Hi!
I’m Arianna Eastland, a native New
Englander who, at a young age, developed a fascination for the Native-American
culture and history in the Northeast. This not only led me to read everything I
could find on the subject, it also inspired me, years later, to begin penning
historical romance novels featuring Native-American heroes.
I must confess that my writing
habits are somewhat unconventional. When I sit down to write, I never have a
particular plot in mind and never write a preliminary outline. I just let the
story and emotions unfold and flow as I go along. Also, I never know how the
book is going to end until I actually write the final page.
And I have trouble writing if the
room is too quiet. There either has to be music playing or the TV has to be on,
or I can’t seem to concentrate.
Believe me, writing books that are
set back in the 1600s has its challenges – first and foremost, deciphering the
language that was used back then. Not only did many of the words we use today
mean something entirely different in those days, there also were far fewer
of them in existence.
I don't use the “thees” and
“thous” of that period in my books because I think they would detract from the
flow of the dialogue. I mean, I still can remember reading Shakespeare in high-school
English classes and struggling to figure out what the heck the characters were
talking about!
But I do try to make certain my
characters aren't speaking words that weren’t even created yet. I wouldn’t, for
example, have a Pilgrim in the 1650s saying things like “egotistical” or
“rambunctious” because the first time those words were used wasn’t until well
over a hundred years later.
Or can you just picture two
Pilgrim guys greeting each other with something like, "Hey, Josiah! How's
it hangin'? Gimme five!"
It does bother me, however, that I
have to refer to the heroes in my books as either Indians or savages, but that
was what the colonists called them in the 17th century...and I can’t undo
history.
The Native-American words and
phrases I've used in my novels thus far also were a challenge to research. I
found only one Algonquin dictionary in existence and it was a rare antique, an
expensive collector's item. Luckily, because it was published back in the
1800s, it became public domain, and some kind soul actually printed the entire
dictionary online for everyone to use. The only problem was the man who
originally wrote the dictionary didn't list the words in alphabetical
order...he grouped them by random categories....also not in alphabetical order.
So the aforementioned "kind soul" later created a search engine to use
with the dictionary (thank goodness).
I know I never could offer a
reading of my books to the public because, to be honest, I wouldn’t be able to
pronounce some of the words. For example, the Algonquin word for snoring
is chigualakwsowogan. And kbahodwigamigw means
"jail."
My first novel, Too Far to
Whisper, which has been in the top 20 on Amazon in the Native-American
literature category for over six months now, took me years to write. I kept
putting it away and going back to it until I finally just gave up on it for
about 10 years. Then, in 2012, I talked myself into finishing it. After that,
the sequels were much less of a struggle to write and took only months, not
years, to complete.
Oh, by the way, the e-book version
of my first novel, Too Far to Whisper, is permanently free on
Amazon, Apple Books, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble, so if you'd like to
read it, you have nothing to lose by downloading it.
Not long ago, I took a DNA test to
find out more about my ancestry and was surprised to learn that my great-great
grandmother, who was from the Province of Quebec, was a full-blooded Abenaki.
No one in my family ever had mentioned it to me before…but I do think it
explains a lot!
When I take a break from writing,
I enjoy walking on the many wooded trails in my area, going to local plays and
concerts, playing board games and spending quality time with my friends.
I will post updates
on this blog from time to time, whether they are just random thoughts or news about upcoming projects or book
releases. Basically, I'll just let anyone who might be interested know what I’m
doing!
I can be contacted at:
ariannaeastland2@aol.com.