What is family?

Questions.

That's where all stories start. 

What if?

Something Perfect (the last book of the Hometown Weddings and the second last book of the series) started with the question What if...? and then proceeded with a daughter asking, Who am I? Where am I from? What is family? 

You've seen me ask and answer those particular questions over and over again in my books.  Each character and each story has a slightly different answer. But all those answers are rooted in the same place...Love.  That's what makes a family.

For me, that question of where I'm from—who I'm from—is foundational.  I didn't meet my bio-father until I was in my thirties. Knowing he was out there but not knowing anything about him left me with so many questions.  And as a writer, questions are part of my job description. I had a burning need to find the answers. When I first met him, he tried to answer as many questions as he could. (I come from generations of Appalachian stock with a titled Englishman, a Scottish laird and some Quakers.) He was nice but he wasn't family. As time went on and I grew to know and love him and one day he was. Just like that. Like magic. He was family. Love...that makes family more than DNA.

The Hometown Hearts Wedding trilogy (Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Something Perfect) is all about how a family is made.  Three women become friends and grow into family. Each of them finds their own true love...and their own true family!

There's a short story, Something Unexpected, this summer, then the final book, A Hometown Christmas in September. 

Thanks all of you who've taken these journeys with me! 

Holly

Hometown Hearts

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

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A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

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Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

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 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

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Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

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Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

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Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 available 5/21

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Preorder: Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story, available 7/21
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Preorder: A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8, available 9/21
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Happy Valentine's!

Family.

I've built a life and my writing career around family.

This Hometown Hearts Wedding trilogy deals with families. Friends who become families. Families who are made through adoption. Families who are born...Family. Watching people come together, fall apart, adapt... It's a fascinating process. Every story comes at it from a new direction.

We've talked before about how my real life impacts my writing. In March's book,  Something Blue, I deal with dementia in an older loved one. It's a reality I know about. My grandmother slowly lost her battle with dementia over years. Then we adopted a neighbor who also battled that kind of loss. It's an awful process. And you might be thinking, Holly, that's too grim to read about.  But that's not all there is. My grandmother always knew me and my kids. We visited every day. Even after she couldn't remember our names, she knew she was ours and we were hers. The connection was still there. She knew she was loved and she wasn't alone.

We saw the same thing with our neighbor. The Minions owned her entire nursing home. We walked over regularly. The two littles would dress up in their superhero capes and ride their scooters (you can't ride a bike in a cape). Not only did she know we were hers and she was ours, the entire nursing home knew the Minions. They high-fived their way through the halls. Some days they were Batman and Robin, sometimes they were Superman and the Green Lantern... What I loved the most is how gentle they were with everyone. They didn't worry if our neighbor didn't know their names. They filled her in on their day and chatted away and she loved it. 

We missed those visits last year.

Someone once questioned why we visited if a patient didn't know us. I think that even when memories have gone, when someone is lost in their own mind, they recognize love. They feel it. It's a bright light in a dark place. So we visited. My kids and the Minions learned lessons on patience, empathy and love. And our loved ones learned no matter what they were never alone.

Those are the things I tried to put in Something Blue. Connection. Empathy. Love. I know I write romances and writing about love is obviously a part of that, but I really try to write about broader loves. About family. About all the ways they come together and all the ways they stand together.

I've built a life around family and I've built a career around it.

I am so lucky in both! And Valentine's Day seems like the perfect day to talk about that kind of love.

I hope you'll check out the entire Hometown Hearts series and Something Blue!

Holly

 Hometown Hearts:

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

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A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

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Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

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Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

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Preorder: Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

Available 1/5/21

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PREORDER: Something Blue Available 3/21

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Preorder Something Perfect Available 5/21

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HollysWoodsStudio

Family

 I tend to join Ancestry every few years to update my family tree. They're always adding new resources, so there's generally something new to find. One great-grandmother was a complete mystery when I started my family tree. My grandmother was adopted. A family friend told me her adopted father was in actuality her biological father. I found her original birth certificate and the father listed was a variation of his name so I thought that clicked. And there was a mother's name listed.

