My Writing Corner : Destination: Inspiration

As someone who has often been inspired to write a story simply from the location I'm visiting, I was fascinated to read the biography for today's guest in My Writing Corner. Visiting us is Karen Hulene Bartell.

She is the author of the Trans-Pecos, Sacred Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, as well as Kissin Kin, Fox Tale, Wild Rose Pass, The Keys: Voice of the Turtle and more. Karen is not only a best-selling author, she is a motivational keynote speaker, IT technical editor, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life. She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories steeped in the supernatural.

Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her mews—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog. Let's chat with Karen to learn more about her and her latest book.

Karen, what is your book you will feature today and do you have any other information you would like us to know about it?

Kissing Kin and the inspiration for location – Travel – and a Missed Turn!

Whenever I visit provocative places, encounter new experiences, sample different ethnic foods, or chance upon stimulating people, I’m inspired. Ideas flow. (I should’ve been a travel correspondent.) There’s something about traveling that takes me out of my rut and propels me into new realms of possibility.

I’ve written some of my best concepts sitting in noisy airports or hotel bathrooms at midnight (so I don’t wake my husband with the light). Being out of my element and in new environments stimulates my imagination.

As I visit new destinations, I’m infused with innovative ideas, envisioning scene after scene, like vignettes flowing from one to the next and the next.

In Kissing Kin’s case, my husband and I spent Christmas week hiking and horseback riding in Big Bend National Park twenty years ago. You’ve seen the area on maps--the southernmost tip of Texas that borders the Rio Grande and dips into Mexico. Spanning more than 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan desert, mountains, and rivers, Big Bend is larger than the state of Rhode Island--and filled with lions and bobcats and bears. Oh, my!

Driving home early that New Year’s morning, we missed the turnoff in Alpine and followed TX-118 north. Snow-covered and glinting against the frosty blue January sky, a remote jumble of mountain peaks and ranges beckoned as they rose above the desert floor. I was enchanted. Gazing at the sky island for the first time, wide-eyed, I wondered whether those rocky pinnacles were mirages or optical delusions.

But as the craggy peaks loomed larger (a mile high, I later learned), I realized they were no hallucination or Fata Morgana. A hasty glance at the map told us these were the Davis Mountains. As we approached, vertical basalt columns rose like thousands of giant fingers reaching for the sky. The palisades, buttes, and bluffs towered above both sides of the road with a raw, majestic beauty, and I breathed a contented sigh, almost as if coming home.

That missed turn took us only a half hour out of our way, but as we drove through those mountains, my life changed. From that day to this, the area’s held my heart and imagination. Wild Rose Pass became Book I of the Trans-Pecos Series, and Kissing Kin has become Book II. Both novels are standalones with dissimilar genres--Wild Rose Pass is a historical novel, while Kissing Kin is a paranormal romance.

Let's get a blurb:

Maeve Jackson is starting over after a broken engagement—and mustering out of the Army. No job and no prospects, she spins out on black ice and totals her car.

When struggling vintner Luke Kaylor stops to help, they discover they’re distantly related. On a shoestring budget to convert his vineyard into a winery, he makes her a deal: prune grapevines in exchange for room and board.

But forgotten diaries and a haunted cabin kickstart a five-generational mystery with ancestors that have bones to pick. As carnal urges propel them into each other’s arms, they wonder: Is their attraction physical…or metaphysical?

Let's talk to Maeve:

Why are you having to start over?

In the military, I had a routine—orders and schedules. After my discharge, I had no direction, and I’d had big expectations about civilian life, fantasizing about Cody and marriage…but those plans didn’t pan out. Working at the vineyard gives me a sense of purpose—at least until I figure out where to go from here.

What do you want for your future?

Growing up with vagabond parents and no permanent address, I want to belong. I always fantasized about living in one of those comfortable homes I viewed through the car window. I want a home and a family of my own.

What attracts you to Luke?

He’s polite, handsome, funny, and generous. His gaze is direct, and his warm, coffee-brown eyes—fringed with impossibly long lashes—are captivating.

