgiven and should be. Some things mean you should walk out the door and never look back.
Take your time when choosing a mate, because despite our divorce rate you’re supposed to be in this relationship for life.
Trust your feelings and don’t let yourself be talked out of them.
A bad relationship can’t be saved by your own good behavior.

Many years ago when I was a marriage and family counselor, not a novelist, I observed a number of troubled relationships. The one thing each had in common? The couple could not and would not listen to each other. As I sat there trying to help them untangle their lives, I always wished that I could have seen them together in the early days of their courtship. Did they listen then?  Was “not” listening the result of years of friction? Or had they begun their relationship that way?

So to the list above I’ll add: Find a partner who listens to you, and in turn, listen to everything he says to you, even the things you don’t want to hear.

Especially the things you don’t want to hear.

Sometimes a man has no interest in listening: Jan and Rex. Sometimes a man and a woman are unable to express anything important that’s going on inside them: Taylor and Adam. And sometimes a man and a woman can talk about anything except how they feel about each other: Harmony and Nate.

What would you add to the list from your own experience?

No River Too Wide is now available at bookstores everywhere.  Buying links are available here.

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Sunday Inspiration: The Joy of Growing

I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow. -David Hobson

‘Tis the season for gardening, and my husband and I love to get our hands dirty.

We just returned from working in our small vegetable plot in the community garden here at Chautauqua, and this photo is of the shade garden in front of our cottage that we’ve been lovingly tending for several years. The garden is definitely a work in progress, but we’re learning so much about what we can grow and what we shouldn’t try here but save for another garden in our future.

I agree that there are many good reasons to garden, but the primary reason for me is the simple joy in seeing plants grow because of our loving care.

What could be better than that?

How does your garden grow?

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Fiction Friday: Meet Jan From No River Too Wide

Change is rarely easy.

In the past two weeks I’ve introduced two of the three major women characters in No River Too Wide, which made its debut this week at your favorite bookstores. If you’ve been reading my Goddesses Anonymous series, then you already met Harmony Stoddard and Taylor Martin, who were both in One Mountain Away and Somewhere Between Luck and Trust. By the time you read No River Too Wide, you’ll know them a lot better.

No River Too Wide is the first chance you’ve had to meet Janine Stoddard, Harmony’s mother.  Janine has been mentioned before, and in One Mountain Away, Harmony speaks to her on the telephone. But this is really Janine’s story because she’s finally found both a path and the courage to do something she wanted to do a long time ago.

Janine–who now calls herself Jan–has left her husband, a man whose physical abuse made her life a nightmare. Unfortunately moving back into the normal world is anything but easy, particularly when she is afraid she’ll come face to face with him every time she turns a corner.

No River Too Wide is the story of the way we choose our lovers and mates, the problems we encounter both inside ourselves and outside. It’s also a story of hope and second chances.

The Goddesses Anonymous series is set in Asheville, North Carolina, and the photos here are snapshots from my last research trip to the city, typical downtown scenes. Try to imagine Jan, who has been isolated and alone, encountering these scenes on her first real shopping trip in years.  Taylor is dropping her off to buy clothes. Seems simple, doesn’t it? But only if you haven’t forgotten how to trust yourself.

I’ll let Jan introduce herself.

***

          Jan knew she had to get out of the car, but her arms and legs felt as inflexible as steel girders.  She forced herself to open the door, swing her legs to the curb, and stand.

          “See you back here,” she said, forcing a smile that Taylor returned.

          When Jan closed the door, Taylor pulled out into traffic.

          And Jan was alone.

          She would have been alone in New Hampshire.  More alone than this.  Here she had Harmony just a phone call away, although she certainly couldn’t call or visit her daughter without advance preparation.  Still, just knowing she was nearby helped, and Taylor had told her if anything came up, all she had to do was call Taylor’s cell phone.

