What we hold sacred

Bear Butte after the big fire

"The four cardinal virtues so valued by the Lakota: bravery, generosity, fortitude (in regard to both dignity and the ability to endure physical hardship) and wisdom. ... the fourth was more difficult to acquire, springing in part from a combination of the first three but also from additional attributes -- experience, intelligence, spirituality, and  superior judgment in all matters."      

From 'A Terrible Glory' by James Donovan

I love these values also and only wish we looked for the same in our leaders... Too often we settle instead for rhetoric and image-- for someone who says what we wish to hear.

The United States did not defeat the Lakota and Cheyenne because we were a superior people but because we had superiority in power and numbers. I am not one who believes the Native American way of life was always superior to the European, but there are some values that I feel we are losing track of even from my childhood years.  Is it too late to change our values to something more positive in our own lives and even more in what we expect from those we vote for as leaders?

it is said that Crazy Horse spoke to the People from here

prayer tree along path and from top of Bear Butte

a Native American encampment at the base of the mountain

Three times I have been on Bear Butte where I always have gone with a feeling of sacredness. I will write more about those times-- when things quiet down a bit here.

Bear Butte was and is still sacred to the Plains peoples. The story goes that Crazy Horse, a rather mythic leader, though never a chief (he was a 'shirt wearer' which had spiritual significance until he made a decision in his personal life that lost him that designation), was born at its base and is secretly buried on its side. 

To find my own photos, I had to send my husband to the attic to retrieve full boxes; so I could scan them. I wanted them on my computer. I want to return and perhaps will when we visit where my husband's people came west from-- Iowa and Missouri, and my birth family's ancestral grounds-- the Black Hills. Ironic isn't it... 

When I have been to Bear Butte, I just couldn't bring myself to go to the Black Hills, Pahá Sápa, but now I want to see the graveyard there of my family. It was so important to them that some died in Oregon and had their bodies returned to the Black Hills for burial.

Whenever I go, I will try to not think about the unfairness involved with its acquisition, the commercialism, and appreciate the beauty that I have been told is in this very special place.

To be or not to be

When I am writing a story, going through this preliminary phase of creating in my head, one thing that always stops me for awhile is when I am considering adding a spiritual/paranormal element. When I wrote Sky Daughter it was one of the aspects with which I wrestled. Should the spiritual element be real or imaginary? Either are possible in such stories.

I woke up thinking about this problem because some aspect of it is going to be in the Tucson historical romance. Tucson, Arizona and the valley in which it sets is a place with a tremendous number of spiritual elements all coming together in what at one time was a flowing river and its surrounding riparian zone. It inspires the possibility of real spiritual power-- of positive and negative sorts.

Picture Rocks

Tucson is a good place to find love but also violence. The events that have happened, keep happening, have created an atmosphere of conflict and resolution, beauty and danger. If you are sensitive, you will feel it in the air and come across the evidence that others have felt it with their petroglyphs, the shrines, the churches.  It's a good place to be when wondering about spiritual traditions, mysteries, and the source of life.

 San Xavier, the White Dove of the Desert

Friday morning I awoke thinking about all this in terms of the story, which I had laid aside to write the Christmas novella. The one thing I knew is that this story will have a spiritual element with a heroine who is curious about the psychic world, a Yaqui sidekick for the hero, the setting in Tucson, but how far did I want to take that?


I know a lot of the plot, the dilemmas the couple will face and feel I know these people but what about the part I don't know? How much of that shall I put into it? There will be some spiritual searching but how about the paranormal itself? I find it fascinating and have done a lot of research over the years, but how far do I want to go in this book?

While I’ve been in Tucson, I’ve gone to some of my favorite petroglyph sites, which show at the least an attempt to understand the Cosmos, possibly tell their stories, but were they placed where they are with a feeling these were sacred sites or are they all that is left? They do feel like sacred space which is to be respected in the same way a church does. Is there real energy of some sort and it's why they exist where they are? The site for San Xavier was a holy site to the Tohono O'odham before the Spanish priests came and erected a church there.

Shrine in downtown Tucson

There are many sacred sites around the United States and, of course, the world. Do they hold some kind of power as some believe of the Sedona vortexes? Or Stonehenge in England? Is there some kind of reality to the paranormal, that which we might experience but cannot explain? Could there be power from a physical source like say ions in the air which is why the energy is good around a waterfall?

