Happy Memorial Day, Everyone! What a better way to kick off the day than with a very memorable guest post by Rie McGaha, author of Blood Line. If that title doesn't catch your attention - the cover is guaranteed to!
I sincerely want to thank Ms. McGaha for taking the time to stop by and allowing me to post her delightful post. I hope everyone enjoys it and takes the time to check out this wonderfully sounding book!
I sincerely want to thank Ms. McGaha for taking the time to stop by and allowing me to post her delightful post. I hope everyone enjoys it and takes the time to check out this wonderfully sounding book!
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Because I’m The Princess—That’s Why!
By Rie McGaha
By Rie McGaha
I lived in a time before cable or satellite or video games or malls. I know some may find that difficult to believe, but it’s true and I’m not a hundred years old either--close, but not quite! Raised in the Trinity Alps of Northern California by parents who worked hard to keep food on the table, we had few luxuries like television, and there wasn’t money to spend on movie theaters or other forms of entertainment. When not in school there were chores to be done, and on weekends or during the summer months, we children were expected to stay outside and play. Imagination was our entertainment.
One day as we were roaming around we found a huge roll of tin foil, (yes, tin foil, aluminum foil wasn’t yet available), buried beneath some brush. Being the oldest girl, and the loudest, my cousins obeyed my every command, including the boys. So it only stood to reason that I was the princess and the foil was fashioned into a crown, a gown, a scepter, and a long train that the boys had to carry and follow me everywhere. My ladies in waiting also had crowns and gowns, but no one had a train like mine. This game went on for several days until the foil was finally used and we eventually became interested in another game. Probably “house” where I was always the ruling mommy, or “doctor” where one of my boy cousins wound up with a bloody nose when he had the audacity to suggest that a girl had to be a nurse because only boys could be doctors!
My imagination continued to flourish as I grew older and the fantasies I saw in my head became stories on paper, written out in long hand because we didn’t have a typewriter and it wouldn’t be until my freshman year of high school that I learned to use one. I used reams of paper to write out my stories and always said I was going to be a writer. I wanted to write novels like “Gone With The Wind” or “Of Mice And Men” but when I read “The Shining” I knew I wanted to scare the crap out of people!
My parents never shared my enthusiasm for reading or writing and I was told many times that I would never be a published author. My parents’ way of thinking was I needed to graduate from high school and get a “real” job and let go of childhood foolishness. I worked at many menial labor jobs in restaurants, department stores, fast food establishments and bars and hated every one of them.
When children came along I found an audience. With twelve children to care for, money was tight to say the least, and I still continued to work, but I had gone to college and the jobs became a little better, though I still dreamed of being a writer. When my children were small I used to tell them bedtime stories that I made up, and then later, I began writing those stories down. My favorite story was called, “Elizabeth and Yonni The Unicorn” that I wrote for my daughter, Elizabeth when she was three years old. Yonni was a magical unicorn who came to Elizabeth’s bedroom window each evening and when she climbed on his back, he would fly away with her, taking her to far away lands where the trees were made of gumdrops and the flowers were candy canes. Elizabeth loved the story so much that she wanted Yonni painted on her walls and it turned out beautifully.
When the kids began to grow older and some of the oldest ones began to move out, I had more time to myself and began jotting down ideas for stories. I was getting older too, but my dream of being an author had continued to niggle in the back of my mind. Several more years passed and more kids grew up, and then the grandchildren became a priority, and the beneficiaries of Nana’s stories. I remember overhearing one of my daughters say to another daughter, “Thank God she has grandkids now and we don’t have to listen to her stories anymore!”
When I had only three children left at home and all were pretty much grown, but hadn’t yet moved out, I had a lot of time on my hands. I read everything I could get my hands on in the tiny library of our town. My daughter, Lisa is also an avid reader and she and I would each check out six books, the maximum number the library allowed at one time and then spend the next week passing them back and forth until we’d read them all. And one day we went to the library and found we had read every romance book they carried!
