The history behind His Forgotten Fiancée

Alfred Jacob Miller - Breaking up Camp at Sunrise - Walters 371940142
History can be boring when it deals with economic issues and large, sweeping movements that usually deal with -isms. But history can be fascinating if you look at individual people, the problems they faced and the choices they made.

The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 stated that a white man could own 320 acres of land in Oregon basically just by asking for it. If he were married, he could claim 640 acres, a square mile. The other 320 acres were considered to be his wife’s claim. The wife could not have claimed the land on her own, however, any more than a single woman could. The only way the wife got control of the land was if her husband died. Good fodder for a mystery novel, perhaps, but not a romance.

Where I saw possibilities for a romance novel was in the part of the act that stated that any single man could claim the additional 320 acres, so long as he got married before December of 1851.

Apparently, there were a lot of marriages that year.

I’ve read secondary sources who claim some men married girls who were too young to be wives; these girls stayed with their parents until they were old enough to live with their husbands.

His Forgotten Fiancée

My First Ever Book!

I set my story in the fall of 1851 because I wanted Liza to face pressure to get married. As a young, unmarried woman in the Oregon Territory, she encountered a lot of single men who wanted to marry her. I liked the conflict it set up for Matthew: he did not want to marry a woman he couldn’t remember proposing to, but at the same time it bothered him to think of her marrying someone else. The poor man wasn’t being very logical. But if I’d had every memory of my past stripped from me, I might not be very logical either.

Adventures in cat training

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After much discussion, I have persuaded NotMyCat to come inside to eat, since leaving food outside meant also feeding every other cat in the neighborhood, as well as NotMyWasp and NotMyRaccoon and, on one memorable occasion, NotMySkunk. She doesn’t linger, just comes in to eat and then wants to be let outside again immediately. I’d thought it was safe enough to leave a bowl of cat food on the floor in the kitchen. Until yesterday.

Last winter, mice had found a way to get into the laundry room. Ack! I made sure the dryer vent was closed and for that matter closed the laundry room door so they couldn’t get into the house. I hadn’t seen or heard any sign of them in months, so I had forgotten all about it.

The other afternoon, I came into the laundry room and saw something dark moving along the baseboard. It could have been a fast-moving shadow from the trees outside the window. It was windy; the boughs were going up and down. But I was suspicious.

cropped-img_1194.jpgI lured NotMyCat indoors with food bribes. Then I picked her up and carried her to the laundry room. I talked at great length about her hunting prowess and how much I appreciated what a mighty huntress she was and by the way if she felt like doing some hunting I wouldn’t mind in the least.

When I set her down, she showed no interest in her surroundings. She merely trotted to the door and asked to be let out.

Ten minute later, I heard a muffled meowing at the sliding glass door. Her voice was muffled because she was holding a bird in her mouth. She was standing there expecting praise.

Luckily, the cat’s idea of bird hunting is catch-and-release. I slipped outside before I started to praise her extravagantly, which gave the bird the opportunity to fly away. But I have learned to be much more specific when I ask NotMyCat to do me a favor.

Cat training is not for the faint of heart. In His Forgotten Fiancée the heroine, Liza, is fiercely determined to keep mice from eating all the grain. The hero, Matthew, gets her a kitten and tries to teach the little one to hunt mice. It’s uphill work:

Liza left Pa sharpening the scythe and went to find Matthew. He wasn’t washing up down by the creek or anywhere in sight. She heard the rumble of his deep voice coming from the barn. Curious, she went to investigate.

“Still hungry, even after all that milk? I really do not understand how you expect to get anywhere if you just crouch by that empty dish and cry. Go out there and find some mice! No, don’t look at me with those sad eyes. I am impervious to such maudlin sentiment.” A heavy sigh from inside the barn. “Here, look, I’ll show you. It’s simple. Pretend my hand is a mouse. You’re hungry. I’m right here. What do you do? You pounce. Yes! Just like that. Let your instinct guide you. No, my hand is not, in actual fact, edible.” Another sigh. “Oh, all right. I seem to have saved a bit of salmon from breakfast this morning. I will share it with you.”

Slowly, she peeked in around the door. Matthew was crouched down, lecturing the kitten as seriously as if it were an entire jury. “This is not setting a precedent, do you understand? You need to learn how to hunt.”

