Stranger Than Fiction

Strolling out of Lake Jessup this week

That's about 15 miles north of where I live.

 

Background to "Stranger Than Fiction":

This week's Mosaic Moments is one of those stories that proves "Truth is Stranger Than Fiction." The events recorded below were relayed to me in two phone calls from my son who lives "up north." Although I have changed names for anonymity, these events actually happened over the past two weeks. 

FYI:

1. My son is Property Manager for c. 160 apartments in c. 40 buildings in 2 different towns. He employs a rather large number of handymen. We'll call the one in this story "Bill." Bill has been working for my son for many years.

2. Bill does NOT live in one of the apartments managed by my son.

3. The suburban police department involved will be called "S." 

4. The bad guy we'll call "the Fraudster."

5. Bill has recently been diagnosed with cancer.

 

A CAUTIONARY TALE

Some time ago, Bill allowed a man he knew to share his apartment. But one day recently, the unthinkable happened. Bill's "guest" claimed the apartment as his own, going so far as to call the police and declare Bill the intruder. The police separated the two men but ended up leaving the Fraudster in the apartment with Bill out on the street until the matter could be settled in court. Not surprisingly, Bill ended up in the hospital for six days and missed his court date.

The result:  Bill now has a restraining order against him and an arrest warrant. My son, going to bat for Bill, believes he has straightened out the problem of the missed court date, so Bill goes to visit a friend in the building where his apartment is, The two men go for a walk on a nearby nature trail as Bill recounts his tale of woe. At which point they are attacked by the Fraudster. Bill calls my son, who advises him to call the police, as whoever calls first is likely the one they'll believe.

Bill calls the S police, but the street patrol evidently hasn't gotten the message about the dropped arrest warrant. Instead of blaming the Fraudster for starting the fight, they arrest Bill, handcuffing him so tightly he loses mobility in his hands. (Interestingly, he insists they take him to the hospital to document his paralysis and they do just that.)

BUT meanwhile, it turns out that the higher echelons of the S police have been looking for Bill—not as an offender but as a WITNESS. So Bill ends up talking directly to the Chief of Police. (And this is where the story elevates to "if I put this in one of my books, no one would believe it.") It seems that during the time Bill and his supposed friend were living in the now-disputed apartment, the Fraudster—for the vast sum of $20—sold cocaine to another man in the building. Except the Fraudster didn't have any cocaine. What he sold was rat poison. The man died. Mr. Fraudster is unlikely to bother Bill again.

Bill is back in his apartment. He had his first chemo on Wednesday. And will shortly be moving into one of the apartments my son manages.We're all pulling for him to conquer the cancer challenge as well.

* * * * *

Grace note:  This is a side of life very few of us see, although my son spends a remarkable amount of time acting as a social worker. (To the extent when one of his tenants was having a heart attack, he called my son instead of 911!) Fortunately, my son has the temperament for it, but Bill's case was one of his worst challenges before it finally came right.

 

WARNING!

 My son passes along this advice:

Be very careful about who you take into your home. The way the laws in many states are worded, you could find yourself out on the street until you can prove in court that you have a right to the roof over your head.

~ * ~

 

The Blue Moon Rising Series

 I made an interesting discovery when I uploaded The Crucible Kingdom to Smashwords and its affiliates this week. I had forgotten that Rebel Princess, the first book of the Blue Moon series, was originally published by Kindle Scout and featured on Kindle Unlimited. Consequently, none of the four books of the series were available anywhere else. I eventually took them off Kindle Unlimited but in the 90-day process of waiting for that to take effect, I evidently lost myself in whatever I was writing at the time and failed to make the Blue Moon books available to Smashwords, B&N's Nook, Kobo, Scribd, Apple & OverDrive. Aargh!

This week I began to remedy that problem. Rebel Princess (with a 20% free read) is now available on Smashwords and should be on the other venues shortly. The other three books are "coming soon." Below, cover and blurb for Book 1.

 

The Princess Royal of a pacifist planet, whose people have spent a thousand years developing their powers of the mind, stages a personal rebellion, joining the space academy of a planet that has spent a millennium developing its military might. This odd pairing goes well until her senior year when her new "friends" turn on her. Only the swift action of an honorable huntership captain saves her from rape and medical experimentation. As a very special prisoner of war, she spends four years in solitary confinement, where she dreams of her rescuer but has no idea she has inadvertently sparked a rebellion against the military planet's vast Empire.

