WAKEUP CALL

Tough luck, like many of life’s clouds that drift our way, can have its own special silver lining. In my case, tough luck turned out to be just the kick that I needed to awaken the sleeping author in me. It’s the trying times in one’s life that can breed creativity as one copes with the less pleasant things that come our way. Forced to sell out in ND and return to Ohio for the time being, I volunteered for awhile at a small farm-related theme park, to further my hands-on agricultural training. I did lots of cool stuff like driving hayrides, stacking hay, feeding the animals in the little petting zoo, and I did lots of photography for their special events. That sparked an interest in agritourism–and so I made up my mind that when I do eventually get back into ranching, it will be an agritourism operation, as well as a working ranch. Raising cattle is great–but taking paying tourists on scenic and educational tours is even better. I learned that I am a ‘people person’ after all–not someone who craves isolation and solitude. I thought about a kind of ‘Ranch Park’ as my goal. I started making notes on how it will be laid out, what kinds of tours, etc. will be offered, and even special events that I’d like to have.
The theme park where I volunteered, unfortunately, like many organizations, was plagued by petty rivalries and hostilities between volunteers and staff, and I ended up leaving there on less-than-friendly terms. And that’s when I started writing again in earnest. Suddenly the ideas began to flow. They popped like fireworks in my brain. Characters, settings and a story began to unfold. I challenged myself: I bet I can write a novel! An agritourism theme park, located in ND, near where my ranch had been. The kind of place I’d like to own someday, filled with cool stuff for visitors to do, to experience the great American west, with wagon rides, animal exhibits, summer camps for kids, special event festivals and much more. What an awesome setting! A fictional place, of course, and to make it a novel, it needed characters and a plot. I chose to go with the ‘whodunit’ genre, as I had been reading lots of mysteries and crime thrillers, such as Les Roberts, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, William F. Buckley, and lots more in related genres, including a vintage South African mystery in the Afrikaans language that a friend in that country had sent me, called Moord op Alles Verloren (Murder on Alles Verloren). (Alles Verloren, the name of a fictional farm in the story, translates roughly as All is Lost, in German, Dutch or Afrikaans). I thought, I bet I can write one of these, too! So I sat down at my computer and my own whodunit, Ranch Park took shape right before my very eyes. It almost seemed to write itself. The characters are the best part in any story–so stay tuned as my next post will delve into how ‘Will and the Gang’, as a friend calls them, came to be.

R. L. Anderson, author, Will Nickerson Mysteries.

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