A book begins with falling in love. You lose your heart to a place, a house, an avenue of trees, or with a character who walks in and takes complete possession of you. Imagination glows and there is the seed of your book.~Elizabeth Goudge
I'm in the midst of writing book 2 of
The Ballantyne Legacy and it's quite a thrill:) Yesterday I scribbled down all the characters filling my head and heart. Hmmm. This new cast has 20 and I'm not done counting! Some are minor but necessary. When you move from the frontier to more civilized locales, more people pop up. More of them to love, I guess...
I think this image by
Brandon Hill, photographer/designer is so beautiful and evocative. It's on the back cover of
Rose's Pledge, a colonial novel that released this month. He's also the designer for
Love's Reckoning. I hope you're still looking for
that cover! I certainly am:)
Recently someone asked me the impetus or "seed" behind the books I've published. Here goes...
The Frontiersman's Daughter - Growing up in Kentucky, I often wondered what it would have been like being the daughter of Daniel Boone. He had several children, including adopted children, but his favorite daughter was said to be Jemima. My cousins and I used to dress up colonial-style and pretend to be Boone and his family, right down to the turkey shoot (the turkey was my little brother;)
Courting Morrow Little - I've read countless captivity stories since childhood and have always been especially intrigued by the tales of captives who didn't want to return to the white world but remained with the Indians. Some of the most interesting, heartfelt reader mail I've received since Morrow released is from descendants of captives.
The Colonel's Lady - If you've read the author note at the beginning of the book, you'll know it was infatuation with George Rogers Clark that led me to write this novel. George was the brother of William who was a leader of the famed Lewis & Clark expedition. Those Clark boys were natural heroes! And that flame-red hair didn't hurt;)
Love's Reckoning - There was a custom among 18th-century gunsmith apprentices to marry into the master gunsmith's family in America. This also extended to other trades during that time period. Marrying for love was still considered a novel concept. My gunsmith had to switch to another trade but I won't tell you which one he finds himself in - you'll just have to read the book!
If you're writing a book, what led you to write your story? If you've ever thought about writing a book, what would you write and why?
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