That night Lisa said, “Mom, you should write a romance novel.” I laughed at her and told her I couldn’t. She argued with me, of course, and kept nagging me until one day I thought, “Ha, I’ll show her!” I thought I would write something, submit it and show her I couldn’t get published. The joke was on me because about a month after submitting to several publishers and getting several rejection letters, one publisher accepted my work. No one was more surprised than I was.
That publisher and I weren’t a good fit. I no longer have a contract with them and the book is no longer available, but the one thing that happened as a result was I found that my dream could be a reality. I began writing almost non-stop, and the creative juices began to flow like the mighty Mississippi and haven’t stopped yet. I was encouraged even though the first published piece didn’t work out and began to submit other works. Yes, I received rejections, many, many rejections, and then it became a battle of wills! I knew I wrote good stories with good story lines and good characters, maybe my technique was a little rough, but technique I could learn and I wasn’t going to give up!
Quite some time later, I met my editor, Jill Noble, owner of Noble Romance Publishing and submitted a manuscript to NRP, fully expecting a rejection. Instead, she accepted it! I’m not going to tell you that it’s been easy since then, it’s not. I’ve been through edits with Jill, something I had never done before, and until you’ve been edited you don’t know what pain is! But edits also gave me something else, a reality check about my writing technique, which I am still working on and I imagine, will continue to work on for the rest of my writing life. And that one simply amazing venture turned out to be a continuing working relationship with three published books and a trilogy due to be released the end of this month.
From a little girl who liked to make up stories and act them out, to a mom who made up stories for her children, to becoming a published author is the fulfillment of the dream of a lifetime for me. A part of me goes into every story I write, and that’s a piece of me that will remain long after the rest of me has vanished from this life. And maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll have a grandchild or great-grandchild or even a great great-grandchild who will take a lesson from their old Nana and pursue a dream that everyone else said was unattainable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Blood Line:
Truck driver, Joshua Kaine and his wife, Jessie, enjoy the freedom of the open road until one night on a lonely country road Josh is attacked by a rabid dog. After killing the animal, Joshua becomes very ill, but quickly recovers. Weeks later, when the full moon rises and Josh begins howling, the trouble has just begun.
Drawn by an unknown force, Joshua finds himself in a remote mountain area at The Gathering where he meets Garan, a gray wolf who has walked the earth for thousands of years, and Joshua learns the rabid dog was actually a werewolf and his clan is now after Josh.
On the run, hunted by a clan of werewolves, and searching to undo his plight, Josh ventures into the swamps of Louisiana in search of an old, black woman who holds the key to his existence. Josh is pushed to the limits, and when the merciless werewolves kill his wife, the hunted becomes the hunter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(click here) to purchase Blood Line and other great books by Rie McGaha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Rie McGaha:
Rie McGaha was born and raised in northern California along the shores of Humboldt County where her grandmother often took her to search for seashells and watch the humpback whales migration. Though her father was a bit of a gypsy and moved his family all over, Rie always enjoyed the trips back to Eureka, California where many of her 12 children and 23 grandchildren still live.
As a dreamer of dreams and being born with a a gypsy soul, Rie has lived all over the United States. Settling in SE Oklahoma with husband, Nathan, she enjoys a quiet life in the Kiamichi Wilderness where she takes in abused and neglected animals, nurses them back to health and tries to find them new homes. The ones that don't find new homes remain with Rie and she currently has 18 dogs and 1 cat.
Between her husband, children, grandchildren and all of the animals, Rie tries to find a few moments to write. She is currently working on Ancient Blood, the sequel to Blood Line, and Caleb and Arion the second and third installments of the My Soul To Keep Trilogy. She also writes reviews for Romance Writers United.
