Rodeo and Research

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

You may rightly wonder how a college teacher of literature and all round city girl knows enough about rodeo to set her novel in that world, especially when she views rodeo as a fascinating anachronism. (See last week’s post http://jamie-marchant.blogspot.com/2017/02/inspiration-for-bull-riding-witch.html).

After I attended that rodeo discussed last week, I kept attending more as the idea for The Bull Riding Witch simmered in my head. The incredible skill combined with the complete uselessness of such skill in the modern world continued to work on my imagination. When I was read to start writing the book, having attended a hand full of rodeos was hardly sufficient knowledge of the world of rodeo.
I tried to find a book on bull riding. There are a ton of romance novels starring bull riders.

 

But I couldn’t find a “how-to” book. The best I could come up with was Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies, & Bull Riders: A Year Inside the Professional Bull Riders Tour.
 
 
I read it. It taught me some things. In case you are wondering, the flank strap does not go around the bull’s testicles. It would be impossible to put it there even if they wanted to. It is an irritant, but the bull isn’t in real pain. I also learned that buckle bunnies, rodeo groupies, will ask bull riders to sign their breasts. (That detail didn’t end up in my book). But it didn’t tell me what I really needed to know, especially Joshua Killenyen, my bull rider is distinctly small time.

I did some internet research. While the bulls don’t often get hurt, the riders do. Injuries, often serious ones, are ridiculously common. This article from the LA Times sums it up with examples from one bull rider:
Bulls ripped open his chin, blackened his eyes and broke his nose, ribs and legs — the right leg three times.
But that all paled in comparison to what happened about a year and a half ago, when Beau Schroeder climbed on a snorting, bucking 1,800-pound monster called 800 Night Moves.
The bull threw him into the red dirt of the arena in Fort Mojave, Ariz. Its massive hooves trampled his chest, punctured his lungs and tore open his throat.
He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t talk. He could barely breathe.
Bull riders can even be killed or paralyzed. As bull riders like to say, “It’s not whether they’ll get hurt, it’s when.” Bull riders are crazy about it, too. The rider in the above story was back riding only two months after almost being killed. And that’s considered normal in bull riding.
I hit pay dirt when I cam across bullridercoach.com. More on that and Wiley Peterson next week.
Remember The Bull Riding Witch is coming on July 17.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve research? Tell us in the comments below.

What does Solar want? Character as Desire

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

In character development, one of the most, if not the most important, aspect to think about is your character’s motivation. What does he or she want? It is a character’s desires that controls their actions, and if you don’t have a clear idea of what those desires are, you end up with an inconsistent character that acts in ways that don’t make sense. You need to know what your character desires in the abstract as well as what achieving that desire will mean practically in any specific situation.

King Solar in The Goddess’s Choice has ruled over 50 years of unbroken peace. What he wants is for that peace to outlive him, to be the legacy he leaves his people. This is his great desire, what he wants in the abstract. For that to happen practically speaking, he knows he must have an heir. Without one, rival claimants will tear the country apart. But he reaches 70 without having fathered an child despite having had two wives and numerous mistresses. The priest tell him that the only way for him to have an heir is to take a wife just entering puberty. He finds this distasteful, but since peace is so important to him, he takes a thirteen-year-old wife. If you don’t understand his motivation, this might seem a little creepy of him, but if you know what he wants, it makes perfect sense. Achieving his desire of peace means in this particular circumstance he must marry someone he views as a child. When his young wife Fenella also fails to get pregnant, he is forced to face that fact that he is indeed sterile and decides that if he can’t get his own heir, someone else will have to do it for him. He manipulates circumstances so that Fenella will have an affair. Thereby, he gets his heir.

However, this complicates his life in ways that he hadn’t anticipated. Solar, like many characters, finds himself wanting more than one thing. Before Samantha’s birth, the nearly only focus of his desire was for lasting peace, but against his expectations, he falls in love with his daughter and finds himself wanting her to be happy.

