Hello, and thanks for stopping by today!
It’s my pleasure to welcome award-winning author Mary Connealy to my blog. Mary is the author of numerous cowboy romances, including her new Kincaid Bride series, which has just debuted this month with book #1, OUT OF CONTROL. She is generously offering a copy of the new book to one reader.
Read on to see how Mary comes up with her wonderful stories, to learn more about OUT OF CONTROL, and to find out how you can earn the chance to win a signed copy of the book.
Here’s Mary:
I’m daydreaming the beginning of my book right now. That’s how it starts. With daydreams…the beginning. Not the plot. Not the happily ever after, though that’s understood. It’s the beginning. How do I explode this story?
Yes, I give some thought to what the characters are like of course, because that’s part of the explosion. Is the woman a damsel in distress or is she a take charge feisty lady rancher?
But the finer details of character develop while I’m typing.
What doesn’t come as I create is The Beginning.
I daydream it.
I’ve been daydreaming the beginning of a book for a couple of months now. I’m an insomniac and I lay awake at night, after I go to bed, and I have this mental image of myself juggling ideas, throwing one thing up, catching another, turning them around, throwing an idea away when a better one comes along. Setting the old ideas aside, but close so I can bring them back, juggle some more.
So here’s what’s buzzing in my head right now.
I want a man to help a woman escape from a bad situation. He comes from far away at the request of someone worried about her, to save her.
First idea:
He bursts in on her wedding and drags her away. I had that one for a long time. Finally discarded it.
Next idea:
Catch her as she climbs out her window to run away, they run away together, after she is properly terrified and fights him a while of course.
Third beginning:
Catches her robbing a store, puts a stop to it, she thinks he’s arresting her.
Right now, this is the one I’m going to use—on a book I haven’t begun yet.
Maybe.
He stops her from robbing. Finds out she steals to feed her family. Finds out she’s being forced into a marriage and there will be no food and no money for her, her mother and little brother until she agrees to it.
So she steals food to survive rather than marry a vile man. But she won’t leave her family because then who will feed them?
So she wants her little brother to come along because her mother is unkind and wants the vile marriage.
Except the mother catches them kidnapping the very-willing-to-be-kidnapped little brother and threatens to call the sheriff, unless they take her too.
Anyway, I’m causing trouble for the poor cowboy who just wants to help out a friend back in Colorado.
And who knows how much of this will survive?
I do know I need action, the busted up wedding and the chase.
The woman falling out of a window, fighting off her assailant (AKA the hapless cowboy who’s come to save her).
The cowboy breaking up the robbery and dragging the woman away.
None of these beginnings are physically explosive—a short struggle at best. Well, if there’s a chase, maybe the first one, which inclines me toward it.
But emotionally they’re all explosive. That’s good enough but I prefer something actually blowing up, or running away, or shooting, or falling over a cliff. Which tells me I may not yet have a beginning that’s going to work. But as I juggle the story is being plotted.
This is the creative process for me…juggling…revising…almost all in my head, very little written down during this time.
I heard someone once describe a book as three explosions and a conclusion. One explosion at the beginning. One 1/3 of the way in. One at the 2/3 mark and then an explosive conclusion. That’s my goal. The spirit is there but the plot is very weak…but it won’t be when I’m finished.
~~~
My August release is called Out of Control. To get your name in the drawing for a signed copy of Out of Control, tell me about a daydream. Everyone’s got a few standards. The speech you’d give to accept your Academy Award. Everyone’s got that one, right? What? No? Never mind, move along, neither do I!!!
The one where you dive into the pool and save the….handsome lifeguard? The son of a Saudi oil sheik? (grateful much?) The one where you make a diving catch and save the World Series…that might be more a guy thing!!!
Tell me about your daydream and we’ll talk about how much better life is IN OUR IMAGINATION. Reality definitely gets OLD.
~~~
Here’s a little bit about that explosive beginning:
Julia Gilliland has always been interested in the natural world around her. She particularly enjoys her outings to the cavern near her father’s homestead, where she explores for fossils and formations and plans to write a book about her discoveries. The cave seems plenty safe—until the day a mysterious intruder steals the rope she uses to climb her way out.
Rafe Kincaid has spent years keeping his family’s cattle ranch going, all without help from his two younger brothers, who fled the ranch—and Rafe’s controlling ways—as soon as they were able. He’s haunted by one terrible day at the cave on a far-flung corner of the Kincaid property, a day that changed his life forever. Ready to put the past behind him, he plans to visit the cave one final time. (here’s the beginning) He sure doesn’t expect to find a young woman trapped in one of the tunnels—in dire need of rescue. And when she can’t get over her hysterics, what’s a hero to do but kiss her?
Rafe is more intrigued by Julia than any woman he’s ever known. But how can he overlook her fascination with the cave he despises? And when his developing relationship with Julia threatens his chance at reconciliation with his brothers, will he have to choose between the family bonds that could restore his trust, or the love that could heal his heart?
