I'm so thrilled. For the first time in a very long time, I am into my characters head. They have a personality and I'm not pulling my hair out, trying to understand them. I've been writing, writing, writing and I just might be able to finish this story by the first of august. I have approximately 16 pages to go. And of all things, Casey has told Kelly they cannot see each other again.

So, will this come true? Those of us who love romance know they will see each other again. But what obstacles will they encounter on this journey. And will discovering that Conn, one of the pagan faeries, is somehow related to Casey O'Connell. Hmmm... this puts a new twist on all this and I would really like to know what it is.

Any suggestions out there in TV land...ooops blog land?

A great big thank you to Paty for letting me post her insights on writing about the blind. Her books sounds intriguing and I wish her lots and lots of sales. Come back sometime soon, Paty.

My hero in Doctor in Petticoats is blind. It's a risky thing to do and you wouldn't believe how hard it is to write in a blind person's POV and not over use words like hand and touch. I made the conscience decision to have him blind when he was in an accident in the third Halsey book.

An older relative of my husband's spent several summers with us before she passed on. She was blind, angry about losing her sight, yet she was intelligent and knew how to use her other senses to make up for her loss. I enjoyed learning about her, how she felt about losing her sight, and her thoughts on life in general. I used what I'd gleaned from her visits to hopefully structure realism in my blind character. While she lost her sight gradually, my hero lost his in an explosion. He could see the man throwing the dynamite one minute and was in complete darkness the next.

I also researched the blind school which was operational at the time of my book. I called ahead and asked if I could look at their old records to get a feel for how the school was run, who and how many employees they had, and a feel for the students who attended. Reading through the old records was enlightening and fun. It was a state run school and people didn't have to pay to send their family members there. But they were tested. Some comments on the documents were: "He's feeble of mind but should be trainable." "She isn't trainable." It makes you wonder what they put them through and what they considered "feeble fo mind and untrainable". Was it attitude, low I.Q. to lost in their blindness to learn?

A superintendent ran the school with several instructors of classes to teach them a trade, like broom making, crocheting, caning on chairs, and they were taught singing everyday to boost their morale. They also learned to read ?? and use a type writer like machine that punched ??.
In the real world the doctor wasn't in the school but visited regularly and was paid by the state to do so. I changed it up a little and have my heroine's father contribute to the school in order to get her the job of school doctor.

Blurb for Doctor in Petticoats
After a life-altering accident and a failed relationship, Dr. Rachel Tarkiel gave up on love and settled for a life healing others as the physician at a School for the Blind. She's happy in her vocation--until handsome Clay Halsey shows up and inspires her to want more.

Blinded by a person he considered a friend, Clay curses his circumstances and his limitations. Intriguing Dr. Tarkiel shows him no pity, though. To her, he's as much a man as he ever was.

Can these two wounded souls conquer outside obstacles, as well as their own internal fears, and find love?

Excerpt
Her head rested on his chest, one arm across his middle. He grasped her leg pushing down on his injured one and draped it over his thighs. He breathed in the citrus scent of her hair and waited for the throbbing in his leg to abate. The weight of her limbs comforted him in a way he hadn’t experienced since childhood. Her warm curves pressed against him, fitting to his body perfectly.
Clay brushed a hand over her silky hair. Dull brown, she’d said. It was too downy and sweet smelling to be a dull brown. He traced her small ear hidden under soft, short curls. His fingers followed her velvety skin up along her hairline, down the middle of her forehead, so smooth and warm, over a small bump of a nose and pouty, supple lips. He traced the pointed edges at each side. What would it feel like to taste them? A puff of warm air misted his fingers, and she mumbled.
Clay continued his exploration, moving down her chin and the side of her face. The pads of his fingers ran over a ridge. He held his breath and traced the ridge from just above her jaw all the way to her temple. The narrow pucker of skin lay two finger widths from her hairline and ran the length of her face. A scar? How had it happened? And when?
This was why she pulled back from his touch and gave such a disparaging view of herself. Had someone left this scar on her? If so, he’d find that person and make him pay. His hands fisted. He flexed his aching knuckles and squelched his rage. It wouldn’t do to show how her disfigurement riled him. His limbs gradually relaxed, and he pondered how to help her overcome her poor view of herself. How did he bring up the topic of her scar without upsetting her?
Clay wrapped his arms around Rachel’s middle and clasped his hands, holding her from rolling off the bed. Her warm breath puffed across his chest. His heart expanded at the latest knowledge about the woman. He was falling for Rachel’s caring nature, her witty conversation, and her touch that heated his body like no other. He’d give up on ever getting his sight back if he could end each day with her wrapped in his arms.