For the book I am soon to start writing, my big question is not whether the questing will be there. It will be part of the underlying theme. The question is how real do I make it?

Once in awhile I have wrestled with that for a story as I am not traditionally religious and am more of an agnostic than an atheist. I don't write sci fi or fantasy where you can let fly with what you might imagine. Romances can have all of that, but mine have not. They have been grounded in the 'real' world as much as I know of it. It would be possible to put the spiritual elements in the story and have the characters recognize it as a false quest or equally it would be possible to have them touch the unknown, to come out of their experiences with a greater understanding of the unexplainable, the mystery of life. That's the quandary of a writer.
 

 el Tiradito

Humans really do want to believe there is magic and you see the evidence of it everywhere. Should this book be a place to find some of that magic or is it better to be 'realistic' about what is true...  if we know what that is.

Leaving our stories behind

When we write a story, draw a picture, create a sculpture, we are creating something for others, hopefully leaving something of ourselves, of how we see the world. It will be our interpretation of an event, a spiritual truth, life, nature, the cosmos, but whether the 'others' will see what we intended, who ever knows.

When in Tucson, I always like to visit petroglyph sites. Well actually I like them anywhere I go but here there are quite a few with easy access. One on my someday list is harder to reach, much longer hike, and I wasn't in shape this trip nor had I gotten the necessary permits ahead of time-- someday though.

Because I am starting on another Arizona historical novel, one or more of these sites will be worked into the story, and I might use one of the photos in its trailer. They are a good example of how when you are writing something, being there can add to your ideas for the events. This western always was planned to have some mystical elements, Yaqui and others, and so these sites work into that theme.

Regardless of whether I am writing or not, visiting such places is always important to me. To be there always feels infused with energy which maybe explains why they are where they are... or maybe these are just the places the elements didn't wipe out the etchings into the rocks.

As for their original story or purpose, it's all guesswork. They could be stories of life, sites for sacred work, but whatever the artist intended, visiting them always seems good to me and I've had that pleasure on many sites across the West.

The following petroglyphs are all Hohokam, probably over a thousand years old and in the Tucson area-- Signal Hill, Painted Rock, and Honeybee Canyon.

Samhain and Sky Daughter

Being today is Samhain, it seemed a good time to promote one of my books-- actually the only book (so far) that has a witch, more accurately wiccan, as a character... two and possibly three of them.

Samhain is the time when the veil between the worlds grows most thin. It is when the distance between the dead and living is most easily breached. It's celebrated by most people as Halloween or All Hallow's Eve and many have long since forgotten from where it came. But witches know...

 Sky Daughter is not set at Samhain but does climax with another important Celtic celebration-- Lammas, which is significant in the plot. The story is of a young woman who, after a series of disappointments, has returned to her grandfather's Idaho mountain home. She has come with no clue what she would find, but it was definitely not the love of her life nor an experience that will open her eyes to a whole different definition of reality.

Do monsters exist? Can humans find spiritual power other than through a godlike being? What about those witches? Are they truly evil or might they be those who most understand that thin line between our side and what lies beyond? Might they be the ones who sometimes stand between us and them?

Of course it has a trailer...

symbolism in books

Personally, I find it fun to put a little mysticism into my stories. In my daily life, I can't say I am a particularly superstitious person, but I do pay attention to what is around me and enjoy coming across possible symbols. How much weight I give them varies from zero to wait and see.

When I write a book, I am free to give mystical symbols more weight.  It takes some research to find the appropriate creature, learn its meaning, be sure it could actually be seen where I need it to appear, and then decide how much it is revealing. Does it come from an outside spirit source or simply the character's need to find something to help?

When I create a trailer, I often put in an animal of some sort that might not have even been in the story but that its meaning suits the feel of the book. For that I have used spiders, hawks, foxes, etc.

In the book itself, using say a dragonfly and having it continually crop up can serve as foreshadowing if there is a character who might know it's meaning.

The above photo was one of a series I took of a dragonfly over at Klamath Lake in 2010 with fireweed in the background. The unusual rounded reflection was pure luck with a sun bubble and the stem as it was not photoshopped. For coloring and purpose, it would be perfect for the book I am writing where the heroine is like the fluffy pink flower, unfocused and uncertain of direction but about to find a metamorphosis coming in her near future.