 

When those two desires come into conflict, he becomes indecisive. Samantha is so young that he knows she needs a strong husband to ensure the stability of her reign, but Samantha doesn’t want to marry, and he is convinced that she will hate him if he forces her into a marriage. Desire #1 one–continued peace–is now in conflict with desire #2–his daughter’s happiness. Which will win out? You’ll have to read The Goddess’s Choice to find out.

 

What do your character want? Discuss them in the comments.

 

 

 

A Meddle of Wizards Cover Reveal

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 1
A MEDDLE OF WIZARDS
by Alexandra Rushe
Genre: Fantasy
Pub Date: 1/9/2018
Welcome to Tandara, where gods are
fickle, nightmares are real, and trolls make excellent bakers . . .
Raine Stewart is convinced she’ll die
young and alone in Alabama, the victim of a chronic, mysterious
illness. Until a man in a shabby cloak steps out of her mirror and
demands her help to defeat a bloodthirsty wizard.
Raine shrugs it off as a
hallucination—just one more insult from her failing body—and
orders her intruder to take a hike. But the handsome figment of her
imagination won’t take no for an answer, and kidnaps her anyway,
launching her into a world of utmost danger—and urgent purpose.
Ruled by unpredictable gods and
unstable nations, Tandara is a land of shapeshifters and
weather-workers, queens and legends. Ravenous monsters and greedy
bounty hunters patrol unforgiving mountains. Riverboats pulled by
sea-cattle trade down broad waterways. And creatures of nightmare
stalk Raine herself, vicious in the pursuit of her blood.
But Raine isn’t helpless or alone.
She’s part of a band as resourceful as it is odd: a mage-shy
warrior, a tattered wizard, a tenderhearted giant, and a prickly
troll sorceress. Her new friends swear she has powers of her own.
If she can stay under their protection, she might just live long
enough to find out…
Alexandra Rushe was born in South
Alabama, and grew up climbing trees, searching for sprites and
fairies in the nearby woods, and dreaming of other worlds. The
daughter of an English teacher and a small-town judge, Rushe
developed a love of reading early on, and haunted the school and
local libraries, devouring fairy tales, myths, and tales of
adventure. In the seventh grade, she stumbled across a worn copy of
The Hobbit, and was forever changed. She loves fantasy and
paranormal, but only between the pages of a book—the flying monkeys
in The Wizard of Oz give her the creeps, and she eschews horror
movies. A psychic friend once proclaimed the linen closet in Rushe’s
bedroom a portal to another dimension, and she hasn’t slept well
since. Rushe is a world-class chicken.

Y’Keta Book Tour & Giveaway

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  
Y’keta
The Sky Road Trilogy Book 1
by Sandra Hurst
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Banished. Cast out. Powerless. Y’keta is exiled to the small village of
Esquialt as his father’s punishment for his rebellious spirit.
Village tradition gives him one Cycle, from spring to spring, to earn
the right to stay.

The villagers have a legend about mighty beings called the Waki’tani,
mythical lords of the wind and lightning who can shapeshift into
human form. Y’keta knows the truth behind these stories. Could there
be more to them than just tales shared around the campfire?
If Y’keta reveals what he knows to the villagers, it will tear their
history and traditions apart…but sharing his secrets may be their
only hope for survival when Esquialt is threatened by the brutal,
ferociously destructive Utlaak.
Loosely based on the Thunderbird of North American legend, Y’keta is an epic
fantasy set in an ancient world where legends walk and the Sky Road
offers a way to the stars.
Hi, my name is Sandra Hurst, the author of the Sky Road fantasy
series.
As a child growing up in England stories and legends
surrounded me, I learned how important imagination was. When I was 8,
we moved to northern Canada and the legends changed. Stories of the
Fae and the little people were replaced by legends of the Thunderbird
and stories of the woodlands. I never stood a chance. What could I be
but a writer?
Growing up in Northern Alberta gave me a great love and respect for the wild
lands and indigenous cultures which made its way into the worlds I
create. A mythmaker at heart, I started writing poetry in middle school and
graduated to epic fantasy.
Myths give us a way to interpret the world past our normal experience. To
ask questions and explore answers in a larger-than-life game of ‘what
if.’ We need to make room for myths and mythmakers in our fact
driven world. To give space for worlds that are brighter and clearer
than our own. For it is in doing so, that we have room to become more
fully human.
My first book, Y’keta, is loosely based on the Thunderbird of North American legend, Y’keta is a Young Adult, high
fantasy set in an ancient world where legends walk and the Sky Road
offers a way to the stars.
I now live in Calgary, Alberta with my husband and son, both of whom I
love dearly, and have put for sale on e-bay when their behaviour
demanded it. My day to day life is a balance between my outside life
as a paralegal counsellor and my inner life as an author/poet. In
between, I work on courses to improve my writing, learning the Cree
Language, book reviews and blogging on my website, and studying
mythologies from around the world.

