I just watched PBS's American Masters about Louise May Alcott. It was a lovely reminder of a writer I admire. I grew up with her books. As the only girl surrounded by brothers, I found the thought of sisters and that sisterly bond fascinating. I loved the connection of the entire family. They were bound together through hardships and triumphs. My childhood extended family was more disjointed than LMA's and I found her fictional March family a an inspiration. When Himself and I had our own family, I wanted that March sense of connection. And since my kids have grown up to be my best friends, I'm happy to think we've managed it.
I was so lucky that Himself and my kids supported my writing. I will confess, like LMA I worked to help support the family. And I told stories that were commercial, but also from my heart. One of my first critiques came from a professor I was studying with. I'd just sold a story and he was dismayed it was a romance. Rather than congratulating the sale, he sniffed made a derogatory remark about romance books. I've heard other remarks in the years since. People who feel that writing about family and love is somehow a lesser form of writing. I've always felt that writing about family and love is one of the truest, most real forms writing. At least for me, family is the center of my life. And family is the center of my writing.
Listening to LMA's story, I realized that there's a sense of the March family in my Hometown Hearts series. The Hometown Hearts Wedding trilogy starts this month with Something Borrowed followed by Something Blue in March and Something Perfect in May. Three women come together because of the death of a friend. That death binds them and they become more than friends, they become sisters. In Something Borrowed, a restless spirit finds herself settling uneasily into surrogate motherhood. Four women...sisters of the heart. They face life as it comes, overcome loss and find love. Doing all that with sisters at your side...well there's a connection to LMA and the March family in Hometown Hearts. I don't know that I realized it until I was watching American Masters this morning. But then all fiction is based on life. It's based on the writer's experiences. And since I grew up with the March family, it makes sense that it inspired my writing. I talk about Heinlein and Tolkien a lot, but writers like Alcott and LM Montgomery, Grace Livingston Hill (I have my grandmother's well-loved collection of her books), Louise Dickenson Rich and Helen Hoover... They've all influenced not only my writing, but my life.
Those are connections I'm proud of. My stories are stories of the heart that I'm proud of. And writing romance is something I'm proud of. I can't think of anything more central to life than family and love. At least not for me.
I hope you'll check out Hometown Hearts and any of my backlist books.
Holly
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