Blog Tour Contest

This is day nine and blog twelve of my fifteen blog/twelve day tour. Leave a comment and follow me to all the blogs on my tour and you could win an autographed copy of my June release, Doctor in Petticoats, a B&N gift card, and a summer tote filled with goodies. To find out all the places I'll be go to my blog- http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/ to find the list.

Website: http://www.patyjager.net/
Blog: http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/
Buy: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

One page a day. Well, yesterday I managed two pages. I'm stuck on a dance competition. I just don't know how to write it and my ending thought this morning was "that's lame" I guess I'll have to work on it more tomorrow. However, just sitting here thinking about it gives me some ideas. Should Casey and Kelly enter the competition or should they just watch? Hmmm....
There is a thought. Casey is not a good dancer. Well, she might be able to dance if she wasn't so clumsy...

Hmm... more thoughts. I do believe I know where I am going with this. A little chatter in the authors head is always a good idea.

Kelly and Patrick agree to disgree? Will they come together about Casey? No doubt the fae folk will have their work cut out to keep everything in tune with the universe. When Florence and his two friends arrive to confront Kelly and Casey's brother, will the two men stand together agian, against Florence? Will Florence provoke a fight? Or will he slink away like the coward he truly is?

Stay tuned for the continuing saga revolving around two star-crossed lovers and the feud that has haunted their families for over 100 years.

Schools out for the summer? :)

Today Moya and Conn chimed in on all the excitement in the church. Frustration eating at the poor fae folk, they are no longer sure about Casey and Kelley discovering the origion of the feud. After all the ridiculous act happened over 100 years earlier. Now the argument has escalated, each generation, becoming more angered than the last. Instead of dying a slow, greatly needed death, the feud has grown hotter.

So chime in: is the feud what will keep these star-crossed lovers apart or will the fact that they are of two very different religions. I have the feeling the couple will find a way to shatter all obstacles placed in their path.

What do you think? Will Casey's and Kelly's love survive?

I'm writing!!! Happy Dance Time!!! I know, I'm telling myself it is only a page and a half, but I started. I found myself getting into the story and feeling the characters again. So will Casey find out the truth about the feud? Was it really over such a little thing?

Are Casey and Kelly really starr-crossed lovers. Do they have a future? You will have to wait until St. Patty's day 2011 to find out.

I'm going to skip the next mind style for now and move on with the present and goal setting for the supper.

Yes! Woohoo....school is out for the summer.

I'm going to take a page out of Genene's book and set aside an hour every day to write my anthology. Nothing will get in the way...I say nothing. Yes, I am determined. If I don't write the anythology this summer, I don't know how it will ever get done.

Also, I plan on taking as much time as I need, to finish reading My Angel so it will be ready for reviewers and publishing by August.

And...I plan on working so hard on Rogue Phoenix Press stories that I will be ahead of the game when school starts in the fall.

The next mind style I want to address is Abstract Random.

Flakes: In layman's terms this one word sums up the Abstract Random personality type. Gregore says when they are at their best they are like beautiful snow flakes, each one incredibly unique and together they cover the world with a dazzling art display. they are the emotional, heart centered, sensitive point that establishes rapport with other points in a spirit of good will.

Priorities include:
Emotional, Personal, Empathy, Flexible, Sensitive, Sociable, Vivid Imagination, Go with the flow, Bright and colorful.

Favorite Sayings:
"If it feels good, do it." "Take time to smell the roses." "The heart has reasons, that rason has no knowledge of." (In a strange way I understand that)

Partial List of strengths:
Establishes quality relationships
Accurate "gut feelings"
Celebrate music, art, nature and literature
Enthusiasm and passion
Warm fuzzy people

Partial List of Annoyances to other mind types;
Can be an off the wall flake
Operates on "ish" time when others don't
Extreme moodiness due to an inability to balance the extremes of their emotions
Overly sensitive to correction

Personal Preferences:
Must have freedom of movement, expression of thought, and emotional exercise
Need a place to which they can retreat to recollect, recharge, and reorganize
Want to work and share with others
"all for one and one for all" non-competitive.

New Review: Dakota's Bride


Dakota’s Bride is a remarkable story. I love the description of Dakota; he is a man who oozes charm and lots of chemistry, especially when he and Emma are bonded together. This incredible romance is one I positively fell in love with and is good enough to read again and again. Christine Young sketches characters and landscapes that this reader could visualize. I particularly enjoyed sharing the journey that Dakota and Emma endured. The supporting cast blended well in this unforgettable read that I loved.

Cherokee Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More

To read the complete review: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/dakotasbridechristineyoung.html

Mind Styles to help build character profiles:

How well do you know your character? How can you develop conflict just with a character profile? Dr. Anthony Gregore published The Style Delineator in 1982 culminating twelve years of study and research.

