Blog Posts - Liz Tyner

Bison...At Home on the Range

7/17/2021

Bison are fairly common here. But they’re usually, willingly, in pens. I’ve heard that if a 1000 pound bison doesn’t really want to be enclosed…it’s difficult to argue.

Surprisingly, though, I’d never realized the difference between seeing a few of them in a pen, and seeing a herd of them in the wild. Besides the lack of fencing, the ground wasn’t littered with troughs—or barren because of over-grazing, They looked more peaceful, and unspoiled.

I imagine myself seeing a sight viewed centuries in the past.

Even the babies seemed more contented in the habitat.

But no matter how peaceful and serene everything appears...this is their home, and I'm a visitor. I wasn't invited by them, and I'm to take care. Or, as the sign says:

One spring, in a contained pasture, I did wake one up accidentally as I drove slowly along the road. It's best to let them sleep.

Photos taken near Pawhuska, OK at the Tallgrass Prairie Wildlife Preserve.

A Cinderella for the Viscount: Research

6/28/2021

A Cinderella for the Viscount started with an image of a man and woman dancing a waltz, and him being extremely bored with the event, and yet fascinated by the woman he held. But, I wanted a combustible beginning. I wrote the first scenes, and then considered them again.

I worried that my dear heroine would go up in flames if her lightweight silk dress caught on fire.

So, I did a little research*, and found some candles—not wanting to chance it with glassware and flammable liquids.

From unneeded fabric already in my home, I stitched together a fake dress, but wasn’t about to use silk…

The results changed the beginning of the story. I wanted to be certain that Rachael had plenty of time to be rescued, even though my research suggested that a woman in a heavier denim-type dress, with a candle falling against her, on a humid Oklahoma day, could have rescued herself.

*Don’t try this at home. This research was conducted by a professional and still had unsuccessful results.

Scamp and A Cinderella for the Viscount

6/25/2021

I didn't know the character of Scamp would be in A Cinderella for the Viscount, but the hero, Devlin is attempting to prove his reliability and gets a dog.

"Does he do any tricks?" Rachael asked.

"Just walking and barking." He looked at her. "And those are not always easy for him, but you cannot discount barking. It's better than whining."

"You've taken on a commitment to him. And you chose an animal that is in advanced years and you have added staff to care for him."

"I thought you'd be pleased." He scratched Scamp under his chins and the dog grumbled again. "That's his most pleasant noise."

"You have a companion that hardly demands anything of you at all. Just staff."

Previously, I wasn't sure about adding pets for my characters. But sometimes it seems to just happen. The same way you might step out a door and find a stray animal with no home—or, as I once did, two miniature burros who've wandered from their owner.

The two horses who meandered into my field had to be returned, too...in the snowstorm. And the five cows that visited...well...

And the beautiful dog, Maple, who showed up for a visit, was so endearing I had to force myself not to become attached, but she had to go back to her rightful owner, much like Scamp did.

Just as Rachael and Devlin found their happily-ever-after in A Cinderella for the Viscount, so did Maple, Meriwether and Lewis (the burros) and the horses, whose names I didn't get. The cows may not have had such a happily-ever-after, as they had a run-in with law enforcement. They escaped in a wooded area, and were not seen by me again—although soon after, another neighbor did visit and ask if we were missing a cow as he had found one.

Fathers With Wings

6/18/2021

From Christmas time until Memorial Day, I tried to visit the nearby eagle area once a week, not expecting that the end results would give me appreciation for how some fathers in nature take care of their young..

With the male eagle, I didn’t realize, at first, how closely he was watching over the nest. When it came time for the young ones to fly, he encouraged them by flying to the next tree, and then he returned, landing in limbs on the other side of the tree from the nest.

The young one hopped along the branches to be closer to his father, but as time passed, he began to take flight.

Seeing the parenting was unexpected, but rewarding.

Often the father would be nearby when I visited—and for all I knew, he could have been there every time. When he was motionless, it could be hard to notice him.

He usually didn't appear to hunt for food for the babies, yet I was told he would.

But in the end, perhaps the most rewarding part for me was to see how devoted he appeared to be to the eaglets.

A father's compassion for his children was a secondary theme in the first book I had published, Safe in the Earl's Arms. I didn't notice it until completing the last pages...

The heroine, Melina was mostly abandoned by her father, and Warrington is trying to find parents for a little girl who is his ward. Warrington feels he's found the perfect home in a devoted couple, but Melina also has a family unit planned for the little one. In the end, Melina enlists her collected family to show Warrington she would be a good mother, and he would be the best father.

Writing the resolution was uplifting for me. I wrote the romance planning for the underlying theme to be about the search for the statue of the Venus de Milo's arms, but for me, it turned out to be about parental love.

