Supporting the Right to Read Act #RightToReadDay #FReadom #fiction #nonfiction #author #reader #mustread #books

Posted on by Betty Bolte

While last week was National Library Week, the Right to Read is an every week thing. Not only did I celebrate Right to Read Day last week, but I’m heartened by the reintroduction of the Right to Read Act. The basic concept of the importance of literacy, of a broad education through reading, speaks directly to my experience and my beliefs.

Reading—the actual act of reading words on a page/screen, not listening to them—is so very important to a person’s ability to comprehend language and communicate it effectively. Knowing spelling, grammar, and how to string words together to express your thoughts is vital in an information age such as we’re living in.

Reading widely enhances our ability to understand the world around us, but also to enable empathy toward those who live in different settings, cultures, and expectations from our own. Reading widely does not dictate how you interpret, how you question, how you agree with what you’re reading. Indeed, reading actually leads to more questions and more awareness of the larger world in which we live. More understanding, in fact.

I believe it is vital for everyone to read. Starting from infants being read to all the way through life. Critical thinking skills stem from reading widely. Having comparative texts enables discussion and evaluation of the facts, opinions, claims. Decision making skills we all need to hone, especially in this era of “fake news” and propaganda posing as news.

So defend your right to choose what you want to learn more about, experience from the comfort of your armchair, or just escape to. But above all else, happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Cover of The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn showing a ghostly figure on the balcony of a dark building.

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Cassie Fairhope longs for only one thing: to escape her mother’s tyranny. Her plan? Seduce the young man, who is acting as innkeeper while her father is away on business, into marrying her. But Flint Hamilton has his own plans and they don’t include marriage, even to the pretty temptress. He quickly learns that running a roadside inn in northern Alabama in 1821 means dealing not only with the young woman and her hostile mother but also with horse thieves and rogues. When tragedy strikes, Cassie and Flint are forced to face unforeseen challenges and dangerous decisions together in order to attempt to rid the inn of its newly arrived specter—who doesn’t have any plan to leave…

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Celebrating Right to Read Day! #RightToReadDay #fiction #nonfiction #author #reader #mustread #books

Posted on by Betty Bolte

One last quick reminder that I’ll be onstage for a literary reading at the Panoply Arts Festival in Huntsville, Alabama in just a few days! If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you after I do a short reading on the Art OutLoud Stage at 3:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, April 29. You can find out more and buy your tickets to the festival here. Note that buying them online ($10 day pass) is less expensive than at the gate ($15). Now on to my celebration today…

The American Library Association (ALA) has declared today Right to Read Day to kickoff National Library Week. This is also to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their Unite Against Book Bans campaign. I have joined this initiative because I firmly believe in the individual right to read. I even ordered the t-shirt to show my solidarity in this campaign.

In fact, I started quite young with this notion firmly fixed in my mind. I was 13 years old when a friend leant me a book, which actually belonged to her mother. The book in question was a 1970s-style bodice-ripper romance by Rosemary Rogers—yes, the kind that actually included ripping of the woman’s bodice! I devoured that book too. My friend had read it and thought I’d enjoy it, and she was right. When I showed it to my mother, however, she promptly threw it in the garbage and forbade me from retrieving it even to return it. I thought she might want to read it too. What a surprise! Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about having to tell my friend about the episode. But it spoke volumes to me about the woman who was my mother. I loved my mother but we did not see eye-to-eye on very much. That’s an entirely different story…

Even now, nearly 50 years later, I’m upset on my friend’s behalf and on my own because my mother thought it was okay to throw away the book. No. Just no. It’s fine if you don’t want to read something. It’s fine if parents want to guide and supervise their children’s reading. But to throw the book away, or worse to attempt to ban the book so nobody else can read it? No.

If my mother had calmly explained to me why she didn’t want me to read romances, perhaps it would have influenced my future selections until I was older. Perhaps not. I cannot pretend to second-guess my young adolescent self’s reaction. When one is told they’re not allowed to do something, it becomes all the more tantalizing, doesn’t it? Can’t you hear the inner voice demanding, Why can’t I? Who says? I can too! I know I can, anyway.

Banning books doesn’t lead to a better society. It leads to limited access to options, limited access to possibilities, limited access to knowledge in general. We learn so much from reading widely, not just prescribed tomes “approved” by others. Others who do not want what is best for individuals, but what they feel is best based on their own fears and insecurities. Like bullies, they lash out in weakness and worry about the content of the books. The knowledge those books convey lends power to the readers, strength to sort through available options to choose a path forward.

