Category: Story Behind the Story

New Release January 28th, 2026

On By bluemoonbenchIn News, Story Behind the StoryLeave a comment

Volume One of the Blue Moon Series gets a new release on January 28th, 2026, which includes a new cover, another layer of mystery laid in, and an ending that will stay with you – taking you into the next Volume.

Click to watch the trailer

Jessica is a woman of means, who gave up everything for love, just to find out she may of given it up for the wrong man. Is he a murderer of his first wife? Is a beautiful Navajo woman carrying a schoolgirl crush on her new husband? And how could the handsome best friend of her husband even think of bringing her into his web of mysterious lies?

“Your husband’s alibi for the night she died is a lie.” Mac told her, “I’d check it out mate if I were you.”

Watch for a link to pre-order this suspenseful novel of love and mystical tales of the famous skin walkers and magic on the plains of the Navajo Reservation.

You can read more about this novel, and purchase it through these websites after January 28th

Author Author! Who is the Author

On By bluemoonbenchIn News, Story Behind the StoryLeave a comment

As an author you always wonder if the story that has taken over your life is as important to others. You wonder if others read the story and feel the same connection as you did when writing it. You feel insecure, you feel uncertain, but you never give up.  Isn’t that odd? You never stop believing others will get the same joy from the story.

I love Hitchcock, I love old classic movies that he directed, and the actors that starred in those movies. When I was in art school (dawnsart.wordpress.com) I used to pop an old movie in my tv/player combo and let it play while painting or drawing. They inspired me with their creativity and dimension. THAT is what I brought to my novel. And I haven’t stopped believing in it.

I’ve been writing since high school where I won an award, and never stopped writing and painting my whole life. It gives me real happiness to share the beauty in what I see everyday, hoping that the people who read my novel, or look at my paintings will experience that same joy and celebration in the color, the composition, the storyline or the characters – aren’t they the same?

Blue Moon Bench – a geographical location on the Navajo Reservation. Did you know that? It sounded so romantic the first time I heard the name, it stuck. If I ever write a novel, I thought, I’d name it “Blue Moon Bench”.

Author, author, who is the author? The reader. I have written my novel for you, you ARE the author. Otherwise I wasted a good story. I hope you’ll read Blue Moon Bench, and enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Why am I blogging publicly instead of keeping a diary? – it’s all about sharing with others.

What topics do I want to write about? – A peak into the novel, a revealing of mystery to tantalize those who haven’t read the book.

Who would I love to connect with via this blog? – All those writers who are trying so hard like me, and all those seeking the next best-selling novel. This is it!

If I blog successfully throughout the next year, what do I hope to accomplish? – Getting a real agent, publisher, and seeing Blue Moon Bench become a candidate for a Hollywood movie. Yeah baby!

blog on

Coyote Breathing – I Believe

On By bluemoonbenchIn Chapter Samples, Distribution, News, Story Behind the Story1 Comment

Reason to Believe   Inspired by the WordPress Daily prompt

At the end of every day, sometimes in the middle, I go to the stats of this blog and check it see if anyone is listening. Everyday my reason to believe is that my novel is good, and that others will be purchasing it to see why I believe so much in the story, and it’s goodness, and it’s positive outcome. Some days my belief is rewarded, other days… well not so much. Maybe today will be a good day!

In the novel there is a chapter that opens where the main character has been taken out into the Arizona desert to camp. She’s a city girl relocated, and she doesn’t know what to think of the silence, the dense dark of wilderness, and of her new life in Arizona. Especially when a wild coyote tries to break into the camper.

Here is an excerpt:

Chapter 7:

The Coyote’s Breath was Hot

Utah border, northern Arizona

The dark, silent night seemed to close in on the truck like a black scourge. Holding her hand up before her face, close enough that she could feel the warmth from her palm, Jessica realized she couldn’t even see it, and that really unnerved her.

She was lying on her back, fully dressed and trussed up in a sleeping bag. Next to her, Alex was breathing the slow, easy in-and-out of someone asleep. They were camping out on the Navajo Reservation, and after finishing the dinner dishes from their meager meal, Alex casually turned off the lantern. They climbed into the back of the truck’s camper shell to lie on a soft futon designed for just such an occasion as this, and he promptly fell asleep.

