Romancing the Genres: ranchers

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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Holiday Reading: Part One .... Delsora Lowe

As you can probably tell, I love both reading and writing holiday romances. Here's the list of books that I started reading in October. I still have more on my list and will post those holiday reads in December. Feel free to recommend any holiday reads you love or wrote in the comments section, since I am sure I'll be adding to my list of reads. Because obviously, I'll still be reading holiday romances into the new year. And if you care to read any of my holiday books, you can find them on both Amazon and Books2Read.

Happy Holidays Reads!

BOOKS READ:

The Matzah Ball – Jean Meltzer – September 2021

A Jewish author of Christmas romance books, hides her love of Christmas from her family. A second-chance book filled with secrets, family antics, and hilarity, plus some tender, romantic moments as the two get to know each other again.

Sweet Holiday Surprise – Cindy Kirk – Nov 1, 2023

A sweet, Secret Santa, unrequited love story set in St. Louis, MO, a stand-alone book 8 of a series.

Merry & Bright Christmas – Megan Ryder – October 2023

A second-chance holiday romance.

Kringle All the Way: A Dicken’s Holiday Romance – Judy Kentrus – November 2023

A second-chance love and time for forgiveness after so many years, with kids enjoying the magic of a Dicken’s Christmas.

Once Upon a Christmas Kiss – Collection: Ciara Knight, Brenda Lowder, Susan Carlisle, Terra Weiss, Susan Sands, Christy Hayes – October 2023

Six romantic novellas about women who receive the gift of love over the holidays.

Heating Up the Cowboy’s Christmas (Rowdy Ranch Book 8) – Vicki Lewis Thompson – November 2023

The matriarch of the Rowdy Ranch and anonymous western fiction writer finds her forever love.

Christmas Moon Over Holly Pointe – Cindy Kirk – November 2023

Strangers meet after a flight to Mexico gets cancelled. Ride along as they wend their way north to New England and end up in Holly Pointe, VT for a Christmas to be all.

A Christmas Reunion: A Tale From Blythe Cove Manor – Shirley Hailstock – November 20

Second chances in a delightful winter setting on Martha’s Vineyard – after all these years, can his attention be for real or does he want something she has? A quick read.

The Christmas Gift – Raine English – October 2016

A second chance, lost love, matchmaker story with puppies who are sure to show the way to love.

The Mistletoe Trap – Eve Pendle – December 2018

A second chance Regency, with some “naughty” embroidery and a misunderstanding in the bedroom leading to a forced marriage to spice things up and bring about a happily-ever-after.

The Cowboy’s Christmas Gift – Donna Alward – Nov 2023

A former soldier now must take over his grandfather’s ranch, the last thing he wants to do. Meeting the ranch foreman, a woman from his past, might or might not make his new “job” easier.

Don’t Mess With Mistletoe: A Dicken’s Holiday Romance – Peggy Jaeger – November 2023

Dorrit’s Diner in the tiny town of Dickens, Maine, never fails to entertain. This time the owner’s wayward son, the pilot, returns home for the holidays and takes over running the diner, so his mom can take time off. With a lot of surprises thrown in, one of Michael’s goals is to figure out the story around his mom’s new hire who lives in the apartment above the diner.

Carrigan Christmas Reunion – CJ Carmichael – April 2019

A Christmas reunion with an old childhood crush as Wren struggles to help her family prepare for the holidays during a medical crisis.

CURRENTLY READING:

A Song for Christmas: A Dicken’s Holiday Romance – Lori DiAnni – November 2023

A second-chance romance, with both heroine and hero have dreams and ambitions in music. Can they help each other realize their professional dreams and rekindle a lost love?

Chasing Holiday Tail: A Holiday Rom-Com Charity Anthology – Kameron Claire, Melonie Johnson, Tracery Pedersen, Amy Award, Dylann Crush, Christina Hovland, Hope Ellis, MK Meredith, Brenda St. John Brown, Sylvie Stewart, Arell Rivers, Stina Lindenblatt, Tawdra Kandle, Kilby Blades, Serena Bell – October 2023.