Book bans also have the sense of bowing to dictators in our democracy. Something we absolutely should not tolerate. We do not live in an autocratic, dictatorial society, but one of freedoms and rights. The First Amendment to the Constitution demands “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” thus providing all Americans with the right to freedom of speech and of the press to print/publish whatever they desire. Which essentially boils down to whatever they feel they can sell, or that has a market. No publisher/press is going to print things they can’t even give away let alone profit from. Banning those products achieves what exactly? It’s rather like bad reviews that actually point out the theoretical negative aspects of the book’s contents that actually many readers are seeking and so the book sells more copies than before. Yet another instance of a difference of opinion on what is worth reading/buying.  Bans backfire, in other words.

Let’s not go back to the book bonfires of old, please! It’s better to have access to information, to history, to philosophies that differ from your own. You’ll learn so much more that way: what you agree with, what you disagree with, what you need to find out more about before you can decide one way or the other. Reading widely yields educated, knowledgeable, thoughtful people in our society.

So, as I say all the time…

Happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Cassie Fairhope longs for only one thing: to escape her mother’s tyranny. Her plan? Seduce the young man, who is acting as innkeeper while her father is away on business, into marrying her. But Flint Hamilton has his own plans and they don’t include marriage, even to the pretty temptress. He quickly learns that running a roadside inn in northern Alabama in 1821 means dealing not only with the young woman and her hostile mother but also with horse thieves and rogues. When tragedy strikes, Cassie and Flint are forced to face unforeseen challenges and dangerous decisions together in order to attempt to rid the inn of its newly arrived specter—who doesn’t have any plan to leave…

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Musing on Career Options for Women #research #historical #fiction #author #lifestyle #careers

Posted on by Betty Bolte

Before I get into my recent research tidbit, I’m excited to share with you that I’ll be onstage at the Panoply Arts Festival in Huntsville, Alabama this month! If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you after I do a short reading on the Art OutLoud Stage. I’ve chosen to read the short story I wrote about the two kitchen maids in the Fury Falls Inn series, “The Perfect Birthday Gift.” It’s a lighthearted story about the magical gift one of them receives. You can find out more and buy your tickets to the festival here. If you haven’t read the Fury Falls Inn series, check out the first book’s description below and give it a try. Now, let’s get on with today’s tidbit…

I’ve been developing an idea for an historical romance and needed to know what were typical careers of women in the county around the time of my story. Which of course meant my favorite activity: research! So I went to the census records to see what they listed in the 1870 census for Madison County, Alabama. Now, I’ve read through census records for one reason or another for several decades now so I had an idea of what I’d find. Typically in the 1800s the head of household was male and his occupation listed, with the “lady of the house” listed next and her occupation such as it was (keeping house or its equivalent). So I wasn’t surprised to find this pattern in the census records I scanned looking for possible occupations for women. I did notice two things though that did rather surprise me.

First, in addition to Keeping House, there were several other common and some not-so-common occupations listed. Common ones included Cook, Seamstress, and Domestic Servant. Nothing surprising or shocking about those, right? They’re simply extensions of the tasks women did at home. The ones I found interesting included Hotel Cook, Mantua Maker, Nurse, Hotel Waiter, and Farm Hand. That last one—only one occurrence of it, too—truly stopped me to make sure I read it right and that it was associated with a female in the household. I was also rather surprised to find Nurse only listed once or twice in the approximately 30 pages I scanned. Why?

Well, the American Civil War ended in 1865 and had created a demand/need for women to be nurses for the injured and dying. The war actually opened the door wider for women to take advantage of a tendency to nurture and care for others as a means of gainful employment. So it’s interesting to me that so few claimed that career on the census. Did they not consider it an occupation or did they not perform the role of nurse? Did they not want to put in writing that they were working outside of the home in order to avoid any besmirching of their husband’s ability to provide for his family? We’ll never know for certain, of course.

The second thing that surprised me is the vast number of females listed by name, age, sex, but with no occupation noted. Despite their age, whether in single digits or matrons residing within the household, that field is left blank. Now, I have to assume that these females were doing something, right? At a minimum, they were assisting in housekeeping and gardening of some extent to provide for the family pantry. So, what didn’t they want to put down? Perhaps the census taker wasn’t required to list the occupation for other than the lady of the house? Or they again didn’t want to make the man of the house look incapable of being a good provider? But surely they were doing something to fill their days and evenings with meaningful pastimes. They just didn’t claim it as a source of household income.

