Romancing the Genres: June

Showing posts with label June. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

June - a Month of Turning Points and Reassessing ........................ by Delsora Lowe

Hard to believe we are moving into the half-way point of the year. June is known as a month of celebrations; a month when a person celebrates milestones. What comes to mind as visible milestones are weddings and graduations.

I did get married in June, many, many, many years ago. My graduations from high school, and my college associate and bachelor’s degrees, however, were both in late May. So, for me, June is not only about celebrating milestones, but is more about reassessing where I am mid-way through another year. What do I look forward to for the rest of the year, and how do I plan where I want to go (as in both work goals and fun adventures) in the second half of the year.

Some of my June rituals are weekly or bi-weekly visits to the farmers’ market, filling my deck with colorful potted flowers, a tomato plant or two, and a variety of herbs, that grow from seedlings to full-grown plants that I can use throughout the summer in cooking. The grill gets use starting in June, unless we have a few magical, warm weather days in May…or December (HA!). The hum of lawnmowers permeates the air—and at times, the noise snaps me out of drafting an absolutely brilliant piece of writing.

Hey, I have to blame something on the reason why my brain tends to turn to mush as we ease into the summer months.

But, speaking of work, part of my June tasks is to reassess my productivity from January into June. And perhaps tweak my annual goals. Have I edited enough, written first drafts, released books, or kept up my monthly schedule (of which I have a month-by-month grid with story topics,) for producing and submitting 5-minute, sweet romances.

This year, sadly, I have lost a lot of my creative brain. But making a list for the 2^nd half of the year, helps me try harder to actually consult said list and…stick to the plan.

Is it time to reassess my annual goals? ALWAYS! And will I be able take a well-deserved bow at mid-point and celebrate my accomplishments of staying on track as dictated in my new year annual goal plan that kicked off in January? Yes, goal reexamination is part of my personal agenda in June. Is the plan I set out to accomplish this year, reasonable, doable? Or, for sanity’s sake, should I reboot?

But my plans aren’t all work and no play. They also include looking forward to the fun parts of the upcoming summer—my daughter’s family visiting from Colorado in July or August. Spending more time with my grandson here in-state, despite the fact his summer is usually as busy as the school year. And best of all, I'll rejoice in time spent with family and friends, revel in the season of warmth, and applaud the bursts of color that paint our world.

Despite the dreary day as thunderstorms move in, my little corner of the world is ablaze with the color of irises and azaleas and an assortment of flowering trees.

What is your favorite part

about

the month of June?

The Love Left Behind

A HARTFORD ESTATE (wedding venue) Book

Amazon
(also available in print)

Books2Read

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine (most recently, an Easter romance in the April 1, 2024 edition.) The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella with Book 2 on the way. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker – the youngest brother of the Mineral Spring’s ranching family) were the most recent releases. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, to be released in late 2024 or early 2025.

Social Media Links:

Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/delsoraloweauthor/community/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

Images:
Celebrating: celebration clipart images - Google Search
Graduation: Free Vector | Free vector graduation poster (freepik.com)
TimeFlies: Free Vector | Time flies concept illustration (freepik.com)
FrownieFace: Download | FreeImages / Image by Freeimages.com
Flowers: photo by author

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Building Character Partnerships Through Conflict and Resolution … Delsora Lowe

There are so many things that must happen to have a good relationship or partnership. And there are so many things that can derail that same relationship or partnership. Now I don’t begin to claim to know what all those things are or how to solve them in real life. But I do know that what I throw at my characters are the challenges that come from a new or growing or steady and reliable relationship, depending on the story line.

In real life we want to avoid struggles and solve each one as it pops up. As writers, we want to throw challenges and struggles in the path of our characters to force them to deal with conflict by resolving them each step of the way. By dealing with the not so pleasant aspects of life and relationships, our characters learn to work with each other, compromise, and grow. The journey is both full of stumbling blocks and emotional. And if we write romance, the goal is to make sure the heroes and heroines acquire the tools to navigate stumbling blocks, and learn and grow enough to end up HAPPIY-EVER-AFTER with each other.

As if it were that easy.

Truthfully, our goal as writers of romance is to make the characters struggle, learn, and resolve.

