Adventures Along the Road to the Sand

 Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights and choose love and light.

If you read my June post then you know I prefer Winter to Summer and Longer Nights and Shorter Days to the opposite. Knowing that, you might ascertain that I’d prefer Snow to Sand.

Actually I don’t prefer snow to sand. As you can see, I do however prefer the ocean as it's featured in my website banner. And no, that's not me in the picture.

Although from my upstairs windows in the winter when the leaves are off my neighbors’ trees I can see the top of

Mt. Hood with
Rose City Golf Course
in the foreground

Breathing in the ocean air calms.

Seeing the light shadows play on the mountains inspires.

I am blessed to live a bit more than an hour from Mt. Hood (closer to two with the way traffic is these days).

While I’m also two hours from the Oregon Coast, my favorite area is the Central Coast and that’s a little more than three away (and that also depends on traffic).

I remember the days driving to the coast before the highways were built. Winding two lane roads with careening log trucks, farmers towing threshers or loads of hay and the folks with trucks with campers and pulling boats with lines of cars behind them. No safe place to pass for miles!

One memorable trip I made to visit one of my adoptive families out along the road to the coast was adventurous! The farm truck in front of me carried the detritus from harvested corn. He wasn’t going very far, or that’s my excuse for him. No tarp covered the load. Within seconds my windshield was plastered with corn husks and corn milk. Windshield wipers were struggling. Of course I dropped way back.

All my efforts to clean my windshield using the windshield wipers and spray were minimal. I had some visibility but not much.

On a narrow, two lane country road there was no place to pull over and do what? I didn’t travel with hoses, buckets. Creeping along I made it to the family home. The kids came out to greet me and before I knew it, a car washing brigade had been formed.

My car was pristine when I left a couple hours later.

And where did that story come from?

Memories of that drive that if I’d continued would have taken me to Lincoln City, Oregon and a bit further Fogarty Creek State Park and a bit further from there Depoe Bay. My favorite places along the Oregon Coast.

I don’t spend time walking in the sand*** or wading in the ocean any more, I much prefer sitting and watching the waves crash upon the rocks, checking for the telltale spout of the resident grey whale and breathing in the ozone ladened ocean air.

***Reminds me of the time a friend showed me a hidden cove loaded with agates. The tide was coming in and I had my sweatshirt off and tied into a sling/bag. It and all of my pockets were full with agates. Remember, the tide was coming in!

“Oh, look at that one!” I’d shout and dash into the rising water to capture one more prize totally forgetting, in the rush of accomplishment as I snagged another stone, that I still had a steep path up the side of a cliff to climb to get to my car.

My biggest agate and
a bowl of smaller ones.

In hindsight, I can see how the “fever” did and still does take hold of people searching for gold, silver, turquoise, copper mines or whatever they see as having value.

The friend who’d showed me this place was beginning to panic because I kept going after “just one more”. Obviously we made it safely out of that cove before it was inundated by the ocean.

Safely at the top with prizes tucked away in the trunk of my car, I promised myself I’d go back again for more treasure. And yet every time I tried to find the narrow pathway to the beach, I missed it. Even though I looked for it for a couple of years, I never did find it.

I do still have those agates. Most I polished and used in making wreaths. I’ve a jar of them nearby and every time I look at them I remember the intense excitement of collecting agates in the hidden cove.

Yes, I’m conflicted. I do not like hot much less humid weather and I no longer collect agates because I no longer walk in the sand. And I do not like to shovel snow (I’ve a wonderful neighbor who usually does that for me). I still prefer cool even cloudy and overcast days that invite me to snuggle up to my computer and put words on the page.

You can find all of my books at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2023 Judith Ashley

Vacation Fantasy #1

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

I’ve been looking forward to writing this blog post since last fall when Sarah Raplee and I came up with this topic. Why? Because I’ve a great imagination and I have used it to great advantage when wanting a break but ‘life’ didn’t support it. In reality, I have two (2) Fantasy Vacations.

Fantasy Vacation #1: I have a favorite spot on the Oregon Coast. The place is high on a cliff and looks out over the ocean and every view highlights waves dashing on rocks. Sunsets are spectacular. And because of resident grey whales, I can look for the spouts any time of the year. At night the lights of passing ships are visible and I can fantasize about the ship, cargo and destination.

