Sunday Snippet: The Whew, I Did It Edition

Wow. It’s been quite a week. Mostly because I finally wrote THE END on Book 3 in the Lange Brothers series. Becker’s book, The Fireman’s Christmas Wish, is in the hands of my fabulous editor, Sinclair Sawney, and I confess that I’m really nervous about this one.

There’s a lot of me in grumpy Becker Lange and a lot of what I wish I could be in sweet and charming Harley Cole. Before this book, I’d never thought about how much of myself goes into my books, even though friends who know me and read my novels often say, “Oh, that line  or that situation or that moment of humor was just like you!” or “I recognized you in this book.”

How could the books not be just like me, though, really? I mean I am the one writing them. It’s my imagination, my fantasies, my experiences, my past, my present, my hoped-for future. Sure, it’s all fiction, but my reality sneaks in whether I choose for it to or not. Most of all, it’s my voice telling the stories.

But what I hope for is that readers are lost in the telling of them and not thinking about the author. I hope they are wishing they could live in River’s Edge or have coffee and a slice of Paula Meadows’ sugar cream pie at Mac’s Riverside Diner. Or take in a show and a cruise on the River Queen showboat. Or simply walk along the mighty Ohio River on the River Walk.

I hope when you read one of my novels, you google Four Irish Brothers Winery for a map to get to it (you can’t find one–it’s fiction), or at the very least, you google Indiana wineries and go out and find some great traminette or pinot noir. Or even google how to make truffle butter (okay, I gave you that one below), and enjoy a warm buttered baguette and glass of wine as you read.

Reading is all about escape…writing is, too, I think, which is why I love it so much and always have. I don’t need to escape my life, I love my life, but there’s so much happening in my imagination that I don’t know any other way to keep it in check. So…I guess as long as a little river town lives in my head and heart, there will be more stories from River’s Edge.

Stay well, stay safe, wear your mask, and most of, mes amies, stay grateful!