Highland Rogue Writing: The Reprobate

Blog Blitz with Author Dorothy A. Bell

Christmas in July, unwrap a summer ebook blog blitz, welcomes Dorothy A. Bell

An Oregon Historical Romance

Fiddle playing, hard drinking Royce O’Bannon believes he’s worthless like his old man, no woman should have anything to do with him.

Music teacher Cleantha Arnaud, her virtue long spent, believes her life is over; crippled and barren, no man would want her.

When the two outcasts become lovers, hopes and dreams blossom within their parched souls.

Royce’s vengeful daddy begins a campaign of retaliation against his traitorous sons and the town that gave them a second chance. Now Royce, feeling the weight of responsibility thrust upon him, follows his daddy into the dark tunnels beneath Pendleton’s streets to stop his old man from his path of destruction. With a swift crack on the head, all of Royce’s newly found hopes and dreams could be shattered like candied glass.

Some thoughts from Dorothy:

Where do I find inspiration to write?

Music and names—names of people, first and last names, the names of roads and creeks. I love to look at old photos. Do I constantly write, no, there’s a movie going on in my head almost all the time. In my head, I am all my characters on the screen. I become them one by one. I speak as they would, I move as they would and I know how they would respond. I know where to begin the story and how to tell it as the scenes unfold, and I know where it will lead. I don’t believe that sitting, doing nothing and going into my story a waste of time, it is the beginning. The hard part is transferring what is in my mind to paper or my computer. I have to allow the story to unfold, wrinkles and all and organize it later.

Author Bio:

Dorothy grew up in southern Iowa, moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley at the age of eleven. she picked strawberries and beans in the summer to earn money for school clothes. In high school, she loved history, geography, speech class and school plays. She made the honor roll because she didn’t take geometry or trig; Dorothy stuck to art and literature courses. Dorothy played the snare drums in the high school band.

At the age of sixteen, the boy that had pestered her from the moment he saw her that first day of school in the sixth grade, asked her, one wintry, November day to go for a scooter ride up into the coastal range. After that, they became inseparable, and here they are, fifty years later, very close partners in everything we do.

Dorothy started to write Regency Romances to entertain myself. Dorothy sent them off to publishers now and then. She facilitated a writer’s critique group for several years and learned a lot from fellow writers. She took writing courses at a community college. But, she thought she learned the most by submitting her work to publishers, editors and agents, and getting feedback.

Laid low for nearly twenty-five years with arthritis, forced to use a battery-powered cart, Dorothy took up aquatic exercise and became an instructor. she retired after eighteen years of instructing, and now goes to the pool and do her own thing. After two surgeries to replace her knees, Dorothy went to work on herself and lost eighty-five pounds, which she has kept off. With renewed energy, Dorothy put more into her writing, submitted her work, then rewrote and kept submitting, which she will continue to do.

Her husband and she live in Central Oregon with two West Highland White terriers and one big, angora tuxedo cat. Dorothy enjoys gardening and landscaping.