The Bucket List I Never Knew I Had

 

I didn’t even know I had a bucket list, at least not until a few weeks ago. I had absolutely no idea I was about to cross a nearly impossible item off my unknown list.

 Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made several list-worthy achievements. I’m the first on both sides of my family to graduate college. I am a veteran eclipse chaser, travelled to the United Kingdom (I loved Scotland) South America, the Mediterranean, and even Russia (twice). And now I am comfortably retired. Not bad for someone who never even bothered to compile a bucket list.

I am the author of several books for young adult and middle grade youth. Some have won awards, including one I received only two months ago from the International Literacy Association for my debut non-fiction book, Unlawful Orders published by Scholastic Focus in 2022. They designated me one of their "authors to watch" in children's nonfiction. 

 
But now I have made the big leagues. As of August,2023, I am also a PBS pundit. That item is worth more to me than everything else on my phantom list.

 

This began in July, 2023, when I received an inquiry from Christian Valle, the TV production manager at KRWG public radio, on the campus of New Mexico State University (NMSU). He planned on creating a documentary on Clara Belle Drisdale Williams, a distinguished NMSU alumna. Mr. Valle wanted to interview me. Because of the research I did on her and her sons for Unlawful Orders, he considered me an “expert.”

 
Be still my beating heart! My recorded interview took one hour, and the minute it ended, I thought of a dozen things I had forgotten to say. I felt like anything but an expert. In my heart, I feared he thought he had wasted his time with me. Then I got an email saying the documentary, titled Clara Belle Williams: New Mexico Pioneer in Education, was about to air.

 
That was two weeks ago. I watched the documentary using the PBS app, and there I was. Several points from my interview were included. I feel honored to be identified with Clara Belle Williams, who taught crowded classrooms filled with students, including her own three sons, in a one room schoolhouse. If you are a teacher or a parent, or both, take a moment to magine the fortitude that required. Those three boys grew up to defend America during World War II, and then went on to become renowned Chicago physicians who saved countless lives. Meanwhile, Clara Belle continued educating hundreds. In 1980, NMSU, her alma mater, awarded her an honorary doctorate for her years of service to humanity. She believed in the power of education to mold lives.

Everything I learned about her impressed me. I was happy to be able to share my knowledge with others. Now and forever more, I am available on PBS. True, its not like being a star. There was no pay for this, just a “Special Thanks to” note in the credits that included my name. But this bucket list item will live on long after I have "kicked it."

The direct link to view the documentary Clara Belle Williams: New Mexico Pioneer in Education on PBS is - https://www.pbs.org/video/clara-belle-williams-new-mexico-pioneer-in-education-hgk3qr/ You can also see it on YouTube by clicking here:

 

A Calming View and Dreams .... by Delsora Lowe

Visiting my son’s house with the wonderful view of a cove that leads out to the Atlantic Ocean, with sailboat’s white sails bobbing on the water beyond the jut of land and a tiny bridge leading to an island, always calms me.

On a very hot day in Maine, I sit under the ceiling fan in the cool living room that lets in the ocean breeze but not the heat of the sun. And I listen and watch and dream about my bucket list, which includes my own house with such a view. A place that inspires me to write.

But alas, even though I love my little landlocked view from my writing desk, these water views inspire me to write. So, with a day off from computers and writing, and with words and images insisting on churning through my mind, I grabbed my phone and wrote a stream of consciousness…

 

The continuous, high chirps emanating from the leaf cover.

 

West bound wind off the ocean furling leaves bright green to dark, depending on how deep the sun penetrates the canopy of the huge oak standing between me and the ocean.

 

The water a constant movement of ripples headed toward beach.

A white gull’s lazy travel, swooping and landing on the barely submerged sandbar.

 

The water morphing from the color of cement gray to a tailored, summer weight, wool-gray to light turquoise to yellow-green and back to a darker turquoise as the ocean laps against the opposite shore of the cove.

 

The barrier of bright pink and deep red blossoms gracing bushes of dark green-leafed, sea-side roses in the yard across the street.

The hum of the nearby interstate traffic weaving from one end of the city to the other, broken by sirens racing down the highway and a plane roaring into the summer sky from the nearby airport.

 

Then back to the consistent chirp, chew, chew, chirp, chirp buzz of birds.

