Author: Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.

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Latest From High Reaches

Birds Are Showing Off

February is still winter. The days are getting longer, but cold rules. Yet the birds are showing off for spring nesting.

Male blue jays are bright blue. Male cardinals glow red. Bird songs sound on the hills.

birds are showing off and need food for energy
Male cardinals are easy to identify by their bright red plumage, crest and black mask. The female goldfinch is harder. Her color will change to more greenish later in spring. The black wings with wing bars are my tip off.

Watching the Bird Feeder

All winter flocks of birds come to raid the feeder. It is wall to wall birds with others waiting to swoop into any opening.

There is an order. Blue jays come first. Morning doves come second. Cardinals are third. Titmice, chickadees and nuthatches slip in to grab a sunflower seed and take off with it. Juncos and sparrows search the ground for any seeds knocked off.

In February only bad weather brings in such a crowd. The feeder has a few birds come by at a time.

Juncos are snow birds
Juncos are winter visitors in the Ozarks. They spend much of the year far north of here and come here for warmer weather, more food over the winter.

Squirrels Were Gone Too

All winter the squirrels have been nuisances at the bird feeder. At times two gray squirrels will be in the feeder with another one hanging on the edge. Red squirrels eat alone.

These interlopers were mostly gone. They were pairing off and starting families. Now they are back scarfing up sunflower seeds.

squirrels raid feeders
The feeder may be put up for the birds, but the squirrels love sunflower seeds too. This was one of four gray squirrels to visit this day along with at least one red. If there’s a way to keep them off, we haven’t found it yet.

Woodpeckers

Red-bellied and downy woodpeckers are regulars at the bird feeder. This is even more true now.

Woodpeckers nest early. They dig out their nests in January. Drumming resounds through the woods. Now these parents are eager to eat the suet cakes for that extra nutrition.

Migration Begins

The first summer birds are arriving. The vultures circle over the pastures. Purple finches and goldfinches are stopping by the bird feeder.

These birds are showing off for spring too. They will nest up on the hills and along the roads soon.

February is still winter and tries to drag it out. But winter’s grasp is slipping. Spring is still months away, but it is coming. The birds will be ready, hiding their nests in the trees and bushes up on the hills.

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GKP Writing News

How Many Drafts?

When I wrote “Broken Promises” the first time, it was a disaster now long erased. The second draft became the novel. How many drafts did it take? Two or three, I think.

“Old Promises” also took one draft. Then I rewrote and edited for two or three more drafts to finish the novel.

Both of these were rewritten again to add the recipes Hazel used in the book.

cover of "Old Promises" Hazel Whitmore #2 by Karen GoatKeeper
This novel took only a few drafts before I decided it was ready to publish. Even so, I reread it and noticed a few more things I might change, if I redo the novel.

Life’s Rules

This novel is different. The first rewrite happened even before the rough draft was written. In fact, I’ve never completed the rough draft.

This last is not really true. I’ve completed the draft in my head. That’s not really the same as I add lots of details, dialogue and more when I write down what’s in my head.

How many drafts so far? I’m on the third rewrite now. It seems I needed to draw some maps and rewrite some of the draft.

The problem with rewriting a partial draft so many times is that part of the novel gets set, edited and polished while the rest is still in need of many things. I tend to focus on actions, plot and dialogue in my first drafts.

The characters are in my head. The settings are in my head. I can see them, hear them, feel them.

A reader can’t see inside my head. That means yet another draft adding descriptions of characters and settings. Those things I can see need to be visible to the reader through my words.

The Carduan Chronicles

How many drafts does this one make for the Carduan Chronicles? I’ve lost count. At least this draft has straightened out two major problems.

Ship Eighteen is journeying to Cardua. With this draft the journey has some semblance of timing. And my missing six passengers are now included in the draft.

This part of the novel will need one more rewrite to add details about the characters. My problem now is that I don’t really see my characters yet.

Ship Nineteen needs to be rewritten as well. How many drafts for it? I don’t know. But I will have a better timeline and know what some of the problems are for tackling this draft in April.

Both Life’s Rules and The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival should be done this year.

