Soldier, Nurse, Spy: The Women who won the Civil War
March 11, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as 1862, Civil War, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, medical drama, medicine, Mercy Street, PBS, romance, time travel, Virginia
March is Women’s History Month.
Writing women back into history. Many times we forget the Civil War wasn’t fought only by men, but women, too.
Did you watch the recent PBS Civil War mini-series “Mercy Street?”
I was glued to my TV every week watching the fascinating story of a Virginia hotel turned into a hospital for both Union and Confederate wounded in 1862.
What did you think of Mercy Street?
I enjoyed watching the story unfold and how it paralleled my Civil War time travel romance, Love Me Forever, which also takes place in 1862 Virginia. It was like watching my pages come alive with Civil War medicine, a visit from Mr. Lincoln, hoop skirts, women’s roles in both the North and the South, and of course, hot romance.
What I loved so much about that show was the prominence of women’s roles during the Civil War and how they changed nursing with their daring and willingness to tread into what was then a male profession.Like Mercy Street, I have two heroines:
Liberty Jordan, a time traveler from the future who goes back to Antietam dressed as a Confederate officer.
Pauletta Buckingham, a Tennessee belle and a spy bent on revenging the death of her beloved, a Texas Ranger.
An odd couple in every way. One is a strawberry-blonde, the other raven-haired. One believes in the Union; the other will do anything for the cause. One is in love with a man she can’t have…the other is engaged to a man she doesn’t love.
But these two women have one thing in common: believing in women’s equality. Here my time traveler, Liberty in LOVE ME FOREVER, questions her involvement in the war with belle Pauletta Sue.
“Liberty couldn’t stop questioning how she got mixed up with this crazy secesh woman and her insane scheme. She’d never seen a woman so passionate about a cause, so truly believing what she was doing was patriotism. The war had unleashed a fire in her, and the more Liberty understood about the protected, delicate lifestyle these women led, the more she knew a great movement was underway that went beyond their cause.
It wasn’t until 1866 that the American Equal Rights Association was founded, but this was the beginning of the movement leading to women’s freedom and that she could understand. What bothered her was that Pauletta Sue was on the losing side of the war and because of that, she might not benefit from the changes women embraced afterward. She worked so hard at her cause, Liberty believed she deserved better, but the belle wouldn’t listen to her.â€
I love how these two women bond over the course of the story as did Union Army nurse Mary in Mercy Street with belle Emma. But as much as I enjoyed the series, I kept hoping they would touch on the role of women in the ranks. Brave women who fought and often died as soldiers because they believed in their cause. I’m hoping the series will be renewed and we’ll meet up with a female soldier in Season 2.
My hero, Major Flynt Stephens, a Union Army physician, ponders the idea of female soldiers when he finds out his Rebel prisoner is a beautiful woman (Liberty).
“The Rebel prisoner was a female.
Would his nurse give her away? Or was she waiting for him to say something? He couldn’t. He felt a stirring within him, something he didn’t want to admit, that brought a hardness between his loins. Did he dare imagine that a beautiful woman existed under all that blood and dirt? He’d heard stories about women enlisting in the army, both North and South, and fighting as men. A good set of teeth to rip open a bullet cartridge, a trigger finger that worked, and a firm handshake was all that was required to join up. It was no secret the promise of a steady paycheck was often the reason behind such reckless female behavior.
That didn’t solve his immediate problem.â€
Women Soldiers in the Civil War from “Love Me Forever” from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
We will soon see women in combat roles in the Armed Forces. Imagine how proud the women soldiers in the Civil War would be knowing they paved the way…
~Jina
LOVE ME FOREVER is available on Amazon
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Who Wants to Be a More Productive Writer?
March 8, 2016 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as #amwriting, #writing, #writingtips, MM Pollard, Productive
By MM Pollard, the MM in Workshops with MM,
Certified copy editor,
I think I can safely assume that all writers want to be more productive. If you happen to be one who doesn’t, then feel free to click close now.
Okay, so most of you stayed. How did I know that most of you would stay here? Would you believe I’m clairvoyant? No?
Writers produce writing, coherent words on a screen (paper). If you are happy averaging one hundred words a day, then I suggest you stop reading here. If you want to write more, lots more, then continue, please.
Becoming a more productive writer involves many actions and a few attitudes. Here are a few of both.
Actions:
If you were on a deserted island with only your computer with a fully charged battery, would you write or would you play Solitaire until the battery discharged? (Solitaire players may stop reading and get back to their games. I apologize for the interruption.)
