How Sara Ohlin, author of Handling the Rancher, Crafts Her Fictional World

Setting is just as important to a story as the characters and story development. Each author has her own way of crafting that fictional world. Today, Sara Ohlin takes us into her process and makes you want to go to Graciella. I also have an excerpt from her latest book, Handling the Rancher, and a great giveaway for you! Be sure to follow the tour and let her know what you think along the way.

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Crafting My Fictional World, Graciella

I love crafting my fictional world more than any other part of the story, aside from the characters’ emotions. Setting has always spoken to me as a reader, from the English cliffsides in Rosamunde Pilcher’s novels to Gloria Naylor’s island, Willow Springs, in Mama Day. Even Bleak House by Dickens (which I might never have the patience to read again) sucks you in to a dark, cold, bitter world from the first page. It’s as if the setting is its own character.

Often times a character will come to me first and I’ll think, Now where would you live? Or, What kind of a world do we find you in? Then I try to craft the perfect place full of texture, scents, sights, sounds, feelings, even tastes, all in technicolor. I can always see the fictional world perfectly in my head. Getting it down on paper that way is a challenge.

I’ve lived on the West Coast of the US for many years and there’s a beauty and a wildness to it from sweltering Southern California all the way to the towering fir trees overlooking the Pacific along Washington’s coast. When I wrote Handling the Rancher, I knew I wanted the rocky, steep coast similar to some parts of Oregon and Washington, as well as the lush green, rolling farmland. Idyllic, romantic and a bit rugged at the same time. And not well known, sort of a hidden gem.

I hoped to illustrate how much the land and the sea air seduces the characters into falling in love. Cruz is returning to a place he loves, and that salty, fresh air and the rawness of the farm help heal him. And Miranda has lived a life lacking in richness, in friendship, in love. Graciella’s fog, the scent of the water, even something as simple as apple blossoms, a baby horse being born, the kindness of a new friend help open Miranda’s heart and she realizes what she’s been missing. More importantly Graciella’s beauty helps her realize she deserves a life full of love and connection.

Hopefully my readers will find themselves immersed in the beauty of Graciella too.

Handling the Rancher

What’s a sexy rancher to do when an uptight accountant falls into his lap?

Already reeling at having inherited the family farm on his father’s death, photojournalist Cruz Brockman returns home to the Oregon town of Graciella to receive another blow—accountant Miranda Jenks is there to audit the books because the IRS suspect his late father of tax fraud. To their astonishment, sparks fly between the passionate Cruz and the career-focused Miranda upon first meeting, and the heat rises with every encounter.

Threatened with losing everything his family has worked for, Cruz has no choice but to be completely open with the uptight Miranda, something that doesn’t come easily to him, just as focusing on her own needs is foreign to her. She’s buried her own desires all her life, but the longer she spends with the captivating rancher, the more she wants to dive into a passionate affair with him.

An intense, toe-curling physical connection is one thing, but exposing their hearts is another. As Miranda finishes her audit and the clock counts down to her leaving, can the reluctant rancher and the shy accountant conquer their fears and fight for their love?

Read an excerpt:

Shouldn’t things seem easier between us? He’d apologized. They’d cleared the air on that whatever-it-was that had happened in the library. ‘Kiss’ was too mild a word. He’d practically blown all the fuses in her brain. He’d devoured her. Nothing felt easier. Instead the space seemed to shrink and she felt as though someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the barn. She started walking backwards toward the barn door.

“I should go.”

“I need to get—”

They spoke at the same time. He laughed and let a breath out as he faced her. “Miranda.”

“Yes,” she said, caught in his gaze.

“I’m not sorry for that kiss,” Cruz said, his face serious again as he pinned her with that look of desire. He took a step toward her. “I’m sorry for being rude, for putting you in an awkward position.” He continued walking closer. “But I’m not sorry for that kiss, for feeling what I felt. You confuse me.”

“Bossy accountant not your type?” She tried to joke, but the words came out jagged.

His strides were long. In an instant he’d caught up to her so their bodies were almost touching. “I don’t know what my type is.” His voice deepened. “I haven’t been in one place long enough or spent enough time trying to figure out if I have a type. The only thing I’ve ever been sure of is my work and this land, the farm, the people.”

He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. The intimacy startled her more than his gaze. She felt raw inside with need. She only had to stretch up a little to meet him. Her lips could be on his again. That delicious fire could consume her, which was exactly why she took a large step back and kept going.

Buy links

Amazon.com *  Amazon.co.uk *  Kobo.com *
 Barnesandnoble.com * Totally Bound

About Sara Ohlin

Puget Sound based writer, Sara Ohlin is a mom, wannabe photographer, obsessive reader, ridiculous foodie, and the author of the upcoming contemporary romance novels, Handling the Rancher and Salvaging Love.

She has over fifteen years of creative non-fiction and memoir writing experience, and you can find her essays at Anderbo.com, (http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/afact-005.html), Feminine Collective (http://www.femininecollective.com/?s=Come+Back+to+Me+Lemon), Mothers Always Write (https://mothersalwayswrite.com/map-of-flaws/), Her View from Home (https://herviewfromhome.com/the-joys-and-lessons-learned-through-team-sports/), and in anthologies such as Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak about Healthcare in America, Take Care: Tales, Tips, & Love from Women Caregivers, and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Although she’s the author of many essays about life, grief, motherhood and the connections we make through delicious food and shared meals, Sara loves creating imaginary worlds with tight-knit communities in her romance novels. She credits her mother, Mary, Nora Roberts and Rosamunde Pilcher for her love of romance.

If she’s not reading or writing, you will most likely find her in the kitchen creating scrumptious meals with her two kids and amazing husband, or perhaps cooking up her next love story.

She once met a person who both “didn’t read books” and wasn’t “that into food” and it nearly broke her heart.

Website: www.saraohlin.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/SaraOhlin222
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Sara Ohlin will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway