LOCALE AS SETTING - KITTIE HOWARD LOVES LOUISIANA

Thank you, Denise, for letting me share a slice of Louisiana that's always in my heart. And, speaking of hearts -- yours is as big and warm as the Outback! The gracious and generous manner in which you open your blog to others brings smiles around the world. It's nice, really nice how you bring us together. Thank you!

When I started blogging, I had no idea the path would lead to writing novellas. But, little by little, my Louisiana stories seeped out. First came "Remy Broussard's Christmas," a fictional story with a very real setting. I sat where Remy sat in that rural, three-room schoolhouse with two grades to a room. Then came "Rings of Trust," a fictional story with a very real setting. The Ku Klux Klan had ridden against my grandfather to force him to sell off part of our farm. He didn't sell!

This September, "Bayou Princess" will follow, a light-hearted story about a young girl coming into her own. I'll then combine the three into a trilogy: "Remy's Bayou Road."

Everyone has stories. We were all kids who rushed home from grade school eager to tell our parents what had happened that day. Our eyes were wide. Our faces were flushed. We were excited.

Then, life being life, we got older -- and, little by little, we learned to control emotions. Perhaps we learned to see what others saw and not what we saw. Perhaps we got busy and no longer heard the train's whistle on a foggy day. Perhaps . . . oh, life's 'perhaps' is endless.

But the stories never died for any of us. Touch them, and they will jump to life.

Because my husband and I moved so much, both within the States and overseas, I had to keep touching my stories. Yes, we lived in some exotic places. But, still, outside of one's culture and one's language and away from one's friends and family, there were times, especially when dusk approached, when I needed to touch my stories. Without television, sometimes without a telephone (if so, no one to call), I needed to feel where I came from in order to grasp where I was. When I could hear myself giggle in my mind's ear, I knew the little girl in me was safe, and the bomb that exploded on the bus across the street the first time I went to Jerusalem hadn't injured her. Or the riots in Nairobi. Or . . . well . . . one learns that stuff happens. Life isn't always pretty. Imperfect people (that's all of us) have a way of messing things up now and then. And when that happened, I pulled from the stories I always carried with me in my heart.

Some snippets of what influenced my stories:

A dormant winter pasture on our family farm. When I was a kid, pecan trees and cattle were the main crops. But, little by little, hurricanes uprooted the trees. My brother didn't want to raise cattle, so some pecan pastures were cleared for crops, usually rotating corn and soybeans. When spring comes and there are fresh furrows, it's pure bliss to wiggle one's toes in the fresh earth.

Look closely. See those itty-bitty 'leaves' darker than the flatter grass? Those are stickers! When the weeds (for that's what stickers are) mature, little pointy things will stick into the bottoms of your bare feet. And you'll hop around to pull them out. We kids used to have fun, seeing who could run across a patch of stickers without hopping around. Stickers toughen you up in other ways -- no life is without stickers, mine included. I've learned there are times when one has to suck it up, do what one has to do, and get on with it.

My grandparents rest here, to the far left, in the lower middle.  More than any other single event, the years I spent on their farm (while my father commuted from LSU's Law School) influenced me the most. The setting is simple, uncluttered. But the stories on the stoop in the evenings ranged from silly kids' stuff to complicated issues of the day. And this is where my stories come from -- simple settings with the day's issues.

This was my father's first law office, located in a small town about 25 miles from the farm. (It's now a real estate agency). He later got a larger office, even dabbled in politics. Much to my surprise, politicians who 'attacked' each other in public were good friends behind the scenes. And few politicians practiced what they preached. (HA!) Anyway, the office is a tiny shotgun house minus a window on either side and so called because one could fire a shotgun from the front and the bullet would go out the back door. Shotgun houses in historic districts can be very expensive these days, especially in New Orleans.

Louisiana's water-logged. Bayous. Swamps. Rivers. Streams. Visitors fuss about the humidity all this water  helps create. But I miss it! I love the feeling of perspiration dripping down my neck and then a breeze comes along and ahhh! In all fairness, though, I think one has to be born into Louisiana's hot weather, especially what August brings.