          Getting a new phone was on her list of things to do, a phone registered to the stranger Jan Seaton, but she would have to check into what questions might be asked, and how she could answer them.  The very basic disposable that Moving On had provided had limited minutes remaining, and she needed to save them in case she had to contact her benefactors.

          The sidewalks seemed to undulate like ocean waves.  It was unlikely there was any place in the Asheville area where she wouldn’t be walking either up or downhill, and for a while her legs were going to feel it.  The terrain, like everything else here, would seem strange for some time to come.

          She assessed her surroundings.  To her right was a shop that sold chocolates.  Across the street, beside the tattoo studio, was a café that looked to be closed, already done for the day or not yet open for the evening.  She trudged in the direction Taylor had suggested, to what looked like as major a street as she would find here.  Some of the shop buildings were painted bright colors, and while she didn’t stop to investigate, they seemed filled with things she didn’t need.  Jewelry, crafts, photographs and exotic statues.

          By the time she got to the corner she could feel unease turning into panic.  The feeling, if nothing else, was familiar.  She had felt just this way on the evenings Rex was late coming home, not because she’d worried about his safety, but because trying to keep dinner warm had been nearly impossible.  After an hour had passed she had then been faced with trying to make something new, something quick that would still be fresh when he arrived.  Nothing had made him angrier than walking through the door to find his dinner was dried out or just being prepared.

          She told herself the kind of panic she had felt back then was finished.  She told herself there was no reason to transfer those feelings to a simple shopping excursion. Unfortunately nobody knew better than she that telling herself something helped very little.  Because for too many years at the beginning of her marriage, she had told herself if she just learned to be a better wife, she would have a happy life.

          She needed to sit down.  Taylor had said something about a park.  She saw a green space to her right and started in that direction.

          The little triangular wedge was picturesque, with rocks that mimicked the surrounding mountains and a waterfall running over them.  Cantilevered steps, or possibly seats, led to a flat area near the center.  People were playing chess at one end, and not far from her a disheveled old man on one of the benches strummed a banjo.  In between bursts of discordant music he fed a pointy-eared boxer bites of a sub sandwich.

          Had she been snatched by aliens and deposited on Mars, she couldn’t have felt more like a stranger in a strange land.

Copyright © 2014 by Emilie Richards McGee

Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A

***

Thanks for reading along with me. You’ll find much more about No River Too Wide and all my Goddesses Anonymous books at the book pages on my website.

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It’s Publication Day for No River Too Wide

Okay, it may be considered a “July” novel, but today is publication day for No River Too Wide.

This is akin to waking your husband in the middle of the night and explaining that it’s time to go to the hospital because the baby is about to make an appearance. We never really know how either will turn out, but at that moment we are nothing but hopeful it will turn out well.

I’ve just mailed out my June newsletter, with more information and a giveway to thank my newsletter subscribers. If you’re not on my mailing list, you can join from almost any page on my website or here. Putting out the information takes lots of time, so today for my blog I’m sharing something I wrote several months ago, the inspiration for No River Too Wide, which is available on my website book page, too.  I wanted you to know some of the reasons I chose to write this novel.

A concerned reader once emailed to ask if I wrote about the abuse of women so frequently because I am an abused wife myself. I was stunned by the question until I began to add up all the times I had tackled this issue on one level or another. And suddenly, I could see her point.

I grew up with a mother who told me that if a man ever lifted his hand to her, he would only have do it once, because she would leave him immediately. Although in retrospect I’m not sure she would have, I like to believe that I learned that lesson at her knee, and in the same situation I would leave, too. Intolerance for violence has always seemed a given to me in a relationship, a baseline, and consequently I married a gentle, thoughtful man who never has, and never would strike me.

The issue still seems personal, however, and it should to every woman. Escaping from abuse is not as easy as my mother made it sound, and finding a spouse who won’t resort to violence when he’s angry, or wants to assert control, is not as easy as I believed. Too many women can testify to both.