Before DNA testing was available, I was pretty sure I tracked down my grandmother's mother. And I listed her adopted father as her bio father on my tree, though I didn't have proof. Since then, DNA has shown that her dad was her biological father, and my guess at her mom was correct as well.

Here's the thing, I like knowing who I came from, but I also know who my family truly is. I look at those names on my family tree and can trace my roots to Ireland, England and Germany.  I can follow my northern family lines from a Brown University founder to Erie, PA. I can trace my southern family line from the Appalachian Mountains, to Erie. I know I've had politicians, doctors, sea captains, train engineers, homesteaders and share croppers in that tree. 

All that is great and truly fascinating but my family? My real family? Well, there's John. Papa John to me. He wasn't related through DNA, but he was my Papa through and through. He gardened. Every Christmas he brought me a poinsettia and every Easter a hyacinth. (Himself occasionally tries to buy me an Easter flower to remind me of Papa...and he invariably buys a lily. But that always makes me smile and think of Papa anyway! LOL) Then there's Elmer. He wasn't a blood relation either, but he was my grandpa. He lived on a farm in western Erie county. He mowed a golf course in the summers and had permanently sun burned arms. His mom was named Maggie Mae and I have the vaguest memory of her in a rocker.  Both of these "grandfathers" were my real family.

Family isn't DNA. I mean, I love knowing these people and their paths that all converged and led me here, but Papa and Elmer...they were family. 

I think my fragmented family tree is why writing stories about how families come together is such a theme for me. That's what the entire Hometown Hearts series is. In Crib Notes there's an unexpected pregnancy and a baby who finds a true father. In A Special Kind of Different there's a special needs character who brings together a special relationship and creates a family. In Homecoming a loss leads to the discovery that hearts have infinite room...loving someone new doesn't take away from others you've loved. And in this month's Suddenly a Father, Tucker was a teen mom who spent her adult years taking care of her son and her career. She's never needed anything—anyone—else. But she meets a man who truly knows what family is and is willing to put his entire life on the line for them. How can she resist him? (She can't. LOL)

Next year's stories continue that exploration of family in Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Perfect and Something for Christmas. 

Family. It's a fascinating subject that I will never get tired of exploring in my life and my writing. 

Thank you everyone who's come along for the ride! I hope you'll pick up this month's release, Suddenly a Father and the first three books as well!

Holly

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

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A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

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Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3
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Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

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Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5
PREORDER. Available 1/21
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A Little Life

I will confess, I live what might appear to be a little life. It's a life built around family and creating. Writing has been a huge part of my life for a long time. But when I took my first pottery class, I knew that would be a part of my life as well. Yes, it was love at first...wedge! LOL We went round and round about where to put my pottery studio (after I'd exhausted all the classes at the university!). I could put it at home, but my options were limited. So we decided to put it at The Cottage. We had more than enough room for sure. We started building the barn last August. And by June, my studio was up and working!

The view is amazing! I spent Monday out there working. I didn't turn on any music...I didn't need to. My Cooper's Hawks are back and were very vocal. Their nest is not far from the barn. I was afraid we'd scare them off with all the building last year, but nope. They're back. The red salamanders are all over! And I rescued a toad that got into the barn the other day. I didn't want Tallulah to find him and taste him. LOL A ton of birds just added to the chorus. Who needs any other music.

The minions came and spent a day at camp last weekend. They played with sticks and lightsabers. LOL (The sticks were Ewok's sticks.) And we took a hike to Second Creek. Yes, we named the creek that borders the back of the property Second Creek. It's not overly creative, but is an accurate description.  We also have other areas named...Powerline Path, Monkey Island (no one's quite sure where that came from) and other areas.

Yes, it's a little life. I wouldn't want it any other way.  I've built my life around family and love. Whether I'm writing love stories about families (like my Hometown Hearts series...that was a sly mention) or loving working on my pottery. It's a little, but lucky life because I love what I do and who I'm sharing my life with.

I think the secret to a happy life is recognizing what's good in your life and giving thanks for it. I hope when you take a look at your life, you find you're as happy with yours as I am with mine! 

Holly

PS. If you have a moment, I hope you'll check out my Hometown Hearts series. Each book stands alone, but since it's a small town, you're bound to bump into someone you know in each book!

