Elva Martin's Carolina Romance

Friday, June 14, 2019

Seeds of the American Revolution - Part 2

by Elva Cobb Martin

The Royal Proclamation of 1763

After the French and Indian War, Britain decreed the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains as Indian territory and barred settlement for two years.

The colonists protested as they wanted to continue migrating west. They felt Britain was trying to hold them back from the very lands they fought and died for and spent enormous sums of money supplying the army.

But Britain wanted to keep the colonists confined to coastal areas and easy access to govern and tax them and keep all their trade for Britain.

Many colonist ignored the Proclamation Line. They moved across the mountains anyway.

One famous settler was Daniel Boone. He moved his family into Kentucky and spent many years leading settlers across the mountains into the Indian territory.

Britain did not see or did not care that their American colonies were beginning to seethe with indignation and Parliament decreed more and more taxes and quartered soldiers in the colonists' homes to feed and house.

In 1765 The Sons of Liberty were formed. More about them in my next blog!

Thanks for stopping by. Have you a piece of our history to share? Hope you are enjoying digging back for the seeds of the American Revolution as we approach our nation's 243rd birthday, July 4. Please share by clicking on the social media icons below.

Blessings,
Elva

Elva Cobb Martin is vice-president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels published with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. She has indie published a Bible study on Amazon, Power Over Satan, on the believer's authority in Christ. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com,on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin; and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin
Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Friday, June 7, 2019

Seeds of the America's Revolution - Part 1 Molasses Act 1733

by Elva Cobb Martin

In research for my current historical series, I've run across some interesting facts about the events that led up to our American Revolution.

The passage of the Molasses Act of 1733 by the British Parliament is one of these.

Can you believe some historians believe it was not anger about tea that started the seeds of revolution growing in the American colonies but anger about rum--made from molasses. Personally, I would like to stick with tea. But some facts do suggest rum.

Molasses was the main raw ingredient for the manufacture of rum. It was cheaper than refined sugar, and it was used as a general sweetener in colonial days.

The making of rum was a huge industry in the colonies in the early 1700's. We are told it was consumed at a rate of four galleons a year for every man, woman and child in the 1730's, and Boston along produced more than a million gallons of rum a year.

Harvesting Sugar Cane

Molasses, which I like on a hot biscuit, is a by product of sugar cane after it is boiled and distilled into sugar crystals. The Molasses Act placed a heavy tax on this product when bought from any foreign power other than the British sugar planters in the Caribbean. But the Spanish and French planters there sold the product cheaper and had more to sell to the colonists. Also these nations were a great export market for the colonists' lumber, fish, cheese, flour, barrels, and horses.

Because of the Molasses Act of 1733 and its heavy tax, smuggling

prospered. The colonial merchants developed trade routes and rendezvous points with French, Dutch, and Spanish traders. Huge fortunes were made by shipping tradesmen, including, some believe, Boston merchant, John Hancock. Thirty years later, his smuggling ship called the Liberty, was detained by the British and became one of the triggers of the Boston Tea Party.

How did The Molasses Act of 1733 start seeds of revolution growing? Because it encouraged the development of an attitude of resistance toward unpopular laws passed by the British parliament governing the colonial population. This attitude would soon distill into righteous anger over "taxation without representation."

I give credit for information in this blog to the Revolutionary War and Beyond site you can find at http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com

Health Benefits of Molasses
Consuming molasses reputedly has a number of great health benefits I doubt the colonials knew anything about. These include a natural way to relieve PMS symptoms, stabilize blood sugar levels, combat stress, reduce free radicals, improve bone and skin health. For more information on benefits and recipes, click here: https://draxe.com/blackstrap-molasses/

Thanks for stopping by. Have you enjoyed hearing about this "seed" of our American Revolution? I'm sure molasses on my biscuit or toast or in recipes will taste even better now with all these facts! Please do share by clicking on the small icons below.

Blessings,
Elva Martin

Friday, May 31, 2019

Sailing Ship Devotion

by Elva Cobb Martin

Have you ever felt like the kind of storm described below in Psalm 107 was happening in your life? Notice the sailors were simply going about their normal business, and even seeing the "wonders" of the Lord. Then a terrible storm came to shake and toss them.

