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The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by southern black slaves in the 1800s to escape north where slavery was illegal. Abolitionists, those who opposed slavery, were those who helped them along their way to freedom, often by placing their own lives in danger. It is against this historical backdrop that 9 inspiring stories of faith, hope, and love come together to create The Underground Railroad Brides Collection by Barbour Publishing.
The best part of writing a novella for The Underground Railroad Brides Collection was being part of a team with a fantastic group of other authors. Each of our 9 stories are stand-alone, (they do not connect), and we each picked a different year and location for our settings. But we could share research materials, ask questions, collaborate promotion, and encourage each other along the way.
Below, I asked each author in the collection to share in 1 or 2 lines:
What inspired you to write your particular story?
Lynn Coleman: While researching my husband's genealogy I came across a report given by one of his ancestors to officials in Boston regarding sailing some slaves to freedom. I used this individual as a base for my hero in the story. Not only had he smuggled slaves to freedom on a vessel he was the captain of, but he also reported to the businessmen of the north about the conditions the slaves were facing in the south.
Ramona Cecil: In Follow the Christmas Star, my heroine, Edith was a minor character in Sweet Forever, one of my earlier historical romance novels. Both stories are set in and near Madison, Indiana, a town along the Ohio River and a major stop on the Underground Railroad. I enjoyed revisiting some of my characters from Sweet Forever as I fashioned Edith’s story.
Terri J. Haynes: My inspiration for this story came two sources. The first was the location. I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland and the novella is set in a town called East Towson. It was a little north of Baltimore and eventually becameTowson, Maryland. East Towson was a free, all-black community. They had their own land, church, and schools, all before the Civil War. Maryland was a nuanced state as far as slavery was concerned. My second inspiration was the idea of being free. Both characters were pursuing freedom in very different ways, which gave a fuller picture of slave life in Maryland during that time.
Cecelia Dowdy: I’ve always been fascinated with baking. I thought it'd be cool to set my story in a bakery run by two abolitionists.
Debby Lee: I originally pitched this book to Barbour as a 4-in-1 anthology in 2013, about a house on the Underground Railroad that went from construction phase to a contemporary Underground Railroad museum. Shortly after my agent sent it in, Barbour quit doing the 4-in-1 collections, but this topic was/is near and dear to my heart. So I reworked the proposal and resubmitted it. Now, years later, amidst all the racial tensions in the country, I'm holding this special book in my hands. God is good, and faithful, in His time.
Barbara Tifft Blakey: Honestly, the inspiration to write the story came from the opportunity to be part of the collection, but for the particular story-line, I guess I was inspired by the idea of how secrets impact relationships.
Darlene Panzera: I was fascinated by the songs the slaves sang that contained hidden code to signal danger or direct them toward the path to freedom, and decided to include this in my story, The Song of Hearts Set Free. I also really liked the idea of having a family become a “station” on the Underground Railroad for the very first time where they must learn what to do and who to trust. Since I love candle lanterns, I wanted to also include the fact lanterns were also used by abolitionists to signal messages to those they helped escape.
Penny A Zeller: I’ve always been fascinated by the Underground Railroad. The dangers, the struggles, the bravery of those committed to assisting slaves find their way to freedom enthralled me. I wanted to write a book with romance (of course!) but also with suspense and a real-life look into what it took for ordinary people (in my story’s case, a reverend and a Southern belle) to rescue those trapped in the clutches of slavery.
Patty Smith Hall: Few people know this, but I started writing A Place of Refuge while I was in the hospital recovering from my third back surgery. I had just finished reading the diary of a freed house slave who had a lifelong friendship with her mistress and it was in those passages that Jorgine's story came together.
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]]>Last month when the weather was still warm, my daughter and I were floating around the lake on tubes and brainstorming the suspense plot of a new story. Suddenly we saw two other women staring at us and we remembered that water can carry sound further than you realize. If I overheard two people talking about the best way to murder a woman and hide her body and the murder weapon, and then frame another person to take the blame, I'd be suspicious too! LOL!
I smiled at the ladies and they smiled back, so they must have realized we were harmless. Maybe they even suspected we were writers. But brainstorming that day, led me to think of the questions we need to ask ourselves to create believable antagonists and villains.
Thank you for joining me for this adventurous Learn to Write Fantastic Fiction series!