What that empty box means for me as a writer of fiction is this: I can fill in that blank for my character with anything I want. Keeping it plausible, of course.

I’ve chosen something she could do at home, on the farm where she was raised, that aligns with other tasks she’d be responsible for managing. You know: sewing, cleaning, gardening, home remedies, and naturally cooking. But I can add a little pepper to the pot by having her dabbling into something the males on the property and in her orbit of acquaintances might look askance at—if they knew she was doing so. What might that be? I’ll share in the story which I expect to start writing this month. Hint: it’s related to something I’ve loved all of my life.

I have a few other questions I need to research answers to, but I’ll keep you posted on my progress both with the research and the writing. In the meantime, happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Cassie Fairhope longs for only one thing: to escape her mother’s tyranny. Her plan? Seduce the young man, who is acting as innkeeper while her father is away on business, into marrying her. But Flint Hamilton has his own plans and they don’t include marriage, even to the pretty temptress. He quickly learns that running a roadside inn in northern Alabama in 1821 means dealing not only with the young woman and her hostile mother but also with horse thieves and rogues. When tragedy strikes, Cassie and Flint are forced to face unforeseen challenges and dangerous decisions together in order to attempt to rid the inn of its newly arrived specter—who doesn’t have any plan to leave…

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A Birthday Surprise for Myrtle Marple #FuryFallsInn #amwriting #amreading #HistFic #languagefan #shortstory #fiction #books #novel

Posted on by Betty Bolte

Only 9 more days! That’s how long you have to nab your copy of the short story anthology What A Day! And if you’re a fan of my Fury Falls Inn historical fantasy series (details below) you really want a copy of the anthology. Let me explain…

My local writers group decided to put together an anthology of short stories as a fundraiser. We centered each of the stories on a special day, a “red letter day” for a specific character. Our plan was to only make the anthology available for a limited time and then we’d each reclaim our rights to our stories to use however we choose. All told, there are 11 short stories by a variety of published and newly published authors in various genres. I chose a low-profile character in my popular historical fantasy series and what happens on her birthday.

In “The Perfect Birthday Gift” you’ll get to know kitchen maids Myrtle Marple and her sister Meg much better. For that matter, they learn more about themselves, too! In the Fury Falls Inn, which is haunted, these two gray-haired women work helping prepare the food for the busy dining room. But on Myrtle’s 21st birthday, which falls between the fourth and fifth books, they receive a surprise guest bearing gifts. The effects of those gifts are mentioned in the fifth book of the series, Legends of Wrath, and later called upon in the sixth book of the series, Homecoming, both of which just released last month to wrap up the series. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you so I am refraining…barely…from sharing! It was such a delight writing their story.

You won’t find this short story anywhere else for at least 6 months, so if you’re curious then I highly recommend you pick up a copy of What A Day! soon. A little birdie told me it’s coming off the market after October 5.

Southern hospitality is alive and well. In this anthology you may find a little old, a little new, and perhaps some mysterious doings. How about a ghost — or was it a ghost pepper? Was that a witch, a sprite, an elf, or a seer? You may be looking for a beautiful garden, a mint julep, or a jazz festival. Come on down! Bless your heart, you may never want to leave.

What A Day! is a collection of stories about special, memorable days in the lives of an eclectic, quirky mix of characters. You’ll enjoy fantasy, romance, historical, and more by best-selling authors like Linda Howard and Linda Winstead Jones as well as newer authors, none of which you’ll want to miss! Come laugh, cry, gasp, and smile your way through these fun, light-hearted, suspenseful, and intriguing stories.

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I actually edited about half of the stories in the collection but of course they’ve each been thoroughly edited before being included. We all wanted to produce a quality product containing entertaining stories! There’s fantasy, romance, mystery, and even a bit of mayhem in the mix. And since each is under 5000 words, they won’t take long to read either.

