From Start to Finish: Book #60

I just finished JUSTICE AT CARDWELL RANCH, the sequel to Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch, that comes out in October 2012. I just realized it is my 60th book.

Usually I’m too exhausted to celebrate. It takes a few days. After living in a book for weeks, sometimes months, it is hard to let go. It is always sad to say goodbye to those characters. Especially these because I don’t think I’ll be seeing them again.

When I start a book, it is really exciting. Everything is new. Anything can happen. It’s my favorite part. Middles are the hard part. The ending is the relief part. If I’ve gotten that far, it’s all going to be all right.

Once a book is done, I look back and think, “Whew, that wasn’t so hard.” Right. Every book is a challenge. Every one at some point becomes a mountain I have to climb. There are days I don’t want to write and would rather clean the toilet.

But once a book is done, I look forward to the next one. I try to take a few days off at least to regroup, clean off my desk, not write.

Right now, I feel like celebrating. Book #60 is done. Wow.

B.J. Daniels

Summer fun

I love this time of year. It's the sunshine and blue skies and that feeling that anything is possible. Also it's the snow being gone. :)

But it makes sitting at my desk writing a whole lot tougher.

That's one reason I bought myself a Trikke. Not to be confused with a three-wheeled bike.

I told myself I needed the exercise (which I do.) But let's face it, most of us have something around that we bought for exercise that now collects nothing but dust.

That's why I didn't tell my husband about my purchase until the big box was dropped off by the UPS man. Surprise!

My husband is a good sport. He hardly grumbled as he put my Trikke together. He hardly said, "What in the world were you thinking?" Hardly.

I'd seen these on TV and they looked fun -- and such good exercise. I knew then I had to have one. According to the directions, it takes most people about an hour to learn to ride a Trikke. There are no pedals. There are handlebars with brakes (like I'll ever need those) and a place to put each foot.

The idea is to tilt the device and push with the outer foot at the same time. Right.

The first time I tried it out in the street in front of our house, my husband made me wear a helmet and gloves. The gloves, he said, were where I wouldn't scrape up my hands when I broke my neck.

I stood on the Trikke. Rocked it. Nothing happened. I pushed it, jumped on, went a few feet and stopped.

But I wasn't about to give up. So that night after my husband went to bed, I moved the furniture in the living room, reread the directions and practiced. Every once in a while I would feel it. The directions called it feeling the "sweet spot." Uh huh.

After running into the fireplace a few times, I thought I might be getting it. My husband caught me though and predicted I was just going to fall through the television set.

The next time I took it out, I got it moving. Amazing. My husband quit shaking his head. Well, quit shaking it quite so much.

I'm often asked by aspiring writers what my secret is. I'm writing my 47th book, the 12th in the Whitehorse, Montana series.) There is no secret. I'm just stubborn. I never give up. Just like on the Trikke, I can't resist a challenge. I just keep trying even when things aren't going quite like I'd hoped. :)

Yesterday I went around the block on the Trikke. Who knows what is next. There are just a world of possibilities. While I'll never do some of the tricks I've seen people doing on these darned things (http://www.trikke.com/) I am out and moving and at a pretty good clip. And my husband thought this was a dumb idea. Ha. :)

Ever had something you just refused to give up on? Something crazy you realized you probably shouldn't have tried?

Where do you get your ideas

The other day there was a discussion among writers about titles. One author said she started the book with little more than the title. It was an odd title but she got a book out of it.

Which brings me to where writers get their ideas. Anywhere. Everywhere. In the strangest of places.

For most of us, it's just letting the imagination run wild. That's easy for me. When I get in a car, I always check the back seat. I can scare myself way too easily. I also always keep an eye on the car behind me. In Montana, there is usually only one or two cars behind me for miles on end. That's because I usually drive over the speed limit. :)

But what if one of those cars is following me? I mean really following me. I start thinking about who could be behind the wheel. Why they're after me. What I've done to make them want to kill me. (All logical steps in a writer's crazed mind.)

When I was writing short stories for Woman's World magazine, I would get a lot of my ideas from country western songs -- the sadder ones the better. Now I find myself getting ideas from TV commercials. One the other day involved a house and a porch swing. A short story came to mind and I was tempted to write it even though I need to work on the six books I'm writing this year.

I have dreamed some pretty wild entire plots. I usually wake myself up if I think the plot is too good to waste. Unfortunately the plots often have some major flaws once I'm fully awake.

I've seen cowboys at the rodeo, overheard conversations at the grocery store and read billboards that have inspired entire books. Last year I saw one line: Can you keep a secret? I quickly reached for my AlphaSmart and started writing. I wrote the opening of Big Sky Dynasty, part of the Corbett Brothers, Whitehorse, Montana series that comes out in June.

