Is your book set in a hobby store?

Is your book set in a hobby store?

My mystery series is set in a White House dollhouse store.  I started having problems almost immediately because of the age differences between the person who raised her from a little girl and her knowledge of the first ladies.  How could a girl in her early twenties know so much about the first ladies plus all the nuances surrounding the many presidents? I had to make her educated and a little older.

My corner of the characters’ universe was drawn, I decided upon the First Lady Dolley Madison  as the first miniature doll plus the president. I had already researched Dolley and was in love with her. I wanted to make her as important as the main character. So, I speak to my dolls frequently which allows the reader to learn a little bit of history.

In all four novels the store is in a brown stone building which was built at the turn of the 20^th century, right around 1880-1920. The building age fits the concept of what I was after—older buildings—quaint and interesting.  However, I change a building here and there, using new ownership and businesses.

As the reader follows along in SPANGLED to DEATH I have the characters eating at a local coffee house near where she lives, The Riverview.

Who occupies the diner? Coffeeshop? Do you have a garden? This and more is all part of your setting? Who tends the garden and buries the dead at night under a moonless night? Are there bushes nearby for the killer to hide behind?  Maybe you’re not writing a mystery, but there is always a character that’s a little odd or different, isn’t there? What makes them odd? The block they live on or what the house looks like? 

Know your setting and characters then the book will come to you.

Happy writing and have fun!

Please feel free to share and respond.

Barb

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Draw the setting!

You can’t draw, you say?  Well…you just might be better than you think you are!  

Go and get a sheet of typing paper, get two—and tape them together. Now you’ll have two blocks of your little imaginary town or ‘real’ town.  Stick figures are not so hard to draw. With a ruler you can draw the middle street just by tracing either side of the utensil.

Don’t tell me you can’t draw a house or other buildings!  Yes, you can!  Take that ruler and trace a line about three inches above the top and bottom of the page from—the middle ruler line.  For my book, Body on the Tracks, I taped 20-25 paper sheets together and had them all around my dining room table. Since it’s a train book, I drew in railroad tracks instead of a road.  Where your buildings are, draw a vertical line down to the sidewalk or street. Do you see? It’s all drawn with a ruler.

How many store fronts do you need? Pencil in the store name or if it’s a neighborhood, the family name. Afterwards, decorate. Get to know if this business or home has flowers. Trees? Swingsets? This may mean children.

Now you’ll meet your characters on their own playing field.  In Body on the Tracks, I placed Victory Gardens along the way and mentioned towns and news about the Zephyrettes and how they assisted the women and children.

I wouldn’t have been able to get the time zones correct or the people in the cars without the use of my drawings.

Now you know what to do and how to get started on getting to know your settings and characters better.

Have fun!

Please share and or leave a message!

Happy writing!

Barb

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Add to the Life!

Are you ready to continue with your drawing? You are? Or do you think I'm a little on the nutty side? You'll be able to decide that later!

    Now that you have your four major corners, how about adding to it by attaching minor neighborhoods?  In my White House Dollhouse series, I had the neighborhood where the store is located but the character lived in a different section of the city.  Since  the setting was where I grew up, it was set in my mind and only needed a few tweaks such as the drugstore now being a coffee shop. That was easy but for those of you with settings in locations where you not so attached or knowledgeable of, you may need a drawing to have it fixed in your mind. 

    From many sources, I've heard never to write about your neighborhood. In my historical fiction, Body on the Tracks, I made the mistake of not drawing the tracks between the start and end points. I had the sun rising and setting at all different times and locations where it shouldn't.  Needless to say, since my setting was a train, I had an awful lot of settings to draw because of the cars, plus the train's location along the route. It did border on a nightmare during the writing time, however, in the end, it made for a better, tighter read.

     Now you see why the setting must come first, I hope! 

                     

     Your assignment is to decide characters for the various stores, etc, in your setting block.  While deciding upon characters, here's a question--what is in the stores?  Ladies wear? A beauty shop? The character always needs to know where they are at. 

     Or do they?

Happy writing!

Barb

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GIVE YOUR CHARACTER LIFE!

     Do you have an idea for a story? Have you put it together in your head but still don't know where to begin? Maybe the setting isn't quite right?