 

Saturday afternoon, away from computer and household chores and headline news I want to make disappear. The news that makes me regress to my innocence, fifty years ago when I was first old enough to understood policy and politics, hate and love, kindness and cruelty…

Today, I concentrate on the sounds, and the feel of comforting breezes and hot sun and water rippling from the light puffs of wind and nature living its life in the sheltered trees.

Those thoughts, scribbled to clear my brain, allowed creativity to be unlocked.

The tranquil view and the quiet of the house and neighborhood with only sounds of wind and birds and an occasional meow as Luna wandered into the house and plopped down next to me on the couch, her head gently pushing against my leg as she leaned into my caress, helped to settle me.

Views and pets calmed my anger at the world we live in that can’t treat every human being with respect and love.

Thank goodness for serene scenery, nature’s sounds, and dreams of a room with a view where I can get lost in words that will lead to a story with a happy ending. My escape from a harsh world. And…the reason I write romance.

What is on your bucket list?

Amazon: (also in print) https://www.amazon.com/Starlight-Grille-Serenity-Harbor-Collection-ebook/dp/B07CN8JV2Z/  
Books2Read   books2read.com/u/3yDjWe

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. Her newest novella is The Love Left Behind. Look for both a Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) later this fall.

Social Media Links:
Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/delsoraloweauthor/community/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

Photo Credits: Delsora Lowe

Photo Bucket List Vacations by Paty Jager

 These are places I would like to someday see or participate in:

This first photo is of Australia. I have ogled over the photos author Susan Horsnell has posted on Facebook. I'd like to go see the sites that she has let us see through her photos. 

Ever since reading Nora Roberts trilogy, Born in Ice, Born in Fire, Born in Shame, the Concannon sisters trilogy set in Ireland, I've wanted to visit. 

Another trip on my bucket list is to ride a mule down into the Grand Canyon. Hubby said he doesn't want to go, so I'll have to talk my horse-loving daughter into going with me. Hopefully, before I can't sit on a horse for too long.

Another vacation I would like to take is to travel the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) National Historic Trail. This is the route the Chief Joseph and White Bird Nimipuu bands traveled for 176 days in 1877 trying to find peace in Canada while the U.S. Army chased them. They finally gave up at the Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana after starting from Wallowa Lake, Oregon. Every year riders and walkers travel 100 miles of the trail.

These are only a few of the places I would like to go on a vacation. I also wish to visit every one of the states in the United States and would like to take the train across Canada.

What is at the top of your vacation bucket list? 

Ghosts? Sasquatches? Aliens? by Sarah Raplee

This is a repost from 2016.

 Hi, I'm Sarah Raplee, author of Paranormal and Steampunk Romance.

For years my husband jokingly claimed there were only three items on his Bucket List. “Before I die, I want to:

1. see a ghost
2. encounter a Sasquatch, and 
3. be abducted by aliens.”

A great Bucket List for me, an author or Paranormal Romance! Right?

Frenchglen Hotel

Believe it or not, we stayed at Oregon’s reportedly-haunted Hotel at Frenchglen, Oregon couple of years ago, and he got to cross “see a ghost” off his list. The experience was not what he’d expected. He thought he’d be cool and nonchalant if he ever saw a ghost, but he was scared to death – even though he told me it was the ghost of a little old lady speaking a foreign language and smiling as she patted the bed. (I didn’t see her, but I heard her walking back and forth around the bed. Gotta admit, that was creepy!)

I suggested he may want to re-evaluate items two and three in light of this experience. After all, we live in one of the counties with the most reported Sasquatch sightings in the United States. “Watch what you wish for!” I say.

Sasquatch?

I’m adventurous, but of a more practical nature. I love trying new things or exploring new areas. I’m not claustrophobic or afraid of heights or a particular animal (although I have a healthy respect for Things That Can Hurt/Kill Me), and this propensity to seek out new experiences with an open mind has made life interesting.

“You never know what life will bring” is tattooed on my soul. Life surprises me all the time. I’m lucky to have an adventurous husband to share it with. 

Who knew we would live in eight different states, explore caves, hunt ghosts (not at the hotel – totally different time and place), hike a hundred miles of rugged, mountainous (and sometimes snowy) terrain, catch snakes, attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans, chase black bears away from a campsite, care for baby osprey, raise a big family, travel to Europe and Canada, sail across the Columbia River Bar into the Graveyard of the Pacific on a small boat, help an archeologist on several digs, raise chickens, mine geodes - the list goes on and on and is far from finished at this point. I plan to be around for a couple more decades.