The one bedroom unit with kitchenette and fireplace is my favorite although I really love the studio unit with the Queen-sized bed in the living room. Sleeping with the sliding door open to the sound of the sea easily lulls me to sleep.

Now for the fantasy part:

I stay in this magical place for two months; the on-site massage therapist comes to my room three times a week; room service menu is full of delicious, healthy, tasty food; the large deck with padded furniture is conducive to day dreaming and naps; free Wi-Fi and a comfortable place to set up my laptop and write; easy access from the top of the cliff to the sand so I can beach comb and find amazing agates and, since it is my fantasy, a glass float all the way from Japan!

Want to know more about Fantasy Vacation #2? I’m sharing My Fantasy Life every Monday on my Judith Ashley blog Intentions and Synchronicities. 

See you Monday, June 4^th for Fantasy Vacation #2!

Although my first love is writing Contemporary Romance or Romantic Women’s Fiction, I’ve also ventured into writing non-fiction. My first book, Staying Sane in a Crazy World is available at your favorite e-retailer. 

Do you ever feel as if the world around you is tumbling out of control and there is nothing you can do to make your world a better place?

Do you ever wish there was?

Staying Sane in a Crazy World may help guide you toward stopping the tumbling and choosing how to take effective control of your life.

The reality is there is no One answer that fits all but we each have Our answer.

In this short guide, Judith Ashley leads you through a straight-forward process that allows you to find Your answers. Answers you’ll use to craft a Personal Staying Sane Plan that will help you regain and keep your balance whenever the world around you is out-of-whack.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

Follow Judith on Twitter: JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB!  

© 2018 Judith Ashley

Writing My Way Home

by M. L. Buchman

"Write what you know!"

How many kajillion times have you heard that? It's a rule I've lived by...or maybe not. I started in post-apocalyptic science fiction. I wandered into thrillers set at a national TV food channel's studio (and dozens of others exotic locations I've never been to). Then I wandered into military romances (though I never served and they're set in places I've never been).

So, I've always pushed back on: "Write what you know!" with: "Write what you're passionate about!"

I wrote post-apoc SF because I am fascinated by the power of the people who find a way to stand up and try to save/rebuild the future. I write military romance because a) I love a good love story, and b) the more I research the military, the more amazing they become to me. Those who choose to serve, not as a job but as a career, are making an astonishing choice that took me a long time to understand. The more I understand, the more I am knocked back by these amazing men and women. They have driven me to do my best to show who they are.

I don't write the grittiness of war (not much, and certainly not the blood and grime), but I do everything I can to get their stories right. Why they are there. Why they choose to stay and why they miss it so much when they go.

My writing career has been a constant struggle to get it right. I typically research an hour for every three hours of writing. Still, despite over thirty military romances (not counting short stories).

This year I decided that I would write my second contemporary romance series. I have mentioned it from time to time over these last months, but it is the difference in the storytelling that I'm looking at today.

My Eagle Cove series is at the very center of "Write what you know." It is set in a small town on the Oregon Coast. My first visit to the Oregon Coast was over twenty-five years ago. I took a catered bicycling trip down the coast with a dozen others from all over the country. I was actually the most "local" of them all, only coming three hundred miles down from Seattle. We spent a week staying in nice B&Bs, eating great food, and bicycling the rugged hills and gorgeous beaches of the coast.

A few years later, I would travel this same route on a fully-loaded touring bike as the beginning of my solo, eighteen-month, bicycle tour around the world.

Fifteen years ago I was back, this time as a writer, for a two-week, deep-immersion class on the coast. Since that moment, the Oregon Coast has been an integral part of my life. I've come down for workshops, vacations, family trips, and, finally, to live. I'm now a full-time writer living in a small Oregon town.

The central coast, my favorite stretch of it, is 150 miles of beaches, wild forest, and small towns. The monster is barely ten thousand people (if you don't count the tens of thousands of tourists who descend every weekend).

So, I created the small fictitious town of Eagle Cove, which is drawn from a dozen different places along the stretch.