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GKP Writing News

Upper Middle Grade Writing

When I wrote “Old Promises”, I was writing for an upper middle grade reader. Over several years I found writing upper middle grade novels and science books was what I was comfortable with.

cover of "Old Promises" Hazel Whitmore #2 by Karen GoatKeeper

What Is Upper Middle Grade?

In school years this would be sixth to eighth grades. In age this covers ten to fourteen.

The main characters are in that age range. The plots are more complicated than in children’s novels, but not as adult as young adult is.

This was why I enjoyed writing upper middle grade novels. Although I touched on young adult themes, it was not edgy or specific or filled with teenage angst. These things didn’t interest me then or now.

Writing Series

“Old Promises” was the second novel about Hazel Whitmore. As I wrote it, I considered writing a series. All the possibilities are there.

Hazel is the namesake of another Hazel in the past. I based this on an old photograph of a lovely woman I know nothing about. Who was this woman?

picture for writing middle grade novels
Who is this woman? I don’t know. Someone probably died and this picture was hauled to the dump and thrown away. I remember my mother spending months identifying people and places in her mother’s pictures after my Grandmother died. They were our history, where our family came from. Something so many young and not so young people don’t seem to care about any more. That is a shame. We kept this picture as she looks like such a nice person, someone we would want to know. When I wrote “Old Promises”, she became the model for Hazel’s Great Aunt Hazel for whom she was named.

Crooked Creek lends itself to several ideas as well. Although the name is probably for a nearby creek that meanders, it could pertain to some less than honest inhabitants.

Then there is Hanging Rock. One interpretation is the bluff overhanging the creek at the edge of the school yard. Another hints at an unsavory past.

And there is Linda. But she is more part of the end of the trilogy than this second novel.

Series Problems

The biggest drawback to writing a series for me is being locked into a certain cast of characters, a certain place, a particular genre. Plots must revolve around these. Extensive notes must be kept so character names stay the same, setting names stay the same, plots don’t repeat.

I’m not that organized. There is one further consideration.

Writing upper middle grade novels is not where I want to be now. A number of things have changed in my life over the last few years. These have changed the focus of my writing as well.

Will I revisit Hazel? I don’t know. At present I am immersed in Life’s Rules and The Carduan Chronicles and plan to stay there for now.

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Electricity Wins

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been watching a battle between nature and electricity. Nature loses. Electricity wins.

Battle Causes

Plants want to grow. Trees grow tall anywhere they find a place with enough soil, light and water. Electric lines are not a problem to them.

Storms make the trees sway. Branches hit the lines. Treetops snap off and fall on the lines. Whole trees get uprooted and fall taking the lines down with them.

Electricity wins over this tree
This tall honey locust was a danger to the electricity lines. So the tree trimmers took it down.

Electricity Demands

When we lived up north in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, we had no electricity. We used gas lights in the evening. It was cold enough to not need a refrigerator. We brought jugs of water from town.

The wood cook stove had a tank for melting snow which was plentiful for six to seven months. It kept the room warm along with a wood heating stove. The radio ran on batteries.

After moving to Missouri, we got electricity. Running water in the house is so convenient. Lights coming on at the flip of a switch are luxury. Electric appliances are nice too. Add being able to watch movies in the evening.

Most people also have cell phones, internet, freezers. Some have electric cars, fans, heat and ranges. Electricity is the underpinning of our lives.

The Choice

When the electric company came by wanting to clear the trees out of the right of way, we agreed. It isn’t that we don’t value the trees, some of them old and beautiful. We do. It’s that we value electricity more.

If our electricity goes off, we do survive. We remember the old ways and adapt. But it is not something we enjoy doing.

nature loses
This machine has blades in the front roller. These pull in branches, up to six inch trunk trees and tall weeds. Shredded mulch is left behind.

Nature loses. Electricity wins.

Watching the large equipment was amazing. The long boom with a saw at the end sheared off branches fifty and sixty feet up. Chain saws were not needed.

Then there was the mulching machine. It ate its way through six inch trunks turning them into wood shreds. Smaller branches were pulverized.

The big boom carried a man up to trim a tall tree with a chainsaw.