When I created the character of Harmony Stoddard, (One Mountain Away) I gave her a family background with a warm, loving mother and an abusive, mercurial father. I wanted to make it clear to my readers that she couldn’t go home to fix the problems in her own life. The problems at home were much worse.

As so often happens, as I worked on the series, I continued to wonder about Janine, Harmony’s mom. I knew she was in an untenable situation, and that she believed she couldn’t escape. I wanted to know why. So I researched abuse more thoroughly, read first-hand accounts and imagined scenarios where a woman could be trapped by a man. Janine’s story became clearer to me.

When I began to write this novel, I chose not to belabor what Janine had already been through. Certainly she has been shaped, even misshaped, by all the torment she has undergone, but at the same time, the novel begins as she finally escapes.  I wanted to write a story of recovery, of courage, of transformation, as well as one of continued fear for the future–which so many women share. That’s the story I’ve tried to tell.

I have never been abused, but I know that some of my readers and people they know may well have been. I dedicate this story to them, with the greatest love and respect for their struggles.

Thanks for reading with me today, and thanks to all of you who have already ordered the book.

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Sunday Inspiration: “Keep close to Nature’s heart…”

In honor of the Summer Solstice, keep close to nature’s heart:

Summer is the ideal time to enjoy our amazing natural world, but I find immersion in that beauty to be more than enjoyable.

When I feel the pangs of stress, grief, frustration, or anger, I’ve learned, as John Muir counsels here, that walking among green trees or at the edge of the sea, or gazing at the world from a mountain peak washes my spirit clean.

Where do you go to be inspired by nature?

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Fiction Friday: Meet Harmony From No River Too Wide

Recognize this cover?

No?  It’s the new audio version of No River Too Wide. I’m absolutely delighted to say that all three books in the series are being recorded and published by Blackstone Audio, and they’ll be available as CDs and as MP3s on Audible. In fact (don’t tell anybody) it looks as if No River Too Wide  is being sold now at Amazon, a few days early.

Karen White, the narrator, is a delightful woman, and she has consulted me several times about pronunciation. That’s what we call “thorough” in this business. Thank you, Karen.

Karen has already recorded One Mountain Away, the first book in the series, and here’s what she told me:

I just finished recording ONE MOUNTAIN AWAY and I kept having to stop and blow my nose and compose myself to get through it!  I really fell in love with Charlotte over the course of the book. 

Believe it or not, we authors are perfectly capable of melting into a gooey puddle after words like those. And I certainly did relate since I had to stop and blow my nose a few times when I was writing it.

I’ll post that cover once I have it. Now Karen is recording Somewhere Between Luck and Trust.  I look forward to listening to each book.

Last week at Fiction Friday I introduced Taylor Martin, and this week I promised an introduction to Harmony Stoddard, number two of the three important women in the novel.  So here we go.

In this scene Harmony is checking the internet, as she does regularly, to see if there is any information about the mother she left behind in Topeka, Kansas. This is something she forces herself to do, but she hopes she won’t find anything. She knows if she does, the news will not be good.

From previous books we know that Harmony’s mother is a victim of domestic violence.

Without further explanation. . .

***

           Harmony knew what she had to do.

          In the months since she had last spoken to her mother, she had fallen into something of a ritual.  Every three or four weeks she checked the Topeka Capital-Journal online to see if there was any mention of her parents.  She didn’t expect to find them in descriptions of Topeka’s most coveted social events, or as participants in a 5K for charity.  This was not casual surfing.  She was fairly certain that if she discovered anything it would be in the obituaries or the headlines. 

          Murdered Wife Wasn’t Missed for Months.

          With those expectations it was always difficult to make herself go to the website.  Harmony had considered closing the door to her past and locking it tight.  But she still loved her mother, and despite Janine’s plea that Harmony never call again, she believed that her mother still loved her, at least whatever part of Janine Stoddard’s heart and soul were still alive and functioning. Trying to forget her was a betrayal, and Harmony’s mother had been betrayed much too often. 