UFO?

Which means there are plenty of adventures in my future, even without a Bucket List. Who knows? Maybe we will encounter a Sasquatch and be abducted by aliens – although I’d rather just admire the flying saucer from a safe distance. 

What about you? ~Sarah

©2016 Sarah Raplee All Rights Reserved

Rolling in the Dough?

by Courtney Pierce

When I was in my twenties, success was defined by having a million dollars in the bank—cold cash, not this artificial Bitcoin stuff we have now. The amount sounded like a lot of coin to me at the time, though. Thirty-five years ago, it was. And a pound of bacon was well under two bucks back then. Have you priced a pound of bacon lately? How about an artichoke? And when did a six pack of cheap toilet paper top ten bucks? I’m wiped out when I go to a grocery store. It’s an extortion racket!

So how does one get that cool million in the bank? Lottery tickets were never a sound investment for

me, but I must admit that I dreamed of that scratch-off moment with the winning news. My heart raced at the thought of what I’d do. Fantasies about that sexy car were hard to resist. I can still recall the imagined aroma of hand-stitched leather. Then I figured I’d have to spend a lot on a lawyer and a tax adviser, even before I had my picture taken with that oversize Styrofoam check. Heart-racing visions of winning the lottery quickly dissolved to those of predators: charities, friends I’d never known, and those who checked in at the Why Me Inn. Dang! I’d give it all away, anyway, to assuage my guilt of receiving money I hadn’t earned.

Back to work. That was the key to financial security.

Pesky word “work”. Right through my forties, the term signified a sense of accomplishment, self-pride, and climbing the ladder to show my worthiness. It was about that million dollars too. Along with my ego, the monthly statements of accounts became a measuring stick of success. My accountant wanted me to be insatiable because his growth depended on mine. Don’t get me wrong. I love my accountant like my own father these past thirty-eight years, but he’s getting ready to retire too. Now what? Do I have enough? Had I earned the right to freedom?

The closer I get to that magic age of sixty, the less fear I have of turning my back on the corporate world. I’m not razoring through my fingernails over the thought of retirement. My husband and I will only do something different and personal, like writing full time, growing and hunting our own food, and hiking the trails of Glacier National Park. We want to make experiences our goal, not buying more stuff. Besides, we’ll be cutting way back on our expenses in retirement, so our monthly nut should go down.

I take a deep breath and relax. Snow-capped mountain vistas. Mist drifting over the surface of the lake. Loons call for us to paddle the canoe in the morning hours.

Panic shoots through my spine, shattering my fantasies.

Wait just a darned-tootin’ minute! A million dollars is what my accountant says I need just in my retirement account to step away at sixty-six (preferably at seventy-two to maximize Social Security). I brace myself for battle. My fight-or-flight reaction retreats and my shoulders drop in defeat. All plans of a frugal retirement are eclipsed by the destinations on our bucket list: Roman walls in England, castles in Scotland, mountains in Peru, fishing in Portugal. Have you priced plane tickets lately? The baggage fees alone are more than the cost of a ticket used to be.

Back to work. I’m no boomer with a Trust fund. No one is going to will me a million bucks when they die. Everyone I know plans to bounce the last check they’ll write.

And my husband is so right. He says they wouldn’t call it "work" if it wasn’t.

Photo: Loma Smith

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon, with her new family. She writes for baby boomers. By day, Courtney is an executive in the entertainment industry and uses her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor and mystery. She has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, she is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. 

Check out all of Courtney's books at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com. Both print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com

The Dushane Sisters are back in Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's trilogy about the Dushane sisters. Beginning with The Executrix, three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death. Mom’s book gives them a whole new view of their mother and their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Get out the popcorn as the Dushane Sisters Trilogy comes to a scrumptious conclusion with Indigo Legacy. Due out in summer, 2018.

BUCKET LIST - MARGARET TANNER - WESTERN ROMANCE

"PLEASE, SIR I WANT SOME MORE."

I am sure few people could forget these word from Charles Dickens', character in Oliver Twist.

I don’t really have a bucket list, except to parrot those words - Please, Sir I want some more.

2015 was a great year for me on the writing front. I fell in love - with writing Western Historical romance novellas, so I would dearly like this trend to continue. I was also very fortunate to be a member of a successful Christmas Anthology, Silver Belles And Stetsons. My novella being Cowboy Christmas. Then there was the American Mail Order Bride series. 

