Families...Ties that Bind

I talked about family on social media.  It is the driving force of pretty much all my books.  
Coping with family.  
Finding a family.  
Building a family.
It's a uniting thread throughout them all.  Whether their comedies, dramas, or mysteries.  All of them features family.

One of the things that reading and writing shows is that there is no such thing as a normal family.  Phew.  I'm pretty sure my family misses the normal boat...and we're okay with that. 


I've been digging into my family tree (I wrote a bit about it in This Is Me Part Two).  I come from a very disjointed sort of family, so in most cases the only way I know these people is through what I've discovered.  It's been fascinating.  My mother's side of the family has deep roots in the the north.  My father's side is equally imbedded in the south.  I have doctors, politicians, writers, railroad men, farmers, sharecroppers in my past. It's fascinating to read about and learn about these people who came before me and to realize that if they'd made different decisions I might not be here.

I drive by a family homestead on my way to camp.  It's on a road

named after the family.  I could spit on my property and hit this piece of my history.  Maybe that's why I felt that connection to our property when we bought it?  Maybe it spoke to me.


Family.

We all have one and I suspect a lot of people think they come from a weird one.  But good or bad, our family helps make us who we are.  They do the same thing for my characters.  In Briar Hill Road, my heroine discovers her true family.  In Carry Her Heart, my heroine gives up a daughter and builds a life around her. In Hold Her Heart, that daughter comes home and discovers that hearts expands.  The Everything But books deal with a family cursing grandmother, Nana Vancy.  The PTA Moms all are single moms coping with life and the PTA. Even my Maid In LA Mysteries deals with family and how our perceptions aren't always accurate.  I hope you'll check out some of my families...and maybe in them you'll discover something that reminds you of your own.

I've discovered biological family as I study my ancestry, just as I've found real family who's not related to me by blood, but by heart (Dort).  I think that what I've learned in books (both those I've read and written) is all families share one true tie that binds them...love.

Holly