Jessica, on the other hand, laid stiff and holding her breath. From the first moment they’d arrived in this isolated place, Jessica had felt uncomfortable. It was like sensory depravation for her. There was absolutely no sound except the light breeze blowing through the small bushes speckling the ground. No traffic, no people, no engines, no nothing. At one point it was so quiet she could hear the sound of her own blood in her ears, like when you put a seashell up to your ear and hear the ocean. She was a city girl in a place she could not comprehend. All around her was spooky silence, and Jessica felt displaced and nervous. The more she tried to relax, the tenser she became.

She held her breath and tried to listen for sounds outside the truck, but could only hear Alex’s steady breathing. Damn, why couldn’t she sleep like that? She tried to relax her body, but the more she tried to let go, the more she tensed up. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark, and indistinct shapes showed in her peripheral sight. All right. Think it through. What are you afraid of? The only large animals around are coyotes, and they’re actually afraid of man. Alex says they’ll run if they see you.

“Ahh…” another thought rose up in her mind, “…but what if the coyote was rabid?”

She looked to her right at the camper window, half opened, leaving only a screen between her and the outside. She began to get dizzy with holding her breath.

Oh, my, God, Jessica thought, I have to get my fear under control. This is awful.

She began to apply a technique she’d learned in Buddhism. Calming the mind, keeping it focused on one thing – her breathing. The idea was to get her breathing to slow, her mind to relax, and the fear to dissolve.

Suddenly, to her utter astonishment, a real coyote lunged through the screen of the window and was attempting to jump into the camper shell. The coyote wasn’t able to get his whole body through the window on his first leap, but it was obvious that he was determined to reach his prey. He dangled awkwardly over her, riotously yelping and barking, all the time slinging flecks of rabid foam all over her hair and face. She could hear the sound of his back claws frantically scratching the metal of the truck’s body.  She knew he was trying to get a good foothold so he could make it the rest of the way into the camper to attack them. Jessica was frozen with fear. The coyote’s breath was hot and stank of something wild and foul, and his sharp teeth seemed to get closer to her exposed head with each jerk.

Jessica sat straight up, jerking away from the animal. She couldn’t stop the scream that billowed up out of her chest, and it woke Alex with a start.

“What?” he asked, bleary eyed. “What happened? Are you OK?”

Buy the novel and find out why her faith and love wins out in the end.

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt. To read the novel you can download it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore. The third edition is soon to be released. I can finally afford a professional editor! Blue Moon Bench by D L Blanchard

So, I believe my novel is a good book, and at the end of the day, I just know if I stick with it, others will believe that too.

blog on

It’s Not an Ending Until It’s Over

On By bluemoonbenchIn News, Story Behind the StoryLeave a comment

A response to the Daily Prompt: Happy Endings

I had a really hard marriage (won’t go into details… just know it was awful hard) and while I was married I became so distraught I had to find an escape. That escape was my novel “Blue Moon Bench”.

Each day I’d get up (I was a stay at home wife), do housework, chores, errands, then I’d sit down and write on my novel. I was living in Tucson, Arizona where my husbands work took us,  and sorely missed Flagstaff in northern Arizona. So my novel was staged in the place I missed most in the world. Before marriage I’d been in Flagstaff, single, living alone, on the ski patrol, dating three different guys all at the same time trying to decide who to chose as my next boyfriend. I was happy. I mountain biked, hiked, skied, painted (I’m also an artist) and wrote short stories and articles.

So I remember I decided to write about what I loved; Northern Arizona. The beauty, the culture, the Native Americans and their life style and beliefs, about the people I missed giving them new names, and about the mysteries of the southwest right in my previous backyard, the Grand Canyon. I wrote and wrote and wrote until my first novel was over 100,000 words long (in case you don’t know the longest a first novel is recommended to be is 80,000).

My happy ending was when I received that novel for the first time 10 years later in the mail in print! There it was, all those years of work and sweat and belief. Even if no one bought it, it was all wrapped up in that beautiful cover, smelling like new paper and ink, looking beautiful and professional. What a day that was! A very happy ending.

However, I’ve realized that it’s not over yet. I’m having it professionally edited so my embarrassing grammatical/typos go away (I can afford that now).  So stay tuned for the next happy ending: I get to sell it in a real book store and not just online. It’s not an ending until it’s over.