One way to make your characters squirm is through conversation. There is research that indicates men and women converse in different ways with different expectations on how the conversation will go.

In an article entitled “‘Manspeak’ and ‘Womanspeak’: Interpretation Needed” in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 10, 2020, the author says:

“Our ponderous query:
Are men and women constitutionally incapable of speaking the same
language?
There is "manspeak," an abbreviated system of monosyllabic responses and an occasional sentence.
And then there is "womanspeak," which undulates and flows with meaning and nuance. Words come easily and are plentiful. Compound sentences and multiple paragraphs are common.
So what happens when you plunk down two different language speakers in one household?
Confusion. Irritation. Frustration. And, of course, communication gaps.”

Having one character interpret the other’s intent, and not get it right, sets both up for conflict in
their relationship. Having the two learn to converse—talk things out, negotiate their different wants and needs—leads to growth for each and eventually a happy resolution.

What we want to see is the characters learning more about each other, struggling along the way, and then learning to compromise and understand. If a reader doesn’t experience the growth, and the conflict that should precipitate growth between the characters that lead to a happy resolution—the prerequisite happily-ever-after in a romance—then they will leave the story behind less satisfied.

As both writers and readers of romance, our goal is to root for the characters to find that happy resolution. But if authors don’t add roadblocks, whether internal angst of some sort, or external forces that cause strife that lead the reader to believe “oh, no, what if these two don’t make it?,” then we don’t give the reader an emotional ride.

June is considered one of the big months for weddings—considered the ultimate in pursuing and eventually achieving a happily-ever-after. But we all know the angst and conflict that can arise in preparing a wedding and getting to the alter. And that emotional struggle continues in every step a couple takes throughout their relationship.

The ups and downs should make couples stronger together and individually, as they navigate the years. That is what romance writers strive for when writing about relationships—the emotional ups and downs that lead to that all important happily-ever-after or happily-for-now.

Here’s to effective communication and happy resolutions!

The Love Left Behind
a wedding novella

Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Left-Behind-Hartford-Estate-ebook/dp/B08L5N5DS9/

Books2Read books2read.com/u/mglVqK

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Social Media Links:

Clip Art:
Free Man And Woman Clipart, Download Free Man And Woman Clipart png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com)
Free Conversation Cliparts, Download Free Conversation Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com)

Article reference:
‘Manspeak’ and ‘womanspeak’: Interpreter needed (inquirer.com)

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Get Me to the Wedding by Delsora Lowe

As a romance writer and reader, who doesn’t love weddings?

And June is synonymous with the premier wedding month. Although, I have to say, I vowed never to get married in June. Fall is my favorite month, and I planned that someday I would marry in September or October. My wedding date was June 5. 😊

As anyone who had been involved in a wedding, whether the bride or the bridesmaid, the mother-of-the bride or an excited guest, we know getting to the wedding is a journey.

In my Starlight Grille series, Moonlighting, book three (SPOILER ALERT) ends in a proposal, and books one, The Legacy of Parkers Point, and two, Come Dance With Me, (SPOILER ALERT) end in weddings. It took a lot of community and character building, plus support and encouragement from friends, for each couple to get to their happily-ever-after.

In my new release, The Prince’s Son, book one of the Cowboys of Mineral Springs, (you guessed it) the ending has to do with this subject, BUT I’m not telling you what happens. Book two, The Rancher Needs a Wife, due out this fall, same subject (but again NO SPOILER).

Can you see a theme here? I do love the epitome of a happy ending. My very first book, which remains packed away “under lock and key and under the bed” was inspired by my daughter’s wedding, in the true-life Maine town in which Serenity Harbor (of the Starlight Grille series) was based on.

The twist in this book was the mother-of-the-bride found her own happily-ever-after during the week leading up to the wedding. This book was a book of my heart—my first book and a book about a woman my age (at the time I wrote this book, I was a LOT younger). And someday, when I can find the typed version of the manuscript (somewhere in a packed box), I will rewrite it. Sadly, the whole book got wiped out when a repair person came to update the internet and computer in 2001. But I still remember various parts of the story.

The newest romance trope is writing about “seasoned” characters, as they find love the second time around, a twist on the second chance trope. Although I’ve personally vowed never to marry again 😊, I’m pretty sure if I found the perfect mate, I would.

So, of course, I have thought about weddings for the over-fifty generation. I imagine they will look much different from the weddings of the younger crowd. Probably smaller and more intimate. Not as formal. Perhaps a destination wedding with family and close friends. Or elopement, then a big party. Or maybe no wedding at all. Living in two homes, with partially separate lives as they mold their relationship to fit into long-held, single-status of both, but still wanting to share most of their time together in their own version of a happily-ever-after. The options are endless.

This is the fun of writing about weddings. There are so many variations, that the topic is always fresh. And for those writers who pen series, the love story of a primary set of characters in book one can result in a proposal and wedding in the books that follow. You may have noticed that trend in several Hallmark movies that have turned into a series of movies that end with the wedding.

One of my college friends was married in a tiny, old, and very cold chapel in February, back in the day when New England winters were frigid and the snow was high. The setting and ambiance were breathtaking. Another was married by the ocean. And another in a sweet, old church renovated into a small event venue overlooking a cove filled with working lobster boats.

So much potential. Weddings. Celebrate them, whether in June or October or any other month of the year.

Oooooh, I think I have several wedding story ideas percolating. With that, I’ll say goodbye and start making notes.

Until then, enjoy the myriad of wedding-based romance books and movies that are sure to be released this month.

Tell me if you have a favorite wedding story, fictional or not. Or a favorite dream wedding venue or location.

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine.

Social Media Links:

Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Author FaceBook page: fb.me/delsoraloweauthor
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe

Amazon E-Book

PHOTO CREDITS:

Engagement https://pixabay.com/illustrations/love-romantic-relationship-together-3581038/
Bride and Groom Silhouette http://www.oogazone.com/2018/unique-bride-and-groom-silhouette-clip-art-photos/
Dancing in Sneakers https://pixabay.com/photos/marriage-bridal-wedding-shoes-636018/
“Marry Me” - In the Sand https://www.thefashionisto.com/how-plan-caribbean-beach-wedding-7-best-tips/
Hanging hearts https://pixabay.com/photos/heart-love-romance-valentine-700141/
Older Couple https://pixabay.com/photos/beach-wedding-happy-couple-sunset-1934732/
Small Chapel http://clipart-library.com/clipart/2096463.htm
Dancing Wedding Couple https://pixabay.com/photos/people-couple-love-hug-dance-2597818/

Monday, June 10, 2019

I Do even when it's a Dont!

By: Marcia King-Gamble

www.lovemarcia.com

Growing up, little girls were fed this fairytale idea of what weddings should be. Weddings were a measure of your worth, and a culmination of what life was about. You'd gotten your man.

At some point, every woman expected Prince Charming to arrive on his white horse, and sweep her off her feet. At last, everything would be right in her world. A castle awaited her, and when she said, “I do,” white doves would flutter up to the sky, and pyrotechnics would go off around her, even if those fireworks were only in her head. Marriage meant you made it. Someone loved you.

Weddings were a celebration and it was an honor to be invited. Proud dads were glad to hand their daughters off to the would be groom, as they would be taken care of, and there would be a forever and ever.

That was one of the reasons I fell in love with the romance genre, because of what I read, heard, and imagined. In fact, when I first started reading romance novels, and writing them, the satisfying ending to every love story was the over the top wedding.

The above picture confirms Match.com works. But lovely as wedding ceremonies, and receptions can be, the brutal truth, is that regardless of how well planned, things go wrong. We learn to roll with it, hopefully with humor, trusting our guests to have enough alcohol in them not to notice, or to ignore the hiccups that come with putting an expensive, orchestrated event together.

Weddings, no matter how simple or small, can be pricey occasions. Some are funny, some are sad, and some are downright ridiculous. Some have you remembering them for ever and ever, and not necessarily in a good way.

Over the years, I have seen and heard everything at these events. I have seen brides arrive to church by way of pick-up trucks. I have seen ornery, pet goats as part of the bridal party. Unsupervised, they've taken large chunks out of the bridal party's bouquets. I've seen in-laws who make it known loud and clear, the bride or groom would not have been their choice. I’ve experienced the cash bar, when no one tells you in advance, and you have no money. I've seen the drunk mother of the bride, proposition the groom, and I've been where the main entertainment was the bride and groom's reenactment of a scene from the Wild, Wild West. This was in Alaska, by the way, when I unknowingly became an extra during dinner at the hotel's restaurant.

Several years ago, I was invited to a wedding in a state park. The groom was handsome, and a young, up and coming entrepreneur, destined for greatness. He’d just made the cover of a popular magazine. The bride was the heiress of a publishing family. The family had spent seventy five thousand dollars (which even by today’s standards is pricey,) to reserve the park. My then husband and I were excited to be included as guests. The ceremony went off flawlessly, but the bride never made it out to cut the cake. She was way too intoxicated, and so the band played on. The disgusted groom eventually left the event and hitchhiked home. The marriage was quickly annulled.

This is just one of the many drunk wedding stories out there. We hear tales of wedding guests getting into fights, (alcohol having much to do with it.) There are stories of lost wedding bands, and former lovers storming the event, hoping to stop it, and marriages not being consummated because of some surprise issue that turned up. And we have witnessed everything from animals going wild, doing everything from defecating in the aisle to biting the crying ring-bearer.

During my cruise industry life, I heard a story of a destination wedding gone wrong. Unfortunately, a hurricane hit the island, and the window of the hotel room blew out. The wedding dress was sucked out into the storm and the grooms tuxedo was so drenched, it actually shrunk. Signs of things to come, maybe?

There are stories on the Internet of bridesmaids fired via email, and asked to return dresses so replacements could wear them. There’s the bride who sent her guests a misspelled list of Do’s and Don’ts at her wedding. Please adhere to my wedding rules, or kindly don’t attend.

One of the cutest stories I’ve heard is of the seventy year grandmother who ran off to Las Vegas to get married in her granddaughter’s old prom dress. She was marrying her seventy four year old love.

The wedding stories are cute, bizarre, and at times downright ugly, yet we continue to believe in love, and marriage remains a sign that we are committed enough to a person to want to give it a try. When it works there is nothing better.

I leave you with one of the sweetest wedding stories I’ve heard. A tale of meant to be.

They were only three years old, and served as the ring bearer and flower girl at the groom’s godmother's wedding. Soon after, they went their separate ways, until a decade or so later, their paths crossed again. This time in high school, when the flower girl brought in a picture from that wedding. It was the same one the boy had hanging in the hallway of his home. The wedding was the only time he’d seen her until then. They dated shortly after and ended up getting married.

It’s a beautiful story and makes you believe in fate. And that is why we continue to marry, because weddings make us happy and fill us with hope.

About Marcia King-Gamble

Romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This travel industry executive and current world traveler has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over 34 books and 8 novellas. Her free time is spent at the gym, traveling to exotic locales, and caring for her animal family.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS

Be sure to join her mailing list.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

My Wedding Story

Well, it's June, the month of graduations, summer and weddings. This happens to be a special month for me for not only is it the beginning of time spent in the garden with the sun shinning down on me, but it also happens to be the month of my wedding anniversary. And since it is, I thought I'd discuss weddings. In particular, my own. I know, everyone has a wedding story, and yes everyone is unique. But what would a story be without some sadness, love and humor.

My wedding story could have been like anyone else's. Only, mine turned out to be one of the best days in my life. Yes, I know almost every bride says that. First, a little backstory. I met my husband when we were just teenagers, became best friends and then dated. At six months, at our homecoming dance, he proposed to me and of course I said yes. Who wouldn't right?

We were engaged for three and a half years before we finally decided it was time. He had joined the 101st infantry so for two years we spent apart. Half a world for six months of that. After his stay overseas the knowledge that we couldn't stand to be apart anymore slapped us on the head. I flew out to Tennessee and within two weeks we were married.

No, there wasn't a grand ceremony with lots and family and friends. No, there wasn't dancing and partying late into the night at an expensive celebration. It was just him, me and a few of his military buddies to celebrate the big day. Oh and the Justice of Peace. But the love in that room that day that I will never forget. One of his buddies did buy us a bottle of champagne to celebrate and we did set off a few fireworks that night, but it was the genuine good wishes and the love between us that made the celebration a hit. I remember it fondly every June. especially coming up on our 14th year.

What's your wedding story?