If you love dogs and the shenanigans of their owners as they find true love, this is the book of short stories for you.

What are your favorite holiday books?

Or favorite topics or tropes for holiday reads?

My Latest Holiday Read

Amazon (also in print)

Barnes & Noble (also in print)

Apple Books (also in print)

~ 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. The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) were released in late fall 2022. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, in 2024.

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/

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Creating Community as a Character in Our Books ... M. Lee Prescott

“Community is the single most important factor in learner-centered classrooms.” (Carol Avery)

Hello,

It’s Mary Lee (alias M. Lee Prescott) saying hello. The quote above is from my life as a teacher (retired in June 2021). Creating a community in one’s classroom is critical if a teacher wishes to build trust among all stakeholders – adults and children – and encourage the kind of risk taking that allows learning to thrive. You might be asking yourself—why in a writer’s blog, is she writing about teaching and classrooms? The answer is simple creating a supportive, nurturing community where my characters live is at the heart of most of my fiction. Certainly, community is, indeed, a main character in all four of my series. I thought in this post, I tell you a little about these communities. Perhaps you’ll come and visit someday?

The Morgan’s Run books are set in the southwestern United States in the fictional town of Saguaro Valley. An orographic effect characterized by unusual cloud formations and abundant moisture has created this extraordinary green valley that lies between two mountain ranges, vast deserts beyond.

Home to six thousand residents—ranchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and others – much of the land is owned by a few wealthy ranchers, Ben Morgan among them, who take their stewardship seriously, providing livelihoods and support to every resident. The undiscovered valley mostly remains isolated in its pristine beauty and agricultural abundance, except when the occasional movie star arranges a pack trip up into the mountains. Saguaro Valley is a place where everyone knows everyone and takes care of everyone. If you’re in danger, trouble or need, you are never alone. Many beloved characters leave home and return, to heal, to find love, and to raise their families. Others spread their wings and move east as do two of the Morgan sons, Sam, an architect to Maryland and Kyle, a veterinarian, to Horseshoe Crab Cove, a New England town that is home to the Morgan’s Fire community (see below!).

In this spin-off series to Morgan’s Run, readers come to the village of Horseshoe Crab Cove, home to Ben Morgan’s younger brother. Formerly a world traveler and longtime Maine resident, Richard purchases a five hundred acre property, where he builds an enormous farmhouse, barns, stables and eventually a winery. Richard is also an investor in Field and Field, a farm-to-table restaurant on the property, created and run by his son-in-law.

The community encompasses several small seaside towns, Horseshoe Crab Cove at its center. On tiny Main Street, with its shops and restaurants, is a garden space, Laura’s Community Garden, started by Richard’s daughter, Pam in memory of her mother. There in the four acre plot, residents come to plant, grow, and share the fruits of their collective labors. Horseshoe Crab Cove is also home to the Darn Yarners, a group of eight women in their sixties, friends for over four decades, who support each other, each other’s families, and the village proper. Over the years the Yarners have raised money for parks and other civic projects, their fellowship intricately woven into the fabric of village life. Like Saguaro Valley, no one in Horseshoe Crab Cove is alone and the close community provides a safe, loving place for longtime residents and newcomers like Kyle Morgan, who follows his wife Harriet, daughter on a Darn Yarner, to town. When, at age fifty, Joe O’Leary leaves the priesthood, he, too, comes to the village to learn how to live outside the confines of the church.

Village of Old Harbor, a coastal village with a Quaker school at its center, seems like just another sleepy town, where murders happen a little too regularly! Born and raised in the area, Detective Roger Demaris, and his team, along with his former schoolmate and high school girlfriend, art teacher Bess Dore, explore the worlds beneath the town and school’s placid surfaces uncovering unimaginable evil. Despite its aura of tranquility, this is a sometimes fractured community, infiltrated by outsiders bent on dredging up the past, wreaking havoc on the present, and changing the course of the future for the residents of Old Harbor. There is, however, a core of community resilience that prevails and triumphs over the darkness—thank goodness!