I have to pause here and say just HOW MUCH I love my job. I love the writing and the storytelling. I've fallen in love with enough of my characters that I don't understand how my wife isn't screamingly jealous (maybe it's because they aren't real...at least not to her!). As much as I enjoy writing the fast-paced romantic suspense... As much fun as it is to streak across the sky with the Night Stalkers and the Firehawks, or to slip in and out of dangerous locales with Delta Force... I was completely charmed by the easy days and friendly folk of Eagle Cove.

A contemporary romance has a pace about it that is as comfortable as a favorite chair by the fire on a cold, wet day. Really, it's the best analogy I can come up with. It's true for the writing process as well as the reading. By "Writing what I know" I managed to slip deeper into the stories. Unlike a romantic suspense, a contemporary romance hangs entirely on the characters. I'm not saying the former doesn't require great characters, but there's a razzle-dazzle there that doesn't exist in contemporary. It was a simple joy to write, rather than a challenge.

Even unlike my Angelo's Hearth contemporary series set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, Eagle Cove is a slice of life in a town that is slow-paced and quiet...except to the characters living there. To them, their small town is a whorl of events and emotions, some small...some as big as falling in love for the rest of your life.

My joy is writing romantic suspense...but this year I discovered that my heart dances down the beaches in Eagle Cove.

Want a taste of Eagle Cove? This story was the monthly free story on my website for a week in July. Now I'm making it exclusively free to readers of Romancing the Genres for one week more.

Just click HERE to download a free copy from BookFunnel.com. Do it now! This link expires in 7 days.

And if you never want to miss one of my monthly free stories, just sign up for my newsletter.

Enjoy the trip...I certainly did.

M. L. Buchman has over 50 novels and 30 short stories in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and twice Booklist “Top 10 of the Year,” placing two titles on their “Top 101 Romances of the Last 10 Years” list. He has been nominated for the Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of the Year” by RT Book Reviews and was a 2016 RWA RITA finalist. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, and designed and built two houses. Somewhere along the way he also bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive exclusive content by subscribing to his newsletter at:

www.mlbuchman.com.

New Series Thinking

by M. L. Buchman

You might think that for a series demon like myself with five active series would find starting the next one to be a simple and straightforward task. Or, better yet, that with five active series, I would have more common sense than to start another. The answers to those are: not so much, and...sigh...not so much.

FIRST - WHY DO A NEW SERIES AT ALL?
Other than the fact that I'm a lunatic, there is an answer to this one. Here are the five series I have going:

• The Night Stalkers - military romantic suspense  about the first women to fly for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (think secret helicopters)
• Firehawks - romantic suspense about heli-aviation wildland firefighting women and their men (think cool helicopters and forest fires)
• Delta Force - military romantic suspense about the first women to qualify for Delta Force (think awesomely cool fighting women and men)
• Dead Chef - foodie thrillers (what if television cooking become a lethal occupation)
• Deities Anonymous - fantasy (what if the Software That Runs the Universe throws the Armageddon subroutine right in the middle of the Devil's mid-life crisis).

But there's something missing. Two years ago I finished a five-book contemporary romance series (that I just reread big parts of and discovered that I still dearly love it):

• Angelo's Hearth - contemporary romance set in the culinary and fashion world in Seattle's Pike Place Market

I LOVE writing contemporary romance, but I'd become so involved in romantic suspense that I couldn't find time to get back to it. But I miss the comfortable world of contemporary romance. 

I think that it fills a specific place for Me-the-reader and Me-the-writer is always trying to keep Me-the-reader happy:

• Romantic suspense and Thrillers are for the "real-life" superheroes that we all wish lived inside of us.
• Fantasy and Science Fiction are a chance to escape our mundane world and see how the rest of the universe lives
• But Contemporary Romance is for the person inside of us who lives in the world around us. For me it tells the story that love is really possible for each of us--as we are and who we are.

So, even though I'm overwhelmed by all of the series I'm presently writing, I can't resist the urge to go back to telling contemporary romance stories.