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

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A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

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Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

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PREORDER  Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Available in September

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I Wish I Wrote...

My daughter said that she was loving Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. So, I tried it out (it's on NBC and Hulu) and...I love it. I mean I really love it. I just watched Episode 9. Not just loved it, I wish I wrote it. Sigh.

When I started writing, I wrote romantic comedy. And even at my most zany, I tried to find the heart of the story. People living in my comedies never found their situations funny. Whether they're worrying about going to jail and getting a tattoo (where do you put your prison tattoo that won't wrinkle?) or worrying whether a kiss is a kiss or just mouth-to-mouth, the obstacle was real to them. LOL

 On the surface,  a girl who can hear people singing their heart-truth (her term) sounds silly. But there're so many deeper undercurrents to Zoey's EP. Today's episode dealt with a hearing-impaired character who was struggling to proclaim her independence.

It really hit me.

And I for a moment I wondered why it hit me so hard. I mulled it over and  I realized I wrote that character in A Special Kind of Different's Colm. I've built a career around characters who have a challenge and overcome it. Sometimes a special need, but mainly just life. Originally I helped them meet that challenge through comedy. I've taught a lot of classes on writing comedy and the point I always come back to is comedy and drama are two sides of the same coin. The same situation can be written either way. When I moved on from writing straight up comedy, that relationship between comedy and drama became a balance in my writing. I love when someone tells me a book made them laugh...and cry. (That sounds so mean. LOL)

Writing characters who overcome fascinates me. I think that the gift writing has given me is realizing we all come with challenges. Sometimes those challenges are visible and easy to see, but everyone has something. Fictional and real people. (To be honest, they're all real to me.) And watching them work so hard to overcome their obstacles...that's what keeps me coming back to writing, day after day, year after year.

Check out Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, and check out my Hometown Heart series. Hopefully both will make you laugh...and maybe cry a bit (no meanness intended LOL).

Holly

On Sale: Crib Notes, HH #1

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Out Now: A Special Kind of Different, HH #2

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Preorder: Homecoming, HH #3
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The rest of the Hometown Hearts series will be coming soon.
Suddenly a Father will be out in September of 2020 and
Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Something Perfect in 2021!

PS and if you're looking for a short read, check out my dog Tallulah's pandemic romance, Quarantine! Okay, so the dog isn't the main character, but please don't tell her that. She thinks she's the star!

New Puppy during the Pandemic

Like so much of the country, Pennsylvania has a stay-at-home order. Right before the state went on lockdown, we got a new puppy. Tallulah Mae. I'll confess, she's been keeping us busy. As a writer, staying at home is my normal.  This week, I've been writing another short story, Quarantine, this week in between house-training a puppy, homeschooling the minions and working on the barn.

Quarantine

I've also been trying to post upbeat messages of hope and glee on my social media accounts! In the midst of this crisis good things still happen. Kids laugh, puppies chase balls, and people love. People fall in love. That's the story I wanted to tell in this short story. I didn't want to minimize the tragedy of what's going on, but rather I wanted to remind myself and anyone who reads it that in the midst of awfulness, good things happen. I hope this short story does that.

As always, there are elements of real life in my fiction. Of course this one has a puppy in it. Tallulah Mae to be exact. And it's a story of heroes. A nurse and a grocer. I think this crisis has reminded us all that heroes are everywhere.

I still love writing short stories. Those were my first writing sales and they're still such a joy to write. I hope you check out Quarantine and I'm including the list of the other shorts I have up and available.  And don't forget the first two books in my Hometown Hearts series are out, and the third is up for preorder!

I hope you all are staying safe and staying at home. I hope despite everything that's going on, you're still finding moments of glee in your days.

If, like me, you're home with kids, I've got some tips on what we're doing here with 4-8 year olds. Tip 1 & Tip 2.

Holly

The Reader and Writer Connection

Susan and I talked about Perfection, which led to us talking about creating and letting go this week on our Trippin' with Holly and Susan video series. I'd done a blog post about it not too long ago. That idea of making then letting go is one I think every writer and artist grapples with.

