Showing posts with label life experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life experiences. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Adventures in Travel... by Delsora Lowe


I had planned on telling the story of when I was ten, and my father was assigned to work in Taiwan for the Agency for International Development in the early sixties. After flying to San Francisco, we had a few days to explore the city, driving up and down steep hills in a convertible, with my mom in a panic 😊. Then we landed in Hawaii where they put fragrant leis over our shoulders. I don’t remember much, except the perfumed air on the breezes and the incredible fresh fruit.

When we landed in Taipei, and watched as a red carpet was rolled out to meet the plane, we found out we were the first jet to land at the airport. We walked the red carpet to cheering dignitaries from the city and the country.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t make a great blog, because that is all I remember. Except as an adult, it is my claim to fame to declare I once walked the red carpet. 😊

So instead, my blog will be about my life’s journey in the book I most recently edited, The Inn on Gooseneck Lane. I realized how much of myself I put into the book. Just snippets of my life at various stages, that added detail to various scenes.


My hero, Brad, is an outdoor adventure leader, who has settled down in his small Vermont hometown, to help his mom recover from breast cancer surgery. He’s bought a sporting goods store. And ends up helping the local inn owner with a cross-country ski week for the over-fifty crowd. In this one paragraph description, there are many areas that have touched my life.

Photo taken by Nancy Vosburgh-Zane
My mom, who just turned 94, has had two bouts with breast cancer, but all ended well both times. Both my son and I went to college in Vermont. My niece recently attended college in Vermont. On the return trip home after visiting her, is when I thought up the bare bones of this book, as I drove along a gurgling creek running down a mountain. And when I passed a tiny lane with a bridge going over the roaring creek named Gooseneck Lane, I knew I had a story. In my head I plotted the story all the way home to Maine. 

The gurgling, mountainside creek reminded me of years earlier when I visited Vermont, and stumbled on a sweet, small, artsy town, with inns and bed and breakfasts. A town that made it’s living supporting artisans and outdoor adventure activities.


My work at an environmental college has included working with adventure therapy students. One who helped train a seeing-eye dog, her dog being the first to take part in the new college program. So that dog spent many hours sitting in our office, learning to concentrate on her handler and ignore all that was going on around her—what a sweet pup.

Yaz - my grandson's dog
And lastly, I worked at L.L. Bean as a retail store cashier where I spent many hours in the camping and boating / biking departments.
So many of my life’s “travels” found their way into this book.
·         Wine tasting, paired dinners and weddings, which I organized at an inn in Maine when I was the dining manager.
·         Numerous other events that I planned for schools and non-profits, where I traveled all over the country to host the events.
·         Memories of visiting my grandmother in a small town in New York, including her antique teacart that now sits in my mom’s apartment, her Waldorf salad which was one of my grandmother’s favorite things to make, and her gardens full of rhubarb (and the basement full of rhubarb and dandelion wine.)
·         My own outdoor employee adventures of kayaking (ocean and mountain lakes and river rapids), archery, a shotgun shoot, winter camping and cross-country skiing, to name a few. All the experiences that gave me a better understanding when helping customers in the retail store in Maine and assisting on the grand opening of the first store out of state in Virginia, where I put in a week’s work in three days.
·         Wine-tasting trips in Sonoma County in California, where I also planned an alumni event.
·         The famous Maine ice storm, where I was one of the lucky ones and only lost power for less than a day. But I was alone, fending for myself, knowing a huge oak tree limb had just crashed to the ground inches form my kitchen window. I could have used the help of my hero, for sure.
·         The trauma of loving and losing a high-school sweetheart. And then finding him again.
·         And the painted fiberglass cow art—yes, a true story and a sight to behold in small-town Vermont where I traveled to a friend’s wedding. (See below for fun link to painted cows)


All these adventures and artifacts from my life found their way into The Inn on Gooseneck Lane, a fact I didn’t realize until I revisited and revised this book over a year after I wrote it.


So, my question to you - What shows up in or repeats itself in your life, years after a physical or personal journey? I’d love to hear your stories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

~ 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.