This resource guide can give writers a way to enhance conflict and humor as well as bring the hero and heroine to a deeper understanding of each others personality. We all understand that characters must undergo change and growth if they are to find true happiness. We understand too that the conflicts must be resolved before the end of the manuscript. Conflicts are not always on the physical level. Sometimes the problems that separate the characters are on a psychological level.

Gregore defines four personality types: Concrete Sequential, Abstract Random, Concrete Random, and Abstract Sequential.

One mind style at a time:
Concrete Sequential--These are the "recipe kids." They want to know the who, what, when, where, and why of every task encountered, with the what receiving the major emphasis. Being Concrete and Sequential the view is always so clear…to them. They wonder "will the rest of the world ever be so precise and to the point?
Favorite sayings--"If it's worth doing do it well." "I'm from Missouri, show me." "If it isn't in writing, it doesn't exist." "What you start, you finish." "As it is written, so shall it be."

Priorities:
Orderly, Persistent, Structured, Diligent, Direct, Organized, Detailed, Practical, Concrete, Product Oriented, Realist, and Conscientious.

Partial list of strengths:
1. Solid as the "Rock of Gibraltar"
2. Makes, gathers, appropriates, names, and labels
3. Honest and straightforward
4. Reliabel and trustworthy
5. Excellent at providing structure
6. Accurate, precise, and particular

Partial list of annoyances - to other points:
1. Perfectionistic, one way demands
2. Can be inflexible and rigid
3. Do not like change
4. Viewpoint of an external materialistic world
5. Sometimes they lack sympathy and compassion
6. No nonsense approach to work

Personal Preferences:
1. Quiet with minimal activity
2. Informed on the correct way to do things
3. Quiet, stable, ordered, and predictable
4. Dependable, trustworthy, co-workers
5. High qualitative and quantitative standard
6. Concrete rewards for meritous service

More mind styles coming...
Are you a Concrete Sequential or CS? Do you write characters who seem to have these traits?

Book Tasting:

I just ran across a promotional tool that actually makes some sense. The idea is based on the concept of Wine Tasting or Food Tasting. The author gives the reader a taste of his/her book without ramming it down their throat.

Tastes: free reads, a chapter excerpt, a taste of the dialogue, or an exciting taste of a scene.

When I was able to write every day, I would post a taste of whatever I was working on or post a quesiton about several different ways the scene would/could play out.

With so many authors crying out "read my book!" new, different, and creative ways for promos are always necesarry.

Always looking for ideas.

I actually wrote last week, well kind of sort of, I plotted and I read my part of the anthology. It was fun to get back to my characters and the detailed scenes which I was able to outline will creat a quick write. I also discovered that I was in need of plotting the fae folk scenes. I knew they had become a bit redundant. So quadruple scene plotting for each chapter is just what the writing doctor ordered.

Klarissa said:
"Highland Honor is an exciting historical with lots of passion and danger. I felt drawn to Callie and Colin's lives and wanted to learn about them. With some questions unanswered Ms. Young leaves it open for more stories with these great characters. If you love Highlanders, you'll love Highland Honor."
Read the entire review.
Buy Highland Honor from Awe-Struck Publishing.
http://awe-struckreviews.blogspot.com/

The readers luncheon in Portland yesterday was a great experience. Jane Porter's speach was wonderful, a little funny, poignant and eye opening. Every time I hear anyone speak of their experiences growing up and the difficulties they had to live through I am grateful. I wonder how there are so many disfunctional families and people in the world. Yet I teach. And I see the children and it is so hard for me to understand how people can be so cruel and unfeeling. Is there a way to fix this? I wonder. Our wonderful politicians seem to think that all families have money and live the way they do. Yet we see time and again how disfunctional they are. Are we all so flawed?

Title: Dakota's Bride

Authors: Christine Young

Genres: Historical, Romance

Available: Feb 18, 2010Online Link:

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=5969Score:

4.25 / 5

Review:

Emma St. John is on the run from a very dangerous and evil man, her stepfather. Upon her mother's mysterious death after a long illness, Emma overhears her stepfather discussing how he systematically poisoned her mother until she died. After hearing this devastating news, as well as hearing her stepfather's horrible plan for her, Emma decides to run away taking her younger sister Clare with her. They are both now on the run and Emma's stepfather has accused her of murdering her own mother, kidnapping her younger sister and stealing her own inheritance money.

Emma has an older brother, Jacob, who left years before their mother died, to make a life of his own away from their stepfather. The only resource Emma has is to follow the instructions left by her own brother in a letter on the day he left, telling her that if she should ever need help to seek out Dakota Barringer for assistance. Paying for passage on the paddle wheeler boat owned by Dakota, Emma and her sister have a room aboard the ship; however, Emma is expected to work as a serving girl to the many men on board. By the turn of luck she ends up assigned to serve at Dakota's table, but before she has the time to let him know who she is and what she needs, their chemistry for each other, and a little wine, do the trick to bring these two together in other enticing ways.

