We have a winner for Carol Ann Didier's NAVAJO NIGHT guest blog. A free copy goes to:
April A. Renn!
Contact Carrie to provide your mailing address. The book must be claimed by next Sunday or another winner will be drawn. Please stop back later to let us know what you thought! Congratulations!
We're happy to have Carol Ann Didier joining us today as she promotes the release of her latest American Indian romance from Kensington, NAVAJO NIGHT, set in 1860 New Mexico Territory. She's written us a lovely description of her journey into publishing. Stay tuned at the bottom of the post to learn what goodies Carol Ann is giving away!
UNSPOKEN PASSION YIELDS TO...
JoAnna Lund and her father are risking everything to settle safely out west and leave their tragic past far behind. And as a lone rider blocks their trail, they are prepared for trouble. But from the moment JoAnna locks eyes with the tall, proud Navajo brave, she feels an irresistible, dangerous desire...
FORBIDDEN PLEASURE...
Notah Begay wonders why the young woman and her father have ventured so deep into his people's territory. But he is fascinated by JoAnna's gentle spirit, and her honesty sparks a passion that his carefully-guarded heart can't deny. And nothing--and no man--will prevent him from claiming the woman who has made him hers forever...
***
Hi lovers and readers of historical novels,
I am so pleased and honored to be able to blog with you on this exciting website.
Someone asked me how I became so interested in Native Americans that I would write about them. This was my reply: "At twelve years of age, I fell in love with a dead actor who had played a dead Indian." It was movie star Jeff Chandler who played the part of the Chiricahua Apache leader, Cochise, in the 1950 movie BROKEN ARROW. After that, every term paper or book report I did in school was about our westward expansion and Apache Indians.
I never planned to be a writer, but I loved to read about our westward expansion and the stamina and determination of our early pioneers that carved a life out of what was once a wilderness. But later in my life, after a divorce and a move from Maryland to Florida to raise my two sons, I found myself reading Native American romances to ease the loneliness at night.
Later, through a meeting with some wonderful pastors and missionaries to the Apache and Navajo people, I was able to visit the very places I had read about. For ten years I spent all my summer vacations on the Apache and Navajo Reservations and attended Native American Pastor convocations. I met many wonderful Apache and Navajos, as well as people from other tribes. I was grieved and touched by the poor living conditions on the reservations and was appalled that we would let the real First Americans live like this in this day and age. That started my empathy and love for them as a people.
One day in l982, while my son and I were getting ready for work and school, a famous romance writer was on the TV show "Good Morning America" discussing her latest bestseller. I turned to my son as we passed each other in the living room and said, "I've read her books, and I know I could write one every bit as good as hers." My son answered, "If you think you can, then do it." He put the dare before me and I just had to prove that I could. So I wrote the first book in three months. I had not realized how much of the things I had read and learned about the Apaches and Navajos had stayed with me all these years.
When I started writing, I knew the story would have to include Cochise, the mighty Chiricahua Chief, even though he could not be the love interest of my white heroine, Amanda. It's a romantic historical saga about an Eastern Baltimore belle and an Apache warrior caught up in a taboo love that has the power to heal or harm a broken people. Set in historical southeast Arizona of l860-1880, APACHE WARRIOR proved love knows no color, creed or race. It happens in the heart, when and where you least expect it and if allowed to grow, can conquer differences in culture, hatred, and personal loss.
My second book for Kensington came out this past September, called NAVAJO NIGHT. While I was researching the Dinéh, The People, I discovered a not so well known fact concerning one of the darkest periods in their history--something they called "The Long Walk." It was very similar to the tragic "Trail of Tears" made by the Cherokee when President Jackson forced them to leave the Carolinas and Georgia and marched them to Oklahoma/Indian Territory. When I read about it, I knew I wanted to include that in my story as well as the taboo love between a Navajo holy man and a Virginia preacher's daughter.
In 1860, because of complaints about Navajo raids on white mining camps and ranches in New Mexico that General James Henry Carleton commissioned Colonel Carson to round up the Navajos. It was Carleton's shortsighted belief the if the Navajo were instructed in the benefits of becoming more like the white man, they could be civilized, Christianized, and eventually fit in to the white society.
Kit Carson, having made friends with the Navajos in earlier days, feared it would not be an easy task. Nor was it. He finally resorted to a "scorched earth" policy whereby the army burned their villages, destroyed their farm plots and peach orchards, killed their livestock or took them, and literally drove The People like cattle south from the four corners area. It was grueling march of over 400 miles. Many Navajo died from disease, lack of proper food and clothing, horrible weather conditions, as well as mistreatment by the army itself.
Once on the reserve, the ones who survived felt those who had not actually received the better end of it.
Into this struggle a man and a women from two different worlds try to find a bridge between two life-ways, to again prove that love knows no color, creed, or race. The question then became, could the Navajo holy man with a crippled heart, heal the white woman with a crippled foot?
In all my novels, I have tried to make them as historically accurate as I can, especially in dealing with the beliefs and cultures of the Native Americans. I try to use familiar settings and actual figures from history to make it more authentic while creating my own characters and love story.
For those who wish to write, I would say "Get to it!" Don't let go of your dream. Write that book of your heart. It may not be the one that sells at first, but it feels so good to see in on paper and type THE END when finished. I was not an overnight wonder. It took me ten years to get published, but in the end, when I walked into K-Mart and saw my book staring me in the face, I wanted to shout and jump and down and grab the first passerby and say, "Look! Look...it's my book on that shelf." Of course, I didn't do that, but I did have to restrain myself when a person came down the book isle shortly thereafter.
