Everybody Could Use More Love in Their World!

One of the best aspects of being a writer is that I get to create an entire make-believe realm, to which I redirect readers, away from the real, fallen world they inhabit. Like us, my two main characters, Coral and Mike, will appear so imperfect and almost hopeless. Yet, throughout the book, you will cheer on these flawed and despairing retirees toward second chances at love, even true love, or their best love yet, if such is possible!

My characters’ likes and dislikes will be shaped by my beliefs and preferences, and not what a segment of the real world might demand. Remember, it’s my universe, my rules, and my vision. I can, and do, leave out of my novel anything that disgusts or displeases me that I’m forced to encounter in the real world. Why bring any garbage into a Boomer love story? Haven’t we paid our dues in full already?

And what Boomer or Gen-Xer doesn’t love to reminisce? So, I will tickle my readers’ memories of their early childhood, teenage years, and on into adulthood. I will reference popular music, movies, locations, clothing, trends, and colloquial words and expressions of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. You see, I want to take the reader on a nostalgic ride back in time to the days they now imagine were more pleasant, saner, and less complicated, before family, work, and life in general became crazy, sometimes suffocating, and almost unbearable.

Finally, through my descriptions, I will transport readers to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, so they can truly experience it in their minds. By the novel’s end, they will see, smell, taste, hear, and feel what I, as a year-round resident for the past 22 years, have come to know, appreciate, and cherish. If true love can be found, it will be found here—in our quaint town or on our majestic beach—where love comes in on every wave. So, dust off your mental surfboards, sit with me on the rolling salty water, and savor the sun on your face!

And as for my characters, watch them learn and embrace that their best is yet to come!

“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t make me leave you, for I want to go wherever you go and to live wherever you live; your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God; I want to die where you die and be buried there. May the Lord do terrible things to me if I allow anything but death to separate us.”’ (Ruth 1:16-17 TLB)