Let me know what you think of my short story. I haven’t written many recently, although I did write a flash fiction Halloween story this fall. That one is “Haunting Beauty” and is only 650 words, my shortest short story ever! I’ll share that with you for Halloween…

Happy fall! Thanks for reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Did you know… You can order signed paperbacks of any of my books at The Snail on the Wall   book store!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic.
A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn (#1)

Under Lock and Key (#2)

Desperate Reflections (#3)

Fractured Crystals (#4)

Legends of Wrath (#5)

Homecoming (#6)

Musings on Generations Equating to Time Span #amwriting #amreading #HistFic #languagefan #fiction #books #novel #genealogy

Posted on by Betty Bolte

Before too long, maybe even next week, I’m going to write a 15K story that is linked to Cassie and Flint Hamilton of my Fury Falls Inn series, which you may know is set in 1821 north Alabama. This currently untitled story will be included in a Rescued Hearts anthology along with 10-11 others that will release next fall, to benefit Hidden Acres Animal Sanctuary in Georgia. I’ve been doing the research, reading and interviewing falconers in Alabama, about Harris Hawks which are the featured rescued animal in my story. I’ve chosen a raptor because of Cassie’s familiar, Allegro, being a Merlin falcon. It seems fitting that her descendants would carry on her love of raptors.

The story will be set in the present day but featuring descendants of Cassie and Flint. Which got me pondering how many generations would there be between 1821 and today.

Now I love doing genealogy research and building my family tree on Ancestry.com as well as making timelines in a document so I have ready access to the information without having to seek it out again. So when I wanted to determine the number of generations, I went to my tree and counted back in my own ancestry. For my family, it would be something like 5 generations, which told me the relationship of the present-day character, too. Flint Hamilton would be this character’s great-great-grandfather. But wait! There’s more!

A spin off to my musings along this line is the advertising statement I’ve heard all of my life. Something like “Such-and-such company has served the community for generations.” It got me wondering about how you equate a span of years to a group of people. Mainly because in my family, among my siblings, there are 12 years between when my oldest brother was born and when I was born. So even our single generation of siblings spans 12 years. Not every family has 5 children, of course, so how does one compute the number of years associated with one generation?

According to my handy OED (Oxford English Dictionary), “In reckoning historically by ‘generations’, the word is taken to mean the interval of time between the birth of the parents and that of their children, usually computed at thirty years, or three generations to a century.” So it’s averaged at 30 years per generation, which in my particular case works out exactly 30 years between when my parents were born and my oldest brother’s birth, which is ironic to me. But what the OED definition/explanation tells me is that I need to have 6 generations back, not 5, to be the typical span of time. So, Flint is now this character’s great-great-great-grandfather. I always knew Flint was a great man, but that’s a lot of greats!

The next step I need to do is identify the intervening generations of parents/grandparents in case I should ever want to write another story spinoff from that series. Hmm… Maybe I should make a family tree for Flint and Cassie’s descendants for fun and future reference. Probably just on paper though. I wouldn’t want anyone else using Ancestry.com to think they’re related to my fictional characters! Now where can I find a sheet of paper large enough to draw a family tree?

Thanks for reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Did you know… You can order signed paperbacks of any of my books at The Snail on the Wall   book store!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn (#1)

Under Lock and Key (#2)

Desperate Reflections (#3)

Fractured Crystals (#4)

Legends of Wrath (#5)

Homecoming (#6)

Musings on Why I Write #amwriting #amreading #inspiration #fiction #books #novel #mustread

Posted on by Betty Bolte

I’ve been musing about the publishing industry, first about the entertainment value of novels and then about author income. I was asked by one reader what makes me keep writing, so I thought I’d muse on that topic today.

First, you should know that I’ve been writing since I learned how to spell and make sentences as a child. My older sisters taught me the alphabet before I even started going to school. In first grade, the teacher asked me to read The Little Red Hen to my class. I also remember sitting at my dad’s desk, typing on his manual typewriter the weather report. Which of course I wrote based on looking out the window of his studio office. He was a master photographer and I loved to sit at his desk and pretend to be his secretary or someone else who worked with words, like the weather person.

One of the reasons for this is a love of language that my dad instilled in me by playing word games while we drove around town for him to take portrait photos of children. He’d give me a word from a billboard we’d pass and ask me to spell it. Which I would do while searching out the word on the billboard before we passed it. I had to be quick sometimes to see it!

My parents bought a set of encyclopedias that they proudly displayed in our living room. I would pull out one that had a particular animal in it, like a horse or dog. Then I’d compile my own report, including drawing and labeling the parts of the animal. You know, ears, neck, tail, paw, etc. I used tracing paper to trace the picture in the book and include it in my report.

I also wrote short stories that featured a girl and her horse. I loved horses and actually still do. I’ve written some—probably pretty bad—poetry, too. When it came time to get a college education, I naturally chose an English degree. I’ve earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s in English. I’ve put that degree to work for my writing/editing career, too.

