Life's Total Twist, by Diane Scott Lewis

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May 12 would have been my 49th anniversary. So long! I can't believe it. I must have been eight when I got married (wink).

I hope you like my trip down memory lane.

When I was nineteen I joined the navy because I wanted to travel the world. On my first assignment, in Nea Makri, Greece, I watched a guy ride onto the base on a motorcycle. Being a California gal, I always loved riding on motorcycles.

This is a recent pic of the neglected base, but I was standing on that far left corner
when we met.

The guy got off the bike and took off his helmet. He had dark brown hair and dark eyes, sort of my "perfect" visage for a man.

My sponsor said immediately, "That's George Parkinson, he's trouble. Stay away from him."

Well, sad to admit, this intrigued me more. We eventually started dating, took a fantastic bike trip through southern Greece (I need to scan those old pictures), and a year later got married. But it wasn't an easy process. He was married, but legally separated. Everyone kept warning me, he's married. 

His mother found him a divorce lawyer, and though it took a year, he got his divorce. By that time I was pregnant with our first child, so a quick wedding was in order before I left the navy and flew back to California, waiting for George to join me.

We had two sons, and lived in Puerto Rico, California, and Guam, before settling in Washington DC until he retired.

He worked for the Navy as a civil servant and I started writing novels, a passion of mine since I was a child.

We had our ups and downs in our marriage, but held on. Now we have two beautiful granddaughters.

Five years ago we returned to Greece for a reunion. The base was derelict but the people friendly and welcoming.

In his early seventies, George started coughing, and lung cancer was detected. He did chemo and radiation. But on April 2nd he passed away. 

I want to celebrate a good man and a life well-lived. Not perfect but decent, and an adventure. Loved to the last.

I'm still getting used to not having my closest friend beside me.

Cherish your loved ones. I had fifty years and I hold on to that.

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.

At the Heart of the Matter by Victoria Chatham

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https://bookswelove.net/chatham-victoria/

Charlotte Gray discovers her home ransacked, her father missing, and a dark and dangerous stranger, Benjamin Abernathy, waiting for her. He had promised to take care of his friend’s daughter if anything befell him and must now follow through with that promise.

With no other options, and despite her misgivings, Charlotte becomes established in the stranger’s home as governess to his nephew and niece. Benjamin doubts her ability to cope with the two young hellions but is quickly reassured as he recognizes the sharp mind behind her blue eyes. But is it Charlotte’s mind he falls in love with, or her delectable body?

With Charlotte hunted for the knowledge she is suspected of possessing and Benjamin, for the threat he presents, danger stalks them. Will the smugglers and spies behind the threat have any chance against this duo who will go to any lengths to protect the secrets they each must keep?

 

* * *

I don't pretend to write complex novels. My stories have, I hope, an easily understood point to make to the reader.

Writers, especially new writers, frequently worry about how much of themselves they reveal in their writing. Therefore, it follows that writing subtle or intuitive themes would suggest the author has those qualities and is writing from their own point of view or at the very least understands them well enough to introduce them in their writing.

My characters may already be married, as Lord and Lady Buxton in The Buxton Chronicles or become married, and love, loyalty, and fidelity lie at the heart of all my novels.

During the Regency era in which I set most of my novels, women were expected to get married and expected it of themselves with few exceptions. Jane Austen is one of them. Aristocratic families married not so much for love as economics. How does one enlarge one’s estate and holdings? Marry the heir or heiress next door. While that might sound cold, it was just the way of things amongst the upper class.

 Once an heir arrived to complete the happy or not union, the lord was free to take a mistress (if he ever gave one up.) His lady, discreetly, of course, might take lovers while everyone turned a blind eye to their extra-marital shenanigans. Or, as in the case of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire who, later in her marriage to the emotionally distant Duke, was forced to accept his mistress Lady Elizabeth Foster into a ménage à trois which delighted the gossip-mongers of the day.

 While love and marriage are not so much a subtle theme, they are at the heart of most romances. The ‘aha’ moment when the characters finally admit they have fallen in love is what appeals to romance readers. If the characters are not married by the end of the book, then you darn well know that a wedding will take place soon after. It’s the ‘Happy Ever After’ that seals the romantic deal.

Victoria Chatham

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