 Hi, my name is Sandra Hurst and I’m a YA Fantasy author, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you and your readers today!

 

 What is something unique/quirky about you?

Ooh, you really want to go there? I think that answer would depend on who you talk to. My son would cringe and point to ‘opera nights,’ evenings when I don’t speak and insist on singing my answers to any questions. My husband might point to my fits of insomnia and my late-night Facebook addiction. But really! You meet the best people online at 3am.

If there is one thing I would say was unique or quirky about me it would be my breadth of interests, I’m a bit of a Hermione, a collector of odd facts and knowledge about anything from the Kaiju culture of manga Japan, to Shakespeare, to Opera, or the band Nightwish. There isnt much that I wont listen to, read, learn about and find value in.

What inspired you to write this book?

My first novel, Y’keta, came out of two unconnected events about four years ago, the first was an off the cuff comment made by a relative on the reactions she dealt with when she came out as LGBTQ in the early 80’s, the other was a long night sitting beside a campfire in Grande Cache, Alberta watching the Northern Lights dance over the horizon.

Myths give us a way to interpret the world past our normal experience. To ask questions and explore answers in a larger-than-life game of ‘what if.’ In my novel, Y’keta, the question is about identity. Is Y’keta willing to give up his identity to please his father? Is he willing to risk being honest about himself, even though he may lose everything he has grown to love.

Who is your hero and why?

I don’t think that I have a real-life hero. There are so many people that inspire me, whether they are historical figures or literary ones. I think the common thread in all of them is that they had the opportunity to quit, every reason to say I’m too old, too tired, it’s just easier to let it be someone else’s problem. This kind of hero, unwilling, often flawed, yet willing to step up, gets me every time. These heroes all have one thing in common. They are people very much like I am, broken and damaged people just trying to do their best with the time they are given.

As far as literary heroes, I love the authors who can make words dance and sentences MEAN things. This has led me to authors like Guy Gavriel Kay, and Don Dellilo. I would give my left ovary (not so dramatic a thing since at 54 those parts are hardly crucial) to sit down with either of these gentlemen, or even better their writing notes, for an afternoon!

What book do you think everyone should read?

Mine? Oh, you mean someone else’s book! Picking one book that everyone should read? Oh, that’s hard. If I had to make a choice I think that I would choose The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. The writing is lyrical and holds enough legends, enough magic, enough historical reference, and enough action to please most people and to delight word birds such as me.

Describe your writing style.

I think that question would be more appropriately asked of someone who has read my work. It’s hard to describe yourself without being either self congratulatory or somewhat delusional. If I had to say something about my own style, I think I would call it lyrical. I was a poet long before I accepted the challenge of writing prose. I would compare my style to current writers I think I would say that it is somewhat like early work by Guy Gavriel Kay or Neil Gaiman, although I think I smell the self-delusion rising on that one.

What makes a good story?

To me, a good story is one that has characters with depth and nuance. I think it’s important that the characters in a story face conflict, something has to push them out of their safe zones and into situations that they aren’t prepared for, whether that something is a ‘bad guy or an internal crisis. The book has to be driven by the growth and decisions of the character, not just a plot that moves them from place to place like players on a chess board.

Follow the tour HERE!