 

 I would like to tell you about the unique American Mail Order Bride series, and my contribution, Edwina, Bride of Connecticut, which is book 5 in the series.

I was a last minute inclusion in the series so I didn’t get to choose my state. My name was put forward by Western romance author and friend, Susan Horsnell. On the basis that I am multi-published, and have won an award or two in Historical Romantic fiction, and have also participated in two Western Anthologies, I was fortunate to be accepted for this exciting endeavour (The American Mail Order Brides Series, 50 books from 45 authors. Starting on November 19, one book was published per day through to January 7, 2016. Each story is 35K - 40K in length and priced at $2.99.)

BLURB: Joshua was a happy bachelor until his scheming sister lands him with a Mail Order Bride. Desperate to Escape Boston, Edwina accepts the marriage proposal she believes has come from him. Can a deceived bride, and a reluctant groom, find happiness together?

EXCERPT:  “You did what?” Joshua Sinclair glared at his sister.

“I pretended I was you and advertised for a Mail Order Bride in the Grooms’ Gazette.” Amy faced him, defiant. “You’ve been on your own too long. Hasn’t he, Tom?”

“Don’t bring me into this.” Tom grinned at his wife.

“Damn it woman. You had no right.” Josh thrust his fingers through his hair, causing the curls to become even more riotous than normal. “You can damn well have that ridiculous advertisement removed.”

“It’s too late.” Amy looked pleadingly at him. “Edwina has already answered and agreed to marry you.”

“Edwina! Matrimony is not on my agenda. Even if it was, I wouldn’t be marrying some desperate spinster who has been left on the shelf.”

“She’s from Boston.”

“Boston!” A dagger thrust of pain pierced his heart. Three years and Maryanne’s betrayal still hurt. He would never trust another woman.

BIO:  Margaret Tanner is an Award Winning Historical Romance Author who has now added Western Historical Romance to her writing repertoire.

She lives in Australia, is married and has three grown up sons.

With the encouragement of friend and Western Romance author, Susan Horsnell, she has fallen in love with writing Western Historical Romance of the sweet variety.  Frontier Australia and frontier America, have many similarities, isolated communities, a large single male population and a lack of eligible women, so it wasn’t hard to write in the Western genre.

She has always loved Westerns, soaking up all the Western TV shows and movies when she was young. Bonanza was her all-time favourite show. Little Joe Cartwright was her hero. Western Author, Zane Grey was her favourite author at that time.

Margaret has a short story published in the Western Romance Anthology, Rawhide ‘N Roses which was a 2015 Rone Finalist.

She has a novella, Christmas Cowboy, published in the successful Silver Belles and Stetsons Christmas Anthology.

Margaret has just finished writing her fourth Western Historical Romance novella.

LINK:

http://mjljtanner.wix.com/loveleftbehind#!edwina-bride-of-cennecticut/c1uy5

 

 

 

 

GHOSTS? SASQUATCHES? ALIENS? by Sarah Raplee

Hi, I'm Sarah Raplee, author of Paranormal and Steampunk Romance.

For years my husband jokingly claimed there were only three items on his Bucket List. “Before I die, I want to:

1. see a ghost
2. encounter a Sasquatch, and 
3. be abducted by aliens.”

A great Bucket List for me, an author or Paranormal Romance! Right?

Frenchglen Hotel

Believe it or not, we stayed at Oregon’s reportedly-haunted Hotel at Frenchglen, Oregon couple of years ago, and he got to cross “see a ghost” off his list. The experience was not what he’d expected. He thought he’d be cool and nonchalant if he ever saw a ghost, but he was scared to death – even though he told me it was the ghost of a little old lady speaking a foreign language and smiling as she patted the bed. (I didn’t see her, but I heard her walking back and forth around the bed. Gotta admit, that was creepy!)

I suggested he may want to re-evaluate items two and three in light of this experience. After all, we live in one of the counties with the most reported Sasquatch sightings in the United States. “Watch what you wish for!” I say.

Sasquatch?

I’m adventurous, but of a more practical nature. I love trying new things or exploring new areas. I’m not claustrophobic or afraid of heights or a particular animal (although I have a healthy respect for Things That Can Hurt/Kill Me), and this propensity to seek out new experiences with an open mind has made life interesting.

“You never know what life will bring” is tattooed on my soul. Life surprises me all the time. I’m lucky to have an adventurous husband to share it with. 

