POV: 'Peter's Obvious Validation' by Peter Leavell

ACFW loops and other writing blogs are hosting an interesting question—Is it okay to write part of a novel in first person, another part in third person?

I’m embarrassed. My novel published at the beginning of the year, West for the Black Hills is sometimes first person, sometimes third person.

My decision to bungle the writing rules stemmed not from a maxim long ago found to quantify affective writing. The decision came from a deeper magic—relationships.

In life, we become friends with people in different ways. Some friends (or enemies) we work with. Other friends (or enemies) we meet at church. Sometimes we create friendships online. It’s not how we get to know people, it’s the character of the people themselves that matter.

So when I sat down to write West for the Black Hills, I wanted Philip Anderson, the reluctant gunfighter, in first person. But Anna, his sweetheart, was so intriguing she wrote herself in. It's simply how I wanted readers to meet my characters and start a relationship.

Did the method work? Yes, West for the Black Hills won several secular awards already and sales are great. Not because there was some rule about whether you can write a certain way or not, but because of the deeper magic of humanity—we need friends and people we like or hate. The truth carries over into our writing.

Focus on characters, focus on plot, and if they’re good enough, how the reader is introduced to them won’t matter so much.

And maybe your method will spark a topic on writing threads, and your face will turn red, and you’ll need therapy. Although, the awards make good therapy.

Disclaimer: Study writing laws so you know what rules you’re breaking. Remember, there is no magic formula for writing except a good story with compelling characters trumps everything. Also, awards make terrible therapists, and I’m still embarrassed.

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Peter Leavell is an award winning historical fiction author. He and his family research together, creating magnificent adventures. Catch up with him on his website at www.peterleavell.com, or friend him on Facebook: Peter R. Leavell. 

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Philip Anderson keeps his past close to the vest. Haunted by the murder of his parents as they traveled West in their covered wagon, his many unanswered questions about that night still torment him. 

His only desire is to live quietly on his homestead and raise horses. He meets Anna, a beautiful young woman with secrets of her own. Falling in love was not part of his plan. Can Philip tell her how he feels before it’s too late?
With Anna a pawn in the corrupt schemes brewing in the nearby Dakota town, Philip is forced to become a reluctant gunslinger. Will Philip’s uncannily trained horses and unsurpassed sharpshooting skills help him free Anna and find out what really happened to his family in the wilderness?

Saddle Up! Let's Ride!

Cooking up an antiquated western is easy!

Peter Leavell

First, grab a mixing bowl—we call it The West. Throw in a trusty horse and a cowboy with a white ten-gallon hat. Next, add spice—a gorgeous female in distress who wants a cowboy to take her to a ranch, where she'll have babies and keep the house clean for him. To add a bitter flavor, pour in a thin-lipped villain in black. Mix well. Dollop scenes in sequential order and bake in the Arizona desert until burnt. Serve with a side of angry Indian, a crusty gold miner looking for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, and beans.

Gone (we hope) are the days of formula westerns. So why do numbers say westerns are making a comeback? Because new westerns have qualities the enduring American West novels embraced.

High stakes keep readers turning the page. Losing a few head of cattle (when the stakes are steaks) won't keep the reader’s interested. If lives of many are troubled by the fight between the hero and villain, the more interesting. Granted, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is a cattle drive. But an entire way of life is at stake.

Photo use by permission. Laura Harkins

Give the girl a gun, please. Helpless damsels in distress are no longer in fashion, unless it's simply a person rendered defenseless  Historically, women in the west were cast-iron. Charles Portis wrote True Grit’s Mattie Ross as the toughest person in the novel, with more sand than even the meanest marshal she could find. She’s just awesome.

Embrace Ethnicity. Many of the famous western writers loved the Native American’s way of life and portrayed their point of view. Some included the Chinese, African American, Mexican, and countless others. Movies, however, needed faceless villains. The plot lines wreaked havoc on minorities. I’m thinking of the stagecoach chase scenes with feathered and painted Caucasian stuntmen galloping on horseback, only to be slaughtered by bouncing riders with small Winchesters. In today's westerns, everyone’s point of view matters.

No person is perfect. Even heroes and heroines suffer from limitations. Giving them a fault or a medical condition makes them more believable. Jubal, in Louis L’Amour’s Jubal Sackett, seems to suffer from ADHD and possibly a mild hyperkinetic disorder. But yet, he finds a place where he can be himself and discover love.

These tips and more are played out in my western West for the Black Hills, out now!

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Peter Leavell is an award winning historical fiction author. He and his family research together, creating magnificent adventures. Catch up with him on his website at www.peterleavell.com, or friend him on Facebook: Peter R. Leavell. 

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Out Now!

Philip Anderson keeps his past close to the vest. Haunted by the murder of his parents as they traveled West in their covered wagon, his many unanswered questions about that night still torment him. 

His only desire is to live quietly on his homestead and raise horses. He meets Anna, a beautiful young woman with secrets of her own. Falling in love was not part of his plan. Can Philip tell her how he feels before it’s too late?
With Anna a pawn in the corrupt schemes brewing in the nearby Dakota town, Philip is forced to become a reluctant gunslinger. Will Philip’s uncannily trained horses and unsurpassed sharpshooting skills help him free Anna and find out what really happened to his family in the wilderness?

Rewrite, Rewrite, and Rewrite Some More! by Tanya Hanson

Tanya Hanson

Hey writers, have you ever stopped to think about all the elements we fiction writers are attempting to balance as we write? Rewriting helps us layer in what we may have missed that first or second pass. Our guest today discusses writing historicals, rewrites, and how "knowing" and "doing" are two different things. Read on! ~ Annette

Rewrite, Rewrite, and Rewrite Some More

by Tanya Hanson

I’m meeting more and more authors who work full time, raise kids and pets, volunteer and do church work, and still manage to write books. I’m incredulous because...

...in the past, I did all those things concurrently except write books. I put it off until my kids went off to college. But I told myself I was learning. Preparing for my future as an author.

You see, I taught writing and literature to high school students. With my kids snug in their dormitories, I was mega-confident. Hadn’t I learned everything about writing by teaching it?

Well, there’s writing, and then there’s romance writing. I learned the difference quickly after joining an RWA chapter. A romance editor will excise long, overwrought paragraphs of description, no matter how perfectly they’re written. Why? Readers tend to skip them. 

Readers want action—the push and pull of the hero and heroine falling in love and finding their faith, in spite of themselves.

So what do we romance writers do? Our characters have to live somewhere. Best advice—mix in details about the setting in the characters’ action and dialogue, rather than all at once like a travel brochure.

Same thing in historical romance. Nobody wants a long lecture about the past. I write historical Westerns. To set the time and place, I might show my cowboy-hero discussing with the sheriff some topics relevant to the Old West. Maybe women’s suffrage, a Civil War battle, or the latest rifle technology. He and the lawman could be searching the cowboy’s ranch for clues on cattle rustlers. Throughout their conversation, my hero imparts some of his backstory as well as some historical tidbits. And the reader gets a good—but quick—mental picture of the setting.

I can even add some intrigue. Maybe the sheriff is a fan of barbed wire closing up the open range and my hero is not. Hmmm. I’ve just foreshadowed a potential conflict.

Another hint: Romance writers show; they don’t tell. Those adverbs so beloved by my students now become actions. For instance, “I’ll never leave you,” he said tenderly becomes even better by showing. “I’ll never leave you.” He brushed his fingers across her cheek.

The romance reader needs to “feel” not just “read” what’s going on. The plain old He held her hand becomes much more personal as Her breath hitched when he took her hand.

To quote Elmore Leonard, “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.” Even more so for those of us in romance. We want our readers to feel what our characters feel and not waste time or words getting there. Cutting and revising and editing hurts, but our stories are better for it.

Claiming His Heart

Learn more about Tanya here:

www.tanyahanson.com

www.petticoatsandpistols.com

www.sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com

The Power of Freebies

I don't know about you, but I read a lot, and I tend to download novels I'm interested in when they are offered for free. But how does that affect the author? Is it a good thing, or not? I asked Becky Lyles about her experience in offering her novel for free. (After reading her thoughts, be sure to share your own.)

"It's become common practice to market a book by giving away books of either the current release or a previous book. What had been experience in this area? Has it led to higher sales after the giveaway?" - Sandy


Becky: I recently read, again, that the best way to sell books is to hand out free copies. Over the years, I’ve donated dozens of books to libraries, blog contest winners, raffle winners at speaking engagements, fundraisers, friends who couldn’t afford the purchase price, and even a man we met at a campground. Most of those books were paper copies, but I’ve also gifted eBooks.