Hell Holes: What Lurks Below Book Blast

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 2

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

It’s August in Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the new school year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack receives an unexpected phone call. An oil company exec hires Jack to investigate, and he picks his climatologist wife and two of their graduate students as his team. Uncharacteristically, Jack also lets Aileen O’Shannon, a bewitchingly beautiful young photojournalist, talk him into coming along as their photographer. When they arrive in the remote oil town of Deadhorse, the exec and a biologist to protect them from wild animals join the team. Their task: to assess the risk of more holes opening under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the wells and pipelines that feed it. But they discover a far worse danger lurks below. When it emerges, it threatens to shatter Jack’s unshakable faith in science. And destroy us all…

 

Excerpt

After seconds that seemed to stretch into eternity, the cigarette butt tumbled past Mark and eventually reached the depth where the concentration of methane and hydrogen sulfide reached explosive levels.

There was a deafening whoosh, and a huge fireball the size of the hole erupted from the pit. Luckily, the blast from the explosion blew us backwards, away from the hole. That was the only thing that saved us from the intense heat radiating from the colossal swirling ball of fire and smoke that had roared from the crater. It felt like I was standing next to a hundred heat lamps, and I heard the sizzling sound of my hair and beard beginning to burn on the side of my head that faced the flames. Turning my back to the hole, I immediately used my hands to extinguish my burning hair before it could seriously burn me. Disgusted by the stench of a mixture of burnt hair and rotten eggs, I picked myself up and looked back towards the hole. Above us, a huge pillar of smoke rose like the ash cloud of an erupting volcano. Looking back down, we saw the burning nylon rope continue to rise until its end slipped over the edge of the hole. Only a little of Mark’s smoldering body harness was still attached to its end.

“No!” We heard Jill’s horror-filled scream coming loudly over our walkie-talkies, followed less than a second later when her anguished cry reached us from across the pit. I could just make out Jill’s wavering form through the turbulent superheated air rising up between us as she raced back around the hole.

I looked over to where Kowalski was standing, staring in disbelief at the fiery pit his thoughtlessness had created. I was beyond furious. The next thing I knew, I had him by the jacket and was screaming in his face, “You Goddamned careless son of a bitch! Weren’t you listening? Didn’t you hear me say there was hydrogen sulfide in the pit?”

“Buh, buh, but…” he stammered as he tried to back away from me.

Without realizing it, I was slowly backing him up to the hole. I might have backed him over the edge had Bill not forced himself between us. “That’s enough!” he commanded.

Suddenly, I realized what I was doing and let go. It was clear from his expression that he’d had no idea that the gasses in the bottom of the hole were flammable, let alone sufficiently concentrated to be explosive.

My fiery rage died as I turned my anger inward. Kowalski hadn’t killed Mark. I had. I was in charge and responsible for the lives of my team. I should have spotted the danger sooner. Mark was my student, so I should have sent him up first. Worst of all, I had seen Kowalski smoking next to the hole and done nothing. I turned my back on the hole and wearily walked away across the empty tundra.

 

About the Author

A computer geek by day, at night and on weekends Donald Firesmith writes modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from magical woods and mystical gemstones.

A computer geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He is also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered somewhat worrying whether the term “distinguished” makes him sound more like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is still more red than gray.

By night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his wife Becky, his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds.

Links:

Website: http://donaldfiresmith.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FiresmithAuthorFanPage

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DonFiresmith

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1290902.Donald_G_Firesmith

Buy Links: The book is free

Amazon

itunes

Barnes and Noble

Create Space

Instafreebie

Smashwords

Praise Quotes

“I enjoyed my time in Firesmith’s world. I did not want to leave. I really got a kick out of it, and would happily come back for more. Recommended.”  MJ Kobernus, author of The Guardian: Blood in the Sand

“This book rocks.” Barton Paul Levenson, author of Dark Gods of Alter Telluria

“a quick, enjoyable read. Full of action and fraught with danger” Dave Robertson, author of Strange Hunting, Strange Hunting II, and The Brave and The Dead

“The book is an easy and quick read and an action-filled one that you’ll imagine as a TV series or a movie with no difficulty.” Olga Núñez Miret, author of Escaping Psychiatry

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

 Donald will be awarding an autographed copy of the Hell Holes 2: Demons on the Dalton (US ONLY) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Author, Mariah Avix

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

Mixing fantasy and science fiction, Mariah can do it.