Dragonflies symbolize change as they spend most of their life under water as a nymph. When they emerge, they fly for only a few months before they die. Seeing them like this is fleeting time they fly with beauty and grace. If a character were to see dragonflies where they did not expect, it would seem a possible indication of major change coming.... if one believed in symbols.

This praying mantis shot, from September 2012, also has a bit of an other earthly feel to it from the big camellia leaf right behind. Being a telephoto shot, the background was lost allowing the insect to have center stage.

This is a female and they sometimes eat the male when they mate. Can't think of a much more apt symbol for a man afraid of relationship or perhaps a man who had bad luck with a wife, she died or left him, and now he worries that the next woman will be the end of him.  Perhaps a more positive meaning for the man would be to make sure that the woman he chooses is his equal, that he cannot be overpowered by her, nor would he want to overpower her. Two strong mates and neither will destroy the other.

It's rewarding to think of symbols for a story using something from the animal world be it a bird, fish, mammal, reptile or insect. They can add something to the story and give the writer a little more depth not only for their character but to the events. It can be a small creature or a very large and frightening one.

For life, seeing such things, even better getting a photo adds excitement. In a book, it can help tell the story.

Praying Mantis

For the week before the fall equinox, it might have seemed nothing had been happening in the writing of my new book. No writing on it can be proven, nothing has ended up on the hard drive. A lot is happening though-- most of it in my head.

With the lead characters laid out as to their personalities, secondary characters making themselves known, the issue right now is knowing the historic facts I need. Currently I am reading The United States Marshals of New Mexico & Arizona Territories 1846-1912 by Larry D. Ball. It is helping me understand better the role of a United States Marshal and making me wonder if I really want the hero of that second book to be one. Maybe sheriff of Pima County would be better. I'll know better when I finish the book.

In terms of plotting, I know the next steps in the story between hero and heroine but am thinking a lot on what else happens. I am getting a better sense of who the villain will be. I am thinking about where the /\/\/\/ goes in terms of action. I think I mentioned the W before how you build excitement, release it, build it again, release, sometimes smaller and less intense before comes the final build up to hopefully a rewarding climax.

One thing I believe, after having written thirteen books, with two in the nymph stage, about writing a new book is it should not be always happening. Writing a book should not be on a timetable, and it should not be pushed to happen. It's about patience, waiting, thinking, planning, exploring, collecting, and being ready when the time comes to lay it down fast.

Last week a praying mantis returned again to the yard. Now they are likely here all along but not seen by me. I do look for them, but they aren't showy of colors or behavior like a dragonfly or butterfly.

The praying mantis is seen when it's ready. Given the season, this one was probably looking for a place to lay her eggs. I cannot think of an insect, except maybe a spider that seems to move with such slow purpose and without fear of humans-- apparently.

Of all the blogs I have written, the one drawing the most visitors, with still leaving comments several years after I wrote it, was the one on the praying mantis. People are fascinated by them and curious as to their meaning.

Because I believed, for me, that this praying mantis related to writing, perhaps wants to be a character in the lawman's story, I went looking for spiritual symbolism and came across this:

"The mantis comes to us when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives. Usually the mantis makes an appearance when we've flooded our lives with so much business, activity, or chaos that we can no longer hear the still small voice within us because of the external din we've created. After observing this creature for any length of time you can see why the symbolism of the praying mantis deals with stillness and patience. The mantis takes her time, and lives her life at her own silent pace"

It suits how I feel right now about the writing. I am collecting information  and images-- even have most of a cover worked out. Meanwhile I am grateful to the praying mantis for the photographs for which it posed so nicely with over 30 shots-- 4 or 5 coming out very revealing of her personality.

Excerpt from Sky Daughter

Seeking peace in Idaho's mountains, Maggie first shoots a stranger, then saves his life. She's pulled into danger, passion, occult secrets; a world where no one is who she thought.

Once in awhile, experts suggest it's good to put out an excerpt as a way to give readers a taste of your writing. All of my books on Kindle offer the first chapter as such a sample, but I thought it'd be fun to pick a scene to stand alone.  I can't say it's a favorite. I like them all, but it's one I particularly relate to and think readers here might also.

In this simple scene from Sky Daughter more is revealed as to who Maggie is, what she is learning about the life she has chosen and who her grandmother had been. That it's about gardening is a bonus.