Finally—there are the communities traversed by private investigator, Ricky Steele. When not chasing criminals at a snobby boarding school or helping a friend find her husband’s killer in the exclusive, coastal town of Windy Harbor, Ricky prowls the mean streets of Spindle City, trailing errant spouses, and mingling with sex workers and drug lords. All of these communities have an identity that shape Ricky’s often bumbling, but heartfelt investigating style. Her office is in one of the old granite mills that populate the landscape of Spindle City. These behemoths, left over from the city’s heyday as a thriving textile manufacturing hub, reflect the gritty strength of the community and its denizens.

The above notwithstanding, the community readers love more than those mentioned, is where Ricky lives—the Grove. There in her ticky-tacky beach cottage, she is surrounded by friends and neighbors like Maddie and Fulton, the deaf octogenarians to the east, who keep the canapes and cocktails coming, and Vinnie to the west, a dear friend who helps with carpentry, security, underworld information, and cat sitting. The Grove also draws to its community, Dr. Charlie Bowen, who renovates a waterfront property around the corner, while wooing the independent Ricky. Will love win out? Time will tell.

So… is “community” synonymous with setting? Are they the same? I would answer no, but I could be persuaded either way. As author, community unfolds in my stories as the living, breathing manifestation of setting. Community allows characters to take risks to dare to be themselves, to grow, to develop, to thrive. Is this the same as setting? Hmm… You be the judge!

Great blogging with you! I love to hear from readers and writers so please be in touch anytime.

Warm wishes,

Mary Lee

Visit my website for latest news!

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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Giving Birth to a Book Cover —by Delsora Lowe

One of the most exciting things about writing a book, besides the words THE END 😊 (Okay, in full disclosure, there are many other things that are exciting too,) is designing the cover.

Now, disclaimer, I DO NOT design my own covers. But I have found an incredible cover designer who appears to be able to read my mind, across country, between California and Maine.

As I write and edit, ad nauseum, my mind is whirling with images of what the cover will look like. When I have spare moments, or can’t think creatively to write words, I search for photos that might fit my vision of the perfect cover. So, by the time I am ready to contract for my cover, I know exactly what I want.

Okay – another disclaimer. I THINK I know exactly what I want.

In my imagination, I can see the cover, but having the brain translate the vision into words, not so much. That’s where my file of photos come in. Also, I am not an artist. So, what I think might make a great cover, never does.

For example, for The Legacy of Parkers Point, book one of Serenity Harbor, I had an evening image picked out of the front of a café. Picture dark background with twinkling lights sparkling EVERYWHERE, off trees and a “loving” couple.

Enter my cover artist. She is called an artist for a reason.

I sent Karen (of Covers by Karen) my ideas through the photos I collected and book covers of authors I love that showed what I want to say in a cover. I also described the setting of my book.

She pointed out that there was no space that wasn’t too busy to add the title, series title, or author name. But she also knew the novella series was set in a seacoast town on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge and that book one was set in the fall.

Since this was my first time making a cover, we did a lot of tweaks. It was a learning process for both of us. For me, understanding what makes a good cover background. And for Karen, learning to anticipate what I really wanted.

The first try with couple we found on depositphotos. But author name didn't show up well.

I asked Karen to use my author name off my website, But too dark.

Website-branded author font, but white shadowing added to make it lighter and readable.
And we tweaked the background along the way.

For The Rancher Needs a Wife, my book to be released in October, I sent her a photo taken by my daughter while on a hike in Colorado.

When I saw the photo, I knew it was a perfect example of what I envisioned for my cover, a fence and mountains. And miraculous teal-blue skies on a fall day, that fit the setting of my story. Karen loved the picture. Plus, it had the correct resolution.

So, in this case, with that one photo the search for the cover background ended. But not the tweaking of the cover.

When I chose the model for my hero in The Prince’s Son, book one of the Cowboys of Mineral Springs, I also took notes on models for the next three books and socked them away in my file. Of course, a year later, when I worked on the cover for book two, The Rancher Needs a Wife, weighed down with half a dozen links from Period Images, I had to start over. Same model, but oooh, so many pose choices. I went back and forth, forever…and narrowed it down to three, then sent them out to my critique partners. Amazingly, we all agreed.