What did those freebies gain me? Almost always, I’m treated to a delighted smile. Sometimes I get a hug. One time, I was kissed on the cheek. As with any gift-giving, I’m blessed as much as the receiver. In addition, I might gain a new fan, or the reader could recommend the book to a friend. Once in a while, a recipient takes the time to write an Amazon review. But none of the above is measurable.

My publisher likes to do freebie eBook promotions on Amazon, where giveaways can be tracked. He says the higher an eBook goes on the Kindle Top Free eBook lists, the more readers an author will gain and the greater the potential is for the book to get a boost in sales when it comes off the promo. “Running a group of sales tends to help keep the rank up there longer. That’s why we run a second promo a month later.”

The eBook version of Winds of Wyoming, my first novel, was offered for free during three days in January and two days in February. Sales had been good up to that point, with Winds hanging in the top 50 Westerns/Christian for several weeks. Here are sample numbers showing how the freebie “sales” went:

• January 24: #75 Free in Kindle Store; #1 in Westerns/Christian; #6 in Romance/Christian 

• January 25: #25 Free in Kindle Store; #1 in Westerns/Christian; #4 in Romance/Christian; #4 in Religious Fiction/Romance 

• January 26: #22 Free in Kindle Store; #1 in Westerns/Christian; #5 in Religious Fiction/Christian; #5 in Religion & Spirituality/Christian

• February 22: #884 Free in Kindle Store; #1 in Westerns/Christian; #32 in Religious Fiction/Romance; #32 in Romance/Christian 

• February 23: #183 Free in Kindle Store; #1 in Westerns/Christian; #7 in Romance/Christian

As expected, the numbers jumped around during that time and continue to do so. Immediately following the freebie pushes, however, Winds of Wyoming rankings remained strong. Here are January 27 numbers: #2,896 Paid in Kindle Store; #6 in Westerns/Christian; #43 in Religious Fiction/Romance; #47 in Romance/Christian.

Rankings (eBook) hung at 20 to 50 in Westerns/Christian and 20,000 to 60,000 in the Kindle store for weeks. During that time, Winds was featured on a variety of blogs, I spoke at a local library, and our regional newspaper printed a rave review (God bless that sweet reviewer!), all of which helped sales. In the last couple weeks, I haven’t done much marketing due to a death in the family and working through the final edits for the sequel, Winds of Freedom. Yet, the first book continues to rank in the top 100 Westerns/Christian eBooks. I’m told the release of the second book, along with accompanying promotions, will positively influence first-book sales.

As I write this, my hubby, Steve, is reading a YA novel about mermaids, of all things, a book he would never have pulled off a shelf to read. He’s reading the book because we heard the author speak (she even brought along a live mermaid!), and when she finished her talk, she gave free copies of her books to her audience.

Steve is enjoying the story. Send me an email if you’d like to know the name of the novel, so you can order it for yourself. There you go—the power of freebies!

~~~

Fresh out of a Pennsylvania penitentiary armed with a marketing degree, Kate Neilson heads to Wyoming

anticipating an anonymous new beginning as a guest-ranch employee. A typical twenty-five-year-old woman might be looking to lasso a cowboy, but her only desire is to get on with life on the outside—despite her growing interest in the ranch owner. When she discovers a violent ex-lover followed her west, she fears the past she hoped to hide will imprison her once again.

 

Though debut novelist Rebecca Carey Lyles grew up in Wyoming, she and her husband, Steve, currently live in the neighboring state of Idaho. She enjoys the creativity and beauty that abound throughout her adopted state as well as opportunities to hike, camp, snowshoe and cross-country ski in the midst of God’s grandeur. While hiking in the Wyoming mountains one summer, she came nose-to-nose with—well, several feet from—a beautiful white wolf. Currently, she’s working through the final edits for a Winds of Wyoming sequel titled Winds of Freedom. http://www.beckylyles.com; http://www.widgetwords.wordpress.com

What about you? Do you have experience in this area? Has it been good or not-so-good? Are you a reader who takes advantage of these offers? As a reader,  what are your thoughts?