Michael O’Halloran by Gene Stratton Porter
Michael “Mickey” O’Halloran is a newspaper boy living in the big city during early World War One. Since his mother died several years back, Mickey has been an orphan, but because of his mother’s teachings has taken care of himself and avoided going to the orphanage. Mickey is supporting himself very well … but one day he […]
At the Foot of the Rainbow by Gene Stratton Porter
Dannie Macnoun lives in Rainbow Bottom, a valley with a trickling creek full of fish, on a small farm next to that of Jimmy Malone his life long friend’s. Fifteen years ago, Dannie sent Jimmy to the girl he loved on his behalf to convince Mary to be his wife. But Jimmy was the one […]
The Dressmaker’s Secret’s Cover
I finally have had a cover made for The Dressmaker’s Secret that I will use when I publish in January. It was made by Makenna Pithey, featherdancer of YWP NaNoWriMo The front cover: The back cover: What do you think? ~Kellyn Roth
Christianity in The Dressmaker’s Secret
“If it’s at all possible, Lord Jesus, couldn’t you have Mummy tell me something – anything – about my father?” The first draft of The Dressmaker’s Secret contained almost no mentions of God … which is pretty lame consider the fact that I decided when I started writing novels that I was going to do […]
The Magic Garden by Gene Stratton-Porter
Amaryllis Minton’s parents got divorced when she is five years old, cutting her family in two. Her father gets custody of her ten year old brother, Peter, while the former Mrs. Minton is in charge of Amaryllis. Mrs. Minton soon goes off to Europe to have a good time, leaving her daughter with the unloving servants. Amaryllis, […]
Review: A Daughter of the Land by Gene Stratton-Porter
Adam Bates and his wife have sixteen children; seven boys and nine girls. When his sons turn twenty-one, Mr. Bates buys them a farm. When his daughters grow up, they are given nothing except the right to leave the terrible atmosphere they grew up in to teach school. Kate, the youngest, is not allowed to […]
Character Plotting
I can’t give you any sage advice on developing characters … I’m not exactly an expert writer! … but I’ll give you a bit of insight on how I do it. A note: this is for if you have the plot and not the character. If you had less idea as to how the plot […]
Review: The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton Porter
Jamie MacFarlane is living at a hospital in California where he is trying to recover from a wound he received in World War One. One day he decides that he’s had enough of the doctors’ treatments, gets up, and walks out of the hospital to have a “Great Adventure.” After days of walking, Jamie decides […]
Those Unneccessary Characters ….
When you write a book, you’ll like as not create several characters that are just unnecessary to the plot. You’ll put a lot into them; developing backstories, personalities, pages and pages of hard work. And then … you’ll find that those characters are more hinder than a help to your novel! I had several of these […]
Review of Reveille by David B. Hunter
Reveille by David B. Hunter is the story of Ben Anderson, a teenage boy who joins the Union Army during the American Civil War. Reveille (the first book of the Boy Bugler series) got off to a slow start with Ben joining the First Iowa and starting his training as a bugler (as he is […]
The Month of Opposites
I wrote this poem today about September … and decided to show it to you. September is the summer September is the fall September is the time of warmth September chills us all! September means a jacket September means a last swim September means a chance to dance Yet bring the harvest in! September means […]
Freaking out over NaNoWriMo? Me too!
I keep saying to myself, “Kell, today you’re going to seriously start planning for NaNo.” I’m not. I should. I need to. If I don’t, I’m going to get to November 1st and stare at a blank sheet of paper for hours. Isn’t that going to be fun? I intend to set my Word Count […]