          She wished Lottie would wake up to stop her, or the front door would slam and Rilla and her sons would entice her into the kitchen to chat while Rilla made dinner.  But the house remained silent, and with a sigh she typed in the URL for the newspaper online and once the right page was on the screen in front of her, she typed “Stoddard” into the search box and waited.

          No matter how pessimistic or realistic she was about her mother’s future, the headline that came up in response stole the breath from her lungs.

          “House Fire Still Smoldering After Devastating Propane Tank Explosion.”

          For a moment she simply stared at the screen as the words she had read out loud blurred.  Was this a mistake?  There must be other Stoddards in Topeka. Was one of them mentioned elsewhere on the page and that’s why Harmony had been led here?  There were headlines in the sidebar, advertisements at the top, and at the bottom a site menu.  Surely that had to be the explanation.

          But even while she tried to avoid reading the article, she knew.

Copyright © 2014 by Emilie Richards McGee

Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A

***

Don’t forget. I promised you three major women, so next week? Come back and meet number three. 

FYI: I am an Amazon Associate, which means I get a small royalty when you click and buy from one of my Amazon links. I am delighted when you buy my book anywhere. You’ll find links to all major bookstores on each of my website book pages.

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The Write Way: What Belongs in Your Novel?

When is just enough too much?

Certain rituals develop when you change houses twice a year. Since our summers here in Western New York are short, one of the first things we do once we arrive in May is to plant our “garden.”  Garden in this instance mostly means pots because our yard is in deep shade from the oldest elm in the area, and a bevy of evergreens. We can move pots to the rare patches of sunshine for summer color and fill in with shade loving perennials like brunnera and hostas. I love my garden, even though I would love a sunny one more.

This year on my trip to the nursery, I bought a few plants, assuming that once the pots were filled with dirt and the plants divided, I would know exactly what else I needed to buy on my final nursery visit. I purchased just enough to start.

Wrong.

Today I finally found places to tuck in all the extra plants I bought on that one and only trip. Smiling pink begonias now reside beside astilbe who’ve never had company. Impatiens nestle cheek to cheek. A brand new pot of herbs sits beside the strawberry pot that only had room for the many varieties of basil I was certain I had to have.

Because tossing out plants goes against my nature, I found home for every one of my purchases. Still, I’ll confess by the end, I was crowding them in. They may not do well, but they’ll live until autumn’s first frost, which was good enough for me. My mission was finally accomplished.

Sadly, every part of this was far too familiar, because the same thing happens when I write.  I am always inclined to assemble too many ideas, convinced I’ll need those and more once I begin. Then I begin and find I can’t possibly fit them into one story. And unlike my garden, which is only for my own pleasure, I know I need to select the best and brightest for my readers.

What belongs in your novel?

We novelists have many ways to weed out the ideas that won’t work, ideas that might be good but need to be “good” in another book. Here’s a simple test to help you begin to make selections about what should stay and what should be moved to the next novel or pitched to the “try-again” compost pile.

Will the idea clarify or deepen a readers’ understanding of a character? Will the reader find him or her more sympathetic because you incorporated it? Will the reader be interested in this new information and will it really be new, or is it a monotonous repeat?
Does this idea move the story toward its ultimate conclusion? Does it deepen the story or give it an exciting new twist? Will the reader be so confused by the introduction of this fabulous idea that he/she won’t continue reading?
Does the idea reflect your talents as a writer? Are you writing to your strengths? Will your reader understand who you are just a little better by the time the novel ends? Will the reader know more about you than he or she needs to?

No matter how much we deny it, our novels are about us, our viewpoints, our lives, our passions. Hopefully we don’t hit our readers over the heads, but if we pretend our own thoughts and beliefs don’t matter, that the characters have taken over the story and have nothing to do with us, we definitely are pretending.