How’s he make me feel? Despite being out of my element, I have to admit, when he walks by in his tooled leather boots and thigh-hugging jeans, he makes my blood pressure spike, and frankly, it’s nice to be working toward a common goal with a partner, someone to share the load with instead of always having to prove myself.

What bothers you about him?

When silvery white feathers appear on my bed, I suspect Luke of sneaking into the cabin, and hand-placing them. Then Cody’s betrayal come to minds. Is Cody the reason I can’t trust people, or is being wary all the time just another side effect of PTSD?

Then when I catch Luke with his arms around his ex-girlfriend, I figure he just wants his cake and eat it, too.

Now let's turn the table around and talk to Luke:

Tell us about your vineyard and how you came to own it?

I got started working summers at my grandfather’s boutique winery. Then I changed my major to viticulture, the study of grape cultivation, with a double major in enology--the study of wines and winemaking.

After graduation, I interned at a major winery—didn’t pay much, but it gave me firsthand experience in winery design, wine-processing technologies, fermentation, and my personal favorite, flavor chemistry. But the most important takeaway was that I learned how to prevent Pierce’s Disease, a bacteria that’s spread by sharpshooter leafhoppers that attacks grapevines from Florida to California. It’s what destroyed my grandfather’s vineyard. If he knew in the 70s what I know now, he wouldn’t have lost his shirt—or the vineyard. I saved up and bought property.

What concerns you about becoming involved with Maeve?

Maeve has an ex-fiancé, who’s obviously not over her. The question is, is she over Cody?

What draws you to her?

Not fussy or frilly, Maeve is good looking but doesn’t know it. She’s a kindred soul, who’s persistent, despite self-doubts. Her jade-green eyes are mesmerizing. No makeup, her face is bare except for the freckles on her button nose. She wears her tawny brown hair in a pixie cut that emphasizes those haunting eyes. Her figure’s lithe and slender, and she moves with a dancer’s grace.

What do you want for your future?

I want to add an open-air tasting room and turn this vineyard into a winery. But on a shoestring budget, I’m hoping sweat equity makes up for my lack of capital.”

Want more? Let's get an excerpt - Dozing by the Fire

        “Mind if I camp out ’til the roads clear?”
       “Under the circumstances?” The clerk shook his head. “Not a problem.”
       “Thanks.” He started toward the sitting room and nearly bumped into Maeve, leaning against the wall. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”
       “You didn’t.” She tossed her chin. “I was cat-napping.”
       “Right.” He compared her guarded veneer to her sleeping-beauty persona. Which is closer to her true self?
       “Couldn’t help overhearing.” Gesturing toward the clerk with her chin, she grimaced. “I’m responsible for you being out tonight--”
       “No.” He shook his head. “This is just a freak storm.”
       “You don’t have to sleep in a chair.” She took a deep breath and gave a quick, tight-lipped smile.                 “My room has two queen beds, and you’re welcome to one of ’em.”
       Unsure of the extent of her invitation, he did a double take.
       “Just so we understand each other, this is a bunk, a place to sack out. Period. Amen.” She spoke in a low-pitched, no-nonsense voice. “Nothing more, so don’t get any--”
       “Got it.” He covered his disappointment with a laugh. “Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but I’ll be fine dozing by the fire.”
       “Hey, I’ve bivouacked with soldiers in Afghanistan. We do what’s necessary under extenuating circumstances.” Shrugging, she glanced at the door. “And this blizzard qualifies.” Her face relaxed into a smile.
       Her offer tempting, he compared sitting up all night to stretching out in a bed. Then he glimpsed the clerk.
       “If you’re worried about my reputation, don’t be.” She laughed, the sound like sleigh bells tinkling on a crisp, wintry night.

What is it about her that conjures thoughts of other times--other eras?

Want to read on? Here are the Buy Links as well as social media contact information:

UNIVERSAL LINK: https://books2read.com/u/boXl10

AMAZON: https://shorturl.at/iwEIJ

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204849593-kissing-kin

APPLE: https://books.apple.com/us/book/kissing-kin/id6475424012

BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kissing-kin-karen-bartell/1144521766?ean=9781509253951

Social Media Links –

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenHuleneBartell

MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/karenbartell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HuleneKaren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/karenhulenebartell/