Mariah Avix is the creator of 600 Second Saga. A space for developing authors to explore the realms of science fiction and fantasy in 10 minutes or less every week. Mariah writes magical tales of how technology will change our world, and technologically laced tales of magic, that probably isn’t real. She is currently working on a series of novellas about shapeshifters who fight wildfires, a trilogy about a woman who refuses to admit that she has the M word (magic), and endless flash fiction. When she’s not writing she walks along the rivers and parks throughout her city looking for inspiration.

Interview

  1. Do you think people have misconceptions about the speculative fiction? Why do you think it is a worthwhile genre?

 

Yes! I think the biggest misconception is that it is a singular thing. Or that it is a less powerful thing. Humans have been telling speculative fiction as long as there have been stories. Where did lightening come from? Why does it flood? What are the sparkly things up above us and why do they mostly show up at night?

Speculative fiction lets us explore the unknown, cope with change, and better understand ourselves as we are today. There is something for everyone in speculative fiction. From stories projecting what the applications of future tech will be, to stories with the barest hint of was it magic or was it real? So many love stories have a spark of magic. So many underdog sports stories have a whisper of the impossible come true. It really laces through everything.

2. Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book?

Summer Solace is a love story. All three of the main characters the story follows feel like they won’t ever have the ability to love or trust again and discovering that people are flawed and having to live with it or deciding not to.

3. Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?

Right now I think it is Faye. She is a middle aged woman who is sort of a park ranger, a fire fighter, a widow, the person who keeps the shifters in her community in line, and a peregrine falcon. She’s very dedicated to her community and loves the people and animals around her completely. She’s also open to a chance at love again after having lost her husband and son, and she’s willing to struggle but not compromise.

4. Titles have always been extremely difficult for me. How do you come up with yours?

Titles are extremely difficult for me too! In all cases except for 1 I have the same process. When I start the book, I label it the worst possible thing. My current WIP for the first 3 drafts was “Mountain Lion Man” because the story centered around a man who was a mountain lion shifter… The book I just put out was titled “Peregrine Falcon Woman” (I’ll bet you can guess what it is about!) I start fairly early on in the book listing key words, themes, and ideas in a file. As I go along, I start to remix them. Then I’ll talk through my best ideas with a good friend who usually manages to say oh! and remix those ideas in a new way. Rinse and repeat a handful of times until I like something. I’ve had as many as 20 title iterations.

Dangerous Metal is the only title that ever felt easy and obvious. I still think it is a fantastic title for that novel and is my favorite title.

5. What is your favorite writing tip or quote?

Always read your work out loud. It makes a lot of sense to me as someone who does audio work, but it is also partly a throwback to story telling has been around longer than writing has. Humans have told stories as long as they could. Sometimes the story is don’t eat that root because it makes you sick. Sometimes it is the best berries are over there. And sometimes it is look up to the sky and guess what’s out there.

Those stories were told out loud. Passed along. Intended to have rhythm and motion. And that’s still the case for the best stories. Reading your work out loud lets you hear if there is rhythm and motion; it lets you feel the pacing and stumble. If you stumble when you read something aloud, then your reader will stumble. It is a good way to proofread. It is also a good way to fall in love with your own work after a lot of editing. (Though I recommend taking a break before you go right into reading again.)

6. Tell us a little about your plans for the future.  Do you have any other books in the works?

I’m working on a couple things right now. I am reworking from scratch a novel about a woman who is very unhappy to discover she might have the m word (magic). It’s an urban fantasy with a lot of magic on technical items (versus technical magic). I think the intersection of technology and magic is a wonderful space for stories.

I’m also working on the next of the Smoke Jumpers series, I have 2 novellas in progress for that. Each of them will feature different lead characters though they are all in the same world.

Where can we find you online? 

Blog: http://insani-x.com/

Website: http://insani-x.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/600SecondSaga/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariahAvix

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mariah-Avix/e/B01AWKQYI4/

Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/mariah_avix

Summer Solace

Malcolm needs a summer away to decide if he wants to stay with his cheating wife. His daughter Daisy never wants to see the people who betrayed her.