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In the kitchen, Maggie picked up the flats of plants she had optimistically grown from seed. The first little plants had gone outside too soon and had their leaves blackened by a late frost, but she could protect these no longer. Most likely the deer would eat them before they got settled in, but she would give them a chance, a moment in the sun.

  Planting was part of the heritage of her grandmother. The urge to continue the cycle of growth, of planting and sowing ran strongly through her veins. After so much loss, so many aborted opportunities and lives, she had a need to see life reach fruition.

  Working in the sun-warmed soil, Maggie put everything from her mind except weeding carefully around the lavender plants, loosening the soil by the rosemary. She hummed as she worked, then came words about planting and releasing to grow. As quickly as the words came to her, they were gone. She sighed. The song would’ve never satisfied her managers anyway.

   She dug a hole for one of the marigolds, threw in a bit of fertilizer and then tamped the soil back around the tender plant. Planting meant a belief in the future, a desire for improving the present, and a reaching back to the past. It encompassed all of life to sow it with the hope of someday reaping.

   She sat in the garden when she had finished, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin, the coolness of the soil beneath her knees. Why were tears running down her cheeks?

   Maggie girl. The words seemed almost real. She closed her eyes as she again heard her grandmother’s voice, seemingly could almost smell the blend of soap and the fragrance of herbs that was so much a part of every memory she had about her. She could feel the touch of that precious hand on her shoulder, soothing and giving her subtle energy. God, she missed that woman. She remembered her grandmother’s tall form as she would walk across the mountain, calling to Maggie and taking her with her into the woods, teaching her about the woods plants, which ones healed, which ones could be used for a fever, which ones poisoned.

   When had she forgotten the names, forgotten those words? She had been taught so much and it seemed it was all gone. She remembered one of the many conversations.

   ‘Dream, Sky Daughter, dream of the future and of all that will be.’

   ‘Grandma, I don’t remember my dreams.’

   ‘You must try harder. Dreams are the spirits speaking to you. They are your power.’

    ‘Mama says they’re not.’

    ‘Your mama had to follow her path and you must follow yours. They are not the same.’

   ‘How do you know?’

   ‘I know and you will too when the time comes.’

   ‘How?’

   Her grandmother just smiled. ‘You will.’

   ‘You could tell me now.’

   ‘No one should tell another their path, Sky Daughter, but someday you will know yours.’

   Maggie felt tears running down her cheeks and wiped the back of her hands across her eyes, to brush them away. “I miss you so. I thought you’d be here to teach me, to always tell me. Why did you have to go?”

   A hummingbird buzzed her, warning her off from the area, letting her know she was intruding on protected ground. Somewhere nearby was probably its nest. It was operating by instinct as she had found herself doing with Reuben.

  She looked toward the forest. She tried to force a change in reality, to go back in time, to see those, who had gone, come walking toward her. They would be laughing and talking about how much fun they would have had on a picnic at the falls. Her childish voice would be raised in excitement as it had been in those days of feeling so protected and loved.

  She waited, but all she could hear was the sound of a raven calling from higher up the mountain, the angry scream of a hawk, and the soothing tweets of smaller birds in nearby bushes. Never again would her loved ones be with her, and she had to face that reality.

Sky Daughter, a paranormal romance based in Idaho, is available at Amazon Kindle 

Sky Daughter as an eBook

With having written ten contemporary manuscripts, I will now have nine as eBooks on Amazon Kindle with the publication of Sky Daughter. It is a story of a family, its secrets, and what that means as one member of the family has been involved in something very dangerous which will effect not only them but their small mountain community.

Maggie Gard has returned to the Idaho mountains after a series of setbacks to work at the service station her family runs and be there for her grandfather who seems to be failing. Instead of peace, she meets a stranger who is in trouble and will challenge her on every level. With him, she will begin to unravel secrets that will impact her view of the world.

The story is one of mysticism, the paranormal, power run amok, ancient religious traditions, and that of a passionate love between two very different people who are also trying to find peace of mind regarding the religious and spiritual heritages of their families. The following passage is from the book when Maggie is remembering a childhood conversation with her dead grandmother:

‘Dream, Sky Daughter, dream of the future and of all that will be.’ 

 ‘Grandma, I don’t remember my dreams.

