I am honored to have on my blog today
Dorothy Bell
and her Laura Creek Novel Series
Hi, everybody, Dorothy A. Bell here, as an introduction,
I’m going to give everyone a glimpse into my life so far.I grew up in southern Iowa, moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley at the age of eleven. I was in the sixth grade when I started school in Oregon. On my first day of school, I encountered the boy I would eventually marry. He kept pestering me, trying to kiss me. I held out until I turned sixteen, then I kind’a got the hang of the kissing thing. We’ve been married for forty-eight years, he’s still a pest, bless him.
I started out writing Regency Romances to entertain myself. I took writing courses, but I think I learned the most by submitting my work to publishers, editors and agents, and getting feedback. Laid low for nearly twenty-five years with arthritis, forced to use a battery-powered cart, I took up aquatic exercise and became an instructor. After two surgeries to replace my knees, I went to work on myself and lost eighty-five pounds, which I have kept off.
My husband and I live in Central Oregon with two West Highland White terriers, an energetic, longhaired Dachshund and one big, angora tuxedo cat. When I need a break from writing Oregon historical western romances, short stories and poems, I work in the yard or my garden, take walks or workout in the pool.
In 2013 I saw two of my Laura Creek romances “The Reprobate” and “The Cost of Revenge”, get published by Wild Child/Freya’s Bower Publishing.
Or go to my blog where you will find the links and other short stories, poems and photos at http://dabellm3.wordpress.com
The Reprobate
A Laura Creek Western Romance
Fiddle playing, hard drinking Royce O’Bannon believes he’s worthless like his old man, no woman should have anything to do with him.
Music teacher Cleantha Arnaud, her virtue long spent, believes her life is over; crippled and barren, no man would want her. When these two outcasts become lovers, hopes and dreams blossom within their parched souls.
Royce’s vengeful daddy begins a campaign of retaliation against his traitorous sons and the town that gave them a second chance.
Driven by a fledgling sense of responsibility, Royce follows his daddy into the dark tunnels beneath Pendleton’s streets intent on putting a stop to the old man’s vengeful crusade. With a swift crack on the head, all of Royce’s newly found hopes and dreams could be shattered like candied glass. Who would miss a reprobate, a worthless man?
The Cost of Revenge
A Laura Creek Western Romance
Quinn O’Bannon knows it’s time he settled down. He has two likely candidates, both sensible, attractive, young women. However, his fantasies keep straying to Tru McAdam, that thieving, sloe-eyed vixen with a grudge against the whole darn O’Bannon family.
Tru McAdam wants to believe the O’Bannons, all of them are rotten, heartless cheats. God help her, most of all she wants to believe the handsome, arrogant flirt Quinn O’Bannon is the worst of the lot.
Stanley O’Bannon, Quinn and Royce’s old man, is on a mission to destroy his traitorous sons, and the folks who turned them against him. It’s up to Quinn and Royce to stop the crazy old fart.
There must be a reason why destiny deliberately brought Tru to Laura Creek. There must be a reason why she gave her heart and her virtue to her sworn enemy, the handsome Quinn O’Bannon. She’ll know the reason when the time comes. All becomes clear when Quinn’s life is threatened and Tru strikes the fatal blow.
When destiny shuffles the cards, strange pairs show up in the hand. Who can fight destiny, not the handsome, flirtatious Quinn O’Bannon, not the thieving, sloe-eyed vixen, Tru McAdam.
March 2014 issue of InD’Tale Magazine
A 5 * * * * * star review.
The Reprobate nominated for InD’Tale Magazine Rone Award 2013 in the American historical romance category.
Royce and Quinn O’Bannon go up against their cousin, Wren, again. Only this time she wins permanently by getting them away from their crazy drunk of a father and giving them a second chance to find the life they’ve never had. Cleantha Arnaud was in a horrific carriage accident years ago and, lucky to have survived, lives with her father, the town’s teacher. Very broken, in different ways, Royce and Cleantha just might be able to heal each other.
Cowboy hats off to Ms. Bell, for not using modern names in a historical setting, showcasing such a level of caring and attention to detail, that the story, setting, and plot resonate with antiquity. Told from the limited perspective of Royce and Cleantha, their personalities simply radiate from the pages more clearly than any actor could portray on screen. Royce’s snarky, self-preserving ability to laugh at himself, and others, masks the gentleman underneath and pulls the reader into loving him from page one. Cleantha’s quiet, yet determined, quest to feel anything once again, brought out cheers as she symbolically flips the bird to everyone who believes her weak because she can’t walk well. The reader will be more shocked by the real cussing from a historical novel, than the soul-wrenching sex scenes. Ms. Bell doesn’t gloss over the real vocabulary of an 1880’s drifter. There are a minute amount of punctuation errors, and in a small handful of moments Ms. Bell loses Royce and Cleantha’s voice, becoming narrator instead of storyteller, but neither of these do anything to pull down a superbly crafted historical romance!
