Tuesday Tidbits: THE MAKING OF A HEROINE & PARTY INVITE!

Which comes first, the character or the plot?

Yes.

Some times a heroine emerges with a fully formed backstory and has a story that needs to be told like in THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT. Lily arrived in Kamola with a tragic past and moved forward from there. 

Other times the basic plot comes first and depending on the kind of story I want to tell will determine who the heroine needs be, like in THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT. For this arranged marriage story, I could have had a heroine who dutifully complied with her parents wishes and married the man they had arranged for her with no fuss, and then she would eventually fall in love with him. This is typical of a lot of arranged marriage stories, including mail-order brides. 

Or I could have made a heroine who rebelled and ran away to her own adventure, which could have been for a variety of reasons. Both of those variations would have been completely different stories from each other and from the one I wrote, and each would need a different kind of heroine. Isabelle had a little of both of the other heroines in her I mentioned, a desire to be obedient but also a little rebellious.

Isabelle not only had the arranged marriage to contend with, but there was a handsome rancher she had her eye on, as well as a secret admirer leaving her poetry. I didn’t want to make it easy on her to choose and for there to be an obvious choice, so I made all the men likable. Though the story takes place in less than two weeks, Isabelle grows as she weighs her options.

Less often, the setting guides who the heroine needs to be—to some degree—like in my Amish PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS series. Obviously, living in an Amish community, my heroine would need to be Amish. But I did my best to push the Amish boundaries and make them each unique in their own way, a doctor, a model, and an out-of-wedlock mother-to-be. =0) 

An yet other heroines are shaped by historical events like in my story HER HONORABLE ENEMY during The Pig War and the amiable interactions between the two sides. 

Then as a story rolls along, the heroine is changed and shaped and grows. And, no matter how well I know a heroine before a story starts, I usually learn things about her that I hadn’t thought of before. She just blurts something out that makes me stop and question her.

Some times the heroine comes first and I need to devise an interesting story to drop her into, and some times a story plot is in place and I need to figure out from what kind of heroine I want to tell that story. And some times, it’s something else entirely that decides who the heroine needs to be.

Writing fiction is interesting and keeps me on my toes.

Happy Reading!

=0)

YOU'RE INVITED!

The  authors at Heroes, Heroines, & History are having their quarterly Mid-Month Madness on May 15th starting at 3 pm Eastern time. I'll be there! It's one part FB party + one part blog party = lots of fun and opportunities to win books, books, and more.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/2672065196168375/permalink/2699793446728883/
Blog: https://www.hhhistory.com/

COME JOIN THE FUN!


NEW!
THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT (Book 2 in the Quilting Circle series )
Can a patient love win her heart?

As Isabelle Atwood’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams. While making a quilt for her own hope chest, Isabelle’s half-sister becomes pregnant out of wedlock and Isabelle--always the unfavored daughter--becomes the family sacrifice to save face. Despite gaining the attention of a handsome rancher, her parents are pressuring her to marry a man of their choosing to rescue her sister’s reputation. A third suitor waits silently in the wings, hoping for his own chance at love. Isabelle ends up with three marriage proposals, but this only further confuses her decision.

A handsome rancher, a stranger, and an unseen suitor are all waiting for an answer.  Isabelle loves her sister, but will she really allow herself to be manipulated into a marriage without love? Will Isabelle capitulate and marry the man her parents wish her to, or will she rebel and marry the man they don’t approve of? Or will the man leaving her secret love poems sweep her off her feet?

RECENT!

The MISSADVENTURE BRIDES Collection

Love Is One of Life’s Greatest Adventures 
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures?

Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure, a 1904 road-trip
Zola Calkin sets out on an adventure to be the first woman to drive across the country. Will the journalist tasked to report her presumed failure sabotage her efforts? Or will he steal her heart?

COURTING HER PRODIGAL HEART

Mother-to-Be’s Amish Homecoming... Pregnant and alone, Dori Bontrager is sure her Amish kin won’t welcome her—or the child she’s carrying—into the community. And she’s determined that her return won’t be permanent. As soon as she finds work, she’ll leave again. But with her childhood friend Eli Hochstetler insisting she and her baby belong here, will Dori’s path lead back to the Englisher world…or into Eli’s arms?

THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.
Washington State, 1893
     When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
     Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in  town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
     Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection (January), Courting Her Amish Heart (March), The Widow’s Plight (July), Courting Her Secret Heart (September), “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection (December), and Courting Her Prodigal Heart (January 2019). Coming in 2019, The Daughter's Predicament (May) and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads (July). She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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