Starlight Grille –






The Prince’s Son –

Amazon E-book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PZD3FNC/ref=sr_1_2?crid=32PO3EI3KDLQI&keywords=delsora+lowe&qid=1553611414&s=digital-text&sprefix=dels%2Cdigital-text%2C196&sr=1-2-catcorr 

Amazon Print Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1091276862?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Books2Read link, includes Barnes and Noble and iBooks: books2read.com/u/b6xzr6



CLIP ART LINKS:
Lei: http://www.clker.com/cliparts/M/d/2/N/h/S/hibiscus-lei-th.png

Kayak: https://www.kissclipart.com/kayak-clipart-sea-kayak-canoe-gq5w5g/

State of Vermont: https://pngio.com/PNG/6632-vermont-state-png.html

Red carpet: http://www.transparentpng.com/details/red-carpet-transparent-image-photo_3273.html

Airplane: https://clipartcrossword.com/airplane-clipart-image-6531/

Creek: http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/lake-clip-art-3614208

Wine, grapes, and cheese: http://www.clker.com/clipart-563994.html

Here’s a fun link to see painted cows: https://www.google.com/search?q=Clip+art+fiberglass+painted+cows&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Yp9xnzl_NMQfuM%253A%252CItANxgmZcwlUhM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQBce7efX5iW0QaND6Y-7EZqxykiw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_qObss4LkAhVqRN8KHf7iDpYQ9QEwAHoECAkQBg#imgrc=Yp9xnzl_NMQfuM:


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Tuesday, July 16, 2019

If I Could Change One Thing in My Past... by Delsora Lowe


Truthfully, I can’t imagine changing anything in my life, even the dreadful experiences of losing a job, or my sister, favorite aunt, and dad, and friends. Strange as it seems, and despite my longing to have all those people back in my life, the things, good or bad, have shaped who I am.
Plant given to me by the Maine Romance Writers in honor of my sister.
They bloom every year right around her birthday
Would I take back the temper tantrum, when I was fourteen, (mind you, old enough to know better,) when I refused to go to the school my parents wanted me too? No. Sure, I regret being a PIA to my parents. And, thankfully, I did not win that battle. I just celebrated my 50th high school reunion.
Looking back, the best years of my life.

My best friends (male and female) to this day are from that school, including those who I lost along the way. They were sorely missed, but their influence in my life was ever present. We had an incredible reunion, not only in recalling old memories, but many discussions on how growing up in the 60s and attending a Quaker school influenced every one of our lives. And all the more meaningful, for me, was how much more I appreciated the experience and lessons taught from the long-ago temper tantrum.

YAY for long-time, great friends
Yes, I still talk to my deceased family and friends, and wish they could answer me back, offer me their wisdom, delight me with their humor, and accompany me on new adventures. In truth, they are still there, in my heart and my mind.

But the fact is, if I changed any one thing, my life would be different and I would have missed out on something. The old adage, when one door closes, another opens. Each life experience led me to the next.

The one thing I do wish I could change are all the wasted moments.


The moments I was too tired to write while working full-time, and keep up on all the constant changes in social media and marketing. The missed communication with friends who are no longer here. Those are my regrets. The moments where it was easier to veg on the couch in front of a Hallmark movie. Even though the movies have inspired my writing.
Anyone remember high school Christmas dances?
This love story is about the chaperones.
And right now, on Hallmark, it is Christmas in July, 24 hours a day. Which is perfect timing for revising my holiday romance, which has all things Thanksgiving and Christmas at a Vermont inn, including a refurbished sleigh.
My hero refurbishes an old sleigh as a surprise for the heroine.
Okay, total disclosure, I do watch those movies over and over and over. But I also take notes, study how they construct the plot, the character arcs, details on setting, and what tropes they use. I AM working and learning. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Having said all that, the wasted time of not keeping up on constant change, is now resulting in my taking more and more time out of my writing to catch up. And, hate to admit, but the “old” brain takes a lot longer to process the constant barrage of new information and updated techniques.

Still, I am who I am, because of the progression of my life experiences.

So moving forward, I’ll try to waste less time, take more opportunities to learn and experience, and live the rest of my life to the fullest (okay, I’ll still watch Hallmark and devour romances, because in my profession neither are a waste of time 😊 and they make me SUPER HAPPY.)



  ~ 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.

A first meet, royalty and the nanny romance between a self-exiled prince with a royal chip on his shoulders and the local rancher's daughter who rails against any man who tries to tell her what to do. When she tries to tell the prince how to raise his son, tempers flare and sparks fly.
Amazon E-book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PZD3FNC/ref=sr_1_2? rid=32PO3EI3KDLQI&keywords=delsora+lowe&qid=1553611414&s=digital-text&sprefix=dels%2Cdigital-text%2C196&sr=1-2-catcorr   
Amazon Print Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1091276862?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 
Books2Read link, includes Barnes and Noble and iBooks: books2read.com/u/b6xzr6

Social Media Links:

 Clip Art Links

Classmates – crayons - https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-group-photo-image740763

Christmas Sleigh - http://clipart-library.com/christmas-sleigh-pictures.html

Snarky happy face - http://cliparting.com/free-smiley-face-clip-art-1465/
Flying time – man and clock - https://www.iclipart.com/search.php?keys=cliches&tl=clipart
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