SECOND - CHOOSING WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT

It is rare for my wife and I to go for a drive (or even a walk) and not comment at length on the beauty of the world around us. We live in the scenicly spectacular Oregon Coast. It's not just the ocean. There are fields, mountains, old growth trees, Stellar Jays, eagles, great horned owls, and, oh yeah, there is that ever-changing ocean.

As a writer, I'm always on the outlook for a new and interesting idea. Of course the idea that lies right outside my window couldn't be interesting...or could it? I love the Oregon Coast. My wife had spent much of her younger life here in times before I came along. 

It was only recently that I had the "Duh!" moment of connecting my search for a new contemporary romance series and my love of where I live. 

THIRD - TURNING IDEAS INTO WORDS

There is a unique challenge to bringing a series to life rather than just writing a book. A series has many of the same elements as a book, but they're on a grander scale. I can write a book about a town that will make an amusing setting, but to scale it up and create a setting that will be amusing and fun and varied and interesting for a series of three, four, or more books, that's a different challenge. There are things I know about "my town" now while I'm writing the first book that won't appear until the fourth! (As a matter of fact, the launching concept for the series isn't in book one at all, it is the key piece of book #4.) That's how peculiar series can be.

A series, just like a book or even a character, has its own voice, pace, and rhythm. This is good, because it is what connects all of the books together. This is a challenge because once it is set in book one, it is set for the series. (Can you tell that I'm starting a new series and have been working hard on finding its voice?)

FOURTH - BRINGING IT TO LIFE

Well, no amount of talking about it gets the job done. I'm thrilled to say that after years of thinking about it, months of tinkering with ideas and voice, that I've finally hit it and book one is just being finished and polished.

So, the good news is that my "small town Oregon romance" series will be launching in March! Whoot!

The great news is that there is nothing I enjoy reading as much as a good series and I like to think that this will be a nice addition for others like me.

The amazingly great news if you're a writer in addition to being a reader? Start your own new series and there will be a whole world of fun just waiting for you.

M. L. Buchman has over 40 novels in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and twice Booklist “Top 10 of the Year,” placing two titles on their “Top 101 Romances of the Last 10 Years” list. He has been nominated for the Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of 2014” by RT Book Reviews. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive other cool treats by subscribing to his newsletter at www.mlbuchman.com.

Beauty All Around Me

I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual traditions that nourish the soul.

Geraniums and Fuchias

The suggested topic for the Genre-istas this month is “flowers”.

Clematis

If you love flowers, you need to check out Patricia Brooks. Her Facebook page is full of her pictures of beautiful flowers. Whenever she is out she takes photographs of the beauty all around her.. Last month she was in Oregon and shared flowers she saw along the Oregon Coast.

(Pictures in this post are mine and do not hold a candle to her artistry).

I come from a family where having a flower garden was a must. My dad loved to garden and my mom had an artist’s eye for design, shapes, colors. Together they created special places to breathe in the scents while feasting eyes on the beauty. A classic design in our backyard for many years was a border of blue forget-me-nots, with white petunias and red salvia. Right now I wish I had a picture to show you!

But I don’t.

Black and Blue Salvia

Armistead Salvia

The color purple is a theme I’m using in part of my yard. I have two clematis in varying shades of it as well as two different salvias. No dwarf red for me. I’ve the medium sized “Black and Blue” and the larger “Armistad”.

Looking out my office window at pots of colorful geraniums and fuchsias are a delightful way to let my mind roam and find that perfect word. And when the rush of hummingbird wings catch my eye, I just sit and enjoy as the tiny bundle of energy flits from one fuchsia bloom to another.

Flowers, whether a picture or the real deal, are an easy way to add color and joy to our lives. While a bouquet of fresh flowers may be beyond your budget, perhaps a single bloom will fit. Adding flowers to your life can only enrich it. And, perhaps you’ll consider an unexpected gift of a single bloom to a special someone in your life.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle here.

Check out Judith’s Author Page at WindtreePress.

Follow Judith on Twitter: @judithashley19

You can find Judith on FB https://www.facebook.com/1JudithAshleyRomance1

Hunter Book Five in The Sacred Women’s Circle series is now available at all major e-retailers and through Windtree Press.