Mainly I’ve written and published over my lifetime a lot of nonfiction types of pieces: articles, sidebars, essays, newspaper columns. I’ve also edited a ton of nonfiction: self-help books, technical manuals and reports, an insurance underwriters guide. Once I even proofread a Civil War diary for the Friends of Ft. Ward, Virginia. Plus all the highly technical documentation while working for SAIC and supporting NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Space Launch System (SLS) Program Office. I didn’t even try to count the number of documents let alone pages! So I did my small part to help get this massive rocket off the launch pad this year by editing the manuals, specifications, and guidance documentation.

But now I write fiction for the love of it. I love to write a great story with a bit of history woven into it. I believe we need to understand our past in order to appreciate—really appreciate—where we are today. Or to avoid repeating past mistakes today. Not every novel I’ve written is set in the past. My contemporary series, Secrets of Roseville, is set in a small town in Tennessee in the present but there are some historical facts mentioned here and there.

Despite all the negatives surrounding writing and publishing in today’s market, I keep writing my stories. Why? Because the stories keep coming and I have fans who are waiting for the next book(s) from me. I don’t think I will stop writing for some time yet, although I am starting to think about when that might be. Years from now, not days though. I mean, writing is a big part of who I am. I’ve been writing all my life, essentially. It’s not the writing that wears me down but the marketing and publicity efforts required.

I appreciate every single person who reads my books. I write them for my readers after all.

Thanks for reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Did you know… You can order signed paperbacks of any of my books at The Snail on the Wall book store!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic.
A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn (#1)

Under Lock and Key (#2)

Desperate Reflections (#3)

Fractured Crystals (#4)

Legends of Wrath (#5)    

Homecoming (#6)     

Musings on Novel ROI #amwriting #amreading #fiction #books #novel #mustread

Posted on by Betty Bolte

I’ve been pondering the value of entertainment in all its forms. I mean, we have many options on how to entertain ourselves or to be entertained by what others do. This musing began while thinking about the huge amount of book piracy or more likely phishing scams out there, but that’s a topic for another day. The existence of book piracy suggests there is value in books, enough to run a scam to try to get potential readers’ money or personal info, depending on the scam. Anyway, back to my topic for today: entertainment value.

You all know I write books, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise they are my go-to for entertainment as well as research and education. I also enjoy movies, plays, musicals, concerts, etc. But which gives you the most or best kind of return on the investment into tickets and travel and meals to enjoy them?

I think by far the price of a book provides more hours of immersive entertainment than any other option. I love settling in with a favorite genre novel to lose myself in the world the author created. Historical romance, classical fiction, historical fiction, romantic comedy, cozy mystery, all sound good to me! I love the depth of the written story, the immersive quality of being in that other world, the one dwelling in your own imagination and thoughts, that you can’t get from watching a movie or play. The various media affect the type of experience, for me at least.

I know I can only read one or maybe two smaller books each week because each takes several hours to read and enjoy. I tagged on “enjoy” because while I know how to speed read or skim the text that’s not enjoying it for me. So for the $3-15 spent on a novel, I probably receive entertainment for something like 4-8 hours depending on the length. Of course, the price of a book is the cost of one copy of the story among many, the cumulative of which money received by the publisher offsets the expense to create the book in the first place. In other words, for the publisher to make it worthwhile to create the book, they have to guesstimate how many copies they need to sell to see a profit. Most books do not make a profit although there are some that are best sellers that do. Again, that’s a topic for another time…

Compare the 4-8 hours entertainment value of a book to the length of a movie or stage performance, which typically last 2-3 hours, at prices far higher. I mean, movie tickets for a matinee are $9 in my area, with regular prices starting I think at $16. Going to a play or concert, etc., is many times that. Being entertained by others means having to pay the entire “cast of characters” for their efforts, so it makes perfect sense that ticket prices are significantly higher than the cost of a single copy of the book. (Although I question the spike in the price of performance tickets lately.) It also depends on how many tickets are sold as to the cost per ticket in order for the production company and talent to make a profit off the event. They must calculate how much they need to earn to make it worthwhile to hold the performance. Nobody wants to work/perform for little to no compensation, after all. Even if donating funds to a charity, you need to have funds to donate, right? But the ROI for live performance yields a shorter span of entertainment value.