With equipment like these machines, nature hasn’t a chance. Electricity wins every time.

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GKP Writing News

Writing “Old Promises”

When I wrote “Broken Promises”, I intended to move Hazel Whitmore from the city to the country. It took an entire book to accomplish this. So I ended up writing “Old Promises”.

cover of "Old Promises" Hazel Whitmore #2 by Karen GoatKeeper
It took all of “Broken Promises” to get Hazel Whitmore out of the city. Now she is in the country, rural Missouri, trying to adapt to no internet, no cell phone, new relatives, new school and being miles from town.

The Setting

Although I’ve seen every contiguous state and lived in several of them, I’ve lived in the rural Missouri Ozarks for thirty years. Following the dictum ‘write what you know’, I moved Hazel to the Missouri Ozarks. This covers a lot of territory.

Crooked Creek is a fictitious town modeled on two or three towns I’ve lived near. The residents are drawn from people I’ve known in these towns, although only one is true to the person.

The land Hazel moves to is modeled after a place we looked at when we moved here. It wasn’t suitable for our life style, but works well for Hazel’s.

My imagination dreamed up the house. I’ve been in buildings filled with dust and dirt along with cobwebs. These were a bit exaggerated for the novel.

The setting was essential for writing “Old Promises”, even needing a bit of a map.

City to Country

There are so many adjustments for someone moving from the city, if they want to be part of the country life for real. Some of them are a big shock.

For me, seeing the horizon was amazing as smog hid it near Los Angeles. And my father’s place was flooded in three days after I got there, something I’d only seen on TV.

Hazel’s world is a bit different. Her new house is hidden behind a hill so there is no cell service. Internet service is slow once her mother can afford to have it put in. Town is miles away.

Hazel’s school is a small kindergarten to eighth grade. The students have known each other all their lives. She is not only new, but a stranger, a foreigner and resented by relatives she has never met or known of before.

Sink or Swim

Although the plot revolves around an old family feud, the real story is Hazel trying to understand and adjust to a way of life undreamed of by those living in cities. In some ways, that way of life will never be understood by the city transplant. That is something I understand even after thirty years living in the Ozarks and helped me in writing “Old Promises”.

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Us and Them Attitudes

I just finished reading a book, “The First Ladies” an historical fiction by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray which I highly recommend. Although the book is about the friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, it reminded me of an us and them incident with my goats.

Stay Away!

I was still relatively new with goats at the time. In starting a 4-H goat project, I met two families with goat dairies. And all my does went dry one winter. So I borrowed a Saanen doe from one of the dairies.

My Nubians are brown and black. They have long, pendulous ears. There was one black Alpine doe with upright ears.

Nubian goat us and them attitude
This is my Nubian herd a couple of years ago. It doesn’t change much from year to year, only loses members. It does reflect what my herd has looked like all along: brown and black. A goat of another color is ostracized.

Saanens are white. They have upright ears. The breed is known for being easy going.

Usually, when a new goat is introduced into a herd, everyone gangs up on the poor thing. She is impressed with the news she is at the bottom of the pecking order. Unless she is very aggressive, she stays there for a long time.

That poor Saanen was ignored. If she walked over to my Nubians, they walked away. Not a single one would have anything to do with her.

My Nubians would lie down basking in the sun, an activity Nubians adore doing. When the Saanen laid down at the edge of the group, they got up and moved.

This us and them attitude held for the several months the Saanen was with us. It had to be such an attitude as the Saanen was a dairy goat like them, ate the same food, was treated the same.

Human Us and Them

In “The First Ladies” the same kind of attitude was most apparent. Government officials, military personnel, the public all saw only that Mrs. Bethune was black. Even when she had a personal invitation from Mrs. Roosevelt, she would be turned away or threatened only on the basis of her color.

Such attitudes were the norm at that time. Sometimes it seems some people think they are the norm now. Us and them. They are different.

Another aspect of the book was most interesting. That was the interplay of perceptions. These women forged a deep friendship and working relationship. Yet, they first had to bridge a culture gap. This is where the different chapters from the viewpoints of the two brought out the us and them attitudes, the assumptions we hold about each other.