Last spring, hub and I were leaving Avery Island, home of that Tabasco Sauce even Queen Elizabeth II loves,  and decided to stop and walk around a bit. This fisherman was happy to pose with the catfish he'd just caught. My grandfather taught me how to fish. In the beginning he'd cut and string my bamboo pole, but I always had to put the worm (or cricket) on the hook. Eventually I learned how to adjust the cork for a particular fish and so on. Now, fast forward -- hub and I are in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Africa, at a safari camp. One of the excursions offered was a morning (fly) fishing trip. Hub and I signed up, as did others. And, yes, the fish god was with me! I cast my line out, and, well, within minutes pulled in four gorgeous perch, the only fish caught that morning. The camp staff grilled them around the campfire that evening with "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" blasting from somewhere. Well, okay, we'd all had a few glasses of wine and were doing the conga line around the campfire.

This is False River, about 35 miles north of Baton Rouge and Louisiana State University. We'd pile into cars and head for False River on Saturdays to go skiing. Way Back When, the Mississippi River cut a new path and left this oxbow lake behind. It's about five miles long and a mile wide. This photo was taken in December. During the spring/summer, the water's smooth and warm. Nice!

Although Morel's restaurant is somewhat new, it's typical of the eateries around False River. See the kid fishing on the pier? He can sell his catch to Morel's. One of its signature dishes is red beans and rice with a filet of fried catfish on top.  But LA cooking travels with me. We had stuffed eggplant tonight (here in Virginia). It's really easy to make and is even better the next night.

Houmas House isn't far from Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital, and is one of many plantation homes that grace the area and are open to the public (admission charged). Others are family-occupied. My sister's godmother's family occupies Parlange Plantation, a working plantation, for example. I have fond memories of visiting friends and sitting with them on verandahs, like the one pictured above, and laughing and giggling, as kids do. We were too young to comprehend how old old really was, but we weren't too young to feel how the grace and elegance of old can soothe, sitting in a rocker and rocking away the afternoon with our chatter. Old was good, a part of our heritage that seeped in.

Christmas morning last year. Yep, I'm a Geaux Tigers diehard. My nephew sent me this LSU Tigers knit cap for Christmas. Hub and I were staying at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, two floors down from where my great-grandmother lived after her parents died in a Yellow Fever epidemic and the hotel was an orphanage. We've stayed in the same room three years in a row. Each year there has been what the staff calls a 'sighting' or an 'occurrence' on my great-grandmother's floor. Some are convinced it's because I'm there, the closest known relative of any orphan to stay in the hotel. Ummm, don't know.

But here's a photo of the 'sighting' (on the left) someone took last Christmas.

What can I say? It's Louisiana.

Thank you so much Kittie, for such an informative post on your settings for your writing.  Your stories throb with realism due to your incorporation of your known setting and characters. Here is a link to Kittie's blog if you want to know more...or to see her books. 

• How about you? Do you like to make your local setting real for your readers? Or do you like to read stories with setting as character?
• Currently my blog posts are not being updated for those following via Google Friend Connect. I'm working on the problem. Meanwhile, I hope if you've come by today you will remember to come back until I'm on the blogroll again. I post Mondays and Fridays usually...

Aussie author Jennifer St George shares 5 tips on revolutionising our writing! Kittie Howard launches Rings of Trust!

Hello all who have come by today!

Today I'm hosting Aussie author, Jennifer St George, who is on a promo tour for her novel, The Convenient Bride, published by Destiny Romance. Jennifer has some awesome tips to share to revolution our writing. We can always learn a little more about our craft.

Over to you Jennifer: 

Five Things That Revolutionized my Writing

Recently I developed a workshop concept with my fellow Destiny Romance author Louise Reynolds for the 2013 RWA conference to be held in Fremantle, WA in 2013. It made me think about the key concepts or ah ha moments that changed my writing for the better.  These are my top five: 

1. Getting My Writing Style Right!

I’m a planner.  Always have been but my writing style was true ‘pantser’.  It didn’t feel right, but I didn’t know how to fix it.  First Draft in Thirty Days by Karen Wiesner gave me the keys to unlocking the natural planner in me.  I credit this craft book with enabling me to write much more efficiently. 