All that said, judging which form of entertainment to choose comes down to cost, time, and perceived value which is strongly tied to personal preferences. I’ll happily read in my favorite genres for hours but please don’t ask me to read thriller or spy novels. I’ll watch the movie or play, etc., based on the book to get the quicker payoff, thank you. Which also brings up the point that many of the other forms of entertainment are spinoffs or interpretations of a well-written, well-told story in a book. And how many times have you heard “the book was better”?

What do you think? How do you calculate the ROI on your entertainment spending?

Happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

Did you know… You can order signed paperbacks of any of my books at The Snail on the Wall   book store!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic.
A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn (#1)

Under Lock and Key (#2)

Desperate Reflections (#3)

Fractured Crystals (#4)

Legends of Wrath (#5)    

Homecoming (#6)     

Writing and Wrapping Up A Series #FuryFallsInn #HistoricalFiction #HistFic #amwriting #amreading #books #novel #mustread

Posted on by Betty Bolte

Writing a series of stories is common among novelists. Most of the time the stories are merely set in the same world with some common characters so you can read the books in any order. When I set out to write the Fury Falls Inn series, I had no idea how challenging it would be. I knew I wanted to write six stories, the first one introducing the ghost haunting the inn followed by Cassie’s four brothers coming to the inn, and then ultimately the sixth book bringing the family all together.

One little known fact: when I finished writing The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn, Book #1, I had absolutely no idea what Mercy had done to the family. I mentioned it frequently in that first book, but even when one of my beta readers asked me, as in after I’d written The End, I still had no clue.

Days later, I was watching some movie—I don’t even recall which one—when Mercy suddenly whispered in my ear the truth of what she’d done to break up the family unit. I was shocked! But then I realized just what a treasure trove of storylines could spring from that revelation.

Then the real planning and strategizing began. I had to define each of my characters, both who they are and who their family was. I needed to understand the backstory of everybody in order to write their current story. I needed a timeline of who was born when, who married whom and when, who died when and how. All the minutiae of a person’s life that could impact their future choices and decisions.

The six books in this series are closely coupled stories, spanning June through October 1821, so you’ll want to read them in order. I researched the happenings in north Alabama during that same span of time in order to weave in historical details to give the stories authenticity. I went to Burritt on the Mountain living museum to research the architecture of buildings of that time period, and visited Constitution Park in downtown Huntsville to learn more about the history of Huntsville, too. I even bought a detailed book and accompanying sketch of what downtown Huntsville looked like then, what businesses were in which buildings, so I could more accurately depict the city in my writing.

This is my most popular series to date! If you haven’t read these books, you might want to give them a try. I had one reader demanding Book #4 immediately after she’d finished reading Book #3—unfortunately I was still writing that story so she had to wait. But you don’t have to! You can buy all 6 books now and binge read through to the end. In fact, that’s why I’m releasing Books #5 and #6 on the same day—so nobody has to wait any longer to read the conclusion of the Fairhope family saga. Enjoy!

Happy reading! I’m off to celebrate my book launch tomorrow!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

The final 2 books Legends of Wrath and Homecoming release tomorrow, August 9! Binge away!

Did you know… You can order signed paperbacks of any of my books at The Snail on the Wall book store!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn

Under Lock and Key

Desperate Reflections

Fractured Crystals

Legends of Wrath: Books2Read     Barnes & Noble     Amazon     Apple     Kobo  

Homecoming: Books2Read     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Kobo     Apple

Meet Reggie Fairhope – Character Interview #FuryFallsInn #HistoricalFiction #HistFic #amwriting #amreading #books #novel #mustread

Posted on by Betty Bolte

One more character interview is coming your way… and that is to introduce you all to the lead character in Homecoming, Reginald “Reggie” Fairhope, the patriarch of the Fairhope family. The most frequently asked question I’ve heard about Reggie is why hasn’t he returned to the inn? Let’s ask him that and a few other questions. Ready?

Betty: How would you describe your parents?

Reggie: They are the most supportive and loving parents I’ve ever known. Even if they both are powerful witches in their own right. They made sure to teach me and my brothers and sisters how to use our might in all its forms for right. They loved each other with a purity of heart not often witnessed through actions toward one another.

Betty: The burning question round-about the inn is, why has it taken you so long to start the trek back home. What’s been occupying you so that you felt you couldn’t come sooner?

Reggie: The short answer is that Beck was being Beck and insisting, or trying to, on doing everything his way instead of how I’d requested the furniture to look. I didn’t trust him to not mess with the design and even the mystical aspects of the pieces. He likes to put too much of himself into his work, if you get my meaning.

