New Historical Romance Series

After a flood annihilates a wagon train, eleven female survivors try to build a life in Hope, Nebraska.

My brand new ten-book historical romance "Tender Mysteries Series," based on the above premise, begins in 1895, seven years after the disaster experienced by its starring characters.

The first book "Resurrected" is now available as a FREE download at Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, and Apple's I-Books for I-Pad. Currently, it is available at Amazon for 99 cents, but, hopefully, it will soon be free there too.

"Resurrected:" July, 1895: An investigation into a series of thefts leads Deborah Willet to an irresistible man and a shocking discovery about another love in her life.

The second book of the "Tender Mysteries Series," "Restitution" is also available at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon. It will be available in the next couple of weeks at other Internet bookstores.

"Restitution:" November, 1895: While Amy McKittrick tries to save the good name of one falsely-accused, special man, she falls in love with another.

Book Three of the series, "Retribution," will be available in late November.

"Retribution:" April, 1896: Susan Willet chooses a dangerous path when she joins forces with a handsome sheriff to find the men who kidnapped her sister Bonnie.

The "Tender Mysteries Series" will also be available in paperback. The first book, a two-pack combination of "Resurrected" and "Retribution" will be available in late November. Each paperback will contain two novels from the series.

More books in the series will be released in 2013 and 2014 in e-book and paperback.

I'd like to thank all of my readers for their support. You've been wonderful. I truly hope you enjoy this new series. I've written it just for you...

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

On Creativity

Our creativity manifests itself in many ways.

People who work in watercolors doing beautiful landscapes might also enjoy making sculpture out of old tires.

A songwriter could be an excellent glass blower.

We've seen many actors who not only deliver breathtaking performances but also dance and sing.

As for myself, in addition to writing, I enjoy quilting and knitting. I couldn't possibly count the number of afghans I've made, mostly while watching NFL football. (Can't just sit there and do nothing but watch the game.)

My most recently completed quilting project is a red, white and blue star quilt.

I think all of us have a creative side, just as we all have a talent for logic and reason. Fortunately, not all of us have the exact same creative talents, nor do we use our similar creative tendencies in the same ways.

The more creative we are, the more likely we are to look at things in different ways. Scientists make discoveries because they're thinking outside the realm of known facts. Technically creative people find ways to make computer monitors smaller, cell phones with more function, cameras tiny enough to explore the insides of our bodies.

Whenever we face problems which need to be solved, if we rely on our creativity we're likely to find a better solution than if we stick to old ways of doing things.

Just a thought from one creative person to another...

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

Beaver Cleaver's Big Drama

Without drama there is no comedy, no comedy worth indulging in, that is.

The word "drama" brings to mind thoughts of serious even gut-wrenching stories, but "drama" is just another word for "conflict," which can also have its share of grim connotations. However, if it's to be funny, comedy must be filled with conflict and drama.

Consider the following plot in the classic "Leave it to Beaver" television show. This storyline, filled with intense drama, is one of the funniest episodes of the entire series.

Setup: Ward (the father) gives seven-year-old Beaver money to get a haircut so he'll look good when he plays an angel in the Christmas pageant. He also cautions the boy to avoid losing the money.

Dramatic Point 1: Beaver loses the money. (He's quite upset because he's been losing money regularly lately.)

Dramatic Point 2: In order to sidestep his father's wrath, Beaver decides to give himself a haircut so Dad won't know he lost the money.

Dramatic Point 3: Beaver has done a poor job giving himself a haircut so his brother Wally gets out the scissors and tries to clean things up.

Dramatic Point 4: Wally has been no more successful in giving his brother a decent haircut than Beaver was so they try to cover up the problem with a stocking hat.

Drama builds as one bad decision leads to another throughout this episode.

Viewers enjoy a hilarious half hour, but the poor characters are really suffering. The boys don’t want their parents to be upset with them, and the parents, upon learning what has happened, face great embarrassment from their “angel” and his horrible haircut in the Christmas pageant.

Conflict moves this comedy from one funny scene to the next.

As a writer, I enjoy composing stories with tons of conflict and drama. Whether the story is as serious as "Stolen Son" or as laugh inducing as "Male Fraud," as far as I'm concerned, the more conflict the better.

As a reader and a television viewer, if a story isn't dramatic, no matter what its genre might be, I won't read it or watch it--unless I'm trying to fall asleep. :-)

Here's hoping all the drama you encounter this week comes from fiction. (Real life is much easier without conflict and drama.)

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

The Importance of Secrets

Every one of us has a secret, something which we haven't told anyone--not our spouse, not a parent, not a best friend.

Something bad, maybe even horrible, happened to us; we did something which we deeply regret; we intentionally hurt someone; we did something heroic which no one witnessed.

Secrets buried deep within our souls sometimes have a big affect on how we behave, how we see the world, or whether or not we trust other people.

While these furtive facts about ourselves can wreak havoc in our lives, secrets make good fodder for fictional stories.

Soap operas just wouldn't be as intriguing without a baby who could be the result of a clandestine affair.

The Oedipus Rex would be just another story without the protagonist's mother issues.

A murder mystery is much more compelling when the killer eventually confesses he hated the boss he poisoned because he looked just like the stepfather who used to lock him in the mouse-infested feed bin of a lonely country barn.

When developing characters writers delve into the pasts of these fictional people. They ask all kinds of intimate questions of their characters, so to speak.