A special thanks to my critique partners. I have run every cover by them and they always have good suggestions. The best part is when all of us say, THAT’S THE ONE!

I sent the cover model photo to Karen, and she sent out the first rendition of the cover.

Loved it!

Except…

I loved the white writing for the title, BUT it got a bit lost in the clouds, as did the hero’s white hat. I loved the red in the author name. And I loved the feathery look of the tree branches. I looked at the original photo and picked out the section of the photo she had used. BUT, I REALLY wanted the fence. And the title needed a bit of shadowing to make it pop a bit more. Luckily Karen can interpret what I’m looking for, even when I’m not sure what I really want or how to say it. So, Karen used a different portion of the background photo.

Loved it!

Except…

I did miss the feathery tree, but to get the fence, I had to sacrifice the tree. Maybe we could lower the sky a tad, so that patch of blue would make not only his hat stand out more, but make the hero stand out from the background more.

What came next was WOW! Karen worked her magic by moving the background photo over, zooming in a little, and lightening it up a bit. She changed the title from white to red. And everything popped.

Here are some other examples of the cover production progression. This is the cover for Come Dance With Me, book two of the Serenity Harbor series.

I wanted the heroine to have dark hair and a clip in her hair for the final romantic dance, before her world gets turned upside down…and not in a good way. We also tweaked the background several times, as I recall. And as I also recall, we made more than three attempts at this cover.

I really loved the cover, but the hero was all wrong from what I envisioned.

Yay - found a couple I loved. Except hair color was wrong.

Karen changed the hair color and added a barrette I found on a free clip art site.

Although I felt like a pest, tweaking here and there, that was only my second cover. And working with Karen on both the first and second covers, gave her an idea of my working style. And mine of hers, cool, calm, collected, and ready to do whatever I needed to make a great cover.

In Moonlighting, book three of Serenity Harbor, we got the cover right the first time around. Although, the following year, I had Karen update both this cover and Come Dance With Me to show they were holidays reads, by adding ribbon banners at the top.

Each author and cover artist have their own strategy for working together to make a cover. Mine is simple. I know what I want, but I really don’t. 😊 I tell Karen. She works her magic. Sometimes several times. And voila!

Finding the right cover artist is crucial and may take working with several before you hit on a good working relationship. I got lucky the first time around. Karen gets me and understands what I want. Sure, it takes some back and forth work on both our parts. That’s to be expected. After all, the process is similar to writing, editing A LOT, and finally releasing a book.

But as I mentioned, it is a fun ride.

And oh, so exciting, when that cover finally appears on the front of your “baby” on release day.

Thanks for stopping by today. When you chose a book, what stands out in a cover that convinces you to buy the book?

~ 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

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

“A funny thing happened on the way to…” by Delsora Lowe

Funny is a word that can be interpreted in many ways.

Using Second Definition

About an hour after I arrived at work in the alumni office of a prestigious secondary school in the middle of Washington, D.C., my alma mater and my employer, my friend and classmate working as an executive assistant to a senior law partner downtown, called. “Did you hear?” She went on to relate the story of the first plane hitting the first tower in NYC. We couldn’t imagine how air traffic controllers and pilots could miss the warnings of a huge tower looming in the path of the airplane.

The morning quickly unfolded. Hearing about the second tower. Running downstairs to the main office to watch T.V. Hearing a plane just hit the pentagon, where my co-worker’s husband worked. Luckily, he was on the opposite side, but a father of an alumni wasn’t so lucky. Then within hours, streams of people walked from downtown three miles away past my office, on a warm September, blue-skied, perfect early fall day, trying to get home with no public transportation running.

My view of the cathedral – looking at the long side on the left of the photo.

My building sat on top of a hill, on the third floor of an old stone mansion. My office window faced the towers of the Washington National Cathedral and the flight path from the national airport where planes took off every few minutes, from across the river in Virginia. I never realized until the planes started flying again, that the visual from my window looked as though the planes were headed directly toward the cathedral towers. After 9/11, I had to turn my computer away from my precious view to avoid the sudden lurch in my stomach every few minutes—every time a plane traversed that air space—and looked like it was headed into the towers. In actuality it was an optical illusion of planes many miles away as they flew away from the city up the Potomac River toward unknown destinations.

