Just a quick heads up to readers. If you haven't read Love at Close Range yet, (the follow up novel to Love at a Later Date), you can get it for free as a Kindle ebook from tomorrow, September 22th to Tuesday September 26th from Amazon
I really enjoyed writing this novel and hope you will enjoy it, too.
LOVE AT CLOSE RANGE ON AMAZON.COM
I'll be back here soon writing my next post.
Thursday 21 September 2017
Wednesday 20 September 2017
Love at First Sight?
How many of us believe in love at first sight? Quite a few, I should think. We see a stranger across a crowded room and feel instant attraction. Is that love at first sight? I think so. It doesn't mean we have found the love of our lives. It just means we have found someone we are very attracted to before we even speak to that person.
Has that happened to you? I've been smitten by someone's looks and the conviction that he also fancied me only to discover when we actually met and got talking, that he wasn't really my kind of guy.
I have also dated guys who were very pleasant but who I felt I would never fall in love with and who either broke up with me or I broke up with them. Later I did meet one or two where I found myself regretting it.
Love is a tricky thing, isn't it? One minute you're over the moon, the next you're wiping a bloody nose because you caught him cheating or discovered he already has a significant other and just wants to add your scalp to his bedstead.
Is there an answer? And if there is, what was the question? The knight in shining armour just doesn't exist and we are all aware of that. Yes, we like to drool over those romantic films and novels, but deep down, we know that Joe next door or Jamie who we're dating is not perfect but he suits us, he's the one. That's because we're not perfect either. If we were perfect or we teamed up with a perfect partner, life would be so dull. We'd go looking for adventure the first chance we'd get.
It might be an idea to remember that the next time we roll our eyes over something. Nobody's perfect, not even Mr. Right.
Has that happened to you? I've been smitten by someone's looks and the conviction that he also fancied me only to discover when we actually met and got talking, that he wasn't really my kind of guy.
I have also dated guys who were very pleasant but who I felt I would never fall in love with and who either broke up with me or I broke up with them. Later I did meet one or two where I found myself regretting it.
Love is a tricky thing, isn't it? One minute you're over the moon, the next you're wiping a bloody nose because you caught him cheating or discovered he already has a significant other and just wants to add your scalp to his bedstead.
Is there an answer? And if there is, what was the question? The knight in shining armour just doesn't exist and we are all aware of that. Yes, we like to drool over those romantic films and novels, but deep down, we know that Joe next door or Jamie who we're dating is not perfect but he suits us, he's the one. That's because we're not perfect either. If we were perfect or we teamed up with a perfect partner, life would be so dull. We'd go looking for adventure the first chance we'd get.
It might be an idea to remember that the next time we roll our eyes over something. Nobody's perfect, not even Mr. Right.
Thursday 14 September 2017
Simply a Love Story
I am re-reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (of course) and enjoying it as usual. It's like visiting old acquaintances - you know what they are going to talk about and how things are with them even if you haven't kept in touch as you should. The Dashwoods are highly entertaining. I think, though, that my favourite in the novel is Sir John Middleton, their landlord. He is such a kind-hearted soul who believes that everybody is kind-hearted too. He is one of Jane Austen's most credible creations and we can only be sorry that there are not more people in the world like him. Marianne Dashwood, indeed, looks down on him as being intellectually her inferior, but some of his warmth and enjoyment of noisy pursuits - round games in the parlour, sailing parties and balls - would have made her a happier character. Her sister Eleanor was surprised at herself for ever imagining there would be "time for conversation" at Sir John's house.
Mrs. Jennings, too, is portrayed as a nosey, coarse woman, but she later demonstrates her great concern for Marianne, her affection for Eleanor and general kindness to them both. Another of Jane Austen's realistic characters.
In the edition of the novel which I'm reading, a learned American professor sets out to make the case that Jane Austen was trying to demonstrate some of the thinking of the time. He maintains that at that period there was an ongoing debate about the role played by intellect and by feelings in society. Marianne, the sensitive one, could never do anything by halves and represented those who had to be enthusiastic about everything and who sank into grief when things went wrong. Her sister Eleanor was of the "suffer in silence" type.
With all due respect to this professor, I have to say that I think Jane Austen simply wrote a love story. One or two of her biographers claim that she was the real "Marianne" and her sister Cassandra was best represented by Eleanor as the steady, calm one. Certainly, like all writers, she drew on her experience and like all writers most likely threw in bits of characters she had observed in her circle.
I am not convinced that she was trying to make any kind of statement.
None of this takes away from my enjoyment in reading the novel. Having lived in London, I find the descriptions of the Dashwoods' adventures in that great city highly entertaining. The two-penny post which Marianne used to write to Mr. Willoughbly has been immortalized in literature. And even though I know very well how it is all going to end, I still enjoy reading it and smiling over the various characters depicted there.
Mrs. Jennings, too, is portrayed as a nosey, coarse woman, but she later demonstrates her great concern for Marianne, her affection for Eleanor and general kindness to them both. Another of Jane Austen's realistic characters.
In the edition of the novel which I'm reading, a learned American professor sets out to make the case that Jane Austen was trying to demonstrate some of the thinking of the time. He maintains that at that period there was an ongoing debate about the role played by intellect and by feelings in society. Marianne, the sensitive one, could never do anything by halves and represented those who had to be enthusiastic about everything and who sank into grief when things went wrong. Her sister Eleanor was of the "suffer in silence" type.
With all due respect to this professor, I have to say that I think Jane Austen simply wrote a love story. One or two of her biographers claim that she was the real "Marianne" and her sister Cassandra was best represented by Eleanor as the steady, calm one. Certainly, like all writers, she drew on her experience and like all writers most likely threw in bits of characters she had observed in her circle.
I am not convinced that she was trying to make any kind of statement.
None of this takes away from my enjoyment in reading the novel. Having lived in London, I find the descriptions of the Dashwoods' adventures in that great city highly entertaining. The two-penny post which Marianne used to write to Mr. Willoughbly has been immortalized in literature. And even though I know very well how it is all going to end, I still enjoy reading it and smiling over the various characters depicted there.
Tuesday 5 September 2017
Romance is not only for the young
"You are never too old for romance" I believe it was Ingrid Bergmann who made that statement and I agree with her wholeheartedly. Young romance can be magical but it can also be heartbreaking - we have loads of songs and books about that aspect of it but not enough about romance in later years.
I started my novel LOVE AT A LATER DATE with this in mind. I know a number of grandmothers who are young at heart, willing to take a chance on life, curious about new things. I know mothers and grandmothers who are devastated when the children start to grow up and don't need so much shepherding any more. So I asked myself what would happen if a still-young grandmother lost her dependable job and was thrust onto the job market? What would happen if a man she was in love with in the past comes back into her life? Will she choose duty to her daughter and grandchildren over looking for a new career? Will her love from the past still have power over her now all these years later?
It was great fun writing this novel and judging by feedback from my readers - both older and younger than the heroine in the novel - they had great fun reading it. I believe in books that bring a smile to your face. I must admit that I'm not into all that agony and hardship stuff in fiction although I do find autobiographies of people who have surmounted hard times and made peace with themselves very uplifting and encouraging. But life's too short to pick a fiction novel with a grim plot line as weekend reading. Let's have a happy ending that brings a smile to our faces!
I started my novel LOVE AT A LATER DATE with this in mind. I know a number of grandmothers who are young at heart, willing to take a chance on life, curious about new things. I know mothers and grandmothers who are devastated when the children start to grow up and don't need so much shepherding any more. So I asked myself what would happen if a still-young grandmother lost her dependable job and was thrust onto the job market? What would happen if a man she was in love with in the past comes back into her life? Will she choose duty to her daughter and grandchildren over looking for a new career? Will her love from the past still have power over her now all these years later?
It was great fun writing this novel and judging by feedback from my readers - both older and younger than the heroine in the novel - they had great fun reading it. I believe in books that bring a smile to your face. I must admit that I'm not into all that agony and hardship stuff in fiction although I do find autobiographies of people who have surmounted hard times and made peace with themselves very uplifting and encouraging. But life's too short to pick a fiction novel with a grim plot line as weekend reading. Let's have a happy ending that brings a smile to our faces!
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