In a cabin as far from the city as they can get Faye, the park ranger, warns them of fire, woods, and wildlife.

Will either learn to love or trust again, or will the forest devour them first?

Excerpt

Daisy frowned and picked up the binoculars by the window. She wasn’t sure but it looked sort of like a wisp of smoke. Looking closer there were no other wisps in the area. It didn’t seem like fog.

She held the binoculars pointed at the wisp and grabbed for the phone. She dialed the park office and Faye answered. “Hi Faye. I think I maybe see something that looks a little like smoke.”

“Where are you?” Faye’s voice was tense and high.

“I’m in my room, I’m looking down–” The line went dead.

Daisy frowned and looked down at the phone, it didn’t seem like Faye to hang up before getting all the details, but maybe she was going to race up the path. She’d done that before, gotten up to the cabin inhumanly fast. Daisy didn’t know if she should try the next number of the list.

She looked through the binoculars again, the wisp was still there, she was feeling more confident that it was fire. A screeching call and a huge bird seemed to fly right at her. She dropped the binoculars. She reached out to grab it but the bird grabbed it in its claws and flew back up to her. The bird set the binoculars down and screeched at her.

Daisy had been looking through the birding books and recognized it as a peregrine falcon as it perched on the window ledge. It screeched and pushed the binoculars toward her. Daisy picked them up. The bird of prey wanted something from her. She’d never been this close to a bird.

The bird called again and used its head to bump her hand, raising the binoculars closer to her eyes. Daisy got the feeling that the bird wanted to know where the fire was. She frowned and decided to play along.

She spotted the wisp again and pointed in the direction. The falcon took off. Daisy kept her eyes focused on the smoke. The falcon was diving into the spot incredibly fast. Daisy stared at the spot for a while longer but all she could see was that the amount of smoke seemed to increase.

Daisy dug out the list of phone numbers that Faye had given her and started at the top of the list. A man who sounded like he’d just woken up gruffly answered the phone. Daisy relayed the last few minutes of the morning to him.

She heard a loud roar that sounded for all the world like a bear through the phone, it got quieter quickly. A younger man who sounded surprisingly calm spoke into the phone. “We are on our way. Call this number immediately if you see anything change. Keep an eye from above. Do whatever the bird wants.”

Inspiration for The Bull Riding Witch

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

You may wonder why a college English teacher and overall fantasy fan decided to write a novel set in the rodeo. The inspiration for The Bull Riding Witch came when I went to a rodeo to help my husband sell concessions to raise money for a nonprofit he ran at the time. I hadn’t been to a rodeo since I was a young child and had no interest in doing so.

But as I watched this rodeo, I found in fascinating, in a they-still-do-this-thing way. In The Bull Riding Witch, I talk about the Holy Trinity of Rodeo: “America, God, and Ford trucks.” The announcer discuss each aspect of the Holy Trinity with equal gravity and seriousness; so much so, it seemed almost a parody of itself. I won’t talk about the trucks, but believe, they were equally serious about them. I may have gotten the order of some of the following mixed up, but not the earnestness with which they are pursued.

They began the rodeo with an over-the-top patriotic display. While it is fairly typical to sing the national anthem at sporting events, none of the rest of what rodeo does is. None of the videos in this post are from a rodeo I attended because I’ve never taken one, but they are typical of what I’ve witnessed and demonstrate how seriously rodeo takes the Holy Trinity. They have a single rider holding a huge flag ride around the arena when playing a patriotic country song. Although the riders I’ve seen have always been women, this is otherwise typical, as is the announcement beforehand honoring veterans and asking them to stand to be recognized.

And since one big flag isn’t enough, then comes the rodeo drill team in which all members carry smaller flags while riding in patterns, and patriotic country music still playing.

 

 

After the patriotic display, the announcer begins the rodeo with a prayer and a reminder that rodeo is the only sport to still start by giving praise and thanks to God. I wish I could remember the words of the prayer because it struck me as nearly ludicrous the seriousness he prayed for the rodeo performers and their bravery as well as extremely self-congratulatory that rodeo is dedicated to God. You can’t make this stuff up.