His Forgotten Fiancée

Time for a Fairy Godmother

Plate facing page 050 of Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen (Walker)

And indeed there will be time…
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Arthur Prufrock

I am making progress on my revisions for The English Lieutenant’s Lady.
It just doesn’t feel like it.
Seriously, I am getting close to done. Well, as close as ever I get. Close to muttering imprecations under my breath and calling it Done so I don’t have to look at it any longer. I’ve got a couple of chapters revised on my Victorian romance, which is going slower than it should be, mostly because I’m 40% done with the rough draft of The-Story-I-Shouldn’t-Be-Working-On-Yet.
Mind you, according to the schedule I’d optimistically drawn up a few months ago, I should be finished with all of these stories and just typing The End on a story that I’ve been dreaming of for–well, for longer than I want to admit.
So many stories, so little time. I wish there were such a thing as a fairy godmother, who could wave a wand and find a way for me to pay the bills and keep NotMyCat fed without having to work at a day job.

Put a bonnet on it

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Actual Oregon Trail prairie bonnet, modeled by a kind docent at the Newell Pioneer Village

The Newell Pioneer Village in Champoeg is a fabulous place to visit if you want to know about how the Oregon Trail pioneers lived. A lot of families donated the clothing the pioneers wore, or the string beds they’d slept in, or old flintlocks, schoolbooks, all kinds of things.

Plus, there are kind, knowledgable docents who can explain the stories behind the artifacts. One lady was nice enough to model a bonnet for me. She said it made her feel like a horse wearing blinders. It cut of all peripheral vision.

Beautiful horse head profile
On the one hand, it’s good to have something to protect you from the sun, especially when you’re out harvesting the crops in the blazing sunlight. They didn’t really have much in the way of sunscreen back then. Plus, being tan was seen as lower class. The fashion was to have skin as pale as possible.

On the other hand, I would hate to feel like a horse wearing blinders.

I liked the idea of using details from daily life in my story, so I made this a point of conflict between Matthew and Liza. He wanted to keep her protected from everything, including the sun, while she wanted to be free and independent.

“Women’s fashions are often ridiculous, but there is some merit in wearing a bonnet. It will protect you from the sunlight.”

“But I’ll be able to better see what I’m doing without it.”

“It’s not proper for a lady to go bare headed.” They had arrived at the wheat field, and he handed her the bonnet again.

She squinting up at the sky, then around at the fields on every side. “Who would I shock? The birds?”

“You are not taking into account the feelings of this innocent, young kitten. They’re very sensitive at that age.” One corner of his mouth twitched up, as if he were trying to restrain a smile.

“I am starting to wonder about this kitten. No matter how often I offer him food, he never seems hungry. Are you still feeding him snacks at odd hours of the day?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said, straight faced.

“I think I should name this kitten here Elijah. The ravens must be bringing him food.”

I think you are trying to change the subject.”

“It is my head, and whether I put a bonnet on it — or not — is my decision.” She draped the bonnet over a stump.

Liza knew she was being stubborn on this issue, but it seemed important to make that point clear. He was trying to look out for her, protect her. That was his instinct with women. But he could not have it both ways. He could not protect her at the same time he was planning to leave her.

– His Forgotten Fiancée

His Forgotten Fiancée: the beginning

IMG_1497I would never have written this book if it hadn’t been for a kind editor and Harlequin’s Manuscript Matchmaker contest.

One of the things that tempted me to enter the contest was that the initial requirements were so simple. They asked for a paragraph describing the story and for the first page. With a few minor changes, the page that I wrote was what ended up in the finished story:

“Who am I?”

Liza Fitzpatrick dropped the cleaning rag onto the counter of the dry goods store and spun around. A man stood in the doorway, his rough, working-class clothes soaked to the skin. He stared at her as if she were the first woman he’d ever seen.

Ten steps to the back room, half a minute to grab Pa’s rifle. She might be able to make it. Sober, the long-legged man could easily outpace her. But not the way he was swaying from side to side. It was getting dark outside, and she found it difficult to guess his age in the light from the single lantern, but beneath the beard and the bedraggled brown hair that fell to his shoulders, he looked under thirty.

“Well?” Impatience edged his tone like a well-honed knife.