Scripture Psalm 107:23-30 Amplified

23 Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters.

24 These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.

25 For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.

26 [Those aboard]mount up to the heavens they go down again to the deeps: their courage melts away because of their plight.

27 The reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end [all their wisdom has come to nothing.]

28 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble and He brings them out of their distresses.

29 He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still.

30 Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven.

No matter how hard the storm you may be facing, keep praying, crying out to the Lord and believing. Speak "PEACE BE STILL." Find a scripture that promises your need will be met.

If for healing, memorize Psalm 103:1-5. For other needs, check out III John verse 3, and Romans 8:37. Meditate and confess these aloud in faith as you pray. Rebuke the enemy of your soul when he tries to seize you with fear. You will find your way to a safe harbor.

Can't fail to find it. We Christians have quite a Captain at the helm!

Blessings,
Elva

Friday, May 17, 2019

Novel in Progress - Vocabulary List Barbary Pirates Part 2

by Elva Cobb Martin

Here are some more vocabulary words I am listing for my historical series wip set in 1700's Charles Town and the High Seas.

Ballast Bricks or Stones

During the crossing of the seas in the sailing years, captains used the bricks or stones as a weight and balance method in the hold of the ship. After arriving at their destination, the ballast bricks were unloaded and replaced with fine goods for the return. Charles Town's cobbled streets were laid with ballast bricks or stones.

Drogue (Book 1 Marisol Chap 16 excerpt --book to be released in November, 2019!)

"Pondering what to do, Ethan eyes widened as he remembered what was called a drogue device. Dona Maria’s ship could be stopped with such an attachment.The weariness lifted from his mind. A well-crafted drogue applied underwater, out of sight, to the rudder, could cripple the Nuestra Senora de Vargas at sea, away from any Spanish port.

In his former British navy stint it had worked well to stop a slaver and he’d been in on the plan and creation of one. It need be no more than a large sea anchor and a bolt of Number One canvas sewn into a funnel and reinforced to stand the strain with Dona Maria’s ship going at twelve knots. The contraption would be attached to one of the lower pintles of the rudder under water. Attaching the drogue, without being discovered by the ship’s crew, was the tricky part. But once it was put in place, the drogue would tear the rudder clean away when the ship started sailing full speed at sea. The vessel would be rendered helpless and dead in the sea.
He stood, smiling. They could, they would, rescue little Samuel from the woman's clutches."

(Research credit given to Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies.)

Djellabas
A long, loose, hooded garment or robe with full sleeves, worn especially in Muslim countries.

Burgoo

A shipboard fare for lower echelon crew members. It was a mix of oat gruel and beef grease cooked all night, usually for breakfast.

Hardtack

Dry, unleavened bread served aboard ship to the lower crew members and sometimes served with salt beef pickled in barrels of brine along with salted peas. The hardtack was a survival biscuit made with three simple ingredients: flour, water and salt. It held up well to rough transport and kept nearly indefinitely.

Hope you've enjoyed my vocabulary list I am generating for my historical romance series. Please do share by clicking on the icons below.

Blessings,
Elva

Friday, May 10, 2019

Novel In Progress - Vocabulary List Barbary Pirates - Part 1

by Elva Cobb Martin

The Barbary States

In my wip, an historical series set in Charles Town in the 1700's and during the Barbary pirate era, I've been creating a vocabulary list for my readers. The plan is to add this at the back of the book(s) as an appendix.

It also helps me remember the unusual spellings.

Here is part of my list. Does it help open up this time period of sailing ships and pirates, especially Islamic Barbary pirates my Charles Town hero and heroine will confront?

1) Corsair: (from dictionary of Nautical history)

➤ a pirate, especially one based on the North African coast between the 16th and 19th centuries. Some were even from an English, French or Italian background who left or had to leave their countries for various reasons or crimes.

➤ a privately owned ship commissioned by a government to attack foreign ships, especially one based on the coast of North Africa.

2) tricorn

A hat with its brim turned up on three sides, making three points, worn by men in the 18th century

3) draught of a ship:

the draft or draught of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull, with the thickness of the hull included. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate.

