F is for Fourth of July at The Corral

Fourth of July is the third (and middle) installment in Debra's Holidays at The Corral Series.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I tend to get inspired by music. My genre of choice is country, and someone once said to me, "There's a story in every song". For me, it doesn't even need to be an entire song. Sometimes, a verse or a stanza or a single line can trigger an idea. So it happened with a song sung by Rodney Atkins called "The River Just Knows". There are a couple verses in the middle which go like this:

The way the sun bounced off the water
I could hardly make him out
But I could see he had a fish on
A big ole rainbow trout
The fight went on forever
And as they headed down my way, I saw his
military hair cut and the new scars on his face
Right then I knew what brought him to this place

You know the river don't talk, the river don't care
Where you've been, what you've done
Don't know why it is your standin' there
It just rolls on by whisperin' to your soul
It's gonna be alright, the river just knows

He held that fish down in the water
And he coaxed it to back to life
He said "I'll help, you get your wind back
'Cause you helped me get mine."
And all I could think to say was "Welcome home."
But I think that river said it best on its own

The first time I heard the song it made me want to write a story about a military hero who comes home wounded. I started the beginning, but didn't get much past the first page. When I decided to write a series of holiday stories, it dawned on me that the military hero book would be perfect for a Fourth of July story. Just like in the song, my hero has scars on his face from an IED explosion during a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He's sent home to recover. At one point in the story, Tyler heads down to the river to let it ease the stress and strain of life. The scene comes complete with a stranger offering him a fishing pole and a "Welcome home, son."

To get to the root of the conflict in the story (SPOILER here), I turned to another song. This one "Two Pink Lines" sung by Eric Church. In it, a guy and girl indulge in a brief summer affair that culminates in them waiting to see if two pink lines materialize on a home pregnancy test.

Yeah, that second hand just keeps slowing down
I swear it stopped twice the last time around
Yeah, we'll know the truth in 3 minutes time
We're just sitting around waiting on two pink lines
Sitting around waiting on two pink lines

When the moment of truth finally comes
She gives me a look
And then comes undone
She says, "It looks like we're lucky
Someone's smiling down."
She grabs her coat and says,
"See ya around."

In the song, the result is negative and they each go their separate ways. But I had a thought. What if it was really positive, but she lied so he wouldn't feel trapped?

So, I combined the two ideas and in my story, not only is Tyler injured in the line of duty, but he comes back to discover he has a son he never knew about. The two of them waiting on the pregnancy test results appears as a flashback in the story.

Even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket, music is a huge part of my life. For me it defines my memories and brings me endless amounts of inspiration. And when I hear those lines in the songs now, I immediately think of my characters. It makes them even more real to me.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

C is for Calloway Corners

Debra remembers the first romance series she ever read.

Back in 1988 a friend loaned me one of her Harlequin Superromance books. (I have to confess...I never gave it back.) The book was called Mariah (by Sandra Canfield) and it was labeled as Calloway Corners: Book One. I immediately fell in love with the book, and it remains probably my favorite 'line' romance of all time. I still page through it from time to time, and it's extremely tattered and torn. For whatever reason, the storyline spoke to me. I've read it so many times (sometimes in its entirety, sometimes just passages here and there) that I have many of its lines memorized.

Not only did I love the principal storyline and the hero and heroine, but I loved that secondary characters were introduced who would eventually star in their own books. As the series proceeds, we get glimpses of prior characters as they are woven through the new stories. The series features four books, each by a different author. Each book is named for a Calloway sister: Mariah, Jo, Tess, and Eden. All of the sisters and their future love interests (Even if they don't know it at the time.) are introduced and have bit parts in the first book, so we get to know a little about them before we delve into their individual stories. And although I've read the other books in the series, Mariah remains by far my favorite and the only one I've read multiple times. There's just something about it: the phrasing, the voice, the storyline, and for me it has exactly the right amount of sensuality for my taste. (Although it's been a while since I've read the others. It might be time to revisit them...)

It was the interaction between the books that inspired me to write my own series. (I'd decided long before then that I wanted to write a romance 'someday'.) I loved how the books were stand alone, yet connected. I loved that after Mariah's story ended, I still got to hear more about her and how her HEA was going. I modeled my Corral series after this format. Each book can stand alone, yet the characters' lives are woven together, and we get those peeks into what happened after I wrote 'the end' at the conclusion of each story.

