Yes, we’re about to start some new action. This week, I expect to launch my new romance, Love at First Sight.
My fourth book in the Louisa’s Vineyard Series, and the prequel, offers readers the opportunity to see where things started. Who are Louisa’s parents? What was John like before he became Louisa and Randy’s parent?
I’m excited to share with you that the characters in our times come by their passions honestly. Louisa’s grandparents on both sides of the family, twenty years ago, were extremely passionate and loving people.
While creating a world in the past, although it’s still considered modern times, there are things that are different. In the early 2000s, the character didn’t have cell phones with screens to see each other. They’re happy to speak with each other away from landlines.
CREATING NEW CHARACTERS
If you’ve read Louisa’s Passion, you’ve heard of Shannon, the female protagonist of Love at First Sight. Shannon was mentioned as Louisa’s mother, who died. (I won’t share how here, because that is a spoiler.) John refers to her early in Louisa’s Passion, when he said, “We didn’t raise you like that.”
But we only had the ghost of Shannon in Louisa’s Passion. I agonized over how I could make Louisa, her brother Randy, and John bond over a shared loss. That was Shannon. I decided I wanted to show Shannon’s vibrancy, creativity, and spunk, which is one reason I chose to write Love at First Sight and show her twenty-plus years younger when she met John.
To explain Shannon’s life, I had to create her parents, her brothers, her education, her talent, and the lifestyle her family inhabited. Inventing the Bell family was a challenge to show contrasts between Shannon’s brothers, her parents’ start, and the more comfortable lifestyle they lead in the story. I wanted her family to be a model for people who are not elitist, prejudiced, or snobbish.
Shannon knows what work is, as an artist and a person. She is not afraid of hard work and enjoyed hanging out with her brothers as they built a tree house and created things with wood. They are a close family, and as I wrote about them, I made certain they related to each other in a believable way.
Some incidents described in the new book mention things that happened in my family when we were growing up. Curiosity makes people try things that sometimes lead to funny results. (Like trying to transport duck eggs in your pants pocket. Hmm) I used those incidents when Shannon and John are meeting each other’s parents, which can be embarrassing. From a supportive family, the funny things get viewed through rose-colored glasses.
My characters joke in scenes when you least expect it–like during their wedding vows. They also are brave when you least expect it and very creative─in ways which I won’t explain.
Most recently, I wrote several first-person blogs from Shannon and John’s perspectives. It was hilarious as I spoke in their voices, sharing their worries, fears, and joys. This provided an unusual element to my efforts to write about and characterize them.
Getting in character was a challenging effort that allowed me to be mean to the author/me from John’s perspective. (See my website’s recent blogs at www.shelleysommers.com) It was also hilarious to have my character be rude to me. (How often do you stand outside yourself and imagine being rude or, contrasting that, actually being kind to yourself?)
To create a multi-faced character, think of it as akin to the way Shannon built her sculptures from clay, with many layers and adjustments until she polished and added nuances to create a final, finished figure.
I hope you enjoy Love at First Sight when the book arrives this week, as I announced. And, as a special treat, when you read the book, you’ll find a link to a free, exclusive, Bonus special epilogue only available with the link! (The book already has an epilogue, but this Bonus goes beyond that–their honeymoon! Just imagine how much fun that will be!) I will not be publishing this special epilogue anywhere else!
Put it on your calendar! Check on Thursday and see if Amazon and other book sellers have Love at First Sight available. The more people purchase it on launch day, the more publishers will make my books prominently available. (algorithms!) Tell your friends! Action!
And, please let me know if you receive and love the book. shelley@shelleysommers.com Write me comments about the book and the special epilogue, and I’ll include them on the website and in future books!!
Thank you!
Hugs to all!
Shelley Sommers