When the princess-in-disguise is finally freed and tossed into the middle of the Rebellion, she discovers there is a stark contrast between her fantasy version of the man who rescued her and the flesh and blood starship captain leading the rebellion. She must cope with his followers who fear her psychic powers, a fey younger brother who speaks only through illusions, royal parents with a strict belief in non-violence, and a fiancé who happens to be a sorcerer. It would appear the hope of toppling the Empire is a dim light at the end of a long tunnel.

~ * ~

Reminder:  The Crucible Kingdom is a stand-alone spin-off of the Blue Moon Rising series, and includes the marked contrast between the dysfunctional young prince in Rebel Princess and what he has become more than a decade later.

 

 For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Amazon, click here.

~ * ~

   For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page  click here.

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

 

Gallery & Giveaway

 The Crucible Kingdom will be a "Giveaway" 

at Goodreads from April 26 to May 8.

 * * * * *

Another of those priceless comments on the oddities of the English language. 

 

Palm Sunday

Our church's Youth Orchestra, plus a ringer from the Senior Choir, playing for the Palm Sunday procession. 

Arcus cloud over Kearney, Nebraska

by Robert McGinnis - found on Facebook

Susie went on her first dive of 2022 & scored a big megalodon tooth:

 

Our Riley looked stunning for Prom:

You can tell Mama was once a makeup artist.

 

Cassidy won three awards at the Air Force ROTC Awards ceremony this week. Below, with proud Mom & Pop:

 

The rules for the AMVETS award, which Cassidy won:

And for a soothing closing, a photo by Vonnie Alto . . .

Jacaranda trees

 ~ * ~

 For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Amazon, click here.

~ * ~

   For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page  click here.

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

The Crucible Kingdom

 

 

In this spin-off of the Blue Moon Rising series, the Crucible Kingdom, an obscure planet far, far away, is suffering from an ancient curse—periodic bouts of violent storms, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and wildfire. To break the curse, a widowed duchess and a starship captain from the disintegrating Regulon Empire (which her ancestors fled centuries earlier) are forced to work together. Although the duchess grudgingly accepts that the captain is highly capable in emergencies, she scorns the idea that a hard-headed Reg who does not believe in sorcery can be helpful in ending a curse. And then the captain comes up with an idea no one thought of, setting off a quest that turns out to be as dangerous as the curse itself.

 For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to The Crucible Kingdom on Amazon, click here.

~ * ~

   For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page  click here.

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

 

 

How to Develop Your Characters - Creating Personalties

On March 26, the Air Force ROTC held an extremely formal dance, complete with instructions to the cadets on the manners that are now so seldom observed. Sigh. I'm told they had a grand time (after the high-ranking officers left!), and the food was good as well as the fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ~ * ~

 I consider Characters and Characterization at the top of the list of necessities when writing Fiction. This week, a repeat of one of my many bits of advice on the subject. Other articles on Characterization can be found by searching through the archives of Grace's Mosaic Moments or in Making Magic With Words (indexed & compiled by subject).

 

  Link to Making Magic With Words

 

 October 29, 2012

 

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR

CHARACTERS - Creating Personalities

 

My personal approach to developing characters is pretty laissez-faire. I have, of course, spent some time thinking about these people and their possible problems before I even attempted to name them (as we did in Part 1). For how can I know what names are right for them if I haven't "met" them yet? That's one of the great things about being an author, we don't have to "take what we get"; we can create exactly the people we want. (Wow, if only we could do that in real life!) I guess that's why so many people enjoy the fantasy world of romance.

 But beyond a general idea of my main characters' personalities, creating their names and a bit of family background, I let these people develop on their own. This, however, is not a method that works for everyone, so today I'm going to suggest some more questions you might want to ask yourself about your characters, particularly the hero, heroine, and villain (if applicable). If you wish, you can extend the same questions to your most important secondary characters.

First, a not-apocryphal tale.  