 

The Holy Trinity did fascinate me, but it was the rest of the rodeo out of which Daulphina, the bull riding witch, was born.What impressed me was the incredible skill of the participants combined with the pointlessness of developing such a skill. This was particularly notable in the team roping event, in which one rider has to rope the head of the calf and the other the heel. Watch some of them doing it:
Think how incredibly difficult that would be to do and the hours and hours of practice and dedication needed to perfect this skill, but at the same time, why? What makes it worthwhile to stretch a calf out like that? I know sports don’t have a practical purpose, but these seemed to harken back to an era that died 100 years ago.
Most fascinating of all was the bull riding, which always comes last in the rodeo. When you watch someone who’s good at it, like Wiley Petersen, it may not seem so difficult. Wiley was my consultant on all things rodeo, but I’ll talk more about him tomorrow.
You only have to stay on for 8 seconds, which may not seem like a lot, but at the first rodeo I went to as an adult, not a single one of the riders did it. As I’ve learned since, there is a lot more skill in staying on the bull than it appears to a novice. These are more typical of what I saw than Wiley’s ride.
When you get bucked off these bulls, you have a 2000 pound animal crashing its hooves down around you. That weight coming down on a rider has killed far more than one bull rider. Notice also how often they get hung up with their hand stuck in the rope while the bull throws them around like a rag doll. Trying something like this is insane. The list of injuries bull riders get is impressively long, and they all get hurt. They say it isn’t a matter of whether you get hurt, but when you get hurt. Often the injuries are extremely serious, and if it doesn’t kill you, it can paralyze you. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would subject themselves to this, especially for the few hundred dollars they could win at the rodeo I attended, and if you don’t win, you don’t get a dime. (At the PBR championships, you can win a lot more than a few hundred, but not at these local small time ones.)
While I was watching the bull riding, Daulphina was born. I thought someone has to set a fantasy book in this world. This setting is just too good to ignore, and I’ve never seen a fantasy book set in rodeo. If you know of one, tells us about in the comments below. It took a few years for her story to take shape because I was working on other projects at the time, but The Bull Riding Witch will be available soon.
Remember, I am giving away two signed print copies and two ebooks of The Bull Riding Witch when it is released. I have added a grand prize of a $25 Amazon gift card. To enter the contest, subscribe to my newsletter (see the sidebar) or comment on any of the posts in my blog. Each comment equals one entry, and you can enter as many times as you like.
Tell us about your experience with rodeo or the inspiration for your latest book.

Summary versus Scene

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

Summary versus Scene. What are they? When do you choose one over the other?*

Summary is where you take what happened in a relatively long period of time and convey it in a short space. It compresses time and detail, and it is mostly used to transition between scenes, to jump in time when nothing of vital importance happens to the story, or to fill in bits of background. It tells things that are necessary to know for the story to make sense, but aren’t as significant to the plot or development of the character. Summary should be used sparingly and generally only in short sections. Think of the montage technique in film making.

In Scene, on the other hand, you deal at length with what happened in a short period of time. Scene invites the reader into the story and makes them part of the action. Scene makes your readers see, feel, smell, taste, and hear what it happening. It is in scene where everything important should happen.

This is the beginning scene from The Bull Riding Witch:

I woke with my head pounding and my tongue coated with the fur balls of ten thousand cats. I nearly gagged at the stench that filled the air, a scent that combined the reek of inside of a knight’s armor after jousting with the odor of rotting flesh.
Confused, I examined my surroundings. Hung on the wall facing me was a portrait of a huge bull with its head down and its heels kicked high into the air. Incredibly, a man, hanging onto a rope with only one hand, sat on the bull’s back. Why would anyone ride a bull? Bulls were dangerous and impossible to control.
Piled high on the bedside table were plates covered with the remains of several meals, bowls with a few dregs of sour milk, and empty bottles. The sheet I laid on was stained with various substances I didn’t want to identify. Where was I? This was certainly no place worthy of me, the crown princess. Maybe I had somehow ended in the servants’ quarters, although I couldn’t imagine how.
I tried to sit up, and my head felt as if it were going to split in two. I groaned, and the sound was deep and masculine. What the . . .? I looked down at my arms. They were muscular and covered with hair. I grabbed my naked chest. My breasts were entirely flat, and my chest was covered with thick, coarse hair. When I rubbed my hand across my face, I felt thick stubble. I looked down at the short clothes, which were the only thing I was wearing; there was a bulge that just shouldn’t have been there. I lifted the waistband and peeked. Dear gods, how had I gotten one of those? I poked it with my finger, and it twitched. I snapped the waistband closed and jumped away, but I couldn’t get away from the body I was wearing.
            My breath came in dizzying gasps, and my pulse raced. This was just a dream, I told myself. It couldn’t be real.