I had an English teacher years ago and we kind of disagreed about books' meanings. She'd say, "The author was trying to say..."  I didn't agree. I might find a certain meaning in a writer's words, or in a painting or piece of ceramics. But I'm bringing my own experience and bias to it. If you read the same book or looked at the same piece, you might see something entirely different. So unless the teacher had a written explanation of intent from the author or knew them, she could only know her opinion. Each of us brings our own experience and bias to any art. We see what we want to see...sometimes what we need to see.

That's the beauty of creating. I create with intent. But once I let a book go, you own the story. It speaks to you in whatever place you happen to be.

That's a beautiful, symbiotic relationship.

Thanks to everyone who's partnered with me in the past! I hope you'll come back and check out my new Hometown Hearts series!

Holly

Gifts

I know many things about myself.
I love my family and Himself.
I treasure my friends.
I have Medusa hair.
I do not truly wake up until I have hot, strong black coffee in my hand.
I love to read, play with ceramics, learn new things...
I feel most at home out in the middle of the woods at the cottage.
I am a busy sort of person.
I am not a patient patient...

Oh, that last one.
I've been having some ongoing issues since summer with my bad leg. It has put a bit of a hitch in my giddiup this summer and fall. Well, last week, they took out my decades-old hardware and we're hoping this last surgery is the LAST surgery. Yes, my bionic leg is screw and plateless. It's a regular old leg. And I'm on crutches for a bit while those screw holes in the femur heal.

Uh, remember that not patient patient Holly fact? It's coming into play. But I'm being very well behaved even if I'm not patient. I'm resting a lot and slowly rebuilding my strength. All my wood-splitting means my arms aren't doing too bad with the crutches. So I'm moving more slowly than usual, but I'm moving.

I'm setting small goals for myself. For instance, yesterday I made the bed and made the morning coffee. Poor Himself did pretty much of the rest of my daily routine, but darn that bed looked nice and the coffee was just the way I like it, hot, strong black coffee. Today, I've already made the coffee, I'm making that darn bed, and I'm going to find one more new thing to throw in the mix. Maybe unload a dishwasher. Anyway, that's how I'm going to measure my recovery...one new (regular) thing at a time.

My ultimate goal is to be back in the studio by the end of January. I've always been someone who likes to work with goals. I try to have realistic goals. It's almost time to pick my word for 2020. And I'm not going to wait until the new year to pick it. I'm going to pick it now. Patience.

I've always found it easier to be patient with others than patient with myself. There's so much in the world I want to learn and do. So many new things to explore. That hitch in my giddiup is slowing it all up. But slow doesn't mean stopped. So I'm being patient. Or at least trying to.

Here's the thing, goals are great. They give us something to move towards. But I think we have to be kind to ourselves and be patient with ourselves. Sometimes life happens. And our goals have to change. I might not be hosting my big Christmas Eve bash this year (thanks to my marvelous sister-in-law for taking that on), but darn the bed is made. LOL And I've read 600 pages in that 1,000 page book my son has been telling me to read (Brandon Sanderson is an amazing author) and I truly binge-watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's new season. Yeah, most of the time I don't have the time to binge watch. My leg has derailed my plans, but it's also given me time to do things I wouldn't normally have time to do. Every obstacle comes with gifts in its hands!

So Ella and I are going to sit on this couch under my buffalo plaid blanket and read the paper today. (Well, she doesn't do much of the reading.) Then I'm going to make that darned bed and find a way to do one more thing from my normal routine today.

And by the end of January, I'm going back to the studio. In the meantime, I'm going to look for all the gifts this particular obstacle has in its hands! And I'm going to patiently celebrate and embrace each of those gifts! And while we're talking about gifts, let me take a moment to wish you all a wonderful holiday season! Talk to you in 2020!

Holly

PS. I have two Christmas books on sale, and the first two Hometown Hearts books are available for preorder!! I hope you'll check them both out. And check our the Dear Reader Letter on A Special Kind of Different's Amazon page. Celebrating our differences gives me glee!!

Christmas in Cupid Falls

Everything But a Christmas Eve

Crib Notes HH #1

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A Special Kind of Different HH#2