When they learn Sarah was bullied as a teenager, or Mike saved the life of a little girl and no one knew what he did, or Cecily gave away a daughter to adoptive parents and then learned she could no longer have children, writers understand something very important about their characters. They understand that past secrets influence present behaviors. Once writers are aware of what makes their characters tick, writing plausible stories about the characters' reactions to certain situations becomes a little less challenging.

Whenever we read a book or watch a movie, the story always becomes more interesting when we take time to discover just why a character acts the way she does. We should always spend time getting to know the secrets of the Sarah, Mike or Cecily in the fictional story we're reading or viewing. I guarantee the character creator did.

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

Tough Love Day

Writers, like everyone else, get distracted with events in their personal lives. Just like you, dear readers, we get headaches, suffer from broken hearts, are overwhelmed by family responsibilities, lose people we love and are diagnosed with heart ailments and cancers.

Working while dealing with physical and emotional distractions can often be difficult to do, no matter what profession we work in.

For a fiction writer or anyone else who works alone with his thoughts, setting aside these painful distractions can be a challenge because he has nothing concrete or tangible to help take his mind off his troubles while he's working the way an auto mechanic, a maid, a teacher or a factory worker does. If he takes the day off to give in to or to nurse his sufferings it matters to no one but himself, at least for that day. While patrons of a hotel would definitely miss the performance of the important duties of a maid, if a novel writer didn't work for a day, so what? Right? No one is hurt by his absence from his duties.

This is why it is easy for writers to slip into the bad habit of not writing because "she didn't feel like it" or "he wasn't inspired" or "she just found out she has a serious disease and she needs to feel sorry for herself."

Professional writers write--they write every day, no matter what is going on in their lives.

Police officers work no matter what is going on with their personal lives, so do nurses, janitors, CEOs, dog walkers and everyone else who is physically capable of doing so.

If today is a day a writer would go to work if he were a waiter, an electrician, a priest, a garbage collector or a candy maker, then it's a day he needs to work as a writer.

Setting up a work schedule and sticking to it no matter what is key to a writer reaching her goals.

Throughout my writing years, I've had my share of distractions just like most other people. I've taken care of sick loved ones, supported people dealing with abuse, gone through surgeries and dealt with serious illness, done volunteer work, lost family members and tended to the duties of being a wife and mother. When it comes to keeping up with a writing schedule I have found that adhering to the schedule no matter what is going on not only helps to accomplish goals, it helps with maintaining a sense of normalcy in life when everything around me is dragging me down.

I believe this perseverance can be uplifting if we let it. It can be inspirational and rewarding during our more difficult times. Writers, give yourselves some tough love and make yourself work, no matter how tempting it is to set work aside because things are not going well for the time being. Work and find inspiration and satisfaction in what you do. It'll turn tough love into warm feelings of accomplishment.

Good luck, and God bless everyone who is having a difficult time this week whether you're a writer or not. (God bless those who are having a good week too!)

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

Tender Mysteries Series

For more than a year now I've been working on my "Tender Mysteries Series."

The novels in this series set in 1890s Nebraska are filled with mystery and romance. In some ways, they also cross the line into what is categorically known as women's fiction.

Each book in the series focuses on one of ten young women who'd been traveling via wagon train in 1888 from the Illinois/Indiana area to the West when a flood destroyed most of their property and many of their loved ones. All of them were children in 1888 ranging from eight to fifteen years of age. By 1895, when the series begins, most of them have grown into womanhood.

The first book in this series, "Resurrected," will be available in the next couple of months as a free download. The second and third books in the series, "Restitution" and "Retribution" will be available as downloads at the same time the first one is. More novels in the series will be released in 2013 and 2014.

The paperback editions will be issued in "2-packs." The first paperback, due for release this autumn, will contain both "Resurrected" and "Restitution," the first two novels in the series. The second paperback, due to be released in 2013, will contain "Retribution" and "Recruited," the third and fourth books in the series.

As most of you know, this isn't my first attempt at writing a series. My "Heart Junction Series" has been quite popular with readers.

However, the scale of the "Tender Mysteries Series" is much grander than my first American historical series which consisted of three books.

The work entailed in writing a series as intense and large-scale as the "Tender Mysteries Series" is mind boggling, but, as I'm seeing the first three books coming into their final stages, I believe this labor-intensive project is well worth the effort.

I'm eagerly looking forward to sharing this series with readers whom I hope find themselves highly entertained by these compelling stories.

I hope your week is a great one. Mine's been pretty good so far. :-)

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page

Do Overs

Writing a first draft to a new novel is exciting. Juices are flowing, ideas are being realized, people are coming to life just as the writer has imagined them.

First drafts can be thrilling to write; they can be gut wrenching too. It all depends on how well pre-writing work was completed, how energized the writer is, how focused the writer is and on a few other things like having completed adequate research and whether or not the writer still has a good attitude toward the project.

The hardest work in completing a novel comes in succeeding drafts. Second, third, fourth...twelfth drafts are needed to fix plot and character flaws, dress up scenes, perfect conflicts, turning points, dialog, etc.

New writers should know, no matter how much in love they are with their first novel, it's a good idea to set it aside for a few weeks after they've completed it. Once it's mellowed on the computer or in a drawer or closet for a month or two, the writer should take a fresh look at it, as though they're seeing it for the first time. They should be super critical of it, noting what's great about it and what's not so great. Then begin rewrites.

It's always a good idea to let a project set at least a couple of weeks after each rewriting session and come back to it with fresh perspective for the next set of rewrites.

Each time a writer takes up a project to work on rewrites she has the ability to exercise a "Do Over," eventually making the novel the best it can be.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could do "rewrites" or "do overs" in our real lives from time to time?

Fran

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
Fran's Web Page