Who knew we would live in eight different states, explore caves, hunt ghosts (not at the hotel – totally different time and place), hike a hundred miles of rugged, mountainous (and sometimes snowy) terrain, catch snakes, attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans, chase black bears away from a campsite, care for baby osprey, raise a big family, travel to Europe and Canada, sail across the Columbia River Bar into the Graveyard of the Pacific on a small boat, help an archeologist on several digs, raise chickens, mine geodes - the list goes on and on and is far from finished at this point. I plan to be around for a couple more decades.

UFO?

Which means there are plenty of adventures in my future, even without a Bucket List. Who knows? Maybe we will encounter a Sasquatch and be abducted by aliens – although I’d rather just admire the flying saucer from a safe distance. 

What about you? ~Sarah

©2016 Sarah Raplee All Rights Reserved

Buckets of Lists

January 25, 2016

Happy New Year! 

As a writer of humorous mysteries for baby boomers, I’m all about experiences. I think we boomers were born with a bucket list gripped in our tiny fingers―with two-sided sticky tape and Elmer’s glue. My parents encouraged me with a mantra: “You can do anything you want, as long as you try to be the best at it.” 

Those words were a gift . . . and a curse. The parental prod turned me into an obsessive-compulsive raccoon in search of shiny objects.

Now, as one who is eligible for a senior discount at life's buffet, I keep my lists in drawers, post them on my computer with tape, and hot-glue them to boards to plot my stories, some with crazy dialogue of characters who haven’t even been created yet. I didn’t have goals; my charge was to turn life into The Hunger Games, conquering experiences to learn more, feel more, and know more. After all, I could do anything, as long as I tried to be the best.

From toddlerhood, I wanted to be an entertainer who moved people to feel. I drove my parents nuts when I sang instead of talked. I declared one day a week as “opera day”, where everyone in my family had to sing what they had to say. At the age of nine, my parents channeled the madness into voice lessons, acting lessons, and lessons on every instrument I could get my hands on. By age twenty, I’d earned by degree in music and had performed in dozens of operas, soloed in recitals, and crooned to newly married couples on their wedding days. The goal wasn’t to be famous; I only wanted to stand in front of an audience and pour my heart out.   

I went to work for an opera company in Portland, Oregon, cracking the cap on the business side of music. The experience fueled me to achieve success off the stage. From the new perspective of a theater seat, I wanted to know what compelled people to become part of a story. That curiosity led to a twenty-year executive career in the Broadway entertainment industry. My world became one of studying dialogue, emotion, and passionate behavior in order to fill a theater. Tickets―fists full of them―allowed exclusive access to stories.

After enduring six corporate mergers and acquisitions, it was time for me ball up that particular list. Cash out. Throw down my cards to start a new hunger game. New factors had begun to stack the deck against me: ailing parents, draining estrogen, and the passing of so many of my immortal music idols. But wait―the people I care about are supposed to live forever! I swept my arm across the table to gather my experience winnings. 

In my fifties and armed with my health, my sheer will, and my husband of thirty-two years―oh, and our shamefully spoiled cat―I heeded the lyrics of the late, great Louis Jourdan and got off my “big, fat rusty dusty” to become a fiction writer. I unloaded all those years of daydreams and experiences into words that compelled people to laugh, to cry, and to turn the page. I had come full circle. 

While writing has been the most challenging of my quests to date, this journey has been the most rewarding. I have found my calling, one that remains true to the first wish on my little-girl list. Today, a few arthritic knots and calluses grace those once-tiny, open fingers, but I still hold tight to the lure of shiny dreams. And when my hands cease to work, I'll sing my stories into a microphone . . . just like I did as a child.

There is no list . . . it's life.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon with her husband of thirty-six years and bossy cat. She writes for baby boomers. Her novels are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. Courtney has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. She is also a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and is active with Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Sisters in Crime.

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's latest novel, The Executrix. When three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death, the book gives them a whole new view of their mother. Is it fiction? . . . or truth? Sibling blood becomes thicker than baggage when Mom becomes larger in death than she was in life.


Look for Indigo Lake, the second helping of the Dushane Sisters Trilogy, in March, 2016. More laughs, more tears . . . and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

Visit Courtney's website at courtney-pierce.com. Her books can be purchased at Windtree Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, and at several independent bookstores in the Portland area.

An Empty Bucket?

