Who Supports My Writing by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

My family and friends have been very supportive of me during my writing career. When my first two non-fiction books were published, my parents would look for them in bookstores. If they found them with only their spines showing they rearranged the books on the shelves so that the covers of mine were facing out and they could be seen easier.

     My husband is constantly telling people that I am a writer and where they can find my books. My parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and friends have come to my book launches, sat with me during a book signing, and passed on advertising information about my new books through social media and other means.

     When they were younger my grandchildren helped out at some of my launches: acting as doormen by opening doors for customers at bookstores, singing, or playing a saxophone or flute during the interlude before my reading.

     I have some friends who buy and read all my books and continually tell me how much they like them.
     Thank you to my family and friends for your continued encouragement.

I would Like to Thank . . . by Anita Davison

This month’s blog theme presented me with a tough question to answer. I never categorized my writing as a career, more something I felt compelled to do which was never intended to take me down any particular road. Comprising stories of places and times past was a way of exploring those days in a way which was realistic to me. I would create a family and work through the problems they faced which wouldn’t happen now. The more research I did, the more I came to understand that life in any time frame or location has always been a challenge, especially for women. Even royals could not always do what they wanted when they wished, and those who tried soon learned their mistakes, as in people like Charles I and Tsar Nicholas II who paid the ultimate price for stubbornness and vanity.

My family never understood my need to write, whether as a child, a teenager or a married woman with children. That I preferred to spend hours at my keyboard writing while they were out in the ‘real world’ while the dust gathered and the dinner overcooked.

I suppose the first person who ever told me I could write, was an online friend named Lisa Yarde, an excellent author herself who encouraged me to take a short story further. When I confided in her I was also writing an historical novel, she recommended I join the Historical Fiction Critique Group run by AnneMarie Brear.

That’s where it all began, and between them, Lisa and AnneMarie convinced me to submit my first novel to an Inde publisher. I would like to say it was all simple from then on, but nothing ever is. Publishers close their doors and sell out to other firms like any business, while authors and their books sink without trace without proper promotion. I have also been fortunate enough to find an agent who believed in me, so Kate Nash, you also deserve thanks for all your encouragement whenever I lost heart in my work.

My family do understand me – to a point – although I am convinced only writers can really understand other writers. Those hours of silent contemplation when composing a specific phrase or sentence to suit a scenario. The tunnel vision when flood, fire or earthquake can barely penetrate my concentration. And the editing - editing is something no one can appreciate or sympathize with. That set of fresh eyes on a manuscript that pick out weaknesses and inconsistencies I simply do not see.

‘The book’s done isn’t it? Why do you need to change anything?’

I cannot contemplate submitting a manuscript to my agent or a publisher without first putting it through my critique group - a small unit of writers who all know each other’s work and trust our judgement. If they tell me my storyline is confused or a character is weak, I know I have to change it – they never steer me wrong.

I would also like to thank Victoria Chatham, my writing partner for the Canadian Brides series. She has supported my synopsis for the story of Grace Mackinnon and agreed to everything thus far, no matter how sketchy I made it sound – which might change when we start picking through an actual manuscript, although I am confident we will work well together. Like her, I also appreciate the readers who spend the time to read my novels, and hopefully, enjoy them.

Big Book Giveaway in Honour of Canadian Historical Brides

I’m very excited to blog about the Canadian Historical Bride series published by BWL Publishing. These are books created especially to celebrate Canada’s 150^th anniversary of confederation. My novel, Fields of Gold Beneath Prairie Skies is coming out on Sept. 19^th. Can’t wait. So to promote the Canadian Historical Bride series, I’ve asked the various authors to give one of their other novels for free! And to start out, here’s mine: www.instafreebie.com/free92piu.

Today, I’m interviewing Victoria Chatham, author of Brides of Banff Springs, book 1 of the CHB series.

So tell us about your Canadian Historical Bride novel. I loved the paranormal element in it. Who knew that the Banff Springs Hotel was haunted?

The story of the Ghost Bride has been around since the late 1920s. According to the story, while she descended a winding staircase at the hotel, her heel caught the hem of her wedding gown and she fell. Other reports state the skirt of her gown brushed against a candle flame, causing her to fall. The sad fact is that, whatever the cause, the bride did not survive her fall. Guests and hotel staff have reported seeing a veiled figure on those stairs or a figure in a wedding gown dancing in the ballroom, so the story has had a lot of publicity.

Ohhhh, I love it – a good ghost story! What made you decide to write about Banff besides the awe-inspiring beauty and the ghost?

I’m a very visual person and the photographs I’d seen of Banff as it was prior to the hotel being built to the town, and as it is today, intrigued me. When I started researching my story I found there was so much more to Banff than I had realized, much of it because of its connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway. It really wasn’t difficult to go and do on-site research as Banff is only roughly an hour’s drive from where I live. Here’s the blurb:

In the Dirty Thirties jobs were hard to come by. Having lost her father and her home in southern Alberta, Tilly McCormack is thrilled when her application for a position as a chambermaid at the prestigious Banff Springs Hotel, one of Canada’s great railway hotels, is accepted. 

Tilly loves her new life in the Rocky Mountain town and the people she meets there. Local trail guide Ryan Blake, is taken with Tilly’s sparkling blue eyes and mischievous sense of humor, and thinks she is just the girl for him. Ryan’s work with a guiding and outfitting company keeps him busy but he makes time for Tilly at every opportunity and he’s already decided to make her his bride. 

On the night he plans to propose to Tilly another bride-to-be, whose wedding is being held at the Hotel, disappears. Tilly has an idea where she might have gone and together with Ryan sets out to search for her. 

Will they find the missing bride and will Tilly accept Ryan’s proposal?