Seeing good parenting in nature made all the trips to watch the eagle nest even more worthwhile.

The male eagle's actions to his offspring were positive, and hopefully, next year, I'll be able to see the supportive parents return to the nest and have more young to raise.

Extinct...But Not Forgotten

6/13/2021

During a visit to an exhibit at my local zoo, I had a chance to walk among replicas of some of the beings of the past. At some point, I decided the creators of the cartoon Ice Age had done more research than I ever realized.

I think of the word dinosaur as being in use since the creatures first walked the earth. But it's a relatively new term, only coined in the mid-1800's, and taken from the Greek word for a terrible lizard.

Since the Greeks did have a word for terrible lizard maybe they had an inkling that different beings once lived on the planet. Finding one fossil could have led to mythological tales.

I doubt I would have been able to survive long in such a fierce time. I just hope that some of the animals who went extinct were poisonous snakes. And I don't think I'll ever miss the T-Rex again.

Warning: Cactus May Be Painful To Touch

4/3/2021

When I was walking in the arid section of a nature preserve, someone warned me to avoid the cacti that were thick on the ground.

It reminded me of the time I was carefully treading across a fallen tree which made a path over a ditch and the guide told me the mud underneath wasn't a soft as it looked. It didn't look at all soft.

I didn't really need the warning about the cactus.

I'd discovered, as a teen, in an area that had few cacti, that just one can be unpleasant. I didn't think I was sitting near it, but I learned that a safe distance from a cactus is a little farther away than I expected.

Fine: $225 to Feed the Prairie Dogs

4/3/2021

The sign told me that it is a $225 fine to feed the prairie dogs. And by comparing the activities of this village to a similar one, I'd say that people haven't been feeding them. But it's not the threat of the $225 fine that keeps the critters from being treated. It's the note that says people food isn't healthy for them. This helps keep visitors from being tempted to treat the little ones when no one is watching.

These animals do seem happier than the ones in the other village where I saw the scraps of carrots. More relaxed, and not watching for a treat.

It's unusual for me to find critters that will pose as long as I wish.

The sign also said the prairie dogs liked having their photos taken, so I have to believe that whoever made the sign knew about wildlife..

Modern Art Style

2/19/2021

I think I first saw a picture of the car before I was old enough to drive, and was fascinated but not impressed with the sight as modern art.

After forgetting about it, I discovered the actual car in front of one of the Smithsonian art museums.

Again, I spent some time perusing it.

Later, I showed the picture to someone else and he took a moment to look at it. To study it.

Now it sticks in my memory.

That's the secret, I believe, that artists are striving for. To create something that another person will take an extra moment with. That will linger in their mind.

Art is subjective. People can disagree about it. And it's even subjective within me. What I don't think is art on one day, may speak to me on another day.

Valentine's Day Flowers

2/14/2021

Roses are considered the traditional Valentine's Day flower, but these wildflowers called cinquefoil are from the rose family give me the Valentine's spirit when I see them in the woods near my house.

In fact the woods seem filled with flowers I'll spot during spring and summer if I slow down for a moment and look for them.

A passion flower, trumpet vine and partridge pea growing wild in nature.

But the odd thing is that I don't remember any wildflowers from the place I used to live. I'm sure it had some but it had mostly been tilled for farming. I'm thankful for the food it produced, but the opportunity to explore woods left in their natural state—but with a well-tending walking path—have given me a much better appreciation for nature.

Sadly, I know, that without that walking path for ease of access, I wouldn't have discovered the wildflowers. They would have been forever hidden from me and I wouldn't have even suspected their presence.

How Much Does An Author Read?

2/5/2021

Reading….

Sadly, as a writer, I’ve been keeping the deep secret that I don’t read much anymore. The time, you know. As soon as I finish writing one book, I’m anxious to start another one.

So as I sit here—now a non-reader—and I look around my room.

I see the 900 page reference book I purchased a few months ago. One of the new romance novels I bought. Plus, on my nightstand, there’s an out-of- print book on writing that I was lucky to find online. And I just finished Dean Koontz’s book, Trixie, A Big Little Life, a non-fiction audio book...but I stopped reading at Chapter 20, right before the end because it’s mainly a biography about a dog, and we know what happens at the end if the book was written after the main character’s death. So, it ended happily for me as Trixie will live on.

As for e-books, I downloaded The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and am planning to read it at night. Some of the other books on my e-reader have been read recently. I started one a second time.

It dawned on me that a writer who says they don’t read much may be comparing themselves to the person they used to be who would leave the library with a big bundle of books every two weeks. Or every week.

It’s kinda like thinking you didn’t have that many calories on a day until you walk by the trash and see the candy wrappers. By the evidence around me, I read a lot more than I realized.