For more information, visit Rie at http://www.riemcgaha.com or read her blog at http://riesreviews.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/NovelsByRie
One day as we were roaming around we found a huge roll of tin foil, (yes, tin foil, aluminum foil wasn’t yet available), buried beneath some brush. Being the oldest girl, and the loudest, my cousins obeyed my every command, including the boys. So it only stood to reason that I was the princess and the foil was fashioned into a crown, a gown, a scepter, and a long train that the boys had to carry and follow me everywhere. My ladies in waiting also had crowns and gowns, but no one had a train like mine. This game went on for several days until the foil was finally used and we eventually became interested in another game. Probably “house” where I was always the ruling mommy, or “doctor” where one of my boy cousins wound up with a bloody nose when he had the audacity to suggest that a girl had to be a nurse because only boys could be doctors!
My imagination continued to flourish as I grew older and the fantasies I saw in my head became stories on paper, written out in long hand because we didn’t have a typewriter and it wouldn’t be until my freshman year of high school that I learned to use one. I used reams of paper to write out my stories and always said I was going to be a writer. I wanted to write novels like “Gone With The Wind” or “Of Mice And Men” but when I read “The Shining” I knew I wanted to scare the crap out of people!
My parents never shared my enthusiasm for reading or writing and I was told many times that I would never be a published author. My parents’ way of thinking was I needed to graduate from high school and get a “real” job and let go of childhood foolishness. I worked at many menial labor jobs in restaurants, department stores, fast food establishments and bars and hated every one of them.
When children came along I found an audience. With twelve children to care for, money was tight to say the least, and I still continued to work, but I had gone to college and the jobs became a little better, though I still dreamed of being a writer. When my children were small I used to tell them bedtime stories that I made up, and then later, I began writing those stories down. My favorite story was called, “Elizabeth and Yonni The Unicorn” that I wrote for my daughter, Elizabeth when she was three years old. Yonni was a magical unicorn who came to Elizabeth’s bedroom window each evening and when she climbed on his back, he would fly away with her, taking her to far away lands where the trees were made of gumdrops and the flowers were candy canes. Elizabeth loved the story so much that she wanted Yonni painted on her walls and it turned out beautifully.
When the kids began to grow older and some of the oldest ones began to move out, I had more time to myself and began jotting down ideas for stories. I was getting older too, but my dream of being an author had continued to niggle in the back of my mind. Several more years passed and more kids grew up, and then the grandchildren became a priority, and the beneficiaries of Nana’s stories. I remember overhearing one of my daughters say to another daughter, “Thank God she has grandkids now and we don’t have to listen to her stories anymore!”
When I had only three children left at home and all were pretty much grown, but hadn’t yet moved out, I had a lot of time on my hands. I read everything I could get my hands on in the tiny library of our town. My daughter, Lisa is also an avid reader and she and I would each check out six books, the maximum number the library allowed at one time and then spend the next week passing them back and forth until we’d read them all. And one day we went to the library and found we had read every romance book they carried!
That night Lisa said, “Mom, you should write a romance novel.” I laughed at her and told her I couldn’t. She argued with me, of course, and kept nagging me until one day I thought, “Ha, I’ll show her!” I thought I would write something, submit it and show her I couldn’t get published. The joke was on me because about a month after submitting to several publishers and getting several rejection letters, one publisher accepted my work. No one was more surprised than I was.
That publisher and I weren’t a good fit. I no longer have a contract with them and the book is no longer available, but the one thing that happened as a result was I found that my dream could be a reality. I began writing almost non-stop, and the creative juices began to flow like the mighty Mississippi and haven’t stopped yet. I was encouraged even though the first published piece didn’t work out and began to submit other works. Yes, I received rejections, many, many rejections, and then it became a battle of wills! I knew I wrote good stories with good story lines and good characters, maybe my technique was a little rough, but technique I could learn and I wasn’t going to give up!