Next month's book, Hunting Down the Horseman, came from stories about old ghost towns in the area of Montana where I live. Like Stephen King, I'm intrigued by the idea that evil remains in some places -- and invites more evil to stop by.

My September book, Smokin' Six Shooter, started with a woman finding out that she'd inherited some property in Montana that she'd never heard about. What she inherits is far more frightening and mysterious of course than land. Ever thought about what would happen if you found out you aren't the person you thought you were and that your entire life has been a lie?

Probably not. I often ask my husband questions like that. Funny but he doesn't think about those kinds of things. Then again, he writes nonfiction. Now where is the fun in that?

Are you sure you want to be a writer?

Over the years I've encouraged a lot of aspiring writers. I'm pretty sure for most of them that was bad advice.

Not everyone really wants to write. It's true. A lot of people say they want to write a book. Some even write a little. Most would love to be a published author but don't want to spend hours alone at a computer with no guarantee they will ever be published.

Who can blame them. There are a lot of days I feel the same way.

So I understand people who decide to stay with their day jobs and their vacation and sick pay, health insurance, 401 Ks and social network. Those people still get excited about Fridays because they get two days off and don't even have to think about work, let alone spend their weekends and nights writing.

That's why it meant something to me when a friend of mine recently gave me her finished manuscript to read. She has a great idea for a young adult series. I've encouraged her to write it for a long time.

Well, she did. And it's great. I couldn't put it down.

There is nothing more exciting for me than reading her book because I know how hard this was for her. She has a full-time job, other responsibilities and went through a cancer scare. But she made the time and wrote the book. That's monumental.

She FINISHED the book.

Hopefully an editor will love this book as much as I do and my friend will get it published and write many more.

But I hope for a while she just enjoys this personal achievement. She wrote a book. There is nothing cooler than that.

And no matter how many books I write, I still get a little choked up each time I write "The End."

B.J. Daniels
www.bjdaniels.com

You know what they say about families

A friend of mine recently did that Twenty-five Things You Don't Know About Me list that is going around on Facebook.

One of his struck a chord with me: # 11 People don't believe me when I tell stories about my childhood -- until they meet my parents.

I had to laugh since my family gave new meaning to dysfunctional. But I'm sure that is why I like to write about families -- the good, the bad and the really whacked.

Some families I dream up just steal my heart, dysfunction, and all, and that is true of the Corbetts. They show up in fictional Whitehorse, Montana this spring (April, May, June, Sept. Oct.). Of course there are problems, murders, secrets, deceit and near-death experiences. But hey, it's about family!

Is it just writers who often come from families that have little resemblance to Beaver Cleaver's? How about readers? Do you like reading about families that have more problems than yours? Or do you like reading about families that you wish were yours?

With the Corbetts I'd say there is a little bit of both when these five brothers hit town this spring! In the meantime, you can download my Intrigue Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch at HarlequinCelebrations.com as part of Harlequin's 60th anniversary. I'm delighted to be part of their celebration!

Winter and writing in Montana

It has snowed almost a foot in the last couple of days and has been cold now for weeks. It's beautiful, no doubt about it. And it should help with the book I'm working on since One Hot Forty-Five is set in December 2009.

But enough is enough. My husband keeps saying, It's a normal winter, get used to it.

That's just it. We haven't had much winter in our part of Montana since we moved here and I was okay with it. I liked global warming. It would snow but then the sun would come out and it would melt. My kind of winter.

As I sit here wearing my winter snowpacks from my hike to the office, I'm dreaming of warm weather so it's hard to write about my heroes and heroines slogging through the snow. I know it sounds crazy, but I hate seeing them out in the cold because I know how they feel.

This morning the Billings Gazette didn't arrive in our small town either because 1) the road south blew in with snowdrifts or 2)the driver went off the road in the 200 miles from there to here. Residents are advised to stay home if at all possible and if you have to venture out, you're to tell someone where you're going and when you expect to get there just in case you don't make it.

I love living this far from civilization most of the time. I love setting my Whitehorse series here because it is so isolated and life here is interesting because of it. But this latest blizzard is too much like the plot of One Hot Forty-Five. The road out of here is glazed with ice. Seriously, you can see your face in it. And the gravel roads are blown in with drifts.

But as my feet start warming up, I know I have to get back to the Corbett brothers, Lantry in particular, and get him and the heroine out of that snowdrift they've ended up in during the blizzard and on with the story. After all it's a Christmas book and I can't let them miss Christmas at the Trails West Ranch where there's something good cooking and there's a warm fire waiting for them.

The Corbett brothers arrive in Whitehorse, Montana in April with Shotgun Bride, May is Hunting Down the Horseman, June Big Sky Dynasty, September Smokin' Six-Shooter and of course December with One Hot Forty-Five. See you at the ranch.

In the meantime, stay warm and close to the fire.