You can read my book here:

Smashwords logoKindle from AmazonBarnes & Noble Nook

Blue Canyon photo, misty moon setting in the distance

The Hopi Kachina Dances

On By bluemoonbenchIn News, Story Behind the Story, Tibetan BuddhismLeave a comment

Culture, Symbolism, and Suspense

In D.L. Blanchard’s Blue Moon Bench, the story opens not with a body or a confession, but with a dance—a sacred ritual in the heart of northern Arizona’s Hopi Reservation.

Against the backdrop of the desert sun, Jessica Dawson, her husband Alex, and their friend Mac watch as the Kachina dancers enter the plaza. What unfolds is more than a colorful ceremony; it is the weaving of culture, symbolism, and suspense into the very fabric of the novel.

For the Hopi people, the Kachina dances are not performance or entertainment. They are spiritual events that carry prayers, blessings, and traditions passed down through centuries. Each dancer, dressed in elaborate masks and regalia, represents a Kachina spirit—beings believed to bring rain, fertility, and balance to life. The sound of rattles, drums, and chants is not just music; it is a language of connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Blanchard captures these details with sensitivity, grounding her suspenseful tale in the reality of a culture both mysterious and profound. Jessica, unfamiliar with the dances, feels both awe and displacement. She is a newcomer to the traditions, trying to understand their meaning while feeling the weight of her own insecurities. The vibrant colors and ancient rhythms contrast sharply with the dark undercurrent of danger lurking in the shadows—a stranger in a red cap, a glint of steel, and the sudden realization that she is being followed.

This collision of sacred ritual and mortal threat creates one of the novel’s most gripping juxtapositions. The Kachina dances are timeless, meant to bring blessings to the community, yet they unfold even as Jessica becomes entangled in a very human danger. The crowd, the costumes, the chants—all offer her both cover and exposure. In a sense, the dances become a metaphor for her journey: surrounded by symbols of protection, yet unable to escape the fear of what stalks her unseen.

Beyond the suspense, the dances highlight a universal truth about culture and tradition. To the Hopi, each movement, each mask, and each blessing carries meaning rooted in reverence. Yet, as Mac points out, outsiders often fail to understand this, treating the sacred as spectacle. His warning that the dances might one day be closed to the public resonates as a reminder of how fragile cultural respect can be.

For readers, this scene is more than a backdrop—it’s a reminder of how moments of beauty and community can coexist with fear and uncertainty. Just as Jessica tries to find her footing amid the chants and dust of the plaza, so too do many of us find ourselves balancing reverence for the past with the anxieties of the present.

In Blue Moon Bench by D.L. Blanchard, the Kachina dances stand as both cultural treasure and narrative catalyst. They are not only symbols of hope and continuity for the Hopi but also the stage upon which suspense takes root. Through them, the novel reminds us that even in the most sacred spaces, human vulnerability—and human danger—can find its way in.

Midnight & Self Publishing

On By bluemoonbenchIn Distribution, News, Story Behind the Story, Tibetan Buddhism1 Comment

Stroke of Midnight

The match that lit the candle almost burned out, and then I passed it on to the next person. My candle sat cuddled in my two hands as if I were beseeching it to answer my prayers. “May there be peace on earth, may all beings be well and happy, and may there be an end to war, strife and disasters.” I looked around at the other 70 or so people around me, also engaged with lighting of their own candle. They were also making private prayers. At the stroke of midnight we each get up and offered our candle to the a large and beautiful altar with Buddhist statues, abundant offerings and large, clear crystals.

This is an annual ritual in the Tibetan Buddhist community I belong to. It’s a very different way to spend New Years, and does involve some alcohol, lots of food, but mostly it involves thinking of others. I like that.

So what does that have to do with aspirational prayers for the year? Plain and simple – I’ve written this novel I’ve self published and am trying to do a final edit so I can take it to print. A lot of work. Long ago I promised to offer all proceeds to the temples badly needed renovation (central air and heat, upgraded electrical, new kitchen and plumbing for those living there and for events like this). This year I added a prayer for this novel to be a success so it can benefit that effort. Would you like to help?

Please join me in that prayer so it may help this pure intention inspired by the communities commitment to compassion for so many others throughout the year.