I encourage you to just read, read, and read some more. Keep up with your favorite genre and see how the books you love are being written. Join a writer's group like Romance Writers of America or one in your area. Find a critique partner(s) and go to conferences that specialize in developing your writing skills. You'll find great encouragement being with like-minded persons.
Thanks for taking the time to read my posting. I hope you will pick up a copy of both books and find your own time under an Apache moon and enjoy a Navajo night.
***
Thanks for sharing with us, Carol Ann! Leave a comment or question for our guest author and you'll be entered to win a nice little gift package. Carol Ann is giving away an autographed copy of NAVAJO NIGHT, a bookmark, and an engraved pencil. I'll draw the winner next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!
This week on Unusual Historicals' weekly feature, Excerpt Thursday, we're featuring a sample from Carol Ann Didier's latest romance from Kensington, NAVAJO NIGHT. American Indian romances used to be much more common, but now we definitely classify them as unusual! Join us Sunday when Carol Ann will be answering questions and giving away some choice goodies, including a signed copy of NAVAJO NIGHT.
UNSPOKEN PASSION YIELDS TO...
JoAnna Lund and her father are risking everything to settle safely out west and leave their tragic past far behind. And as a lone rider blocks their trail, they are prepared for trouble. But from the moment JoAnna locks eyes with the tall, proud Navajo brave, she feels an irresistible, dangerous desire...
FORBIDDEN PLEASURE...
Notah Begay wonders why the young woman and her father have ventured so deep into his people's territory. But he is fascinated by JoAnna's gentle spirit, and her honesty sparks a passion that his carefully-guarded heart can't deny. And nothing--and no man--will prevent him from claiming the woman who has made him hers forever...
***
New Mexico Territory
1860
The warrior sat astride his pinto pony overlooking the valley. The wagon traveled slowly and tortuously over the rocky, parched terrain below him. Had the travelers been looking up they might have seen him silhouetted against the clear, blue sky--the hair of both horse and man blowing in the breeze that caressed the higher elevations. In the valley, no breeze moved at all. It was only hot and dry.
Where had these people come from? Spirit Talker wondered. The man had a woman with him, so maybe he was not hostile. Why were they on Dinétah, Navajoland, and where did they plan to go? There were no white settlements out here. The nearest town where the bilagaanas lived was the Spanish settlement of Santa Fe.
He decided to follow them awhile to see what they did and where they camped for the night. Perhaps then he could discern their ultimate destination or plans.
So opens the story called NAVAJO NIGHT about a Navajo Holy Man and a preacher's daughter from Civil War Virginia. Later in the story, JoAnna dares all by confessing her love to Notah.
"Notah, I have a question to ask you. We've known each other for almost three years now and in all that time, you have not mentioned your wife or whether you ever intend to take another. May I ask why not?"
Notah was taken aback. Where had this question come from, and why now?
"JoAnna, I am surprised. Why should you want to know this thing?"
Taking a deep breath and gathering her courage, she answered, "Because I am falling in love with you, and I want to know if you could love me back?"
It was like an arrow shot right into his heart. How did he answer that?
He took so long to answer that JoAnna began to feel like a fool and her eyes filled with tears of humiliation and heartbreak.
The Navajo believe that tears have words, and her tears were speaking loudly to him right now. They spoke of hurt, pain, injustice, compassion, and of her love for him and his people.
"JoAnna you cannot mean this. I am Navajo. You are bilagaana. This is forbidden among your people."
JoAnna asked him, "Does love have a culture or color, Notah? Everyone laughs and cries in the same language, is it any different with love?"
For all her casualness in their friendship, JoAnna doubted she had concealed her true feelings from him. She knew she loved him with all her heart. If he could not love her back, perhaps she could convince him to just let her stay near him and his family and she would be content with that.
Notah felt a surge of joy within his heart. Her declaration of love left him breathless and cracked open his hardened heart a little bit wider. He could barely stand the hurt in JoAnna's eyes. She had no idea how easy it would be for him to love her--indeed, already did love her. But it went against everything he had vowed. Besides that, he had nothing to offer her even if he did declare his love.
"You should stay with your own people, JoAnna. Find a man among them who will love you and give you children."
"Your people have become my people. I cannot go back to the greedy men and narrow-minded, bigoted women of my race who cannot see beyond the color of a person's skin in order to judge their worth.
"All I'm asking is that you just let me stay near you and help with the children and old ones. You have given my life purpose and direction. I've learned so much from the Diné. The will to Walk in Beauty; the grace to accept things that cannot be changed and still go on...to strive to bring Harmony out of this hell-hole here. You have awakened all the feelings a woman should have for the man she loves. I never thought I would experience them because I'm considered an old maid now by my people because I have not married before this."
Then sighing audibly, she added, " No one would have me anyway with my deformed foot."
Notah's heart turned over in his chest. She thought she would be rejected because of a foot turned inward; that no one would see the beauty of her spirit, her face, her skin, her hair, and her tender sweet ways.
"Ah, JoAnna, a scar of the body cannot wholly destroy beauty. Only a scar on the spirit can do that. You are lovely by anyone's standards. And you are still young; you have plenty of time to meet someone."