By Linda Lovely

I don’t have a single item on my bucket list.

Does that mean I’m ready to kick the bucket? Or do I plan to sit in my pajamas and stare into space until I exit the planet?

Neither—not by a long shot. Actually, my empty bucket list just means I want my days to be happy and fulfilling wherever I am.

Let me explain—first by sharing a definition of “bucket list.” I’d planned to post a very different blog until I shared my ideas with my husband. Robin Weaver, a critique partner, had suggested it would be fun to list the top items on famous literary characters’ and authors’ bucket lists. For example, Dr. Watson’s number one desire might be solving a complex crime before Sherlock got out of bed. Or Edgar Allen Poe might want to see ravens go extinct before he does.

My husband questioned if these examples were truly bucket list eligible. “For something to be on a bucket list, doesn’t it need to be totally within your power to make it come true?” he asked. “Otherwise isn’t it just a plain-old goal?”   

Hmm. Good question. I have lots of dreams. Like most writers, I’d like one of my novels to hit a New York Times’ best seller list. But making that happen isn’t within my power—even if I write the best book I’m capable of producing. There are lots of other factors beyond an author’s control from genre trends and timing to getting noticed by influential reviewers.

Perhaps travel tends to top so many bucket lists because it is often within one’s own power to make it happen. If you have money and are healthy enough to board a plane, you can enjoy some of the world’s most magnificent sights, sounds and tastes. You can listen to jazz in New Orleans. Eat freshly baked croissants in a Paris café. Hike in the Swiss Alps. Nightclub in Mexico City. See a Broadway play. Ride horseback in the Rocky Mountains. Sail in the Caribbean.

Hey, what do you know? I’ve been lucky enough to do all of these and more. Maybe that’s why specific travel goals aren’t on my bucket list.

What I want for the remainder of my life is to remain open to possibilities. Exotic travel? Maybe, if an intriguing opportunity comes along. But I’m more concerned about the quality of time I spend with my family and friends whether we’re playing cards at our kitchen table or walking the beach at the coast. I want to keep laughing and I want my characters to have lots of adventures. Perhaps that’s why my bucket is empty. I can share plenty of adventures with my imaginary friends as well as the people I love. 

My Bucket List: Victorian American West

by

Kristin Holt

Hi, everyone. I’m new.

Like a newcomer to the cocktail party (or neighborhood book club), I’ve listened (read blog posts), nodded (read responses), and smiled a lot (lurked). But I’m a stranger. It’s my turn to 'speak' and decorum insists I introduce myself. {waves!} I’m Kristin Holt. I write Sweet Victorian Western Romance.

Everything

on my personal bucket list is in the past.

1st drawing, Eiffel Tower, Public domain

Writing late 19th century characters and settings is my time machine, and facilitates achievement of my bucket-list. Researching every nuance of the locale and time period is a little too exciting. I’m able to visit, dwell, experience anywhere… all without leaving modern conveniences. Like central heat, air conditioning, and ice cream.

I spend so much time immersed in the 19th century, I catch myself thinking travel by train is the height of invention. Telegrams are the speedy way to communicate, not letters. And my heroes must allow time to saddle the trusty horse (or even longer to hitch the team to the wagon or buggy) before they ride out.

Kristin Holt (yellow rain jacket)

An 1896 character I’ve had simmering on the back burner (Andrew Proctor, The Doctor Claims a Bride) wants a Civil Engineering degree and to eventually build immense structures. His bucket list includes visiting the Eiffel Tower (1889), Washington Monument (1884), Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp, Belgium) (1521)… places I’ve been with the ease of domestic and transatlantic flight… and snapped digital pics. Naturally, Andrew's bucket list will go to war with his conscience and everyone’s expectations. [Cue maniacal laughter.]
 

Forthcoming Title

I can't sketch worth a darn. I have no interest in photography. Had I lived in 1896, I would have been forced to rely on my memory for every detail. And travel by boat. Without air conditioning. And drink water that tasted like a wooden barrel. And ‘bathe’ in a bowl. I use ‘bathe’ in the loosest of terms.

I’m a modern woman and adore modern comforts, yet I’m madly in love with the Victorian American West. Top priority on my bucket list in 2016? Spend more time in the 1870's, 1880's, and 1890's. I may flirt with 1900 and 1901, but my first love will forever be the last third of the 19th century.

You'll learn more about me, my books, and the Victorian American West at www.KristinHolt.com.

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