Wanna buy the book? Search for Blue Moon Bench on any major book source such as iBook, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It’s not been through a last edit, but if you find errors or have any suggestions, just let me know. It’s a great adventure book about interesting and diverse people, including the main couples involvement with Tibetan Buddhism and kindness towards others. Their just American born people like myself, trying to make our way through a life that has difficulty and great blessings bundled together. A murder mystery in the southwest with intrigue, romance and mystery.

Hope your new year is perfect, and that you will be free of suffering.

D L Blanchard

UnPlugged – Letting Go!

On By bluemoonbenchIn Distribution, News, Story Behind the Story, Tibetan BuddhismLeave a comment

Bloggers, Unplugged

What is it like having spent years, literally years, writing a novel you believe in and then having to convince others of it being worthy of their time? Writing and rewriting: copywriting it, creating a cover, getting it ready to ebook publish it, with formatting and hard work; then getting it ready for print. Re-reading it and re-writing it again. And then you have to sweat and labor at trying to get people to read it! Imagine that. I believe in my storyline, my characters, the premise, the motivation. I worked hard. I’m a published author, I’m a good story teller, it has all the elements. And yet… I have to find ways to market it myself. It’s exhausting!

And now… I’m going unplugged!

I lived in northern Arizona for almost 17 years. It was like being on vacation every day. I remember having a window in my shower, and one summer day I came home from a hike, took a shower with the window open. The smell of the Ponderosa pine tree outside the window drifted in along with the warm summer breeze. It reminded me of summers spent with my family on vacation in California. That feeling of expectation is in the novel.

I’d get home from work in Flagstaff and ride my mountain bike before dinner, whizzing up a canyon single track trail to a water tank that all the wildlife used every day. Deer, moose, wild pigs, and small animals like raccoons and rabbits. Sometimes the wildflowers grew so high I could reach out my hand from my bike and swirl their tops as I passed. A friend of mine told a story of how one day as he rode that same single track, a herd of moose came from out the woods and for a few moments he rode with the moose as if he was part of the herd! What a beautiful place. That experience of beauty is in the novel.

It’s all in the novel. The Native American culture, the suspense of the southwest, the beauty of the land and it’s mystery. It’s all in the book. I opened my heart, my imagination, my love for that part of the world to share with others — unplugged.

I’m letting go.

The novel’s sales are intended to benefit the Tibetan Buddhist center which is in horrible need of renovation. The electrical wiring is out of date, the heating system groans, the air conditioning consists of window units in each of the nuns rooms even in 100 degree heat. The kitchen air conditioner just isn’t sufficient enough and it’ always sweating hot there. I wanted to help.

I’m letting go.

Buy the book, don’t buy the book. But I’ll sleep good tonight knowing that I tried every day for years to send people to the website, encourage friends to read it, invite perfect strangers to give it a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iBookstore so others might be encouraged to read it.

I believe in the novel. I’m letting go of the worry. I believe it will win the interest and gain in popularity. Especially if I pray. I have asked others to pray.

I’m letting go. But I’m not giving up. Read Blue Moon Bench. You won’t be sorry.

Amazon; Blue Moon Bench

Barnes and Noble

On any mobile device just search for Blue Moon Bench Blanchard
And thank you for letting me become a little unplugged. It felt good.

Tony Hillerman Prize

On By bluemoonbenchIn Story Behind the Story, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve worked so hard on this novel, and it took so long to get it just right, but sadly I haven’t had the time to promote or find ways to market it because I work fulltime as a UX/UI Designer for the government.  I just learned about the Tony Hillerman Prize which is a competition for mystery novels set in the American southwest, written by a first-time author in the mystery genre. A perfect fit for Blue Moon Bench. So off it goes!!

St. Martin's PressThis novel was in inspiration that came from my love of the southwest, its culture, and its beauty. Now that I’m living on the east coast I often look back at when I was writing it while living in Tucson, Arizona, and it brings great joy to think it might actually find an audience that loves the southwest and romantic fiction like I do.

I’m very excited about sending my novel off to the competition, and hope you will all wish me well. This is my first attempt since self publishing it (besides this site, and my book trailer) at trying to get this novel off the shelf and into the hands of the readers!