Quite some time later, I met my editor, Jill Noble, owner of Noble Romance Publishing and submitted a manuscript to NRP, fully expecting a rejection. Instead, she accepted it! I’m not going to tell you that it’s been easy since then, it’s not. I’ve been through edits with Jill, something I had never done before, and until you’ve been edited you don’t know what pain is! But edits also gave me something else, a reality check about my writing technique, which I am still working on and I imagine, will continue to work on for the rest of my writing life. And that one simply amazing venture turned out to be a continuing working relationship with three published books and a trilogy due to be released the end of this month.
From a little girl who liked to make up stories and act them out, to a mom who made up stories for her children, to becoming a published author is the fulfillment of the dream of a lifetime for me. A part of me goes into every story I write, and that’s a piece of me that will remain long after the rest of me has vanished from this life. And maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll have a grandchild or great-grandchild or even a great great-grandchild who will take a lesson from their old Nana and pursue a dream that everyone else said was unattainable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Blood Line:Truck driver, Joshua Kaine and his wife, Jessie, enjoy the freedom of the open road until one night on a lonely country road Josh is attacked by a rabid dog. After killing the animal, Joshua becomes very ill, but quickly recovers. Weeks later, when the full moon rises and Josh begins howling, the trouble has just begun.
Drawn by an unknown force, Joshua finds himself in a remote mountain area at The Gathering where he meets Garan, a gray wolf who has walked the earth for thousands of years, and Joshua learns the rabid dog was actually a werewolf and his clan is now after Josh.
On the run, hunted by a clan of werewolves, and searching to undo his plight, Josh ventures into the swamps of Louisiana in search of an old, black woman who holds the key to his existence. Josh is pushed to the limits, and when the merciless werewolves kill his wife, the hunted becomes the hunter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(click here) to purchase Blood Line and other great books by Rie McGaha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Rie McGaha:
Rie McGaha was born and raised in northern California along the shores of Humboldt County where her grandmother often took her to search for seashells and watch the humpback whales migration. Though her father was a bit of a gypsy and moved his family all over, Rie always enjoyed the trips back to Eureka, California where many of her 12 children and 23 grandchildren still live.
As a dreamer of dreams and being born with a a gypsy soul, Rie has lived all over the United States. Settling in SE Oklahoma with husband, Nathan, she enjoys a quiet life in the Kiamichi Wilderness where she takes in abused and neglected animals, nurses them back to health and tries to find them new homes. The ones that don't find new homes remain with Rie and she currently has 18 dogs and 1 cat.
Between her husband, children, grandchildren and all of the animals, Rie tries to find a few moments to write. She is currently working on Ancient Blood, the sequel to Blood Line, and Caleb and Arion the second and third installments of the My Soul To Keep Trilogy. She also writes reviews for Romance Writers United.
For more information, visit Rie at http://www.riemcgaha.com or read her blog at http://riesreviews.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/NovelsByRie
2 comments:
What a wonderful post! I did grow up with a ready TV--it was always on in my house thanks to a mother and father who liked not only to watch it, but seemed to need it on as background noise constantly. Still, my brother and I always found time to use our imaginations, making up stories, playing pretend and the like. I can't remember a time when we weren't playing out some sort of story. Sometimes we'd include other kids in the neighborhood, but most of the time it would just be the two of us. Reading and writing came naturally to me as well. More ways for me to use my imagination. Although I have never really given serious thought to publishing one of my stories, I do understand the natural progression that can sometimes happen.
I'm so glad that Rie was able to take that leap and get published, even in spite of those who told her she couldn't do it. Dreams can come true!
Thank you for having me today. I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day as we remember those who gave their freedom for ours.
I sometimes think with all the technology available to kids today they lose much of the wonderful world of make believe that some of us "older" people lived in.
I'm off to MO for the birth of my 24th grandchild, so Nana is a happy woman today!
And remember, anyone who leaves a comment for me is automatically entered into the contest to win a copy of BLOOD LINE & my just-released-today trilogy CALEN!
Best,
Rie
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