2. I Want to be Just Like Her!

I ventured into my first RWA conference in Brisbane a few years ago and didn’t know a soul.  At the Awards Dinner, I watched as unstoppable Kylie Griffin scooped award after award.  I thought, I want to be just like her.  During a break I asked her was there any one thing that had made a big difference to her writing.  Enter Margie Lawson’s the EDIT system.  This logical, practical edit system shows things in your writing you might otherwise never see.  It can be tricky to master but stick with it.

3. The simple GMC

Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, Conflict is a wonderful tool for writers and I use it before I begin a book. However, my lovely friend, Desire author Rachel Bailey gave me a shorthand version that I keep ‘front and centre’ whilst I write.  Why not this woman for this man and why not this man for this woman?  So simple, yet so useful.

4. Emotional Order is Important

The talented Nikki Logan calls it the natural order of things, that is, how a character reacts to stimuli.  It’s important to have the order right starting with the visceral leading to the subconscious and ending with the conscious.  This is how we react in every day life. For an author, it is important to capture this on the page, or the reader may feel something is not quite right.

5. Always Finish the Book

The very first craft workshop I attended was given by the phenomenal Melanie Milburne. She taught me so many things that I’ve used everyday in the years since in developing my writing skills. One piece of advice that really made an impression was, always finish the book.  Again, sounds so simple, but without that advice I probably would have begun many different books without actually finishing them.  As she said, how do you know how to write ‘the middle’ and ‘the end’ if you’ve never done it?

Combined, these five concepts progressed my writing to a higher level.  Perhaps some of these ideas will provide other aspiring writers with that wonderful ah ha moment!

 Find Jennifer on the web:

Website                Facebook        Twitter          Author Page

Buy Her Book:

Destiny Romance              Amazon       iTunes 

The Convenient Bride

Sienna De Luca will do anything to save her family's hotel, and ruthless Italian businessman Antonio Moretti knows it. With problems of his own, he proposes a marriage of convenience and plans to use Sienna to secure his next business deal. But things don't go quite according to plan.

In keeping with her part of the bargain, Sienna travels to Venice to be with Antonio, who introduces her to a life of great luxury and opulence. As befits the fiancée of the famous Antonio Moretti, Sienna is given a new wardrobe of designer gowns and outfits and instructed exactly how to behave when out in public. But after thinking he can manipulate her at his will, Antonio begins to realise he has seriously underestimated Sienna, her intelligence, her skills, her courage – and her beauty. Unexpectedly, Sienna gets too close and when she discovers his dark secret, Antonio's perfectly planned life begins to unravel.

I will be giving a Kindle copy of The Convenient Bride to one lucky commenter here today!

Denise here!

The Convenient Bride sounds fabulous.

Another book was just launched yesterday by my lovely American blogger friend Kittie Howard. Check out Kittie's site for more details. Kittie just told me that Rings is already Amazon #24,486 on out-of-popular-genre-arena books. Go Kittie!

In "Rings of Trust," fear reigns along a sleepy bayou road in rural South Louisiana in 1953. The Civil Rights Movement has taken root in the consolidated South. Not everyone wants to return to the shadowed past the Ku Klux Klan espouses.

I hope you will support both authors in their new ventures!

#AtoZChallenge - BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! - K is for Kittie (Howard)

Hello!


Regular followers and visitors to this site will know I'm using BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! for my theme this year. I hope you're enjoying reading about bloggers, some you know and some you may not yet know, as they respond to some prompts I sent out. I've been so grateful for their responses as it helped me to get to know them better, admire their stunning cuteness as babes, and delighted me with random facts.


Thank you Adult Bloggers for your heartfelt responses. Thank you readers for visiting my posts. I hope you'll leave a comment and if you'd like to follow the link to my respondents' blogs they'd be delighted to meet you.


Rock on A- Z Challenge.


Yesterday was Joy Campbell.

Today:

 K is for Kittie (Howard)

I WAS BORN IN:  New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Years later, while chatting with my hub-to-be's best man, I learned John had been born in the same hospital (Southern Baptist) in New Orleans on the same day (July 9th), but fifteen minutes before me.  