She cleared her throat. “Um… good evening. Mr. Vandehey, three doors down, serves liquor —“

“That’s the last thing I need.” He sagged against the doorframe, his head drooping.

She took a couple of cautious steps closer, to get a better look at the man. Red streaks trailed down his forehead. “You’re hurt!”

His head came up. “Obviously.” Those thick eyebrows could have been designed to scowl at her. His dark eyes woke the memory of a pain that she had thought buried safely away. Recognition twisted inside her like a knife plunged straight into her heart. He repeated, “But who am I?”

“You don’t know?” She stared at him. This encounter was starting to take on the unreal qualities of a nightmare. That was ironic, considering she had been dreaming of this moment for months. She had imagined all the different ways the scene would play out — or she thought she had.

“I am trying to be patient, madam.” The man spoke with a cultured accent at odds with his wild, mountain man appearance. “I would appreciate the courtesy of an answer to my one — simple — question. Do you know who I am?”

“Yes,” she said. “You are the man I am going to marry.”

He swayed further, and his eyes closed. Then he leaned against the doorframe, sliding slowly down to the ground in a faint.

His Forgotten Fiancée

Every book on writing says that you need to grab the reader from the start with an eye-catching opening. Does this work? Do you feel grabbed? Is your curiosity tickled, your attention caught, your interest piqued?

Giveaway: Only two more days left to win a copy of His Forgotten Fiancée at Christian Shelf Esteem!

Come visit me at Petticoats & Pistols! (Giveaway)

 

My first week as a published author* and my second guest post!

Come visit me at Petticoats & Pistols. I’m talking about my adventure is using a scythe to ‘harvest’ my lawn. My hero in His Forgotten Fiancée  had to use a scythe, and I wanted to know what it would have felt like for him.

Spoiler alert: I survived. My lawn… well…

Plus, I’m giving away a copy of His Forgotten Fiancée!

*I keep using that phrase because I’m trying to make myself believe it. Eventually, I’m sure the reality will sink in. Maybe.

It’s a strange feeling to see your book in a store

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Found on a bookshelf in Indiana! Photo credit: Ann Mettert

I did it! I went to the store and had a Confirmed Sighting, in the wild, on the shelf, of a book that I had scribbled onto a yellow legal pad. And it looked like people might have even bought one or two. Inconceivable.
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I will not admit to giggling madly when I saw my book on the shelf, but I might have burbled my excitement to the lady next to me when I asked if she’d take my picture holding my book.

“Oh, did you write that? Hmmn. I’ll have to take a look at it.”

When I walked away, she was reading the description. I did not look back, but I’m going to assume that she decided to buy it. Because that’s the way I want this Visit-to-the-store story to go, so there.

When I went to pay for my groceries (no, I did not buy a copy) I asked the cashier how her day was going.

“Well… I’m here,” she said.

“Hey,” I said. “Some days, that’s a victory.”

She agreed.

Then, because yes I was a mad, burbling fool by this point, I said It. “I just saw my first book for sale in the book department.” I might have beamed at her, if I’m being completely honest.

“Oh, that’s cool. What’s it called?” She wrote down the title and said she’d get a copy for her niece. And yes, I know, she might have been saying that to make me feel good, but by this point I was writing the Happy Ending of my Visit-to-the-store story, and in my version she rushed out and bought a copy.

Plus, we got to talking about stories and she was writing a story with her friend, and she loved reading Kresley Cole’s stories, and by the time she got through ringing up my groceries she was in a much better frame of mind than she had been at the start of our conversation, thinking of all the stories she still wanted to write. So there is that.

When you walk into a store and don’t see your book upon the shelves, there’s only one possible conclusion. Repeat after me: “I’m sold out!” -Julia Quinn

 

My first day as a published author & my first guest post! (Giveaway)

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My First Ever Book!

Welcome to 2018!

I hope your year is off to a good start. Myself, I woke up as a published author. It doesn’t feel real. Maybe I should go get a tweed jacket, the kind with patches over the elbows. Real writers always seem to wear one of those. Presumably their jackets get worn down because authors are constantly rubbing elbows with the rich and famous? One can  hope.

I’m starting off the year with a guest post on Christian Shelf Esteem. Please check it out! I’m giving away a signed copy of His Forgotten Fiancée!