4) scimitar (sym’muh tar)

A short sword with a curved blade that broadens towards the point, used originally in Eastern countries. A saber having a curved blade with the edge on the convex side and used chiefly by Arabs and Turks, and Barbary pirates.

5) rak’ah

A rakʿah, consists of the prescribed movements and words followed by Muslims while offering prayers to Allah. It also refers to a single unit of Islamic prayers.

6) Tripolitan War, (1801–05),

Conflict between the United States and Tripoli (now in Libya), incited by American refusal (President Thomas Jefferson) to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli.

Hope this has begun to open up the world of Barbary pirates to you that Thomas Jefferson, our newborn Navy and Marines defeated in America's first war on terror!

Happy Mothers' Day to you mothers,
Elva Martin

Friday, May 3, 2019

Writers' Devotion: Be still and know...

by Elva Cobb Martin

With this blog I start something new--a brief writers' devotion the first week of each new month. This week is a good time to start. The first Thursday in May each year is America's National Day of Prayer which I participate in on our Court House Steps.

Psalm 46:10 KJV

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen."

It may look like the heathen have taken over, but God says: Be still and know...I will be exalted among the heathen.

In the past others have tried to exalt themselves above God:

Lucifer
Pharaoh
Hitler
Stalin

Today, abortionists and pro-abortion pushers/judges,
the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning),
Islam, and ISIS are trying to exalt themselves above God and His Word.

Like every Christian writer, I read the news and am troubled by the inroads evil seems to be making in our nation and world.

But God says: Be still and know that I WILL BE exalted among the heathen.

That's good news to keep remembering and agreeing with daily as we continue to pursue our writing mandates.

Onward! In His Majesty's Service,
Elva Martin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Friday, April 26, 2019

Guest Post:: Your Character Arc in Six Stages

Guest Post by C.S. Lakin

www.livewritethrive.com

The Character Arc in Six Specific Stages

As a writer, you’re probably familiar with the term “character arc,” but what does a character arc entail? How do you structure this arc? And what informs the way your character changes, from the start of your story to the end?

While all characters in a novel can have arcs, it’s the protagonist whose change should be the most significant. Depending on genre and plot, your hero’s change might be subtle or life-altering. A suspense thriller or cozy mystery may show little character growth by the end, when the bad guy is caught or the mystery solved, whereas a thoughtful women’s fiction novel or relational drama may showcase monumental change.

But, in all stories, arcs are about change or transformation. And the stories with strong arcs show a character starting in what Hollywood movie consultant Michael Hauge calls identity or persona.

What makes for a great persona is a character who has suffered in his past and has developed a coping mechanism over time. This is his face he presents to the world that keeps buried his pain, fear, or hurt.

It’s human nature to deny and avoid painful feelings. But when we suppress them, it creates problems. We are never truly happy in our persona. It’s like having a tiny (or big) thorn in our toe that is festering. We keep our foot in a sock and walk around trying to ignore it, but it isn’t going to go away on its own. At some point we have to pull off the sock, look hard at the infection, then extricate that thorn and flush out the wound.

This gives us a blueprint for the process of crafting a strong character arc. While we understand coming up with “a wound” for our protagonist is key, we don’t want to make up any ol’ wound. We need to develop one that is intrinsically tied in with our premise.

Your character moves from his persona to his true essence in stages, gradually and in a believable manner. People don’t change overnight. Events erode a person’s grasp on his persona until he can no longer hang on to it. By the end of your story, your character finds no safe haven in that persona any longer.

Let’s take a look at these six stages of transformation, using the movie Hostiles as a perfect example.

Stage 1: This is your setup scene at the start of your novel. Your character is fully in his persona. This is the face he shows the world, and though it’s helped him cope with life, it has not brought him happiness.

In Hostiles, Army Captain Joseph Blocker has spent the last two decades fighting Indians, and he’s witnessed horrific things the Indians have done. He hates the Indians and cannot see past his hate to imagine they have any humanity or worth. Before he retires, he’s commanded to escort the ailing Cheyenne chief Yellow Hawk—his most despised enemy—to his ancestral home in Montana. He is fully in persona.

Stage 2: At this stage (between the 10% and 25% mark), your character’s entrenched views begin to be challenged. He gets a glimpse of his essence, of who he could be, if he let go of his persona.

In Hostiles, Blocker’s hatred begins to crack when he witnesses Yellow Hawk and the other Indians quickly move to join in protecting their group, even killing other Indians in defense. This glimpse of integrity that he sees in Yellow Hawk sparks respect and challenges his core beliefs that all Indians, especially this one, are savages and nothing more.

Stage 3: Somewhere between the 25% and 50% mark, your character, still in his persona and moving toward his goal, is gradually changing due to what he is experiencing and learning. A mentor or friend might mirror to his the way he is acting, pointing out how that’s not working for him. Or something someone says or does makes him stop and consider how his coping mechanisms aren’t making him happy. Think of creating a scene in which he takes the first step toward changing, or that shows he is already changing without realizing it.

In Hostiles, Rosalie, a woman whose family was butchered by Indians and who Blocker saved and has taken with him on this journey, has a deep talk with Blocker about life and spiritual things. This mirror moment gets Blocker questioning his life and values and begins to crack his hard shell.

Stage 4: This stage comes sometime between the Midpoint and the Dark Moment (75% mark). Now your character knows he must embrace his true essence. He is not there yet, but he fully realizes his persona is failing him. He must get the courage to be true to himself and face the truths he hasn’t been able to face. Often this is where the character backslides into his persona again, where it’s safe. But it doesn’t work anymore. There is only going forward.

Rosalie and the two native women are kidnapped by a group of fur traders who come across them as they wash dishes at a creek. Alerted by Little Bear, Blocker and several of his men, as well as Yellow Hawk and Black Hawk, track them down. They find the fur traders’ camp and witness one of the kidnappers beating Yellow Hawk’s daughter. When the kidnappers return to their tents, the men sneak down into the camp and attack the kidnappers and kill them. One of the rescuers is killed in the struggle. This intense event, which throws the opposing characters together, uniting them in purpose and morality, causes a further transformation of Blocker’s character. The Indians are people who strive, who suffer, who take care of those they love. He sees they are not all that different from him. He’s almost in his true essence.

Stage 5: This is the moment of arrival. As the climax barrels into him, he fully embraces his true essence, which gives him all that’s needed to reach his goal. He has everything to lose, but he goes for it. The final push to “arrive.”

In Hostiles, after a huge climax of death and mayhem, the group finally reaches Montana, and Blocker and Yellow Hawk, who is near death from cancer, speak. Blocker names some of the men he had lost fighting Yellow Hawk. Yellow Hawk responds by saying that he had also lost people. The two men shake hands in an apparent mutual act of forgiveness and friendship. When they arrive at Valley of the Bears, they bury the now dead Yellow Hawk using a traditional native burial scaffold. When white men approach and threaten them—mirroring the exact attitude Blocker had at the start of the story: hateful, racist, violent—we see Blocker take a stand, and he kills the leader of these men. Everyone in Blocker’s group is shot and killed except Rosalie and the young Indian boy.

Stage 6: At the resolution, your character is now fully in his essence; he has transformed and sees the world and himself in a new, healthier light. He is honest and transparent about himself.

At the end of Hostiles, Rosalie boards a train with the boy, heading home to where she will raise the young warrior. Blocker says good-bye, but because he is now fully in his essence, wholly transformed, he cannot leave the woman he loves. He is now able to do two things he could never have done at the start of the story: be at peace enough to allow himself to love this woman he cherishes and decide to help raise an Indian boy. He has broken through his racism and hate by way of experiences that taught him the lessons he needed to learn, giving him understanding that had never been within his grasp. A powerful story with a perfect transformational journey for the protagonist.

When you sit down to work on your character arc, consider using the Six Stage Plot Structure. Brainstorm scenes that will showcase the specific stage your character is in, for each turning point in the story. I also use this, and other, examples in my extensive online course on The 10 Key Scenes That Frame Up Your Novel. If you want to master this, take this course!

Using this framework will not only help you write a solid story, it will aid you in crafting a believable character arc for your protagonist that will engage and delight your readers.

***

Hope you enjoyed this guest post from C.S. Lakin. Her writers' blog is a great one to follow. Subscribe at: http://www.livewritethrive.com/
Has this article helped you in any way? Would love to hear your comments.

Blessings,
Elva Martin