Romancing the Genres: colors

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

What I Look Forward to As I Age ... by Delsora Lowe

It’s finally September! My favorite time of the year is fall, despite the fact that soon cold weather will descend and with it snow and ice and… Well, you get the picture. I’d much rather enjoy warm sunny days that cool off at night.

I’d rather enjoy colorful leaves and fall flowers and harvesting vegetables and picking apples.

And, my birthday is in the fall, reminding me what one year older can bring. I remember teen years when I couldn’t wait to go away to college, not realizing how fast time flies, the older you get.

I remember summers, when I juggled several jobs while raising kids. I couldn’t wait for autumn to arrive so the kids, now old enough, would be back in school all day, so I wasn’t running from job to nursery school to pick up kids, dropping them at the sitter and back to job number two.

Now, I look back and realize how much I missed as my children grew up way too fast. But now I have grandchildren who are doing the same. One is looking at colleges. The other two sophomores in high school. All busy falling into young love, working hard at studies, and excelling at various sports teams. Of course, they are excelling. They are MY grandsons.

Oldest Grandson - now 17 - My Dad's 90th Birthday - 2009

It seems like yesterday, they were lying on the floor, playing with tiny cars and making zoom, zoom, zoom sounds, learning to count to one-hundred, and excited when they got to nibble on favorite snacks—my youngest grandson loving chunks of cucumber and olives with the holes where the pits were. He would put an olive on each fingertip and methodically eat each olive, one by one. Or the special events like coloring Easter eggs at Grammy’s table. Now they are self-sufficient.

To me, those memories of my own days in high school and college seem so far away, yet just like yesterday.

So, what do I look forward to as I age?

Top of the list? Not feeling as though I am aging. Also…keeping busy, communicating with others, not isolating, learning new things.

This is where writing comes in, as I can accomplish all of the above through writing.

Learning and Hanging with Writer Friends Through Zoom

I belong to four virtual writing groups in Maine, Rhode Island, New England, and New Jersey. Each group of romance writers meets monthly. It used to be in person. Now it is through ZOOM. The cons, I miss seeing my writer friends in person, but there are times in a year, when we meet up at writing conferences. The pros are without ZOOM, I would only see my writer friends once a year at the aforementioned conferences. Now, I see them and hear their voices and have actual conversations monthly. Sure, we don’t get to hug each other or gather around a table and enjoy a cocktail and chatter. There is nothing that compares to face-to-face.

A few years ago, after retiring, I joined a local organization that has programming for both teens and those of us over 55. The organization has a group named Write on Writers. We have anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five who attend weekly. Each of us writes a 5-minute or less piece, whether fiction, non-fiction, or verse of some sort. We then read aloud our work at each session. And we can submit our work to appear in the monthly organization newsletter that gets distributed around town.

The fun of this group is that I get to try different types of writing, than my normal romance novel writing. And every now and then, I will write a 5-minute romance story and submit for publication
. But I can also read those at my local group. And now, I have over sixty 5-minute romances I have written since 2010. Those I am editing and expanding to collect into a short romance anthology...SOMEDAY!

So, what do I look forward to as I age. Meeting weekly with my writing group. Continuing to write both short stories and longer works to release as books, hanging with my grandchildren and trying to figure out a way to stop their growth and aging so I can keep them close forever.

Okay – if anyone has ideas on how to do just that, let me know. Because, if they don’t age, neither will I!

Oh, as you can see, in spite of the slowing down and the need to nap I’m also trying to figure out how I can live forever, because right now, I’m having a ton of fun with this aging business.

No matter our age, we all continue to age on a daily basis. What words of wisdom can you impart when you think about what you have learned over a lifetime?

Amazon (also in print)

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.

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/

Photo Credits:
Delsora Lowe

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Longer Days...? Or shorter...? by Delsora Lowe

The blog question for this month is whether I like winter or summer best? Do I look forward to the longest day of the year or the shortest day? Both have their positives. The longest day of the year can be sad, as it means the warmth wanes and the daylight dwindles earlier. And yet, I love fall weather and November nights with the stars vivid in clear, dark skies. And fall follows that longest day.

The shortest day means the following days will get longer, to give us more light each day. And flowers, dormant now, will soon blossom.

To choose one season over the other is impossible.

June is the month where my yard comes alive with color. The nights are still cool but the day’s air is warming up.

This year, our April showers bringing May flowers didn’t pan out. It seems the blooming flowers stayed on track, but the grass stayed brownish longer than usual. Who am I kidding? In the Northeast, where we used to get feet of snow with every storm, we had very little, and the grass had a bit of a green-brownish tinge all winter long.

The rain invaded June instead of March and April. Granted, we need the rain, so I can’t complain about cooler weather. Especially since my air conditioner is yet to be installed. The seasons continue to be mixed up these last few years.

But I do have to say, I love the longer days with more light. And I love the colorful landscape, compared to yellowed grass and no leaves, just stark brown trunks and limbs of late fall into early spring,

Yes, color is important to me.

Having said that, each season has its own color. In fall the leaves are bright until they are crumpled, dried up, and dull, as they decay on the ground.

But there is still beauty in those muted colors. As we move into November, the sky’s blue is more vivid, and at night, the constellations of Orion and the big and little dippers are easily identified.

In winter daylight, against the stark white snow, we see hints of color from plants now dormant. We also see magnificent sunsets and sunrises that color the sky with neon pinks, magenta, orange, or various shades of purple.

In spring, we anxiously await those first peeks of light green, as trees start to leaf out, and the first sprigs of grass shoot their way toward the sun. The tiny white blossoms of wild strawberries pop up among decaying oak leaves left from fall.

Then there is that first carpet of color as the dandelions show their bright yellow heads. I love dandelions.

My grandmother used to make wine, tea, and jelly from the flowers and sauteed the young greens for dinner. Dandelions have so many vitamins, and yet we neglect them—malign them. I welcome their sunny faces after the grays, browns, and whites of winter.

And spring and summer thunder storms, though scary and sometimes bringing hail with torrential rains, also show off vibrant double rainbows against coal black skies.

What about you? Can you pick a favorite? Do you love the seasons of longer days? Or shorter days?

June is a month we associate with wedding season, as the weather is warmer, but not hot, and the landscape is lush with green and floral colors. And the early fall months can also be big wedding months when the weather turns cool and crisp.

Check out The Love Left Behind, a smalltown wedding romance set in Rhode Island, in a fictional town near the Atlantic Ocean and Newport.

Amazon

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

Books2Read

books2read.com/u/mglVqK

Print Books by Delsora Lowe others available in e-book

~ 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.

Photo Credits:
Photos taken by the blog author.