A Calming View and Dreams .... by Delsora Lowe

Visiting my son’s house with the wonderful view of a cove that leads out to the Atlantic Ocean, with sailboat’s white sails bobbing on the water beyond the jut of land and a tiny bridge leading to an island, always calms me.

On a very hot day in Maine, I sit under the ceiling fan in the cool living room that lets in the ocean breeze but not the heat of the sun. And I listen and watch and dream about my bucket list, which includes my own house with such a view. A place that inspires me to write.

But alas, even though I love my little landlocked view from my writing desk, these water views inspire me to write. So, with a day off from computers and writing, and with words and images insisting on churning through my mind, I grabbed my phone and wrote a stream of consciousness…

 

The continuous, high chirps emanating from the leaf cover.

 

West bound wind off the ocean furling leaves bright green to dark, depending on how deep the sun penetrates the canopy of the huge oak standing between me and the ocean.

 

The water a constant movement of ripples headed toward beach.

A white gull’s lazy travel, swooping and landing on the barely submerged sandbar.

 

The water morphing from the color of cement gray to a tailored, summer weight, wool-gray to light turquoise to yellow-green and back to a darker turquoise as the ocean laps against the opposite shore of the cove.

 

The barrier of bright pink and deep red blossoms gracing bushes of dark green-leafed, sea-side roses in the yard across the street.

The hum of the nearby interstate traffic weaving from one end of the city to the other, broken by sirens racing down the highway and a plane roaring into the summer sky from the nearby airport.

 

Then back to the consistent chirp, chew, chew, chirp, chirp buzz of birds.

 

Saturday afternoon, away from computer and household chores and headline news I want to make disappear. The news that makes me regress to my innocence, fifty years ago when I was first old enough to understood policy and politics, hate and love, kindness and cruelty…

Today, I concentrate on the sounds, and the feel of comforting breezes and hot sun and water rippling from the light puffs of wind and nature living its life in the sheltered trees.

Those thoughts, scribbled to clear my brain, allowed creativity to be unlocked.

The tranquil view and the quiet of the house and neighborhood with only sounds of wind and birds and an occasional meow as Luna wandered into the house and plopped down next to me on the couch, her head gently pushing against my leg as she leaned into my caress, helped to settle me.

Views and pets calmed my anger at the world we live in that can’t treat every human being with respect and love.

Thank goodness for serene scenery, nature’s sounds, and dreams of a room with a view where I can get lost in words that will lead to a story with a happy ending. My escape from a harsh world. And…the reason I write romance.

What is on your bucket list?

Amazon: (also in print) https://www.amazon.com/Starlight-Grille-Serenity-Harbor-Collection-ebook/dp/B07CN8JV2Z/  
Books2Read   books2read.com/u/3yDjWe

~ 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.

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. Her newest novella is The Love Left Behind. Look for both a Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) later this fall.

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/

Photo Credits: Delsora Lowe

Location, Location, Location - Sue Moorcroft

In the summer of 2021, when I was writing Summer at the French Café, travel between the UK and France was tricky. I did have a research trip booked but Covid restrictions obliged me to cancel. However, I’d chosen to set the novel in Alsace, France because I’d researched the area for Just for the Holidays and therefore had contacts, my memory bank, and a great photo library. I also had, ready made in my imagination, the village of Kirchhoffen and the town of Muntsheim.

Maybe you’ve noticed that those names sound more German than French. Alsace has a mixed history, as it has several times switched between being French and German. The border between France and Germany now seems settled as the Rhine River (Rhein in German, Rhin in French, Rijn in Dutch) but Alsace has a Germanic appearance, to this British eye. It’s a beautiful region. Many of the buildings are tall and narrow, brightly coloured and timbered. The Rhine and The Rhône have a multitude of tributaries to provide not just a border but a network of smaller rivers and canals, spanned by iron bridges edged with flowers.

It’s not unusual for menus to name dishes in both French and German and many languages are heard owing to Alsace’s position – not just sharing borders with Germany and Switzerland but close to The Netherlands, Belgium and northern Italy, and having its own dialect: Alsatian. Alsace is also within striking distance of Brits, once they find their way over, under or across the English Channel. I flew to the largest city of Alsace, Strasbourg, but I’ve also driven through Alsace en route to Switzerland, having gone beneath the English Channel on the train.

The village of Kirchhoffen, where Kat lives in Summer at the French Café and Leah and family stay in Just for the Holidays (Just for the Summer in the US and Canada), is based on Ostwald, where a friend of mine lives. It’s on the same tramline and is the same distance from Strasbourg but I usually like to fictionalise my settings so I can add and subtract at will.

The park in Summer at the French Café, where both Kat and Noah work, I have transplanted from Northamptonshire, in England. Wicksteed Park has everything from rollercoasters and carousels to lakes, wild walks and formal gardens. Unsurprisingly, it’s known for miles around. My own home is built on land bought from the park nearly a hundred years ago. I understand that the site was a pony track, and we found several horseshoes in the garden when we first moved here. When my local gym was closed, I walked in the park almost every day and not only mentally transplanted it to Alsace but added a parade of shops, including Café et Livres, the book café that Kat runs. (I know that ‘Café et Livres’ is ungrammatical to the French eye but the book café is owned by Brits and the name they chose is easy for tourists to understand. Also, even a French friend couldn’t come up with anything better.) I’ve used the park layout for Parc Lemmel and ‘borrowed’ a little of its history, having it bequeathed to the public by a successful industrialist. I’ve added staff quarters, but their position is hazy in my imagination. I’m afraid they’re probably situated where homes exist in real life.

Summer at the French Café and Just for the Holidays are connected only by setting and Kat, who is the heroine of the former and made a fleeting appearance in the latter. But with a combination of real places and a village and town I created, these novels needed just one more thing – sunny weather! And that, I was delighted to add. A long, hot summer is everything in a summer book.

Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author and has reached the #1 spot on Kindle UK and Top 100 Kindle US. She’s won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary. Published by HarperCollins in the UK, US and Canada and by other publishers around the world, Sue’s next book is Summer at the French Café (Avon, HarperCollins) published on 12^th May in paperback, ebook and audio.

Part of a British army family, Sue was born in Germany and then lived in Cyprus and Malta before settling in the UK. She left Germany at only six weeks old but has since learned enough German to order beer (several kinds).