My mother, Wilma Pitchford Hays, was an author. While I was growing up, she wrote serial stories for Modern Romances, a Dell publication. We lived quite a ways from New York City, but I can recall her getting all dressed up, complete with hat and gloves, to go into the city to meet her editor. After each discussion, the editor would always escort her "upstairs" to Mr. Delacorte's office to speak for a few minutes to "the boss." (Sorry, I don't think I ever knew which Delacorte brother it was.) But according to my mother, he evidently had an appreciative eye for an attractive author!

When my mother paid my last college tuition, she switched to writing children's books (for three different age levels) and became well-known in that field. But I never forgot the story she told me when I was in high school and she was writing one of her serial romances for Dell. She said she never intended for her heroine and the two men vying for her love to all end up in a lake at the same time. The characters simply took over, and it happened, just like that. Since this was an open-ended story, where the readers got to decide which man triumphed, I expect this caused quite a stir. Did she have to drown one of the men? I don't think she ever told me that. But the concept of characters grabbing a story and running with it stuck in my mind. And it's certainly happened to me. Some days I start out intending to write A, and suddenly my fingers are typing B, or maybe something so very different I should call it XYZ.

Is this good? For me it has been. The new zig or zag always seemed to be more creative than what I'd planned. Which is why I'm an "out of the mist" writer, always willing to accommodate fresh ideas.

If, however, this new idea takes you off on a tangent not relevant to the story, then it's bad. Change your intended plot angle, change your setting, change the point of view, but never wander more than a few inches off the path of the story you're telling.

~ * ~

   For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)

 

 

Prequel - The Crucible Kingdom

 UKRAINIAN PRAYER

After putting together this week's blog, I went to choir rehearsal, where our director gave us copies of a hot-off-international-email music, written by the UK's John Rutter, one of the world's best-known composer of religious music. (For example, he wrote music for most of the British royal weddings!) He has posted his latest composition, "A Ukrainian Prayer," to YouTube, along with his heart-felt comments. This Sunday, our choir of 15 voices, after one rehearsal, is going to attempt to perform what you will hear sung by 300 if you click on the link below. I highly recommend it - a truly moving moment.

To hear "A Ukrainian Prayer," click here.

Sunday p.m.

I am happy to report that our small choir managed "A Ukrainian Prayer" amazingly well. And the congregation was seemed truly appreciative of the moment.  

~ * ~

 

After the Citrus Singers sang the National Anthem at an Orlando City soccer match, three of the girls got a hug from the mascot.

 Riley was trying on prom gowns this week—that's a tan lining under there, not skin!—and Mom couldn't resist taking a photo. Since the dress was $600, there was no chance of it getting Riley banned at the door. (She has ordered a lovely, much more conservative gown for the occasion.) 

The following is a photo from the Orlando Sentinel. And no, it's not photo-shopped. The Orlando area was known for growing celery long before Disney made us the resort capital of the world. The celery in the photo was grown in Oviedo, the town just east of Longwood, where I live (c. 15 miles north of Orlando).

PREQUEL - THE CRUCIBLE KINGDOM

Over the past two weeks I have discovered The Crucible Kingdom is longer than I thought it was, meaning its debut will be delayed until April. I also discovered that despite its length, I still had more to add. Sigh. It also occurred to me that since I was using very ancient concepts—sorcery and a curse—in a story set a thousand or so years in the future, it might be fun to write a Prequel in the style of storytellers of old. 

But, Oh horrors!

Romance authors will instantly understand my exclamation. From our first days of writing, we are told:  SHOW, DON'T TELL! A rule that's become so much a part of my writing that I must have revised the three pages of the Prequel ten times before it began to have the right feel (which is Tell, tell, tell!). 

Grace note:  I freely admit "Show, don't Tell" is a rule I occasionally ignore. Many of my books, from The Sometime Bride to The Crucible Kingdom, have paragraphs of Author Point of View ("Tell" mode). But the wise romance author is still advised to keep those passages to a minimum. 

 

So here it is—the Prequel to The Crucible Kingdom. Your comments are invited.

   
Picture a starry night, a glowing campfire, a circle of listeners, and in a tradition as old as humanity, a storyteller keeping ancient history alive . . .

