Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Caroline. Tell us, what inspired you to write your book BLESSING?
I was invited to join the Widows of Wildcat Ridge series and the organizer had set up the town and listed many of the women there. I chose Blessing Odell, who prefers to be called Buster. The death of her father leaves her owning the largest ranch in the area. She wears men’s overalls yet remains feminine. Something about her intrigued me. I enjoyed writing her story and watching her character develop.
How do you use setting to further your story?
Setting is always a character in the story. In this case, it’s a dying mining town where a mine explosion has left many widows and orphans. If you’ve seen photos of old mining towns you know how bleak that would be. You can also see how that scene would affect the mourning and depression of the survivors.
This setting could destroy the weak, but in this instance, a group of women come together and empower one another to rebuild their lives.
In other books, the setting was a blizzard that isolated people. The storm becomes a villain holding people in one place, perhaps against their will. Another type of isolation, a ranch a long distance from any neighbor, becomes a character when one of the characters is injured, creating the necessity for the uninjured person to step up and become heroic.
How do you construct your characters?
Usually they pop into my head and start acting. I don’t know how that happens, but I’m not the only one to whom it does. Once the initial characters appear, I look for ways in which the hero and heroine want the same goal and the ways in which they conflict. I personally love for everyone to get along, but that is a boring story. 😊 We have to have conflict and even the hero and heroine must have flaws.
How is your main character completely different than you?
For one thing, my heroine can eat a lot and stay thin. 😉 I can eat a little and stay fluffy. My main character loves to be outdoors while I love temperature-controlled indoors with a nice view of outside. The heroine doesn’t want to leave where she lives even for a short trip. I enjoy travel.
Do you prefer to read in the same genre you write in, or do you avoid reading that genre? Why?
I read several genres but my favorite is western historical romance of the type I write. I also love Regencies, English Victorian, cozy mysteries, Louis L’Amour, women’s fiction, and romantic suspense.
I read from my genre to avoid duplicating what someone else has published. Of course, there are only so many plots but I don’t want to appear to have deliberately copied anyone.
What is most difficult for you to write? Characters, conflict or emotions? Why?
Conflict. (Shudder). I hate confrontation so I want my characters to get along. That does not make for a good story. That’s not even a paragraph: They met, they liked one another, they lived happily ever after. It’s also not realistic.
Conflict was the most difficult aspect of the craft for me to learn. I still struggle with it with each book. Thank goodness for Deb Dixon’s book, GOAL, MOTIVATION, CONFLICT.
Give us a brief summary of BLESSING:
With the death of her father last month, Blessing Odell inherited the largest ranch in that part of Utah, the Rafter O. She goes by the nickname Buster and wears men’s overalls but they can’t disguise her regal beauty and natural grace. She is also generous to the community, which is why she’s splitting proceeds from the sale of 100 horses with the widows of Wildcat Ridge.
Thad King has tracked stolen horses to the Rafter O Ranch. He’s determined to capture and see punished the horse thieves who killed former employer before stealing his horses. He is successful in being hired to work on the ranch, but he doesn’t want to believe Buster Odell or her father had anything to do with stealing horses.
Buster and Thad work together to discover the real culprit, even though it leads them on a dangerous journey.
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Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To make up for this tragic error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a small office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their rescued cats and dogs. The books she creates there have made her an Amazon bestselling author and won several awards.
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