My office in Zartman House, under the chimney on the right, with dormer on right roof,

and another window looking out the side toward Cathedral.

That day, the school lost a parent of an alumni in the Pentagon. My co-worker lost a friend in one of the towers, whose wedding he was to take part two weeks later. Another co-worker’s daughter-in-law would have been on the subway getting off that stop at that exact time, if she hadn’t had a dentist appointment that made her late for work. Another co-worker, driving to work near the Pentagon saw the flames when the plane hit. The mother of my friend who had called earlier, saw the plane hit the Pentagon as she watched from her apartment window. A co-worker of my friend knew a flight attendant on that plane. The fire department blocks from my home were first to respond to the Pentagon. All these connections to the tragedy, out of only nine people in my department.

I tell you this, not to bring you down, but to put in perspective my feelings at suddenly being in a job that had no meaning. And in which in a matter of hours, I was two degrees away from tragedy that hit so many people that day. A job where I brought people (our alumni) together to have class reunions and gather in cities around the country for alumni parties with people who had one thing in common—they went to the same school.

I wasn’t a paramedic or a police officer or a firefighter or a soldier or an ER doctor.

I was ONLY a party planner. I was an intermediary who brought people of common interests together.

That is until I began hearing from our alumni, letting the school and others know their friends were all right, and tracking down those we hadn’t heard from. Bringing people together in joy that their classmates were fine and had made it through a collective ordeal. And bringing those same people together to mourn. And later, celebrating my classmate (yes, I am proud of my class) by bestowing a distinguished alumni award, for the man we later learned had held together the economy of our country that first week, by being a lone person who stayed in harm’s way near the capital, even when they thought a plane might be headed toward the center of D.C. I might add, that in a few weeks I will be at this same person’s home to celebrate the 50^th reunion of my class. And yes, this quiet, mild-mannered unsung hero, he is still our hero.

Now to the funny part.

As in definition number two: difficult to explain or understand.Through all that, I questioned everything I did. Part of my escape was to start writing. My first completed manuscript is lost somewhere, under a bed maybe. Poems I wrote got wiped out in a computer fix. But the feeling I got from using my imagination to weave stories, grew. I may not be a paramedic or in any of those other saving and protecting careers, but my gift to you, is to give you a place in which to escape to a world of make-believe. The world of happily-ever-afters, where hurts can be cured with the love of a special person.

And my gift on 9/11 and days and weeks to follow, was to bring people together, to connect them with friends, and to reassure them. To write their human-interest stories for the alumni magazine. It made me realize in the little spec of my world, that I had a talent to connect people and tell their stories. And that in this moment of history, that was important.

I no longer write non-fiction for alumni magazines. But that year marked the beginning of my fiction-writing journey. And for that I am personally grateful, as the writing saved me, made me strong enough to bring people together for fun and learning experiences, and understand that the small part I (and all writers) contribute to the world is important.

DELSORA LOWE

~ 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.

New Release - Blurb: The Prince’s Son

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.

Ari Orula, a prince with a royal chip on his shoulders, has sworn off women.
Carla Peters, the rancher's daughter, has big dreams and it doesn't include listening to her dad, big brothers, or the new prince in town.
When the prince finds himself in dire straits and must find a nanny pronto, the last person he wants is his son's know-it-all ski teacher who insinuates he has a lot to learn about fatherhood.
The money the prince offers Carla for two weeks as a nanny will put a big dent in the cost of renovations for her new school, her life's dream. Does she dare risk working for the rancher her brothers think is trying to destroy their livelihood?
Despite best laid plans, two people at odds are brought together to rescue a child. At risk of alienating her family, Carla accepts the position. At risk of melting his stone-cold heart, Ari hires the rancher's daughter.
Will the sparks that fly torch Carla's dreams and inflame Ari's resolve, or ignite an everlasting love?