By
Delsora Lowe
Ever wonder where writer’s ideas come from?
So do I! I
am what is known as a pantser or organic
writer. So most of the time I get a kernel of an idea—a character, a setting,
or a scene playing out in my head—and I start writing. I never know where that
idea will take me.
My newest hero, Sam, was established as a secondary
character in The Legacy of Parkers Point, book one, in the Starlight Grille
series. I loved Sam, so I decided he had to have his own story.
Logical
progression of the series meant Come Dance With Me would take place
in the winter.
I had written the first few chapters, when the title came
to me from song lyrics I heard as I commuted to work. Usually I agonize over
titles. Instead, the title had me envisioning the ending—a Christmas Dance—with
the hero and heroine in each other’s arms. In this case, the title, and the
ending, helped drive the plot, theme, setting, time of year, and character arcs.
At times, words seem to flow from my brain to my
fingers without conscious thought. When I reread what I wrote, I have no memory
of thinking about those words or scene. In this case, during the editing
process I realized many scenes evolved from memories of my high school dances.
Remember the romantic teenage yearnings of getting ready for a dance?
Here are some examples of where my muse took over by
conjuring up memories and turning them into something to fit the story.
· I sewed my own high school Christmas dance
dress, floor-length, maroon velvet, sleeveless, jewel-necked, slim-fitting. I
found out at a reunion that the guys still remembered that dress. My heroine
wears staid colors and classic designs. I am sure my muse decided at this point
that my hero wished to see the heroine in bright colors, and makes it happen.
·
My dad was a chaperone. He stood on
tip-toe the entire dance, tracking my every move. I remember ducking my head as
I slow-danced, praying any dance partners would not notice my dad. When one of
the star football players, one of a handful of blacks in our school, asked me
to dance, I nearly swooned. I had a mad crush on him. Later, when he asked me
to a rock concert, my dad grilled him in the front hallway—just like he did
with every date my sister and I ever had. In this story my heroine is a
chaperone and invites the hero to help chaperone. They also attend a rock
concert together.
·
A classmate of mine sent a poem to
Muhammed Ali and as a result got to meet him. My hero writes a jazz piece for
Muhammed Ali. As I wrote the scene, I had the Queen in mind, but my words
turned into Muhammed Ali right before my eyes.
·
Our school had recently integrated (a fact
I was unaware of at the time, and thought was the norm). There were a few
biracial couples. In my tight-knit, progressive, and accepting Quaker school
community, those who were in biracial relationships were accepted, but not in
the country as a whole. My hero and heroine are a biracial couple. Hopefully
the world has changed since I was a teen, but I know the truth—we have a long
way to go.
Add to the memories the impact of growing up in a city
where I had access to classical concerts at the Kennedy Center, and the influence
of the music culture of the 60s, including my love of Motown, jazz, and blues,
and you have the seeds for a story that germinated and grew as my muse took
over.
So I hope you enjoy Come Dance With Me, and
the excerpt below, where I have played with facts of my life to create a modern
fictional love story that culminates at the Christmas Dance.
Do
you have some stand-out memories of high school that might lend themselves to
being part of a story or a scene?
Here’s the blurb and an excerpt of Come
Dance With Me: Book 2, Starlight Grille series.
Improvisational jazz musician meets buttoned up
English teacher—will the Christmas lights sparkle or shatter before the dance
ends?
Sam
Johnson, a burned out, New York City iconic jazz pianist transplanted to small
town Maine, finds himself and his muse again through a disparate group of
committed teen musicians and their buttoned up, efficient, high school English
teacher who is roped into advising the afterschool jazz club.
Ashley
Sullivan, an expert in classical music and teaching the bard, is out of her
element when it comes to jazz or anything impromptu and desperately needs Sam’s
help. What she doesn’t know is Sam has made it his mission before this gig ends
to get Ashley to lighten up and enjoy the things in life she denies herself;
music, friends, spontaneity, creativity, and yes, love.
When
Sam works to rescue her from her
childhood fears, Ashley runs the other direction. Can what is done out of love
tear apart a relationship before it’s in full swing, or forever cement a love
that is true?
Excerpt: She watched his graceful
body climb the three steps to the stage. She sat close enough to see Sam’s
fingers stroke the keys. The notes swirled around her heart and straight to her
toes. Ashley closed her eyes and swayed to the slow, sensual rhythms. His tempo
eased from slow to fast. Her feet tapped out the beat, the sounds coursing a
hot path through her veins. The ebb and flow of jazz, like making love,
engulfed her entire being. She held close the urge to moan and sigh. Unlike the
night she sat with Mary Beth, now she imagined Sam played only for her.
To think she owned his
recordings, but never imagined she’d ever meet the man. His music had been the
one thing that made her feel alive these last few years, and now she knew
him…like a friend. He still scared the stuffing out of her. But not in a bad
way. She hadn’t expected him to like her, and treat her like a friend, when
she’d agreed to this after-school partnership. But here she sat.
“He’s something, isn’t
he?”
Ashley swiveled toward
the voice behind her. A petite, red-headed woman grinned.
Links to Come
Dance With Me (A Starlight Grille Book 2):
Books2Read – links to
various vendors including iBooks, Nook, Kobo: https://www.books2read.com/u/bMrQva
Links to The
Legacy of Parkers Point (A Starlight Grille Book 1):
Books2Read – links to various vendors including
iBooks, Nook, Kobo: https://www.books2read.com/u/b6rQzx
Links to Moonlighting
(A Starlight Grille Book 3): on preorder, to be released on December 7
Books2Read – links to
various vendors including iBooks, Nook, Kobo: https://www.books2read.com/u/mZ5eop
From Cabins to Cottages…Keep the
Home Fires Burning
A transplanted big city gal, world-wide traveler,
and foreign-service brat, who now lives in a coastal Maine town, Delsora Lowe
loves to write about small town heroes from the cowboys and ranchers of
Colorado to the game wardens and lobstermen of Maine. Her work in the
hospitality industry, rape crisis, admissions, alumni relations, and women’s
advocacy has allowed her to interact on a daily basis with real life heroines
and heroes. Lowe’s family visits to Colorado are the inspiration for an
upcoming contemporary western series in 2018. And her daughter’s wedding and
her son’s home on the coast of Maine provided plentiful ideas for the Starlight
Grille series.
Amazon Reviews for Book One: https://www.amazon.com/Come-Dance-Me-Serenity-Starlight-ebook/dp/B074N95RGK/ref=sr_1_8?s=amazon-devices&ie=UTF8&qid=1508776988&sr=8-8&keywords=serenity+Harbor