~~~
Mary Connealy, author of “romantic comedy with cowboys,” is a Christy Award Finalist, a Carol Award Winner, a Rita Award finalist and an IRCC Award finalist. She is a GED Instructor by day and an author by night and so she can remember what she’s doing, she likes to wear a little crown and a Wonder Woman cape while she types. Mary lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her husband, Ivan, and has four grown daughters.
Barbara here again.
Mary, can you tell us what you’re working on now?
I’m just finished with book #2 in the Kincaid Brides series and on to book #3. In Too Deep, book # two is Ethan’s story, the second brother. It’s coming in February. I love these three titles, Out of Control, In Too Deep and Over the Edge.
Where else can readers find you online?
http://www.maryconnealy.com My Website
http://mconnealy.blogspot.com My Blog
http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com Seekerville Blog
http://www.petticoatsandpistols.com Petticoats & Pistols Blog
Mary, thanks so much for taking the time to be with us today! Best of luck with the Kincaid Brides.
Readers, please leave comments and questions for Mary, who will be in and out to chat. Also, if you’d like to be entered in the drawing, don’t forget to respond to her request above! The drawing will stay open through midnight Tuesday, and the winner’s name will be announced here on Thursday.
Thanks again for visiting!
All my best,
Mary – welcome again!
Readers – please feel free to leave comments and questions for Mary. I know she’ll be happy to hear from you.
Barbara
Love the way you plot out your books! I lie in bed and do the same thing. Once while trying to figure out how to get my heroine pregnant after her abusive husband just died, I woke up with the answer. I had it there, but couldn’t see the connection.
Now to just write that book!
Hi Mary. The process you describe is exactly how I start a story. Almost always I’m in bed letting my mind float. Right now, here is the opening I’m working on…
Cowboy is standing on his porch. See dust rising in the distance. He knows there is only one woman who can ride a horse like that. She races up, jumps off the horse, rushes up the stairs, hauls back and slaps him.
Being a huge cowboy lover, I’d love to get my hands on your book!
Oh, gosh, Mary, I laughed out loud at some of your daydreams. I’m afraid I’ve had none of those. My book the Past Came Hunting by Bell Bridge, is about a heroine who’s arrested robbing a convenience store (allegedly), so I guess I’ve daydreamed that one — actually I finished the country song by Tricia Yearwood and Don Henley.
But a daydream I’ve had is where a woman is fleeing in a pickup truck through New Mexico’s desert and ends up in a ditch. When the handsome rancher finds her, she can’t remember why she’s fleeing or who she is for that matter. I’ve never written it because memory plot devices are frowned upon… But that’s my daydream. Best wishes and congrats on your awesome success.
Love this post, Mary!!!! My daydream is to be surrounded by ALL the books out there that I want to read……and a new Kindle! Thanks for the chance to win yours.
jackie.smith[at]dishmail[dot]net
pepper, I just had to smile at the idea just finally appearing. That is so exactly true. When things aren’t working I catch myself clinging to some fun idea until finally I face the fact that the fun idea is ruining my chance to fix this story. It’s like a fall in love with some charming twist and cannot let it go. I almost need time away from the manuscript, like to fall out of love with it, to be willing to EVISCERATE IT!!!!
Then, when you finally do fall out of love with your idea, suddenly BAM there’s a new better way to do it that solves all your problems. Being a writer is very powerful!!!!!
Cynthia, I love that woman already. And I feel for the poor cowboy. Love can’t be far behind that slap. No woman gets that mad at a man who she doesn’t have strong feelings for.
Donnell I wrote one book once with a heroine with amnesia. It’s incredibly HARD. The woman kept remembering stuff from her past she wasn’t supposed to know. All the back story, all her motivations, all of them didn’t exist. I had so much trouble with it that about 1/3 of the way into the book I just gave her the blasted memory back to get it off the table. It was way complicated.
Jackie, I just heard this perfect summertime song. Being surrounded by books reminded me of it because the song is about lying on a beach, knee deep in the water somewhere.
One line I love is:
Gonna take a permanent vacation.
The ocean is my only medication.
Isn’t that cool? Can’t you feel that mood.
The best line is:
My only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair.
I just smile everytime I think of that line and now you add books to that image. Wonderful.
Hi Mary, I can’t wait to read them all!!
Love the cover of your new book ” OUT OF CONTROL” can’t wait to read it.. I am praying that I will be the lucky one to read it 
if not I will be blessed when it comes out and be able to download it onto my nook color 
Loved this blog… 
Love where your daydreams take you, Mary! And guess what? I love caves, too!!
I had a “what if?” daydream that became my WIP. What if a regular girl, in small town Kentucky, found out that she’d inherited a fortune from an unknown uncle? Trouble is, the inheritance is split with her uncle’s business partner . . .
