“A Recipe for Romance” is a piece I wrote for a friend’s blog a while back about my contemporary romance, Land of My Dreams. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Since I’m taking some time off this summer, I thought I would share it with you. I would love to hear your comments!
Fabulous Fridays
A Recipe for Romance
Scotland, two broken hearts, and a mighty God—a recipe for romance. The ingredients for my debut novel, Land of My Dreams, began to reveal themselves while planning our 30th anniversary trip to Scotland in 2006. Six years later, I had a contract with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, two years after; I held my dream in my hands.
The chief ingredient in a recipe for romance is love, in generous measure. And I fell hard—for Scotland, its history, the people, the accent, the dreich weather, and yes, the kilts! Though my story is contemporary, I had to include some background of a people with such fierce national pride. I ate haggis, black sausage, bangers and mash, venison stew, and to this very day, I crave sticky toffee pudding and meat pies.
I also fell in love my characters, though I sometimes wanted to shake them for being such a dunderheided bunch. Bonny Bryant is a gutsy, wee beauty from America—the spice in the cake. Though she possesses a penchant for hunks who often behave like self-centered children, she is smart, savvy, disillusioned with God and love, and has a tenacious hold on life and the men who love her.
Kieran MacDonell, a braw and bonnie man with red-blond hair and blue eyes that can melt a woman with one glance adds the sugar. His long-time friend, Janet, describes him as sweet, vulnerable, and the desire of every woman who knows him. He’s athletic, outdoorsy, and imposing—a kilt-wearing piper, so wounded that God has no place in his life, and completely blindsided by the petite redhead who threatens to destroy the shaky façade of his life.
Then, there is Adam Lawson, the baking powder, the ambitious lawyer who refuses to let Bonny go. Think Michael Weatherly on steroids, ego in a business suit, a disarming smile no woman can resist, and willing to use it. Anytime he appears is bound to be inopportune and he could care less.
Scotland constitutes the frosting, the sweet covering in our recipe for romance, with its beauty and appeal, as unique in its culture, as New Mexico, the home of both Bonny and me. As Bonny says, they are about as similar as “water and dust”. Yet, each blends ancient and modern culture, including people groups who lost their freedom to invading enemies, but never their identity or customs. The two intermingle to the point that it wouldn’t be out of the question for breakfast to include haggis alongside scrambled eggs smothered in green chili.
Though rejected and questioned, the flour, the ingredient that binds everything together in a recipe for romance and gives it strength, is God, that glorious controller of all things. His love and compassion surrounds each character, even when they are blind to His presence and angry at His seeming neglect. Without God, there would be no love, and without true love, there would be no romance.
So there you have it, the recipe for a romance readers call, “A truly beautiful story of healing and redemption”, “A captivating love story”, and “What Christian fiction should be”.
Do you long to escape for the summer? Land of My Dreams, with timeless tragedy and passion, set among ancient castles, glittering lochs, and breathtaking green mountains topped by clouds, will carry you to a place where dreams come true, and love reigns supreme.
Cheerio the nou! Goodbye for now! I hope to meet you in the pages of my book!
© Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman
Book Blurb:
Alone and betrayed, American professor, Bonny Bryant longs for a haven of peace. She accepts a position at a small Christian college in Fort William, Scotland, craving escape from her painful past. The passionate love which develops when she meets fellow professor and sheep farmer, Kieran MacDonell, is something she never anticipated.
Kieran harbors a deep anger toward God in the face of his own devastating grief. When Bonny’s former fiancé reenters her life, Kieran’s loneliness draws him to a former student.
How will Bonny decide between her rivals? Can they set aside the past to make way for a future, or will it drive them apart?
Land of My Dreams spans the distance between New Mexico’s high desert mountains and the misty Scottish Highlands with a timeless story of overwhelming grief, undying love, and compelling faith.
About the author:
Norma Gail is the author of the contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and the New Mexico Christian Novelists. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 40 years. They have two adult children.
Connect with Norma:
Website: www.normagail.org
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Norma-Gail/e/B00ILHXBAK/
Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbZIoC_JSE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorNormaGail
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NormaGailwrites
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/normagailth/boards/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7874459
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Norma_Gail
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/norma-gail-thurston-holtman/42/71a/3b2
Book Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Land-My-Dreams-Norma-Gail/dp/1941103170
Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas Bookstore: http:// lpcbooks.com/product/land-of-my-dreams/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/land-of-my-dreams-norma-gail/1119606864?ean=9781941103173
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