Guest Valerie Hansen Talks Books and Guns

by Anita Mae Draper

When I asked Valerie Hansen if she'd like to blog with us for Current Events, I asked if she'd relate the time she shot herself. After all, the Inkies are writers who are trying to engage you, the readers, with the best possible story we can imagine. Who better to ask than someone who has gone through the experience. And whether her books are based on reality or imagination, I've bought them on sight since reading her first one.

Val, welcome to the Inkwell and since it's Monday, what's new in your life?

Current events? Well, let's see. I happen to have 2 recent releases, one in Feb, and one in March, so that's pretty current. And quite gratifying. Won't have another new title coming out 'til Oct. 2011 so read slowly!

I won't be doing anything slowly for the next two years since I have a contract to write 1 series book, 3 Love Inspired Suspenses, 2 Love Inspired Historicals and 1 straight Love Inspired Romance. Yes, folks, that's 7!!! I can hardly believe it either. Guess I won't have to worry about keeping busy to keep myself out of trouble.

Actually, except for a wrenched knee that I got while climbing a steep bank to go fishing and a broken arm from tripping while doing yard work, I haven't been in much trouble since I shot myself in the shin a couple of years ago. (I just do this stuff for research, you know) Actually, I'm a klutz. Always was, always will be. And the shot to my leg was a total accident.

I dropped a loaded gun and it went off. The newer models don't do that but this was a .22 pistol that my husband had given me many moons ago and it didn't have the safety features they all do now. It was when the hammer of the gun hit the floor that it fired. My hand was nowhere near it. Neither was my husband. He heard the shot and came running. I could not BELIEVE what had occurred. I just stood there and stared at my shin, below my knee. At first all I felt was a hit, like you'd get that might leave a bruise. It sure did!

Anyway, not only was I blessed to have hit nothing vital, the revolver was loaded with birdshot, those little pellets that don't make a big hole, so other than feeling really foolish I healed quickly. The doctor in ER got a chuckle out of it too because he knows me.

Of course I then "shot" several of my characters in various ways so I could use my own reactions and make the scenes very realistic. I was waiting for a NY editor to argue with me so I could show off my scar but that never happened. I guess the book had that special ring of authenticity, huh?

I don't have any plans for further research featuring catastrophes. It was scary enough to write about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in RESCUING THE HEIRESS after having lived in California for many years, and then to feature a forensic artist in FACE OF DANGER. Among my many life adventures I've been a commercial artist so I could really identify with her, too.

Anyway, if you should chance to meet me, don't be scared. I always carry my pistols with an empty chamber under the hammer these days. The hog-leg in the photo was just borrowed for the photo, honest.

Blessings,

Valerie Hansen

Valerie Hansen

Valerie Hansen’s basic nature is to enjoy every day to the fullest – and that includes her writing. She’s always loved stories about people who have successfully met and overcome life’s challenges, as has she.

Her personal life sounds a lot like a popular novel. She married her high school sweetheart and they raised two great kids before leaving California to pursue their dreams of a rural lifestyle in the Arkansas Ozarks. That relocation has also given her work a new focus and has opened her mind to embrace the adventurous pioneer culture that settled this country.

Valerie has always loved to write. The strong conviction that this is what she was meant to do led her to pursue a career as a novelist. Besides extensive research, she has plenty of interesting experiences to draw upon when creating stories. She’s been a veterinary assistant, teacher’s aide, volunteer fire department dispatcher, Emergency Medical Technician, bank worker, professional artist, store clerk, bookkeeper, 4-H leader, Sunday school teacher, gospel singer/songwriter, winning quiz show contestant, dog trainer, college extension-class instructor, and antique restorer. She’s built dulcimers and a psaltery, laid bricks and tile, designed stained-glass windows, roofed a house, decorated store windows for the holidays, helped pour cement, raised fancy guinea pigs and finches, driven a long-haul moving van, and was once the proud owner of twenty-three Newfoundland dogs at one time. Her advice? Don’t try that at home!

Valerie and her husband now live on an eighty acre farm in northern Arkansas. She loves to hike the rocky, wooded hills behind the picturesque old house they renovated, watch for the wildlife so abundant in the area, and think up new ideas for her many books.

http://www.valeriehansen.com/

Anita Mae Draper is retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan, Canada with her hubby of 30 plus years and 2 of their 4 kids. In 2005, Anita Mae decided to return to writing and make it a priority in her life. She writes old west stories set on the prairies of Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Her characters are strong because the land demands it. Anita Mae likes to write characters who sit up and notice when that special person God’s chosen just for them walks by. The story is all about the courtship between the two main characters. But it won’t be an easy path. And if they don’t know about God at the beginning of the book, they will by the end. Anita Mae has finaled in the 2009 Linda Howard Award of Excellence contest in the Inspirational category, the 2008 Gateway to the Best in the Contemporary Series category, and the 2008 Golden Gateway in the Long Contemporary category. She’s currently waiting to hear the phone ring and have someone say they want to buy Emma’s Outlaw. Meanwhile, she’s working on another story and trying to keep her imagination in check. A pathological picture taker, she usually has a photo or two of the quirky world she lives in on her blog at http://anitamaedraper.blogspot.com/