Did I mention that in my recent flurry of reading historicals, I’m SO ready for a great cowboy read?
Oh Mary you are a hoot! I could just picture you sitting there typing along in your Wonder Woman Cape and wearing your little crown!
This is going to sound sick I know but I actually daydream about my own funeral. I picture people sobbing their heart out saying how much they will miss me. How I was a wonderful person. A caring friend. A great Mother. A fantastic Wife that can never be replaced. A perfect Daughter. A forever awesome Sister. Then I snap out of it and it is just plain old me! In real life no one would carry on like that at my funeral, but hey…it’s my daydream!
So Mary…do you think you could ever use my daydream in one of your books??
judyjohn2004[at]yahoo[dot]com
I love your books Mary!!! Thank you for the chance to win “Out of Control”.
Love your books, Mary! I’m a homeschool mom. Sometimes, I daydream of what my day would be like if my kids were in a school. I’d drop them off, maybe go to the health club and workout and then go out for lunch with my friends. I might even come home and take a nap!
Usually I have those daydreams on a bad day. I love being with my kiddos:)
I really enjoy your books. Since I’ve been unemployed for three years. My daydream is a job with benefits.
Win or nor still looking forward to reading “Out of Control.”
My daydream is from my love of reading. My daydream is to have all the new publications of all my favorite authors on their publication day. That way I would not have to read so many “frogs” to find my favorite “princes” of authors and books! I love having a book in the “wings” that I’m excited to begin reading.
Your book looks wonderful! I can’t wait to read it!
I like to day dream that I lived in the time when Jesus walked on this earth and that I got to hear him teach the “red” words in the bible!
Mary, I have used that method as well as others. Funny, I think I have read at least one book for each of those beginnings.
Love a cowboy!
Wow, margaret, in a way your dreams are a little sad, you know. A dream come true is to have to exercise and nap? This sounds like an sadistic drill sargeant. “Drop and give me twenty, Maggot. Then hit the sack, you’re reporting back here at oh six hundred!”
Dream come true.
Ah Lourdes, I’m sorry, that is happening to so many. It’s just tough as it can be out there. I know.
Mary, yours is perhaps the most expensive dream of all. Especially if you’ve gotta buy your favorites in hard cover.
Joanna…I know we are given enough to believe, to understand, even if dimly. But to have seen him face to face on this earth…that would be a dream come true.
Judy, I used to dream about my own funeral. “Now they’ll be sorry they weren’t nice to me!”
This may have been in my teens. So, still, let’s go with you being normal-ish. ahem…me too.
What fun!
Mary, I love your based on real-life books and look forward to reading OUT of CONTROL.
Thanks for the great posts.
This is a daydream that’s played on my mind for a number of years. Finally getting back to piecing the story together.
Megan Phillips faces the second most difficult time in her life. Her father, who she’s had no contact for nine years, has the last word even in death.
Either Megan raises Adam, a seven-year-old brother she hadn’t known existed, as her own or she loses the inheritance.
Megan, who wants nothing from her father, refuses the inheritance and responsibility of his love child. She won’t allow her father to dictate her future from the grave.
Complications arise as she meets Adam and Bret, her father’s lawyer. She can’t force herself to abandon Adam, now there’s the hunky Bret to consider.
Carol that sounds like a fantastic premise for a book. Go for it!!!
Hi, everyone,
Thanks for supporting Mary’s blog post and for sharing your daydreams with us. Hope all your dreams bring you joy.
Don’t forget to check back here on Thursday to find out the winner of the drawing for OUT OF CONTROL.
Barbara
Mary, your books have been a complete inspiration to me. I had lost sight of my faith for quite sometime when my cousin passed along Montana Rose to me. Ever since I have not been able to put your work down and have never had a closer relationship with god. Im so excited for out of control and cant wait to start.another adventure. Seeing as I have an 18 month old daughter, your books give me all the breaks I need! So thank you so much for reminding me of my faith and giving me something to look forward to after my angel is finally in bed!
Kylie, thank you so much. I’m so honored by that. An 18 month old, such an adorable age….and right on the verge of turning two….good luck with that. I think of it as the Hurricane Year. But they’re so cute, when they’re not yelling NO!
God bless you.
Thank you. Hurricaine year is correct! I know this blog was about day dreams but I just had to tell you how much I enjoy each and every piece of your work. Thank you for responding I know I was a little late. God bless and cant wait to see whats to come in the future. Oh by the way I would really like to keep in contact if you wouldn’t mind. Kylie.Croley@yahoo.com
Hope to hear from you!
I’ll email you, Kylie. I’ve got a 2 1/2 year old granddaughter so I see that age all the time. I absolutely adore her but she’s a handful I know. Probably particularly AFTER the doting grandma leaves.