This is true not just in the case of race, but also for gender, economic class, about everything we absorb as we grow up. It’s easy to drift along holding on to these attitudes. We are better people, more true to the beliefs we claim to hold, if we challenge these and recognize how easy and sometimes harmful an us and them attitude can be.

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GKP Writing News

Breaking New Ground

There are times when writing what you know about just isn’t enough. When that happens, an author is left breaking new ground.

Unfortunately, research is never as good as experience. That lack of experience often shows up to anyone who has that experience.

Being Outdated

I grew up near Los Angeles learning to drive on the freeways and across the city. Yet, I would not try to write about the modern experience because what I remember is not what exists now.

That came home to me the last time I visited people and places in my home town. I had only been gone ten years, yet I almost needed a map to find the old neighborhood. The houses were still there, some remodeled, but the people weren’t. It was not home.

The same problem is coming up in Life’s Rules. Part of the action is based on things I remember from long ago. Except those things have changed a lot. That leaves me breaking new ground as I reach out to people to see how my memories and the new realities mesh.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
These are Nubian dairy goats. They have long legs, Roman noses and long, pendulous ears. Boers have long ears too, but not the same and they are shorter and stouter. Other dairy goat breeds have upright ears or, in the case of LaManchas, very short ears. Their body shapes differ as well. Someone unfamiliar with goats will not know these differences and will probably not find them by doing research.

Research Isn’t Enough

When I was working on “For Love of Goats”, I knew every story needed an illustration. I also knew finding an illustrator was not going to be easy, not because there aren’t lots of good illustrators out there, but because few of those illustrators knew about goats.

Serious goat owners usually cringe at the “Billy Goats Gruff” caricatures. This is what many people think goats are like. They aren’t.

There are hundreds of goat breeds around the world as I found out doing research for “Goat Games”. Every breed is different both in looks and personality. So I did my own illustrations to make sure Alpines and Saanens have the correct ears, Nigerian Dwarfs have the correct stature. Nubians look friendly and beautiful (Yes, I’m biased.)

Don’t think this breaking new ground research doesn’t affect writing. We read a big name coffee table book on John Deere tractors. The author had obviously never owned or driven such a tractor.

We are very familiar with the local milkweeds. Some of the books we’ve read about them have obvious errors in them due to the authors knowing only what they looked up.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper
I visited many goat owners as I wrote this book. In talking with them, I found out a lot about how different breeds differ which is why an owner prefers one breed over another.

Breaking New Ground

There are many times experience isn’t enough. But research can only take an author wo far. Not realizing its limitations can really hurt a manuscript.

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Goat Birth Defects

Goat kids are special. They are cute and soon provide hours of fun watching their various escapades. Waiting for them to be born doesn’t include thinking about goat birth defects.

Like people, goats grow old. High Reaches Juliette is old. She got bred by accident – she wasn’t supposed to be in season, her daughter was, but she wasn’t as out of season as I thought – and I watched with a mix of anticipation and dread. The dread won.

Goat Birth Defects

Yes, livestock can have babies born with birth defects. Juliette’s single kid was born with several. Why? I will never know.

In a way, I think Juliette knew. Most new mothers talk to their kids. She says nothing. She doesn’t look for her kid.

The kid was born dead. There was nothing to be done for it, if it was alive.

being small is not goat birth defect
Goats usually have twins. Sometimes one kid is a glutton and gets big while the other is born small. This little Nubian buck kid was one of the small ones. He was too small to nurse and had trouble standing up. That meant he was a bottle baby and had to be fed often. So, he went to work with me.

Disappointment

Yes, I am disappointed. The strain of wondering if the kid would be born during the recent cold made sleeping hard. I was glad the kid waited.

When Juliette showed all the signs of imminent kidding, I was excited. The prospect of new kids brightened my day.

Now there is a different disappointment. Goat birth defects have been rare in my herd, only a handful over almost fifty years. Each is a loss and felt as a loss.

Nubian goat wether
The little Nubian buck kid grew up. Sometimes the small kids have internal problems and they don’t survive. Pest didn’t. Yes, his name is Pest. He is now a wether weighing around 200 pounds and spoiled.