I so enjoyed reading this. I may just have to read it again. So what’s the link to buy it?

The best link is http://bookswelove.com/authors/chatham-victoria-romance-historical-canada/

Just click on the book cover and it will show all available markets.

And what’s the book you’re giving for free?

His Dark Enchantress. It’s a Regency romance and the first in my Berkeley Square series. You download it here: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/FI0wg

Great! Thanks! I’m off to download it.

I’m very excited to blog about the Canadian Historical Bride series published by BWL in honour of  Canada’s 150^th anniversary. My novel, Fields of Gold Beneath Prairie Skies is coming out on Sept. 19^th. Can’t wait. So to promote the Canadian Historical Bride series, I’ve asked the various authors to give one of their other novels for free! And to start out, here’s mine: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/92piu

Today, I’m interviewing Katherine Pym, co-author of Pillars of Avalon, book 5 of the CHB series. Hey, Katherine, how’s it going?

Great, thanks.

So tell us about your Canadian Historical Bride novel. I’m reading it right now and I have to say I’m really impressed with the realistic language you use from that era. I feel as though I’ve gone back in time.

The language comes from reading so much of the era, so it attaches naturally to my thought processes as I write.

Now, to tell you of Pillars of Avalon, a story that covers several decades and centers on the early colonization of Newfoundland: King Charles I gives David Kirke a letter of marque, allowing him the freedom to pillage any French ports in New France (now Quebec). He is successful but after King Louis XIV cries foul, King Charles reneges and forces David to return everything he’d fought for, even furs he’d negotiated on his own.

He marries Sara Andrews whom he’s known most of his life and refers to her as ‘Twig’, since she’s so slight. They are each other’s match and support each other during their marriage. David gives Sara free reign to run portions of their companies which she does very well. I had to make her a strong woman because Lady Sara Kirke is considered the foremost North American Female Entrepreneur, and there is an award given each year in her name. 

How did you come up with this idea?

I discovered David and Sara Kirke one day while searching for information on events of the 17^th century. You see, my expertise is London 1660’s, which I’ll admit is pretty narrow, but due to the heavy tomes I borrow or purchase, a lot of history expands to both sides of the 1660’s. During the research phase, and again during the writing of Pillars, I found some amazing books published in the 17^th century that helped me with the colonial days of Newfoundland.

I love Newfoundland. I had an ancestor land there only to move to Quebec later on. So what’s the link to buy it? https://books2read.com/u/3k0pWR

And what’s the book you’re giving for free? 

Erasmus T. Muddiman, a story of a lad who is caught up in the buildup of the 2^nd Anglo/Dutch war. He’s press-ganged to caulk new and used ships at Deptford. After he escapes, he finds London embroiled in the great plague of 1665. 

https://www.instafreebie.com/free/2yrlU

Great! Thanks! I better go and check this out. Nothing more fascinating than the Bubonic plague!!!

I'd Like to Thank. . . by Victoria Chatham

CHECK ALL MARKETS HERE

Before I started taking my writing seriously, I thought I would just write a book and send it to a publisher who would either accept it or not. Ha. The innocence of ignorance. I had no idea back then that writing a book, if it’s going to be a good book, takes a village and then some.

In the beginning, my husband was my greatest supporter, simply because he believed more than I that I could be a published author. The reward for this blind faith was to be a red Ferrari with an eighteen-year old leggy blonde chauffeur when I made my millions. I agreed to the car, but not the blonde on the basis that the insurance would be way too expensive, millions or not.

It was an ongoing joke, but he gave me the time to write by taking care of grocery shopping (in all honesty he was much better at it than I), cooking, cleaning, and ferrying endless cups of tea to me in my writing den. He brought home a brochure one day advertising a writing group in our local community. I was hesitant about attending but he insisted and duly delivered me to the Alexandra Writers Centre Society door one evening. It was an eye-opener.

People often talking about their ‘tribe’, the group of like-minded people who whom they belong and at that first evening, I knew I had found my tribe. It was wonderful to talk to people who ‘got it’, that incredible ‘it’ that involves getting the voices in our heads out into the world one way or another. My husband, my now dear departed, bought me a typewriter and then my first computer.

When I started writing my first novel a freelance editor I happened to know asked if she could read it. I was so reluctant to let it go but, as my DD gently chided, if I never showed my work to anyone how would I know if it was ready for publication? That editor went through it with a fine tooth-comb, carefully explaining her reasons for picking on weak passages and plot holes that I wasn’t even aware existed.

At the same time, I took courses offered by the AWCS writers group as I still wasn’t entirely sure just what I wanted to write. Both my husband and my editor agreed I would do well writing historical fiction and, rather than feel ganged up on, I thought I might well give it a try as I loved Regency romance. Wanting to learn more about the romance genre, I joined the Calgary Association of Romance Writers of America and immediately felt at home.

Without CaRWA I might never have had the drive to aspire to actual publication. The quality of the authors, editors, and agents brought in for workshops helped me grow exponentially as a writer. Any question I had regarding the craft of writing was promptly answered, often by one of the many multi-published authors in the group.

I’ve heard people say that joining a group is the worst thing you could do. I know a couple of people who have not enjoyed the group experience at all. All I can say is that it worked, and continues to work, for me. It is from these writing groups that I have found my greatest support and my marvelous critique partners without whom my manuscripts would be peppered with repetition (oh, those first drafts) and wandering points of view. When they have worked their magic, my long-time and very good friend beta reads for me. 

And then, once my books are out in the world, I have to thank the readers who read, and I hope, enjoy them.

Visit Victoria at

www.victoriachatham.com

http://bookswelove.com/authors/chatham-victoria-romance-historical-canada/

www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaChatham