Hollyworld: connections

Thankful.

That was my 2021 Word of the Year. It was a good word because there's so much in my life I'm thankful for. Himself and my family always starts my list. I have the most amazing kids who've brought new family members into our lives...people who didn't grow up in my house but who are every bit as much a part of my family and my thankful list as the kids I gave birth to. I'm pretty sure they were always part of our family...we just didn't know it.

My connections start with my family but grow from them to friends and neighbors. I'm thankful for all of them as well.

I'm thankful for home...both for the house we live, the house my in-laws built and lived in, as well as the cottage and barn out in the woods. I'm connected to that as well...we discovered that my family homesteaded the land at the end of the road. I love that connection.

I just watched Tick, Tick, Boom. I love Rent and it was a lovely way to look at Larson's life. He left a mark. He impacted my life with his music and story. And I realized how thankful I am for my writing and even my super imperfect attempts at pottery. In my writing I'm able to talk about things that are important to me. Family. Friends. I got another note not long ago from someone who read Just One Thing at just the right time. They said it helped them deal with their grief. For me, as a writer, that's it. That's why I do what I do. At their heart, all romance stories are about connections. I really believe that's what everyone craves...connections. Not just craves...it sounds like something you could pass on. Like chocolate cake. You might want it, but you don't need it. But people need connections.

So here it is, a few days after Thanksgiving and I'm still thinking about being thankful. I'm thankful for all the connections in my life. Family. Friends. Readers who I've never met but found something to connect to in my writing. My home.

In A Hometown Christmas the heroine has a saying that, to be honest, I sort of loaned to her. "I can't change the world, but I can try." She feels all alone, but when she looks around she realizes she's not just connected to her town, she's totally entangled in it.

So on this Thanksgiving week, I hope you find a lot to be thankful for. And I hope when you look at your connections you find that you are entangled in them...in love.

Holly

Here's the list of the entire Hometown Hearts series!

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kin dl e, Kobo, I Books, Nook

Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books

Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, Kindle

Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story
Amazon

A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8
Kindle
Nook
AppleBooks
Kobo

PPS. Here's my latest kiln opening!!

Connection

A reader sent me a few emails talking about the way my books had similarities to their life. And on the surface, there were some weird coincidences. But on a deeper level, I don't think it's weird at all. Books are about connection. The best books (I'm not saying mine are the best books, but I do try to do my best with each book LOL) speak to something universal. Love. Family. Friendship. Grief. Fear. Those universal feelings are what connect a reader to the book. They're what connect the author to the book.

Sometimes readers find something totally different in a book than I found as I wrote it. And that's okay. That's part of the relationship between a reader, a writer and a book. I write a story that speaks to me, then I let you and the story find your own relationship. LOL I had an English teacher who used to say things like, "This is what the author wanted you to know/feel/take away..." I always argued that she had no way of knowing just what that author wanted. She could only know what she—the reader—took from the story. And what I—as a reader—took with me could be something entirely different. That didn't make either of us wrong. The writer, my teacher and I all came to the story from a different place and read it through a different lenses. We all had a different connection to it and they were all right.

Briar Hill Road

Between the Words

So whenever you read one of my books I hope you find some connection to the story. That you think, wow, this is me or this echoes my life. That is my goal with every book I write, whether it's a comedy, a drama, or a mystery. My hope is always that readers find themselves in the story.

Happy Reading!

Holly