Do those close to you know you write?
Do you write every day?
Do you keep track of your time and words every time your write?
Do you play Solitaire when you are writing blocked, or do you still write something, anything?
Attitudes:
Is writing fun or a chore?
Do you think you deserve to take time out of your day and from your other responsibilities to write?
What’s more important to you? The huge advance you’ll receive with the sale of your book? Finishing that book your family didn’t believe you would ever complete? Releasing your characters from the purgatory of your mind to see the light of a computer screen?
That salve I said I would share with you? This is it – my workshop titled Speed Writing – What Plan Works Best for You? You’ll learn how to form a habit of writing, learn to keep track of your productivity for accountability, learn to deal with issues—those inside you and outside of you. That’s just for starters.
It seems that hundreds of people have written books on increasing speed and word count. I’ll share information from many authors who have increased their word count to several thousand a day or even an hour. I’ll give you another author’s plan to write a novella in twenty-four hours and another author’s plan to write a book in nine days.
The beauty of this workshop is that I have done all the research for you. All you have to do to take the information and see which system works best for you.
I hope you will join me.
MM Pollard
About MM Pollard
As an English teacher for fifteen years and, currently as editor for Black Velvet Seductions and the MM in Workshops with MM, MM Pollard has helped writers correct ungrammatical grammar, misused usage, problematic punctuation, and poor writing. Check out Testimonials on her blog, MM’s Fundamentals of English. While you are there, sign up for her monthly newsletter and even look at previous newsletters.
MM began presenting workshops four years ago and has presented on many sites, including her own. Many RWA chapters, including From the Heart RWA, RWA Online, OCC/RWA, Passionate Ink, Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal RW, Maryland RWA, and Florida RW, have also sponsored her workshops. In February, 2015, she presented at FRW’s Fun in the Sun Conference, and her dream come true!
Through her fun workshops—English class can be fun!—MM is sure she can help you, too, master the fundamentals of English composition.
March’s OCCRWA Online Class is “Speed Writing: Which Plan Works Best for You?”, with MM Pollard
February 26, 2016 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as MM Pollard, OCC/RWA Online Class, Speedwriting
About the Class:
It’s easy to find how-to books on writing fast, but which one represents the solution to your plotting problem?
Let MM Pollard, writer, editor, and workshop presenter, help you sort through all of the different advice on this subject in eight lessons. She will focus on increasing daily word count as well as on quicker methods to plan and organize your book, using information from several fiction and nonfiction writers who have done just that. Students will be encouraged to try the techniques presented in each lesson to see if they work for them.
About the Instructor:
As an English teacher for fifteen years and, currently as editor for Black Velvet Seductions and the MM in Workshops with MM, MM Pollard has helped writers correct ungrammatical grammar, misused usage, problematic punctuation, and poor writing. Check out Testimonials on her blog, MM’s Fundamentals of English. While you are there, sign up for her monthly newsletter and even look at previous newsletters.
MM began presenting workshops four years ago and has presented on many sites, including her own. Many RWA chapters, including From the Heart RWA, RWA Online, OCC/RWA, Passionate Ink, Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal RW, Maryland RWA, and Florida RW, have also sponsored her workshops. In February, 2015, she presented at FRW’s Fun in the Sun Conference, and her dream come true!
Through her fun workshops—English class can be fun!—MM is sure she can help you, too, master the fundamentals of English composition.
For more information and to register go to http://occrwa.org/classes/march-online-class/
***********************************************************************
Permission to forward
Angela Kyle
OCCRWA Online Class Promos
Dear Diary by Connie Vines
February 13, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as #Cowboys, Confessions, Dear Diary; Connie Vines, OCC Blog, OCC Slice of OrangeIt wasn’t I until experienced a seven-hour power-outage during a rainstorm on Sunday that I really pondered the world before electricity.
With the rain and cloud-cover, it was very, very dark and icy cold. I could actually see the alignment of the five planets quite clearly. For those familiar with the southern California skyline, you know that we cannot see the constellations or planets unless we drive to Palm Springs, the mountains, or the high desert. So, combined with the exceptionally cold temperatures and wind chill factor, and an inability to prepare a meal inside my kitchen, I felt as if I plopped into the center of one of my historical novels.
This is what had me ponder the act of writing in a diary.
I hadn’t read a diary (except for research purposes in years).