In addition to lively, entrancing characters walking through interesting times and interesting places, our novels tell the stories of the person we were as we wrote them. Consider all three as you weed out ideas and choose the ones you’ll spend the next months or even years with.

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Sunday Inspiration: Lady On A Trike

Here’s an inspirational story that combines my love for books with my love for New Orleans, which was once my home.

Laurence Copel knows in her heart that no matter where they live and no matter who they are, children need books to feed their minds and spirits.

So she rides her oversize tricycle with the front loaded with books through the 9th Ward in New Orleans giving books to children.

You might remember the 9th Ward as the community worst hit by Hurricane Katrina, and it’s a community that has long suffered from poverty.

I especially like what one of the volunteers who works with Copel says, “The program not only improves their reading skills, it also allows a place for imagination and creativity to grow.”

Be sure to read the rest of the story here.

Photo from The New Orleans Advocate

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Fiction Friday: Meet Taylor from No River Too Wide

Last week I promised sneak peeks at three major characters from No River Too Wide, which arrives at your local bookstore at the end of this month.

Since Taylor Martin is featured so prominently on this cover–that’s Taylor standing on the riverbank–we’ll start with her.

Do you remember Taylor, Charlotte Hale and Ethan Martin’s daughter from the first two books? Taylor had a lot of growing to do in One Mountain Away, and she was just beginning the process by the book’s end.

Taylor and her eleven-year-old daughter Maddie live in Asheville, North Carolina and always have.  You’ll remember Taylor was a yoga instructor in the previous two books, but in No River Too Wide, she’s opening her own health and wellness studio, Evolution, in Asheville’s River Arts district.

I always love my readers’ comments about characters. Taylor was the one you weren’t sure about, the one you didn’t really like, even when you understood why she and Charlotte had grown so far apart. I decided it was time to explore her life a little further and let you decide for yourself how much she’s changed.

So meet Taylor, two books later, and see what you think.

In this scene Taylor has just met a man named Adam Pryor, who has applied to teach self-defense at her new studio, which is one week away from opening.  They’ve had a major misunderstanding, and now that it’s been cleared up, she’s explaining her plans for Evolution.

Join them and see what happens next.

*****

When he didn’t add anything she continued.  “I’d like to offer cooking classes, maybe some stress reduction or coaching, even support groups. We’ll start slowly and build up.  I don’t want to poach customers from other places.  I’m hoping to fill a different need for people who want a community, not just an occasional class, but a place where they’ll make friends and hang out in their free time at our café or patio and drop into classes to try them on for size.”

“Classes like self defense.”

She thought of Jan, who hadn’t been able to defend herself against her husband.  Wasn’t self defense appropriate here?

“Who’s your target student?” she asked.

“Whoever you might want it to be.”

“What’s your ideal then?”

He studied her.  She thought he might like what he saw because his gaze seemed to warm.  “Women who feel helpless in their daily lives and need  confidence.  Women who don’t know what danger signs to look for, so they fall into situations they can’t fight their way out of.”  He paused.  “Women who aren’t afraid to run and run fast if that’s their best option.”

“So we aren’t going to pretend that women can beat men at their own game with just a little training?”

“Some women actually can.  I’ve met a few I’d never want to go up against myself.  But there are lots of things all women can do to stay safe and increase their chances of survival in a dangerous situation.  The other things you’re planning here are important.  Strength, agility, stamina.  Those things matter, but using them to stay safe is a different skill set.  And in the long run, what good is anything if a woman’s life is in jeopardy because she doesn’t know what to do in a confrontation?”

“You’ve done this before?”

“Like I said I brought my resumé.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t a cook right at the start?”

“Because I was enjoying myself, and you let me in here so easily I thought it would be a nice chance to look around.”

“Maybe I could use a few tips on avoiding dangerous situations.”

“You’re not in any danger from me.”