Living With Disappointment

Goat birth defects are disappointing. Such kids are usually born dead or must be destroyed as they will not survive.

Louie, a blind kid, was an exception. He learned to get around quite well and lived several years before falling victim to illness.

Losing livestock is part of life for owners. It’s always disappointing and demands reflection as to what happened, why and changes to prevent it in the future. Unfortunately, this loss for me has no obvious cause or prevention.

Looking Forward

Four does are due to kid in March. All are younger.

Like Juliette, I will put this behind me. March kids will be here in two months.

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GKP Writing News

Write What They Know

I’m a city girl moved to the country. Anne of Green Gables is a favorite series. Perhaps that is one reason this type of plot interested me. After all, writers are encouraged to write what they know.

That’s a good idea as far as it goes. Few of us have led such adventurous lives to really live up to this. In fact, although I grew up outside Los Angeles, “Broken Promises” is set in New York City, a place I have visited twice.

Gaining Experiences

My depictions of New York City are limited in the novel because I did want to follow the write what they know admonition. My last visit to the Big Apple was a two week stay. During that time I explored Central Park, a way to stay sane surrounded by so many buildings and people. Times Square, Broadway, Coney Island, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History got stuffed into that two weeks.

At the time, my novel was not even an idea. Writing was not on my agenda. I was on vacation, the first one I’d had in many years. Although I was not aware of it, I was storing up all those memories so I could draw on them years later.

cover for "Broken Promises" by Karen GoatKeeper
One advantage of being older is having a big storehouse of memories to draw on when I am writing. An important attitude is seeing every task, person, place and happening, no matter how mundane or boring, as a learning experience.

Mining Memories

Many writers keep journals. I don’t. I have pictures and each picture tells me a story of a place, a time, a reaction.

Every place I go, every job I hold, every person I meet is a chance to learn something new. As I write, my memory reminds me of similar places and people from my past.

Different experiences bring back emotions as well as situations. Hazel loses her father in the novel. My family lost my nephew. My father had died leaving behind a letter, a letter from the dead.

It’s possible to look places up, even take virtual tours now. People write about lots of things on the internet, even as I am doing now. But these are second hand.

Write What They Know.

To truly write about something, it helps to have actually seen and felt it in reality. At least experience something similar. That’s when words stop being just words and create a fictional reality.

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Spring Gardening

It’s amazing how uplifting sun and temperatures above freezing can be after days of near and below zero. The goats and chickens tumble out their doors to bask in the sun. Thoughts turn to kids and spring gardening.

Waiting on Kids

My Nubian doe High Reaches Juliette was due about New Year’s. The days passed and she stayed fat and showing signs, but no kids.

When she looked like any time, the temperatures plunged. Anxiety began as wet kids stand no chance in zero degrees even with an experienced mother goat.

The cold seemed to stop all kid preparation. As this cold moves on, the wait begins anew.

Reading Gardening Books

There’s not much to do outside with cold temperatures and a dusting of snow. Reading about gardening, seed sorting and starting along with spring gardening plans pass the days.

Much of the country is having much worse weather than the Ozarks. That’s one of the reasons we moved here thirty years ago. Waist deep snow along with temperatures ten and twenty below for six months didn’t fit our preferred life style.

My current gardening book “The Country Journal Book of Vegetable Gardening” written by Nancy Bubel is set in Pennsylvania. Some of the crops, all of the timing and some of the problems don’t apply here in the Ozarks. So, why is the book helpful?

Zephyr summer squash
This is definitely on my garden list for this year. Zephyr summer squash is easy to grow, delicious to eat and somewhat tolerant of squash bugs.

Universal Gardening Ideas

Some things fit gardening no matter where the garden is. The author prefers setting out rows. I have marked out beds. But planting seeds is the same.

Pennsylvania gardens are set out later than mine. But spring gardening planning entails the same details for succession planting, mulching, cultivating, seed starting and more.

Much of this and other gardening books won’t apply to the Ozarks. Enough of it does to make reading them worthwhile.

Besides, its relaxing to read about spring gardening while waiting for the season to begin. Now is when the planned garden is beautiful and productive. Before reality sets in.