Betty: Do you know how to swim? How did you learn, if so?

Reggie: No, that’s one skill I never got around to developing. I wish I had because maybe then I could have done something—anything—to intervene when my nephew drowned. It wasn’t that I hesitated for my own sake but I hesitated out of fear for my family. The repercussions of using my magic out in the open against an unknown adversary stayed my wand. If only I knew what—or who—I might have been able to change how things played out for little George.

Betty: What do you think is your greatest failure? Why?

Reggie: That’s easy. Not protecting my wife and daughter from harm. But I’m heading home now to see to things. My sisters in marriage will need to be packing their trunks… And if I catch that no-good devil hunting my family he’ll pay a dear price. That’s a promise, not a threat.

Betty: What is the most wonderful thing that has happened to you?

Reggie: Meeting the love of my life, Mercy. She brought a light and a joy to my heart.

Betty: If you could change the past, what would you change?

Reggie: I’d not leave the inn to have furniture made. I’d find somebody closer to home to make it so that I could prevent the death of my wife. But then of course you have to ask, would I have ever had the chance, the one I have now as I head toward home, to see my sons again if she hadn’t died and Cassie asked them to come? We’ll never know, of course. I just have to be grateful for that chance even as I confront the sadness and grief waiting for me.

Betty: What’s your greatest fear? Who else knows about it?

Reggie: I’d like to think I’m not afraid of anything but that wouldn’t be entirely true. I fear losing my family. With a witch hunter preying on them, I feel like I need to be home as soon as the oxen can drag the furniture home. Which should be very soon, thank goodness.

Betty: What’s your favorite game to play?

Reggie: I used to play a mean game of eight ball but it’s been a while. I used to best my older brother, Beck, on a regular basis when I was a much younger man.

Betty: Do you have a favorite sibling? Who?

Reggie: That’s a good question… I love both my brothers and my two sisters equally. But I guess if I had to pick one it would be Scarlet. She’s such a firecracker and smart as a whip. She won’t let anyone take advantage of her or her family either. I’m so pleased she’s making the trip back with me, too. I think she’ll fall in love with Alabama.

Betty: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

Reggie: The Fury Falls Inn is my home and always will be. They’ll have to bury me out back because I’m not leaving again.

Betty: How do you like to relax?

Reggie: Sitting on the back porch of the inn, watching the cloud shadows dance across the mountains and sipping on some fine whiskey. If Mercy could be at my side, then my life would be perfect.

Betty: What genre of books do you most enjoy reading?

Reggie: I don’t get much time for reading. When I do, I prefer to read a history or biography. I like to learn something when I read.

Betty: How do you like to start your day?

Reggie: With a rousing discussion with Sheridan over the day’s menu and orders necessary. That really gets my blood flowing. He’s not only an excellent cook but a good friend after all these years working together. I’m so happy for him to be reunited with Pansy, his wife, after so many years apart, too. A happy ending to what could have been a tragic love story.

Betty: What kinds of friends do you have?

Reggie: Most everyone I meet is a friend in some way. We’re all on this earth together so we have to find a way to get along as best we can. It irks me no end when people willingly hurt each other. My blood boils just thinking on it. And trust me, you do not want to see me when my temper gets away from me. People die. So, please, just shake my hand and be on your way if you have a grievance with me. It will be better for everyone concerned.

Um, okay. Well… Thanks, Reggie, I will spread that word around. I’m sure you’re relieved that the inn is almost in view now and looking forward to seeing Cassie again.

Happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

The final 2 books Legends of Wrath and Homecoming
will release on August 9 and are up for preorder now!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic.
A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn

Under Lock and Key

Desperate Reflections

Fractured Crystals

Legends of Wrath: Books2Read     Barnes & Noble     Amazon     Apple     Kobo  

Homecoming: Books2Read     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Kobo     Apple

Meet Silas Fairhope – Character Interview #FuryFallsInn #HistoricalFiction #HistFic #amwriting #amreading #books #novel #mustread

Posted on by Betty Bolte

I’d like to do something a little different this week and that is to introduce you all to the lead character in Legends of Wrath, Silas Fairhope. Silas is the youngest of the four brothers in the family. Like me, he’s a writer and knows how to address a topic to a given audience. So, let’s put a few questions to him and see what he has to say, shall we?

Betty: How would you describe your parents?