Once upon a time on a planet at the outermost edge of a quadrant in the Milky Way Galaxy, there lived a great but evil sorcerer called Yllyak. His skin was as blue as a summer sky, his eyes the blue-green of a shallow sea. Skinny as a sapling, he towered well over two meters tall. But even in his own time, Yllyak was shunned. Sorcery was all well and good, the Tryll people reasoned, a benefit to the tribe if performed in the proper way, but Yllyak had a dark side, noticeable almost from birth. And as he grew older and his tendencies toward black magic fully unfurled, the Tryll shook their heads. Fear seized their hearts.

And then one day, the intruders came. The threat of Yllyak was forgotten as a great clap of thunder rent the sky and a speck appeared, growing larger and larger until it became a shining object bigger than an entire village. Until it screamed above their heads like a giant bird of prey. Until it plunged into a meadow, grinding, sliding, coming to a halt just short of a dense forest.

And thus, Lord Viktor Jubilan, his wife, children, and a host of others from the star system Caroli escaped the Regulon Empire. And in their eagerness to create a new home for themselves, they took over the planet the Tryll had called their own. They claimed control of the land, the oceans, the lakes, rivers, and mineral wealth. The lives of the Tryll.

All this Yllyak watched.  He brooded. Seethed. And began to scheme, to experiment, grimly fighting his way through failure after failure, seeking some way to stop the flood of pale-skinned invaders from far, far away. But as the years passed, all he managed was vengeance.  His mind, already dark from practicing the black arts, became so twisted, he was oblivious to the fact that any spell he cast against the refugees from Caroli would affect his own people as well. Or perhaps, some would later suggest,  he had lost so much of the better side of himself that he no longer cared.

On the night of the summer solstice in the six and twentieth year after the invasion, Yllyak sat cross-legged on the floor of his cave, ready to cast the final spell. His tools were in place—not easy tasks for a man who’d had to cover great distances on foot, cadging occasional rides on a farmer’s cart. Closer to home, the traps, the mystical beasts were also poised and waiting. There remained only the final incantation, the lowering of the last piece into place.

Yllyak eyed the glowing shape in front of him, the small pool of water just behind. His lips stretched in a rictus of a smile. He began to chant—a long intricate string of words, casting a spell it had taken him years to devise. His voice whispered, sang, rose to a shout, dropped back to an anguished plea. It must work, had to work. The air around him filled with sound—the spell was singing back to him, promising him a curse that would outlast all the invaders’ puny efforts to undo it. Who and what were they, compared to Yllyak of the Tryll?

Sudden silence. The chant was over, the spell cast. Nothing left to do but . . .

A wave of Yllyak’s hand and the glowing red square floated out over a bubbling spring of water in the center of the cave floor. A final quick spell gave the square the weight of lead. Another wave of his hand, and the object plummeted, splashing water over the lip of the spring, over Yllyak himself as it plunged to the rocky bottom far below.

At first, the former citizens of Caroli thought they were merely being afflicted by a spate of bad weather. But four moon cycles seemed excessive. As odd as the violent weather’s sudden end, followed by twelve cycles of normal weather—enough to lull everyone into believing those four cycles of extreme weather were a one-time phenomenon.

Until in a sudden burst of violence, it happened again. Questions were asked, some not so nicely. Yet it was not until shortly after the end of the second four cycles of destruction that the questions were answered. One morning, as King Viktor was listening to petitions from his subjects, a swirl of blue smoke appeared directly in front of his throne. Out of the smoke rose a tall, gaunt blue-skinned Tryll with masses of white hair hanging down to his waist. His face set in a mocking grimace, his slanted eyes gleaming with the conviction of a madman, he stood proudly before the king and told him of the curse. Then, after a brief, scornful survey of king and court, he vanished, once again enveloped in blue smoke, and never to be seen again.

The immigrants from Caroli set their best scientists to studying the problem. They turned to Tryll shamen for help. Many succumbed to a mysticism they’d scorned in the past, burning effigies of Yllyak in every village, town, and city square. But decade after decade, no matter what they tried, nothing could touch the curse Yllyak had devised—twelve cycles of normal weather followed by four cycles of unrelenting earthquakes, violent thunderstorms, hail, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, and wildfires.

Until, that is, two hundred years later . . .

~ * ~

 

A tale of Sorcery, Adventure, and Romance.

~ * ~ 

  For a link to Blair's website, click here.

 For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page  click here.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)