Lemons

Sometimes life hands you a lemon.

Sometimes life force-marches you out to the lemon grove and fells a fruit-bearing tree on your head.

This June has been a pretty rough on the Boyce household. I'd like to be able to feel relief that it's almost over, but if I've learned anything this month, it's that life can change drastically from one instant to the next. 48 hours is a lot of time for June to find another way to mess with me, so I'm not celebrating just yet.

Don't let the sunny color lull you into a false sense of security.

One of the Not Great things that happened was the hospitalization of one of my children (Child is ok now; please don't fret.). My day was going along like any other. I was struggling with my Work in Progress and policing petty sibling squabbles. And then, suddenly, I was making phone calls to arrange care for two of the kids and taking the third to the emergency room for immediate medical attention.

It was stunning, how fast it happened. All at once, the bottom fell out from under me. I was forced from my normal daily routines into something new and frightening. Later, sitting in the hospital and holding the hand of a child tucked into an institutional bed, my writer brain kicked in. Feel this, it ordered. Take it all in. Make note. You might need this later.

So I let myself tune in to what was happening. I turned my attention from staring at my child (as though the weight of my constant gaze was the only thing ensuring his continued survival) to myself. I felt the ebbing adrenaline and the headache building in its wake, the bewilderment, the desperate fear, and strangely, the beginnings of betrayal. Life had pulled a nasty one on us. Tears occasionally spilled from my eyes, stopped for a while, then spilled again.

Around me, I watched the harried nurse click through a computer screen listing her various charges. I felt the coarse weave of sheets manufactured to survive bleaching after bleaching. I noted the dust accumulated on top of the various wall-mounted apparatuses. I wondered why our room didn't have a box of tissues. On the television in the upper corner of the room, a Food Network personality made a cookie-crumb pie crust. "What more could you want from life?" she chirped.

I tuned back out.

Now, with the distance of a couple weeks behind me (and a couple more craptastic incidents thrown into the mix), I can't help but recall the adage about taking life's lemons and making lemonade, and I find myself wholly unwilling to do so.

These are my lemons, dammit. I earned them, and I will make or not make with them whatever I choose. When Mr. B and I had to leave the hospital without our child (who is, as a reminder, now totally fine), I didn't have the luxury of enjoying metaphorical lemonade. It was lemon juice, straight up, and a lot of it. I was sick with it churning in my stomach.

Although, for the lobster, the lemon is
just a final splash of indignity.

And I have to think that sometimes it's ok to just let a lemon be a lemon. What happened to our family sucked. I don't have to try to make something more palatable out of it. Life is a messy business. We all go through rough times on occasion, and there's nothing wrong with letting them be. Of course, I have learned from this experience, and I hope I will be able to use the emotions I lived through to add authenticity to my work at some point in the future, but I'm not calling that lemonade. A well-stocked produce bin, maybe, but not lemonade. I'll keep the lemons as they are and use them as needed.

After all, having lemons to hand is a good thing. When life eventually hands me a lobster, I'll enjoy it that much more.

Crimson Wonderland Blog Hop -- An Old New World

Welcome to the first Crimson Wonderland Blog Hop, Bluestocking Ball edition. If this is your first visit to my blog, hi! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll find something here to entice you to come back again soon.

When I think about the Regency world I try to create for my readers, I'm drawn back to the idea of why I read romance novels to begin with. From the perspective of a reader, what escape am I looking for?

Setting is the first thing that comes to mind. I think you all know I'm a bit partial to historical settings. I love visiting times gone by, particularly my beloved Regency. The trappings of it are beautiful -- the clothes, the grand houses, the balls, the carriages, the pastoral countryside. Life moved a little slower then. A shopping jaunt into the village involved a walk or a ride in a carriage, not a high speed car race [As an aside, do you ever think about how fast we really travel these days? Travel by carriage achieved about 20 miles per day. PER DAY. Even speeds we grumble about now, like 25 mph through a small town, would have seemed screaming fast to our Regency counterparts.] Manners and etiquette were matters of common knowledge. Of course, this system gives ample opportunity for historical romance authors to create comedy of manners, a trope employed by Shakespeare and Jane Austen, among other literary luminaries.

For me, setting is the icing on the cake. It's the decoration that catches your eye when you're browsing a selection of delicacies and makes you say, "I want that one. It looks delicious!"

And by "that one" I mean ALL THE NOMS.

But what are we really looking for in a romance? I submit that readers take two journeys in a novel. One is the setting that transports us to another place or time. The second, which I would say is even more important than the first, is an emotional trip. Romance is about escaping into the lives of characters who are facing challenges and falling in love. It's about meeting new people without the awkwardness of making small talk with them. A romance novel takes us on a journey of the heart.

After we finish a fantastic novel, what do we remember? The sweeping vistas or thrilling action might be part of it, but mostly we remember the characters we've grown to care for. We remember the heartache and suffering. We remember the sizzling chemistry between the main characters. We remember the triumph and joy of a well-deserved Happily Ever After. A romance novel is an emotional wonderland you can carry in your heart and mind, long after you've put down the book.

* * *

And now the moment you've all been waiting for... giveaway time! My contribution to the blog hop fun is this beautiful 16" necklace adorned with a quote from Jane Austen's Emma:

It says: "You must be the best judge of your own happiness." This quote is inspiring to me because it serves as a reminder to listen to your own heart when faced with life's hurdles. It's also a precept that must be learned by heroes and heroines in romance novels. Inevitably, they must judge for themselves in which direction their happiness lies. It's part of the emotional journey.

If you'd like to enter my giveaway, just leave a comment on this post! *EDIT: Please also leave your email address with your comment, so you can be contacted if you are one of the grand prize winners.* One commenter will be selected via random.org. My giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, November 21. No comment left after this time will be eligible to win. 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!!

By entering my giveaway, you will also be entered for the chance to win one of three fabulous grand prizes. Crimson Wonderland Blog Hop is giving away one $100 gift card, and two $50 gift cards, each to your choice of either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

Visit all the participating authors (listed below) for more romantic wonderlands and the chance to win more fabulous prizes! Good luck and happy hopping!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR ENTERING!