Silas: For years I’ve thought of them as mean spirited and unloving. Until I came to the Fury Falls Inn at my sister’s request. That’s when I discovered the truth behind their seemingly uncaring actions that sent me away from home to fend for myself for years. Now I understand how much they cared and loved all of their children, even if it appeared on the surface that they didn’t.

Betty: Do you know how to swim? How did you learn, if so?

Silas: My oldest brother, Giles, taught me how to swim when we were younger and still living at home. Me and my brothers would go to the lake down the road from our house and spend all afternoon splashing around and jumping in off the rope swing. What a fine memory. Up until the day my cousin drowned and everything changed.

Betty: What do you think is your greatest failure? Why?

Silas: I think not seeing what was happening to my family, or at least not fathoming the causes. I was still young, just entering my teen years when the tensions began and the relationship began to fray.

Betty: What is the most wonderful thing that has happened to you?

Silas: That’s easy. Being reconnected with my sister, Cassandra, and my brothers. I’ve been on my own, feeling a bit lost and floundering about in search of something I couldn’t define. Turns out, that something is my family. It’s good to find a home again.

Betty: If you could change the past, what would you change?

Silas: I wouldn’t change the past because the situations we confront and the choices we make all define who we are. Changing the past would undo the lessons learned from them. Still, I do sometimes wish my cousin hadn’t died. I miss him and his easy grin when he was about to do something stupidly daring.

Betty: What’s your greatest fear? Who else knows about it?

Silas: I didn’t realize it until I came to the inn at Cassie’s request. My greatest fear has to be living alone for the rest of my life. I thought I handled the isolation from my family but I was fooling myself. I can see clearly now how I hid that truth from myself for years. Acting as if traveling around the country could fill the void left by my sister and brothers.

Betty: What’s your favorite game to play?

Silas: I enjoy a game of cards now and then but who has time to play when you’re on the move every day of one’s life? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing the sights of America and meeting fascinating people to write about for the newspapers. I just don’t have a lot of time to play games.

Betty: Do you have a favorite sibling? Who?

Silas: Shh, don’t tell anyone, but I adore my sister. I’ve missed her beautiful smile and her sense of humor. I was so glad to hear from her even if her news was so sad, that our mother had died. She didn’t tell me until I arrived just how our mother had been murdered, so that was a surprise. But I’ve always felt close to her on a different level. Now I understand the connection is more than simple affection but has magical undertones to it.

Betty: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

Silas: Of all the places I’ve visited, I’ve enjoyed the mountains most. If I could have a cozy mountain cottage on a pretty piece of land, I’d live right happily I think.

Betty: How do you like to relax?

Silas: With a good novel, of course. I like for a story to transport me to places I can’t travel to on my own. I can pretend for a short period to visit other countries, for example.

Betty: What genre of books do you most enjoy reading?

Silas: A good adventure tale is always enjoyable to read. I thoroughly enjoyed Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was excellent. Anything along those lines will entertain me for hours.

Betty: How do you like to start your day?

Silas: I put down a few lines each morning in my journal to help me focus on priorities for the day.

Betty: What kinds of friends do you have?

Silas: I don’t really have any since I’m on the move so much. Perhaps now that I have what I’d like to think of as a home base here at the inn I can also begin to make a few friends. We’ll see.

Thanks, Silas, for taking time away from your writing and travels to talk with me for a few minutes. Your story, Legends of Wrath, really answers many questions posed during the earlier stories in the Fury Falls Inn series.

Happy reading!

Betty

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider signing up for my newsletter, which I send out most every month, including news like new covers, new releases, and upcoming appearances where I love to meet my readers, along with recipes and writing progress. Thanks and happy reading!

Visit www.bettybolte.com for more on my books and upcoming events.

On sale during July 2022!

The first 4 books in the Fury Falls Inn historical fantasy series set in 1821 Alabama in a haunted roadside inn are reduced! The final 2 books, Legends of Wrath and Homecoming will release on August 9 and are up for preorder now!

Fury Falls Inn in 1821 Alabama. A place for ghosts, witches, and magic. A place of secrets and hidden dangers.

Amazon Fury Falls Inn Series Page

The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn – $.99

Under Lock and Key  – $1.99

Desperate Reflections – $1.99

Fractured Crystals – $2.99

Legends of Wrath: Books2Read     Barnes & Noble     Amazon     Apple     Kobo  

Homecoming: Books2Read     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Kobo     Apple