 

You feel the thickness of her tongue, smell the stench, see the bull riding poster, and sense her confusion. You are with Daulphina coming awake in a body that isn’t hers. A little bit later in the first chapter, I have a short summary of how she got there:

I tried to think back to how this could have happened. I’d been going to the Temple of Cailleach to meet my lover. Clenyeth had told me he had important information and I should come alone. Clenyeth and I had had to be careful. If my father found out about us, Clenyeth could hang.
I’d seen Clenyeth near the entrance to the cave that housed Cailleach’s temple. As I hurried toward him, someone had grabbed me from behind and put a cloth that smelled sickly sweet over my mouth and nose, and then . . . And then . . .
 And then, I woke up as a man.

 

This gives the reader necessary background information, but they don’t experience it the same way as you do the scene. They aren’t there with her. It tells them things, but it doesn’t invite them into the story.

So a general rule, if it’s important, make it scene.

Share your thoughts on writing in the comments below.

*Disclaimer: The only unbreakable rule in fiction writing is “Does it work?” However, there are things that work more often than not. Make sure you understand a rule before you decide to break it in your case.

The Goddess’s Choice Release Blitz and Giveaway

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 2
The Goddess’s Choice
The Kronicles of Korthlundia Book 1
by Jamie Marchant
Genre: Epic Fantasy
In a world where the corrupt church hides the truth about magic, the
fate of the joined kingdom falls on the shoulders of two young people
from opposite ends of the social hierarchy.

Crown Princess Samantha’s life begins to fall apart when she starts
seeing strange colors around her potential suitors. She fears that
she’s going insane–or worse that she’s defying the Goddess’s
will. Robrek is a lowly farm boy with incredible magical powers. He
has been biding his time waiting to get revenge on those who call him
a demon.
Thrown together by chance, they must overcome their differences to fight
their common enemy Duke Argblutal, who, with dark magic, is slowly
poisoning the king’s mind and turning him against his own daughter.
Time is running out for those chosen by the Goddess to prevent the
power mad duke from usurping the throne and plunging the joined
kingdoms into civil war.

**On Sale – .99 TODAY ONLY!!***

**Don’t miss The Soul Stone: Book Two in The Kronicles of Korthlundia series!**

Jamie began writing stories about the man from Mars when she was six, and
she never remembers wanting to be anything other than a writer.
Everyone told her she needed a back up plan, so she pursued a Ph.D.
in American literature, which she received in 1998. She started
teaching writing and literature at Auburn University. One day in the
midst of writing a piece of literary criticism, she realized she’d
put her true passion on the backburner and neglected her muse. The
literary article went in the trash, and she began the book that was
to become The Goddess’s Choice, which was published in April 2012.
Her other novels include The Soul Stone and The Ghost in Exile. In
addition, she has published a novella, Demons in the Big Easy, and a
collection of short stories, Blood Cursed and Other Tales of the
Fantastic. Her short fiction has also appeared in the
anthologies–Urban Fantasy and Of Dragons & Magic: Tales of the
Lost Worlds—and in Bards & Sages, The World of Myth, A Writer’s
Haven, and Short-story.me. She claims she writes about the fantastic
. . . and the tortured soul. Her poor characters have hard lives. She
lives in Auburn, Alabama, with her husband and four cats, which (or
so she’s been told) officially makes her a cat lady. She still
teaches writing and literature at Auburn University. She is the
mother of a grown son.
Follow the blitz HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!