All Categories - Liz Tyner

Finding Foxes

9/18/2020

Although foxes are native to the area where I live, I'd never seen one when I was a child.

They have a mystique about them, though, and they're thought to be cunning. I can believe that because they're very good at staying out of human sight.

One day I heard a barking "yip" and assumed I heard a dog bark. Seconds later, a fox ran across the field in front of me.

Photo of the two foxes taken at the zoo. The other was taken while looking out a window in my house.

Roping in the Research

9/5/2020

It’s not every day you get to test your roping skills in a fairly safe environment, and if I’d not doing it correctly, well, this may have been the first time I ever held a real lariat…

It is a long way to the ground and as I’d recently taken a painful tumble from a hammock, I didn’t want to fall from three times as high. So I removed my shoes to get on the stationary horse, making sure I could feel where my feet were.

The stirrups aren’t stationary and are moving as you nudge your feet into them. But, I managed to pull myself into the saddle easily. There were steps and this was a relatively small horse. It does take a little power to pull yourself into the saddle on a real horse…or you need to teach the horse to kneel for you, or have a raised object you can stand on.

Then I practiced the twirling. I learned that a pro roper often stands in the stirrups as he throws the rope over the horns of the animal, and also that he would be holding the reins in his left hand, along with the twirls of rope, at the same time. The rope even had to be looped carefully to make sure it wouldn’t tangle when thrown.

The horse is moving, the animal to be roped is moving and the cowboy or cowgirl is moving. It’s harder than it looks, but more fun than it looks, too. Or, at least it is on a fiberglass horse.

As long as you could do it without shoes or cowboy boots, I could see trying it again on a real horse…except it really is a long way to the ground, and again, the horse is moving. In a rodeo roping event, the horse would be running at a fast clip, and speed is important as the event is timed to the seconds.

The safest and easiest thing to rope is your own foot.

Pictures taken at the Ben Johnson Museum in Pawhuska Oklahoma.

Finding Happiness In Unconventional Ways

8/25/2020

When I was young, the story of Moses and the bulrushes seemed worrisome. It still does. What if Moses started to wail and the basket tipped over? What if it filled with water? What if a current caught the container and swept him away?

My concerns were realistic. I lived near the Illinois River. I discovered later that my beloved Barbie dolls had been in a makeshift boat and had been swept up in a current. I like to think they were discovered by a little princess and given a new home.

As an adult, I could easily imagine a woman knowing that a child she loved could have a better life if she gave her up for adoption. But in Regency times, the adoption services were overflowing

So, instead of Miranda being left in a basket, my heroine has another fate in store for her…

That’s where the glimmer of an idea for The Governess’s Guide to Marriage began.

I’m sure my Sunday School teacher never expected the lesson to end up as inspiration for a romance novel, but I felt it fit so perfectly. A child with a background of poverty ends up surrounded by luxury and has a happily ever after.

Author Note: The Governess's Guide

8/20/2020

The Author Note in The Governess's Guide to Marriage reads:

For a long time, I’d dreamed of writing a secondary character who didn’t let poverty stop her from living life with zest. Someone with a tarnished heart of gold, and who could make the world a better place—even if she had unorthodox methods that would land anyone else in deep trouble.

This character briefly appeared in To Win a Wallflower but she didn’t have a name. I didn’t plan on letting her go. When the Tyner family ancestry was being discussed, I heard, and loved, the name Ella Etta, and I couldn’t forget it. Now my wanderer had a name, and I brought her back in Compromised into Marriage, and now again in The Governess’s Guide to Marriage.

Many names of the past have fallen out of favor, but sometimes when I hear an old name, I'll wish the name would make a comeback. I admit, it's difficult having a name people are unfamiliar with, and I understand that it's often easier for a child to have a more common name.

So for now I'll try to make note of the unfamiliar names I hear from the past, and perhaps I'll decide again to use one in a novel. At least the character will never have to repeatedly spell their name for people...or will they?

Photos From My World

8/7/2020

These pink flowers with red rimmed petals were from a wildflower packet. The other flowers in the photos were growing wild in the fields. The problem with planting wildflowers in a small grouping is that it's hard to tell which are the flowers and which are the weeds when seeds begin to sprout. So it did look like a patch of true wildflowers.

The butterfly below had a friend that may have been a lightening bug on the stalk beside him.

The blue flower was from the package of assorted seeds. A tiny flower that faded quickly.

A Governesses Guide to Marriage

7/25/2020

Writing each book brings happy surprises with it and hopefully, a bit of information.

One thing I was reminded of when writing A Governesses Guide to Marriage was that a duchess remains a duchess when her husband dies and she doesn't become a dowager duchess unless the new duke has a wife, or if he is single—when he marries.

Another fact I found out while writing was that Regency constables are supervised by the magistrate, and the constables are paid for by the person needing the assistance.

The Beau Monde writing group shares information about Regency lifestyles and I've been fortunate to be a member of that group for the last five years.

Signs That Summer has Nature in its Grip

7/17/2020

A tufted titmouse trying to cool off by fluffing its feathers.

Canada geese wading in a pool that's too shallow to float in.

And a cactus flower in bloom.

Snake Chaps

7/11/2020

My shoe. My snake chaps.

I didn't know snake chaps existed when I first started roaming in wooded areas. But after a sportsman told me about then, and a few sightings of reptiles, I decided I needed a pair. And, I do try to wear them when I'm in an area with thick plant growth that would give snakes a chance to be concealed.

So far I've seen several snakes in the woods. Some of the reptiles have been poisonous.

Of course, I wasn't wearing the chaps when I saw the snakes. But at least I wasn't barefoot. Which I have been. When I stepped on a snake. Luckily, I wasn't bitten and it wasn't poisonous. A quick way to increase your heart rate!

A Boat on the Plains

6/29/2020

This boat, sadly shipwrecked on a tiny pond, gave me a huge smile. I didn't even notice the pirate flag at first.

I enjoy seeing evidence of people who express their creativity in humorous ways, and I hope my books have spots in them that give people a chuckle.

In Saying I Do to the Scoundrel, the book has lighthearted moments...even with the woman who hires her own kidnapper in hopes of getting a ransom from the stepfather who married her mother for money.

In The Notorious Countess, the very last line of the book is a punch line for the character who has a rational fear caused by an irrational woman.

Life isn't easy. I hope to sneak a smile for the reader between the pages of my books to give a bit more lightheartedness in the world.

Expectations: Oz verses Ahs…..

6/5/2020

   If you plan something for awhile, your expectations can rise. Then, when the planning comes to pass, you can be overwhelmed or underwhelmed.
    I remember reading the story of Dorothy's slippers in the Wizard of Oz. They had reportedly sold at action for around half a million dollars.
   Little size 5 shoes with red sequins...the color choice made because red shows up better on film.
The tale of the shoes spiked my imagination.
I viewed a pair of the slippers, although they were supposedly not a matched set.
   So these shoes were reportedly worth half a million dollars.
   I tried to see the magic.
   Sadly, it was like taking a peek behind Oz's curtain.
   Just shoes with sequins.
But it's no wonder I wasn't impressed. The movie didn't do a lot for me either.
It starts soon after a tornado hits a little house. It's hard for me to fall in love with a movie that sweeps a little girl away with a tornado, and drops her into a land with a mean witch.
   When I was a little girl, one bad weather day, I heard a roaring noise while I was outside. I wasn't concerned. Okay, maybe I was a little. The next day I discovered that a community member's home had been hit by a tornado, and that a tornado has a roaring noise.
   I hadn't taken cover or been scared. I'd just been curious about the noise.
   No, I don't like stories about little girls and tornados.