     Here's a few questions or thoughts to think about:

     Have you drawn the setting? 

     Neighborhood? 

     Do the characters fit inside of the setting?

     I grew up in Minneapolis and used to go shopping in downtown Minneapolis with my girlfriends and or grandma when I was younger, then I married and eventually moved to Bemidji. However, when I first began to write, I knew that Minneapolis would be the setting for my books. I loved the area on the other side of downtown, the older part of the city. The street is still cobblestone and the Stone Arch Bridge is nearby. In fact it's a lovely area to stroll in the summer or to walk from the bridge up to Hennepin Avenue bridge, cross the river, and go back. It's a gorgeous walk.

    Once you've decided upon a setting, then what?

    Draw it!  Yes! Sketch it out on a sheet of computer paper so you have it. By drawing the neighborhood, it'll make sense once you're deeper into your story. Will your character fit the scene? The setting?

    Make sure you draw all four corners of the chosen setting. Put in the building names, cafe, bookstore, etc. You get the picture. 

    Now you can start to think about what goods you'll have inside of each building. Oh yes!

    Do you have a drugstore? Grocery? Gas station? 

    Give it life.  Your character will live then, too!

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5 Star Review!

I just received my first five start review for my book, WORD to DEATH! I feel fabulous, like my writing journey has been worth it!  It actually is the second mystery that I wrote, and it circles around the Lincoln's. I've always felt sorry for Mary Lincoln and the way she was treated. She'd endured an awful lot and wasn't treated kindly by her family, press, and those in the administration nor those in politics at the time of his death. Did you know that even when she traveled to Europe with her son, Tad, she was ignored? How horrible and terrible.  There was no excuse for the unjust treatment that she received. Now I feel better about it all. Please take a look at my White House Dollhouse books.

 On an added note, I will be speaking and reading from my books on February 11, at 5:30 from the Bemidji Library. Please come and join me if you can!

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Free books!!

Now that the holidays are over and gone, it's time to snuggle up with a new book. Do you like mysteries?  I have a selection for you and the best part of the whole deal is that they're FREE!
     I belong to an online group called, 'Bookfunnel', where we can post our books and the company will deliver them.  All I need to do is join a specific bunch of authors, and then post the link as much as I'd like.  I post it all over since it's such a great deal for everyone.      Please feel free to share this blog on all of your social media so that your friends can enjoy getting a free book also.  I am allowing my readers to download the book, WORD to DEATH. WORD to DEATH is a race between a First Lady enthusiast and a greedy killer who will stop at nothing to locate the original manuscript of Abraham Lincoln's famous speech.        My website also has links to specific sites for you to have fun with! Enjoy!        Barb 

Please share with your friends and family!

                                                         BookFunnel free books!

     Here is the link to my Website   Twitter  Facebook  

EDITH WILSON the second wife of Woodrow Wilson.

  Was Edith Wilson our first American Princess?
  

    Since my next in the series is Edith Wilson, I will try my level best to find some new information about her, but there’s little to be found.
    She was born in Wytheville, Virginia, October 15, 1872 and died in December in 1961. She lived in Washington. She loved Washington, just like Dolley Madison did who resided there after selling her estate.
    Genealogists can trace Edith Wilson’s ancestors to colonial Virginia by either bloodline or through marriage. She was English, Native American, related to Thomas Jefferson, Martha Washington, Letitia Tyler and the Harrison family. Most notable was her direct descent from the famous Powhatan tribe princess, Pocahontas. That’s pretty impressive in my book, but does that make her a princess through lineage?
  Edith was the seventh of eleven children in her family, had black hair and blue eyes and stood about five feet nine inches. She was the same height or about, as myself! She had a difficult childhood, living in crowded room above a storefront with her siblings and her relatives were also impoverished. Her father was a lawyer and a judge, so he was probably on the road a lot.
    Her first marriage was to Norman Galt who owned a jewelry store, in Washington D.C. He died in 1908, leaving Edith as the sole heir to the store, leaving her a wealthy widow. Edith and Norman had one son, unnamed, who died in infancy, 1903.

  You can add your comments below or follow me to learn more about Mrs. Wilson and the Presidency.
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Thanks!