‘You must try harder. Dreams are the spirits speaking to you. They are your power.' 

‘Mama says they’re not.’ 

 ‘Your mama had to follow her path and you must follow yours. They are not the same.'

‘How do you know?’

‘I know and you will too when the time come.'

‘How?'

Her grandmother just smiled. ‘You will.’

‘You could tell me now.'

‘No one should tell another their path, Sky Daughter, but someday you will know yours.’

Sky Daughter on Amazon Kindle

Mysticism and Fiction

Is there anything more mystical than the attraction between two people which often goes against every expectation they ever might've had. Chemistry. Phrenomes. Physical attraction. On you go but explanations never really explain it. There is a connection that  is mystical where two people do become one in a way that goes beyond the physical. Words don't really explain it; and if you have felt it, you don't need me to explain it. If you haven't felt it, you think I am nuts.

That kind of connection is mystical but it isn't the one that determines if those two can build a life together-- that's when they leave behind the mystical, quit using just pathos reasoning and head into ethos and logos territory.

Well that is not what I am going to write regarding the mystical and fiction but that particular photo was purchased from stock to be part of the cover and in a trailer for the only book that I have really written where the mystical is a big part of the story.

Although Sky Daughter does have two adults falling in love (and you know where that goes), there is something more as it looks at another kind of spirituality where you take A, add in B and empower something new-- C. In the case of Sky Daughter the chemistry leads to an example of how this can be a bad thing, can empower something threatening. Sometimes that can happen in ways people never imagined-- but they better figure it out if they want to put an end to it.

Although this is the first book I have written with a paranormal element, I have had 'mystery' in other stories. Most of my books discuss at least briefly spiritual beliefs. I have had major characters who believe and those who do not. I always know what they think about it because I write more character driven than plot driven stories.

I do not have major characters who are into a religion in any major sense because it's not how I think or believe is healthy-- and my stories are always what I believe is healthy. As a writer there is a responsibility to write truth as much as the writer knows it, which obviously the reader may see differently.

In a plot driven story the reader might not know the spiritual beliefs of the main character. It may not come up in the rush around the adventure. In a character driven story, even if the emphasis is not on the spiritual, the writer does know that character's take on god, morality, religion, and how those beliefs impact their lives. The writer will know how they got to where they are spiritually even if they don't end up making it a big part of the story.

To be continued next blog.

Free on Thursday a romance set in the world of cults

So far my free days have been successful in terms of getting people to possibly try a book they would not otherwise. Each of the three has gotten over a thousand takers. The numbers surprised us a lot as some of those had come from Europe.

So I hope this free day for Hidden Pearl will also draw in readers, maybe even some new ones who are attracted to not only the romance but the book's underlying premise which is why do people choose cults, what are they hoping to find. The hidden pearl isn't a real thing but rather that for which we seek-- often with unintended consequences.


Hidden Pearl will be free for 24 hours on Thursday, February 23. Just be sure if you want it that you get it before the sale ends. Sometimes people goof and end up paying $2.99 when that wasn't their goal. Fortunately Amazon refunds their money but better is to not have it go wrong.

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A contemporary western romance, with a mystery at its center,  explores the question of what is worth dying and even more living for.

Life's plans often become derailed by events beyond our control. Such a life changing day begins for S.T. Taggert with a call from his Navajo mother asking the multimillionaire builder/architect to find what has happened to his sister, Shonna, whom he has not seen since he left home in his teens. At the same time he learns from the newspaper that Lane Brown, a colleague, has just committed suicide.

 S.T.'s day just keeps getting better as a photographer for a slick magazines shows up to do a photo spread he had not agreed to do and turns out to be the beautiful and spirited Christine Johnson. Sparks fly.

The two are both drawn south in Oregon toward a mysterious cult where Christine has an assignment to photograph its successful evangelistic leader, and S.T. finds a possible cause of the disappearance of his sister and a connection between this cult and Lane Brown.

Hidden Pearl is about a couple who are naturally attracted to each other while they have a lot of reasons to not become emotionally entangled. Their love story unwinds as they try to find what happened to Shonna, Lane, and survive the intentions Peter Soul has for each of them.

So love, mystery, adventure, and an exploration of what humans hope to get when they look for a spiritual answer to life-- not only from such cults but from also other spiritual traditions.

Hidden Pearl