For that, Mariah and the rest of the sisters at Calloway Corners will always hold a special place in my heart.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

P.S. As I was scoping Amazon for a cover to post, I found four more books labeled "Return to Calloway Corners". It seems like each original author penned a new book (Well, back in the 90s) using the same setting but now named for a male lead. Interesting. Other than mentioning the original sisters in the 'teaser', there doesn't seem to be a connection, other than the setting, to the original stories. But I guess I'd need to read them to know for sure.

Galleys and a New Idea

Debra's had a writerly week.

While I'm still waiting on the cover revision for Family Secrets, with bated breath and crossed fingers, the galleys arrived this week so I've been knee-deep in eagle-eyed checking. I'm nearly done and have found a few spots that need to be fixed, but not too many, so that's a good thing.

Then out of the blue, the 'solution' to a plotting dilemma came to me. I've always wanted to write a rock star romance. The hero would be a rock star with a secret and the heroine would be the reporter trying to figure it out. The problem was, I had no idea what the secret was going to be. So I just nudged the idea to the back of my brain and figured one day, something would come to me. Well, for whatever reason, today was the day. I was powering up the lap top getting ready to work on that galley, and the secret came to me. Just like that, out of the blue. I honestly don't know what prompted it, but it was definitely one of those light bulb moments. So I quickly jotted a few notes to save to my flash drive before tackling another hour or so of galley proofing.

It just goes to show, if you're patient enough, the ideas will come. Now I just have to find the time to write the story. And finish another I've started. Good thing summer vacation is just a couple of months away!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Real Life Inspiration

Debra considers how her current schedule could provide inspiration for a scene in her WIP.

I am knee deep in basketball season. One of my extra responsibilities at school is to be the cheerleading coach. Since the cheerleaders need to be at all of the basketball games, so does the coach.

When I first started coaching almost 20 years ago, I thought I might write a story revolving around basketball. About four months of my life is devoted to it each year, so I would have plenty of personal hands-on experience to draw from. However, over the years, my interest in the sport, and thus the idea, has waned. Don't get me wrong. I really do enjoy coaching. It allows me to spend some time with 'older' kids (junior high age). But the game itself doesn't hold much interest for me. I'll root and cheer along with the best of them for my school, but if asked for a sport of preference, I'd have to go with hockey or football.

Still, since I'm in the thick of things, it seems like a shame to waste all of that good hands-on experience. So, I'm thinking I'll include a basketball scene into my WIP. Nothing that will drag on too long, but enough to use what's right in front of me occupying a good chunk of my time these days.

My hero is a high school teacher, so I'm thinking he can either be the coach or I might have an end-of-the-year seniors vs. teachers type game. The heroine will of course accompany him to this and learn all sorts of fun things about him as he interacts with the students and plays the game. With all of the time I've been spending right next to the court recently, I'll be able to throw in some great authentic details.

I do love writing from personal experience. It allows me to be much more accurate than if I'd just done some research...which really only gives you visuals and words, whereas real-life includes sounds, smells, and even taste. So I've often included 'real' things in fiction stories.

How about you? What types of real-life experiences do you include in your books?

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Real Life Heroes

No, I'm not talking about military men and women or firefighters or police officers. Although those people definitely deserve hero status in my mind. That goes without saying.

What I'm talking about are those little, every day moments that jump out at you and scream, "I belong in the pages of your book!"

Yesterday I was walking home from school. The autumn air was crisp. Many trees in the neighborhood have already begun to sport their bold colors. And a pile (really a trail) of leaves had been blown to the curb awaiting pickup. It was literally a picture perfect day and a picture perfect scene.

A man and his young sons were walking along the sidewalk, too. One of the boys noticed the abundance of leaves at the curb. His eyes got wide and excitement laced his voice as he pointed them out to his dad. He timidly went over and put one foot into the tempting pile.

Immediately Dad said, "Come on, let's do it!"

He took both boys by the hand and led them to the beginning of the long path of multi-colored leaves. At his command of "Go!" the boys raced through the leaves toward the other end. Their laughter rang in the chilly air. The leaves crunched beneath their feet.

I couldn't help but pause to watch and smile. After I crossed the street, I turned to look again, and there was Dad, racing through the pile of leaves along with his sons, the joy in his deeper voice blending with theirs.

It was the perfect moment. It belonged right in the pages of a book. My book to be precise. It was the exact thing my hero Joe from An Unexpected Blessing would do with the heroine's son. Too bad that book is already done and ready for release next month. The cozy scene would have fit perfectly into the story line.

But the moment will definitely go into my file of ideas for future stories.

And it reminded me, it really is true, inspiration can be found everywhere. Sometimes when you least expect it.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
An Unexpected Blessing - coming November 21.