The Big Apple or the Big Easy - Jolene Navarro

Hello, Jolene here. With summer vacation just around the corner, my husband and I are talking about places to go. All my stories are set in my home state of Texas. The small towns of the Hill Country are in my DNA, but I love to travel beyond our borders. 

My father was a commercial airline pilot, and growing up we traveled a lot.  On the other hand my husband grew up on a ranch (ranchers do not take vacations) and was one of eleven children. Needless to say traveling was not done, so I love to take him to new places. 

We've been talking about our favorite places and maybe revisiting one of them. New York City and New Orleans are right on top. My husband was surprised by how much we enjoyed our experience in New York. The energy and vibe of one of the biggest cities in a very land locked piece of property was amazing. We got to dance in the rain in Times Square. I was able to see works of art I’d only studied in art school.

 We found a family diner off not far from our hotel on Wall Street. My husband was exited to discover  burgers under 5.00 plus the owner spoke Spanish. 

We found this gem of a family diner off Wall Street. Home cooked food with very good price.

Just the history alone was mind boggling. I have to say the people were super friendly and even when we got a bit confused in the subway there was always someone willing to help.

Lower Manhattan – It amazes me that so many people can live in such a small space. It looks as if it could just fall of the little piece of land.

In the city you can hardly see the sky. From the river it looks like another world

Central Park

The human spirit is amazing…you can see it and feel it in large doses all over New York, but no matter how many building we build we still are drawn to nature. Central Park is an oasis in the mist of a man made jungle. Did I mention the history everywhere you looked?

Then there is the southern city of  New Orleans. 

Reid, my hero in The Texan's Twins is a native of New Orleans. Katrina relocated him to Houston as a kid. I listened to hours of videos to hear the voice patterns of people from this beautiful city. It was fun and if you read, The Texan's Twins I hope you can hear the sounds of the city in Reid's voice. 

The Texan's Twins - Jolene Navarro

 A big city with a completely different feel from New York. Relaxed, happy, laid back and ready for a good time.  We were sent to New Orleans with a Smithsonian Educational grant and I wasn't sure what to expect. I’m not a party person so I wasn’t sure about New Orleans.  We fell in love with textures, people and food.

Waiting to enter the unknown in New Orleans.

On the way to Pirate Ally in the French Quarter’s of New Orleans.

There is so much art and creativity in New Orleans

Anyone who has ever been to New Orleans will tell you to stop by the Cafe Du Monde, any time of day or night.

So many shops had a cat in the window. This one was watching over a weaving shop

You can’t go to NOLA without at least one visit to the cemetery. This was taken at Lafayette Cemetery No 1

Taking the Paddle Boat down the Mississippi while listening to live music was a wonderful experience. Warning: save your money and skip the dinner.

We stayed in the French Quarter and walked everywhere, even late at night we felt safe. We stepped onto Bourbon Street for about five minutes, that was enough.

The history, art, music and people made this a trip we want to make again. 

Have you been to both of these cities? If you had to choose one which would it be: New York or New Orleans?  Maybe neither? LOL

 Do you have a favorite city that you would visit over and over?

September Excitement

I love this month. I love fall and am looking forward to seeing the change of season begin. We've moved to a more wooded area and I can't wait to see what color the leaves on the trees change to in the coming weeks.

Spring along our walking trail

Summer out our front door

I usually go to the ACFW Conference this time of year, but replacing an air conditioner  a few weeks ago put that out this time. I'll miss not getting together with other Craftie Ladies, but I'll hope for next year.

Still, this September is an exciting one for me. My second book, A Place of Refuge, in the LIH series Boardinghouse Betrothals, is out and I'm working on a deadline for the third book in the series. I love writing these stories. I love Heaton House where all stories connect and I love the characters. It's fun to write about their lives, see them grow and fall in love. It was an exciting time for women in the late 1800s as many joined the workforce for the first time. So far we've had a seamstress for Butterick Patterns, a matron at Ellis Island, a writer for the Delineator, a women's magazine, and a former Tiffany girl now working for a charity who tries to help those living in the tenements. A new character is a photographer who wants to open her own business. But women were working at many other professions.  I'll be bringing in a few new characters in the fourth book and am not sure what jobs they might working at.  What others would you like to see written about?  A sales clerk? Teacher? Telephone operator? I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Janet Lee Barton here. This is my first blog for Craftie Ladies and I am so excited to be part of this group!

I love writing about New York City at the turn of the century. Love the research--I have shelves of books on New York City, files and photos from the late 1890's on my computer. I've loved learning so much about the city at that time and the photos I've found take me back to a time and place far removed from today.  I hope I am able bring this city to life at a time when women were joining the workforce in huge numbers, living in boarding houses similar to Heaton House, the boarding house in my first LIH, Somewhere to Call Home.

(Photo taken by Stacy Cashman at ramblingtraveler.com) 

And although some of the places my characters visit are still there, many are not. Central Park is still there of course, and taking a walk in it now is probably much the same now as would have been  at the turn of the century. But the skyline around it, from then to now, keeps changing.  

Of course many of the changes through the years have been for the better and yet it saddens me that so many landmarks are gone. In writing about history we must try to preserve the settings and events that take place in our stories so that our readers can get a real feel for the time and the place, so they can relate to the history of the time. We never know when storms or events will take those things away as Hurricane Sandy did, especially along the east coast.

Just as my heart went out to the people of the City after 9/11, it goes out to them now as they deal with the aftermath of Sandy. As the Crafie Ladies, our editors live and work in the city and our thoughts and prayers are with them and all who were in the path of the storm.

Do you like real history weaved into the historical stories you read? Do you like real settings or ficitonal places best? 

Ask Elnora--About "What if" and "If only."--Lenora Worth

Hello, beautiful bloggers. This will be short and sweet since Elnora is on the road and Internet service is iffy. Iffy. Now there's a word I've been thinking about all week. Life is iffy, isn't it? When we see flooded streets and subway tunnels in New York City, we know things can get iffy. When we see iconic places destroyed with a rush of water and wind, things can get iffy. When we see a loved one going through a life-changing illness, things can get iffy. That got me to thinking about the "what if's" and "if only's" of life. The If Only types tend to look back on their lives and wish they'd done things differently. If only I could go back to that night I had that major hissy fit and told off half the universe. If only I had really listened to my mother and not dated that loser. You get the picture. The What If people tend to be more positive and forward thinking. What if we climbed up on the water tower and threw water balloons at the mayor and the city council? What if a tall, dark stranger meets a young, pretty debutante and they fall in love? Or What if the girl who thinks she's not pretty meets the man who thinks no one can love him? If we mix up the If Only's and the What If's, we could get to the It's Okay's and the Let's Move On's. Isn't this pretty much how we write our books? Don't we move our characters out of the If Only stage and into the What If stage so that they can accept the It's Okay past and go on with the Let's Move On future. Let's discuss the iffy things in life, that is, if you'd like to!