Once you know who your main character (protagonist) is and what it is he/she wants to do, (See: 3 Goals Every Writer Must Consider) you need to figure who or what can directly oppose this goal. After all, if attaining the goal is too easy, you won't have a story. What you need is CONFLICT. Your heroic main character needs to change and grow as they pursue their goals, and it is conflict that helps him to do this. Conflict can come from a variety of sources, but today we are going to talk about the conflict that comes from other people.
A person who directly opposes the main character's goal and causes him the most trouble is called the ANTAGONIST. There may be more than one in a story, but it is important to remember that an antagonist does not have to be an evil villain or even a bad guy. You may have two people with opposing views who each have a valid reason for believing what they do. Maybe they are just fighting over the same thing, like two dogs over a bone. It doesn't necessarily mean either one of them are wrong, but they cause conflict for each other.
Then there are antagonist's who are VILLAINS. This kind of person intentionally means to cause harm to your heroic main character. A villain should have more negative traits than positive ones. But your villain shouldn't just be pure evil. He can have 3 negative traits and 1 good trait. But you need to give him at least one trait the reader can identify with to make the character believable.
Example: You can have a villain who is a pyromaniac who loves to set sheds in the neighborhood on fire. He doesn't care about others because no one has ever shown they cared for him. He especially has it in for the guy next door who he believes stole his new pack of lighters and has threatened to turn him in as a suspect. He plans to burn this neighbors shed down next. But on the positive side, this villain also has a cat at home who he allows to sleep on his lap or a kid who he will protect at any cost.
Even if his intentions are wrong, the reader also has to be able to understand why this villain thinks and acts the way he does. We need to know his motivation, his why. This is how you can keep your villain 3-dimensional and interesting, instead of what editors call a shallow "cardboard villain" who is pure evil for no valid reason. Always ask yourself how can you make your antagonist or villain different, so he isn't predictable or like other villains?
Remember too, that the scariest villains don't have to be dark or dirty with scars across their faces. Sometimes the scariest villains of all are the successful, clean cut, next-door neighbor types who the protagonist never suspected. Someone who's been hiding in plain sight.
When brainstorming an antagonist or a villain, you have to look at the story from their point of view and ask 5 basic questions: Who, What, Why, When, and Where?
I sincerely hope this helps you to start brainstorming the opposition your main character must face at a deeper level than you have in the past. If you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you! Just leave a message in the box below.
Until next time—Happy Writing!
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]]>One of the questions I get asked most as an author is how do you come up with your ideas? The truth is I gather ideas wherever I go. A writer is an observer. I carry around a little notepad and pen in my purse to jot down ideas as they come to me. Lately I have been using the voice recorder and notepad on my cell phone, and also using the camera feature to take photos of things that catch my interest.
I got the basic premise for my new series, MONTANA HEARTS, from a real event that took place at a fabulous equestrian guest ranch in Wyoming. The owners told me that the previous ranch managers had embezzled most of the ranch's money and fled town. The modern day villains had also left them hanging with unfinished building projects that had not been built to code, holes in the schedule, and had failed to line up the required amount of ranch personal for the upcoming summer season.
The rustic cabin my family stayed in was amazing. I loved sitting in the hammock chair on our own little wooden front porch. We got up at six a.m. to see the wranglers round up all the horses from the field and drive them through the open gate into the corral. The ranch offered trail rides, river rafting, and nightly campfires complete with cowboy songs and roasted marshmallows. As I listened to the ranch hands' stories, I had to laugh because I have a horse of my own and know full well no two days at the barn are ever the same. You always have to be prepared for the unexpected.
By the time I left, I knew I had several ideas for plot, characters, and setting. I also knew I could draw on my own experience with horses. Then I traveled to Montana and fell in love with the tiny two block town of Three Forks, which I used as a model for my fictional town, 'Fox Creek.' I went to Bozeman for a writer's conference that included field trips to many places around the area. We hiked two miles up the hill to the big white 'M' and learned its history. This provided me with a full scene in Her Weekend Wrangler where my hero and heroine also hike up to the famous letter on the hillside.
Sure I could use Google Maps, travel guides, and read various stories of wranglers online. But by interacting with the real world, I've found I can provide better detail and authenticity for the fictional worlds I create. Not to mention—it's fun. Hopefully my readers will think so too!
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