As if on cue there was an explosive bang above their heads and startled, Taylor jumped back and snapped her head toward the ceiling.

Adam’s reaction was more marked.  He grabbed her before she could even see if plaster was about to rain down on their heads, and together they hit the floor, his powerful body half covering her before she could protest or even gasp for air.

Above them muffled curses replaced the banging, and Taylor registered the harsh sound of Adam’s breathing, the heat from his body, a whiff of spicy aftershave or cologne, before she put her hands on his chest and shoved.  “Hey!”

In an instant he had rolled to the floor beside them and pushed himself upright.  He hesitated, then he held out his hand.  She just stared at him a moment, trying to order her thoughts, then she pushed herself to a sitting position and finally up to her feet again, without his help.

“One too many tours of duty,” he said without looking right at her.  “I’m sorry.  Are you okay?”

He looked sorry, but she wasn’t sure for what.  For knocking a stranger to the ground to protect her?  Or for demonstrating that he hadn’t yet recovered from life in a war zone?

As she straightened her T-shirt she questioned him.”How long have you been out of the service?”

He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just done.  “Apparently not long enough.”

***

For more about the novel, check my book pages here for an overview, inspiration, praise, a reader’s guide, excerpt, and buying links.

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Reviewing A Novel. Should You or Shouldn’t You?

Recently I found myself reviewing a novel on Goodreads.

Do you read book reviews? Do you write them? Every time we add a book to our lists at that website, Goodreads reminds us to review, and for some reason, this time I listened. Sometimes I do what I’m told.

As an author I make a point of not reviewing a novel very often. When I do, I only choose books I liked well enough to award four or five stars. I have to face my colleagues at conferences and online. I certainly never want them to remember me as the fellow author who savaged the book of their heart.

As I worked on this particular four-star review I found myself wondering how to write it, then I wondered why to write it. Both excellent questions.

The second is the easiest. Online reviews matter to authors. Goodreads, Amazon, B&N? Publishers actually pay attention. So do readers, who often select their next buy by the number of reviews an author has already collected. Recently I learned that a promo tool I was considering will only accept books that already have many reviews online. On a personal level if I’m wondering whether to buy a book, or even download one for free, I check both good and bad reviews to see the problems and possibilities.

So yes, reviews matter. A lot. And the next time you’re having warm, fuzzy thoughts about my work or any author’s work, please pop on to Amazon, Goodreads or any of the other online bookstores where reviews are appreciated, and write a couple of sentences. If you’re not having warm, fuzzy thoughts? I suggest a good game of tennis or an afternoon of quilting.

How to write a review was a little harder to answer. I had a few thoughts on the subject:

Short is beautiful. You don’t have to go on for paragraphs.
Speak from the heart. You don’t have to be funny or as insightful as someone who does this for a living.
Don’t worry about other reviewers’ opinions. A review is yours, and you matter. Take it from me. You do.
Don’t write a complete synopsis. Summarize in a couple of sentences.
Don’t use review space to compliment or criticize the vendor who sold you the book instead of the book itself.
If you don’t want to write a review, rate the book if you can. However, please do not rate books you haven’t read.  Remember that your rating affects the way potential book buyers will make decisions whether or not to give it a try. Be fair.

Since that’s pretty perfunctory, I researched a bit, and found an excellent blog post from literary agent Rachelle Gardner to supplement mine.

I’ll share the important points. Check out her post for full details.

Review books you recommend–she points out that newspapers like the New York Times Book Review choose books they want to recommend to their audiences.
When reviewing a novel, judge the book, not the author.
Don’t give away the ending or the surprises.
Acknowledge the authors purpose and audience.
Address whether the book kept you turning the pages and whether the ending satisfied you. Then add whatever else seems relevant.

Don’t let fear of being judged stop you from reviewing. Be concise, respectful, and honest. If you stay within that framework, your review, whether overwhelmingly positive or not, will be appreciated by readers and authors alike.

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