Betrayals, hidden agendas, dangerous Pinkertons looking to collect on the reward offered for Emma's capture and an endearing love story outline this unforgettable tale. I followed along the trails with Emma and Dakota eagerly awaiting the resolution of their story. This is definitely a page-turner you will not want to put down.

Purchase ebook or print at: http://www.roguephoenixpress.com/

Sunshine Award Paty Jager

gave my blog a Sunshine Award.

Thanks Paty!

According to the guidelines, now that I picked your blog you need to:

Put the logo on your blog in a post.

Pass the award onto 12 bloggers. Link the nominees within this post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award. So here are my twelve Sunshine

Award nominees:

Rogue's Angels

Genene Valleau

Alice Sharpe

Anne Patrick

K.J. Dahlen

Kevin Voglino

Melody Tink

Nickie Flemming

Preston Sexton

G.L. Loyd

G.L Didadelusky

Clay Renick

Scene writing 101:

Even if you are a panster, like me, plotting each scene is way too important to forego. I go through many steps when I decide what will happen in my scenes.

First: I make sure I know whose POV I'm in.

Second: I write the first sentence and try to write the last sentence. Knowing how the scene will end and making it a cliff hangar sot the reader will keep turning the pages is important.

Third: the scene has to be set.

I always include the internal and external conflict. The hurdle that has to be jumped as well as the character change. Every scene must move the characters forward on their journey.

Knowing who your characters are and how they will react to everything is of ultimate importance. Your characters cannot grow through the story unless the author knows where they came from. Their past will create their future.

Have fun writing scenes but if you're a panster like me, you should still take a real look at plotting your scenes if not the entire book.

Dakota's Bride,

I'm celebrating the rerelease of Dakota's Bride. Twelve years ago in December, Dakota's Bride was released by Kensington. It was my first published book and I had the great honor of Kate Duffy editing my book. Kate was a legend in the field of publishing. She passed away this last fall and the writing world mourned her loss. She was great fun and had a fantastic sense of humor.

Dakota's Bride is the first published book in the series that began with a book called Ghost Dance. Other books in the series include: My Angel, The Locket, The Talisman, and Forevr His.

www.roguephoenixpress.com

Trends in Romance,

Mind boggling doesn't come close to trying to figure out the trends in romance writing created single-handedly by the big publishing houses. When I first began to read romance, my favorite historicals were centered around the War Between the States. Suddenly this was taboo. The houses were not accepting these stories. "Write something else they would say." Then as an after thought they would mention that the author had to be passionate about thier story, "Write from the heart" LOL. As I progressed in my writing skills and publish a western romance, I discovered that now they (the big pub houses in New York) wanted highland sories. So, I picked up my pen--keyboard--and wrote three highland stories. They sold well, but they were turned down by my previous house and picked up by an epub. But the epub wanted regencies. So, once again, I tried my hand at this time period. I went to London, bought numerous books, and studied them. I'm not sure how these books will do. I have one at awe-struck and another one about to be published. Time will tell :0).

Oh, and I forgot to mention loving pirate stories. And they to have seen thier time. It has come and gone--but I think they may have come back. By the time I write them they will probably no longer be a trend. Thank goodness for epubs. One can truly write from the heart and be passionate about the story.

January 20th, high school swimming is over for the year. And what a rewarding year. The girls team did a great job! I am so proud of them. As a team we finished 4th. My wonderful year round swimmer finished her high school career with an unprecedented 8 state championships swims. Our relays finished 3rd and 4th. I am so proud of them.

Last night while they were all shopping I was able to work on my St Patty's day anthology. I revisted my characters and started developing the bad guy. I love my bad guys as all my readers will know. They are my favorite to write because I don't have to be PC. I can pull out all the stops and make them just as bad as their evil hearts.

What fun. Now I have several months to decide if I will do this all over again, (coach swimming). Ah... it is so much fun when all goes well. And I have such a hard time thinking about giving up the team I built from the ground up.

Book signing was a success.

On Valentines Day the Angels had their first booksigning at the humane society, donating a dollar a book. We had a lot of fun with friends, family and new friends. Libby, a black lab, drew names for the door prizes. We will be planning our next signing for the year 2011 on St. Patty's day.

The Angels: Allana, Cinnamon, Sable and Amber.

District swim meet.

Prelims at districts were awesome. Cascade girls and boys swam great. Lots of personal records. The girls are hoping to win the meet tomorrow. If they do, I'll get wet. Wouldn't have it any other way though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will all swim as well tomorrow as they did today. After tomorrow we are all looking forward to State.

Then more time for writing and publishing. I am so looking forward to the spring, sunshine, free time, Annaheim and the next Young to come on the scene sometime in June.