I GREW UP IN: While my father was in law school at LSU, we lived in Quonset huts, housing for married students on the LSU campus.  The huts were across from the historic Indian mounds.  In the evenings, my sister and I would hold hands and walk with our parents in the designated areas around the mounds.  Before my father graduated, we moved to my grandparents farm, where most of my blog stories occurred.  I attended a rural, three-room school, with two grades in a room, which is how I skipped second grade (and graduated from high school at sixteen). After third grade, we moved to a nearby town where I remained until I entered Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

MY FAVOURITE HOME WAS IN: I can't pick a favorite home.  Each was special for different reasons.  But spending my formative years on a farm nurtured my independent spirit -- and love of nature.  It's sheer bliss to wiggle my toes in fresh-turned dirt.  I'm a big conservationist and tear-up when I see Nature disrespected.  Having said that, there were 25 of us in my graduating class in that small town.  To this day, we are very tight. We'll get together when hub and I go to Louisiana the end of April.  We sit around and talk and laugh non-stop into the evening.  It's nice, very nice.

MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: There are so many warm memories, like when my siblings were born and my mother sat close to me so I could hold my baby brother, it's difficult to pick one here.  But reaching outside of family, my best memory was when I stepped into the big bad world on my own and entered first grade. I returned to class after recess and found a valentine on my desk, with a heart drawn around my printed name.  I remember blinking and smiling and feeling special.

MY WORST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: The day daddy had to shoot Sugar Bowl, my dog.  Sugar Bowl had somehow killed a small animal and tasted blood. When he started growling at me for no reason, daddy lured him into a back pasture on the farm.  I don't think about this very often, but when I do, I hear the gunshot.

TODAY I LIVE IN:    Northern Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C.

PROUDEST WRITER MOMENT:  When I hit 'send' and my first e-pub, "Remy Broussard's Christmas', flew from my hands.

RANDOM FACT ABOUT ME:  I like to paint, as in, painting a room.  It's magical how paint transforms a room or a wall.  I have my paint cans on a shelf in the garage.  Everyone knows they will die a horrible death if those cans are touched!

KITTIE HOWARD

I blog stories gained through life's experiences, some good, some not so good, but thankful for both and my life's rich tapestry. I blog for the sheer joy of writing, the pleasure at hearing the keyboard's tap, tap, tap as it slices through the years, but well aware that the past is prologue. I primarly blog about growing up on a farm in South Louisiana, stories anchored in a family that first came to Louisiana in 1679. All of my stories are free-standing. You can jump in any time! Have a great day

Visit Kittie @ http://kittiehoward.blogspot.com.au/.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Kittie. Tune in tomorrow when it is L'Aussie's turn. From Louisiana/Virginia to the Queensland bush. Quite a trip!

Awards and bits and pieces...

I thank Kittie Howard for my Making Smiles on Faces Award before I lose its trail. Thank you Kittie. Pop over to Kittie's wonderful blog, The Block, if you haven't already. She found this cute award on e-How.
e-How is a great site where you can submit articles on your areas of expertise and actually (ahem) GET PAID FOR THEM!! Always a bonus as most of us tap away for free most of the time, for love anyway!

Clever Kittie! I am passing this award onto:

Jennie Bailey at A Garden Full of Lily
Alex J Cavanaugh
The Happy Whisk
Joanna St James

Thhank you to Kari Marie from A sideways journey to lifelong bliss for the Honest Scrap Award. I've passed this one on before and I may again, but not today!

Thank you to kangaroobee for making this award and passing it onto myself and many other fellow Crusaders. Thank you so much Catherine! How nice to have a Christmas award.

I am passing it onto:

Kari Marie from A Sideways Journey to Lifelong Bliss

Nomes at Inkcrush

Melissa at Through the Looking Glass

Ellie Garratt

Michael at In Time

Donna Hole

On a sadder note, I am very sad at the death of Ruth Park, a very famous Australian author, who passed away on the 17th December. She wrote so many tomes on early Australia, some which were made into mini-series on Australian television. Harp in the South would be one of my favourites. Since her death the price of this book has skyrocked to AUS $55!

Happy Christmas everyone!