Julie L. York
I was able to chat a little with Dorothy about her book and she gives us a sneak peak at what she is currently working on
How do you come up with the characters names?
Everyone who writes probably has a book of baby names, a book that gives meanings to names or origins of names. I have a book of baby names and a book of surnames, which is a great book in that it gives origins and the country of origin, even a bit of history of the name. I also pick up names through my travels, spotting the name of a creek or a road that will inspire me to assign that name to a character or a town in my stories. Once I have a name, a face takes shape, the character comes to life.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Some stories come easy and quick, your heart and mind are there with those people, in that situation, in that town day in and day out. You write your heart out and finish the story, not the editing, not a bit of rewrite, at the end of three or four months.
Then….there’s the story that will not flow. You ignore it, try to leave it alone. Or you fuss at it, pick at it, and can’t figure out why it isn’t working. There is a reason. It’s a mystery that must be solved. I find that it usually revolves around one character that you just haven’t figured out. His hair color is wrong, he’s too short, turns out he has no sense of humor, you don’t want to know him. You don’t know why, you thought he would become a big part of the story but he keeps hanging back, not saying much. There’s something wrong with him and you can’t figure him out. This is when I have to give what I’ve written to a reader. A reader can pick up what’s missing right away. It’s a matter of being so close to the forest you can’t see the trees. This problem delays the end and I can work on this story for months, fiddling around with it.
I never toss a story out. I believe in all my stories, the premise, the characters. I take full responsibility when the story isn’t flowing. I know it’s me not them. I don’t know my characters well enough, there’s a reason why I’m holding back, withholding secrets.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Don’t be an author, be a writer. I didn’t consider myself an author until I got my first contract. After a book is published and handed over to the publisher, then I go directly back to being a writer. Each time a new book is released I can be an author for a little while, but I have to revert to being a writer. A writer has no expectations other than telling a story. It’s a great to be a writer. While you’re in your author persona you have grand visions and notions, none of which are realistic. The bottom line must be that you write to entertain yourself. If you love your story, and tell it well, that is the true reward.
What books are you reading now?
I’m reading Georgette Heyer’s Vanity Fair. I have rediscovered her. I read all of her books years ago. I see many things in her books that editors do not let us do now, such as too many was’s, too many points of view. But I love to read her. She has a vivid style that manages to convey, with a minimum of words, every scene and nuance. And a vocabulary that is astonishing. No one uses words like Georgette Heyer.
Can you share a little of your current work with my readers?
Working on the final edits with my editor on Dance Hall Road, which I hope will be released in May or June.
1871 Buck Hoyt’s Hot Spring and whorehouse is located in the backend of nowhere about fifteen miles east of Baker City Oregon. Around April, a scruffy, hairy Buck makes a trip into Baker City to pick the girls who wouldn’t mind spending spring and summer out at the hot spring catering to the miners, sheepherders and the stray drifter. In the fall, around the end of September or the first of October, he takes the girls back into town to spend the winter months. On his way home from delivering the girls to Baker City, and picking up his winter stores, he encounters a woman giving birth. He has no choice but to take the woman to his home. This is not what he had in mind. Buck hordes his alone time like a miser hordes his gold. He Likes solitude, he writes and reads and the last thing he needs is a damn woman and her squalling brat under his roof.
But this is no ordinary woman, that soon becomes clear. Petra Yurvasi is deaf, on the run from a pair of twin devils. Buck finds himself caring and protecting a woman and her kid, doing things he never would’ve dreamed he would do, wanting things he never thought he would want. He’s even thinking of shaving, a drastic move for this grouchy loner. He wants to hold the baby. He wants the woman to want him. To get what he wants, Buck will have to change his life, change his whole way of living, not an easy trick for a stubborn recluse.
Thank you for stopping by my blog today to check out this amazing author and her book!
Hope you all have a great day and Happy Reading
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I live right on the border of WA and OR so I love that the setting of the books is in my ‘territory’. That’s really interesting she met her future husband in 6th grade!