Finding the Story in a Song

I fell in love with country music late in life even though I grew up with it.  I remember an 8 track tape my parents loved (note they loved it, not me).  I couldn't tell you who the singer was, but I can still sing most of the songs..."Roll muddy river, roll on muddy river, roll onnnnn.  I've got a notion you'll go to the ocean..."  I grew up and forgot about country for a while.  It was my parents' music, so it couldn't be cool.

But then I started watching country videos and was hooked all over again.  I discovered that country songs could tell an entire story in under four minutes.  Tim McGraw's, Don't Take the Girl.  Travis Tritt's Tell Me I was Dreaming...heck that whole trilogy.  (And as someone who loves writing trilogies and series, I love that he did a trilogy of songs!)

When I started writing, I discovered that sometimes it wasn't the songs telling A STORY...it was a song telling MY STORY.  The biggest example was Keri Noble's Piece of My Heart.  There was no video with it, but I played that song hundreds of times as I wrote Same Time Next Summer.  That song fit the mood of the book, and it fit the story.  To this day, whenever it plays on my iPod, I'm immediately back on that beach in Ohio with my characters.

This month, the final book in my A Valley Ridge Wedding trilogy is out.  I so loved writing A Walk Down the Aisle. In the first two books in the trilogy (You Are Invited... and April Showers) readers met Sophie and Colton, a seemingly perfect couple.  But here's the thing, no one is perfect.  No relationship is perfect.  But I think that sometimes we shine even brighter because of our imperfections.  More than that, I think relationships are stronger when people have to work at them.

The book was on the shelf when I bought a copy of Lady Antebellum's new album, Golden.  It's awesome (that's not a shocker...love them!).  And as I listened, I heard the title song, Golden and realized, they were singing my book.  If you replaced the word Witchita with Valley Ridge it would be perfect.  You can almost see the book's hero, Colton, a farmer, walking through his fields and reveling at a sunset.  You know that he keeps Sophie close to his heart and in his dreams.  What he has to learn in the book is to accept her flaws...no not only accept them, but treasure them.

Listen to the song as you read the book.  If you've already read it, listen and let me know if you think it's as perfect a fit as I do.   I'm anxious to see if anyone else finds the story in the song.  Have you ever read a book and had it remind you of a song, or vice versa??

Holly

PS On a totally unrelated note, I have a short story that's free today for Kindle.

May-December Friendships

Yesterday was Mother's Day.  I saw, or heard from, all of my kids.  And as always, I marveled that I am so lucky to have these four amazing people in my life!  Oh, it's not that they don't drive me a bit crazy on occasion, but they are some of my very favorite people on earth (along with my husband).  Being a mother has been one of my most treasured jobs.

Yesterday I wrote a blog for Mother's Day about my grandmother and a very special teapot.  She was a strong woman, a 'feisty' woman who loved so fiercely.  Add to that my own mother and my mother-in-law, two women who taught me so much...well, I think that's why the idea of family is the the focus of so many of my stories.  It's because I've been blessed to be surrounded by a family I not only adore, but truly like!

You Are Invited...

This month, the second book in my A Valley Ridge Wedding trilogy, April Showers, was released.  The first book, You Are Invited..., dealt with a woman who inherits three children. This second book  in addition to the romance between Lily and Sebastian focuses on a May-December friendship between  Lily, and the hero's grandfather, Hank.

April Showers

There's something special about May-December friendships.  The generations who came before us offer so much wisdom, so many insights.  I've been lucky to have people like Hank in my life!

Yesterday was a day for family.  It was great to have my children celebrate Mother's Day with me yesterday.  It was nice to be able to honor a women who helped shape me in my blog, and to go visit my mom.  I also took time to remember all the people who helped shape the woman I've become.  My grandmother's best friend, Jean, who's read all my books and supported me in so many ways.  Marge, an older friend who helped me shape Lily and Hank's May/December friendship.  And Papa John, a man who wasn't related to me, but was my grandfather in every way that counts.

A Walk Down the Aisle

Do you have older people in your life, related or not, who helped shape the person you've become?

Holly

Truth in Fiction

Blasco Library, Erie, PA

National Library Week is April 14^th through the 19^th.  I've been invited to talk at our local library as part of 

their celebration.  I’ll confess, I am thrilled.

I’ll be talking about incorporating fact into my fiction.

Here’s the thing, I love including fact in my fiction.  Most of my books are set in, or around Erie.  Why?  Because I love Erie.  I love bringing my hometown onto a national, sometimes even and international stage.  My new series talks about the Lake Erie Wine region.  Yes, I had to do research…lots and lots of arduous research. 

But more than settings, I write about subjects and issues that touch me.  Many of my books have dogs in them.  I have dogs.  I know dogs.  Most days I like dogs.  (My dogs were the stars of my December book, Everything But a Dog…they keep waiting for the PUParazzi to hound them.  Alas, they haven’t been hounded yet.)

So many of my books have babies and kids in them.  I have kids.  I know kids.  Most days I like kids.  

Family. 

You Are Invited...
SuperRomance, 4/13

I think that’s the most common theme in my books.  Even when there are no kids present, family always is.  Maybe it’s a hero or heroine’s parent(s).  Maybe it’s friends that have gone beyond mere friendship and moved into the realm of family. 

When I’m asked why I write romance, I say, it’s about the relationships.  It’s fascinating to take two people and watch them find their way to each other, overcoming all obstacles in their way…and there are always obstacles.  I make sure of that. (This is where I insert my very evil writer laugh, bwah ha ha.)  But so does life...it's a big element of truth in fiction.

April Showers
SuperRomance, 5/13

I think that’s why family is such an important theme for me…I love watching the dynamics of how those families function and how they impact that hero and heroine’s journey to love.  My new Valley Ridge trilogy is a great example of that family reality in fiction.  In the first book, You are Invited... the heroine loses a friend who is definitely her family.  She needs to form a new family with her friend's children...and the hero.  In the second book, April Showers, the heroine forms a bond with an elderly man.  He starts out as her landlord, then becomes a friend, and finally becomes family, as surely as those people who share her DNA.  And finally, in the third book, A Walk Down the Aisle... Well, if I tell you how I explore family in that one, I'll be giving too much of the story away.  Suffice to say, yep, it's in there.

Going back to my mention of libraries, the heroine in my December book, the fourth Valley Ridge book, A Valley Ridge Christmas, is a librarian.  I’ve been lucky to have so many wonderful librarians who impacted my life.  I wish I remembered all their names, but I do remember the librarians who came on the Bookmobile every few weeks.  They discovered I was a bookworm and would frequently have a book or two stashed away for me.  And then there’s Miss Kitty.  She was the story lady at the children’s library when my kids were growing up.  All four kids remember her with such fondness.

A Walk Down the Aisle
SuperRomance, 6/13

Truth in fiction.  It’s in every one of my books.  Both the comedies and the dramas.  There’s settings.  There’s exploring what a family is and how it functions.  There are even dogs and the occasional cat.   But mainly there’s love.  And at the heart of all my books, that’s the main theme…love.  Love of town.  Love of pets.  Love of family.  Love of that one special person who despite all the odds, you’re destined to be with.

Holly