As a teen or pre-teen, you probably received a diary as a birthday gift or a Christmas present. I know I did. The diary with a lock (which anyone, on a whim, could pick) and a key. At first, my entries were made daily, then weekly, then, seldom at all. Later, the diary evolved into journaling for a writing class, or jot down events, or milestone in my toddler’s life. Now I have a journal app on my iPad that I often use for notes and thoughts about my novels points.
None of scribbles in my journals were as emotionally purging or filled with day-to-day angst of a teenager’s life.
Why? I believe because most my of my journaling was via the keyboard.
Scientific studies prove the act of pen to paper stirs creative thoughts.
While I have no real interest in keeping a detailed diary for myself
What about fictional characters? Do you ever have your fictional characters write a diary?
That is when I recalled my salad days are a writer.
When I starting writing fiction and non-fiction for the magazine market. I published in “Jr. Medical Detective†and “Humpty Dumptyâ€. In my article, “A Candle in the Dark†(still available as part of the Thomas Gale Education Series), my heroine, Sarah kept a diary. The story dealt with the Salem Witchcraft Trials. I found the diary to be a very effect plot device. It was also a good way to give the reader information without using a backstory to interrupt the flow of my story.
What are you feelings about diaries in a novel?
Are there diaries you’ve read you found of interest or diaries that change how you viewed the world?
Why is it a good idea to have a diary in your storyline?
Fictional characters are forced by their authors to carry the story (the process of the narrative). At the most basic level the diary gives you a first-person narrative without the protagonist knowing what is going to happen.
The use of diaries in novels of the past.
Pamela (1740) by Samuel Richardson is usually described as an epistolary novel. However, our heroine also writes a journal, and then sews it into her underwear for secrecy.
Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë has a skeletal framework of a diary: “I have just returned from a visit to my landlord. . .Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold.†Mr. Lockwood will learn about true emotion day by day as he finds out and writes down the story of Heathcliff and the Earnshaws.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) by Helen Fielding is well known to be based on the plot of Pride and Prejudice.
The more I ponder the use of a diary in my next novel, the more I warm to the idea.
I have my favorite pen and I also have turquoise Martha Stewart premium journal I received as a gift for Christmas. While there isn’t a lock and key, there is an elastic band to keep the journal closed. There is also a fabric bookmark so that I may keep my place.
I can picture myself writing today’s date, time, and my first entry. . .Dear Diary.
Happy Reading,
Connie
Connie’s books
Royal Dare: What happens when a Princess bites into that poison apple
February 11, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as addict, addiction, addiction treatment, apple, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, dare, Kindle Worlds, meth, Monterra, New Adult, princess, rehab, romance
Getting clean ain’t easy…even for a princess.
—————–
If you’re a princess, most likely your fairy godmother warned you about messengers bearing big, red shiny apples.
Who can forget Snow White…
But in the end she found her prince after eating the poisoned apple.
Sometimes princesses are influenced by the wrong people. Take Princess Violetta in ROYAL DARE. She was desperate to be thin and win her crush…but it led her into drug addiction. Her poison apple.
Meth.
—————
This month I tackle a serious subject in ROYAL DARE (The Royals of Monterra, Kindle Worlds).
Addiction to drugs is a major problem — not just for the addict but for those in their world. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to go to rehab, or what happens afterward, Royal Dare takes you into that world.
Even though my heroine is a princess, she’s not immune to the horrors of meth and how difficult it is to get clean.
Princess Violetta meets some interesting people in rehab and hears the story about an old cloth doll and how she helped an addict face her demons. There are funny moments, too, like seeing our princess with a toilet brush cleaning bathrooms, and tearful ones–when a girl who is a “cutter” and addict calls the hotline manned by our princess threatening to kill herself and Violetta is the only one who can save her.
Royal Dare is for anyone who is an addict and wants help, and for those who love them.
Thank you for listening.
~Jina
Royal Dare (The Royals of Monterra) is available on Amazon Kindle
Born a princess, Violetta of Monterra is living the fairy tale. She has everything she wants. Designer purses and shoes, a party lifestyle and she’s as thin as a smartphone.
She’s also a meth addict.
If she doesn’t get clean, she’ll lose everything. Her title, her family. Her soul.
Learning how to survive in rehab is only the first step to gaining her sobriety. Once she finishes the program, the real challenge comes when Violetta goes back to her fancy Swiss boarding school. His name is Chace. Her first crush . . . and the guy who got her hooked on meth. Trusting him won’t keep her sober.
Then there’s Troy, the new hottie in school. Can he save her from relapse? And from losing everything precious to her before she goes down that rabbit hole for the last time?
Royal Dare (The Royals of Monterra) is available on Amazon Kindle
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