Biological, Chosen, or Fantasy #OurAuthorGang

by Grace Augustine

I dare to wager a bet...at some point in your life you have longed for a family other than your own.  I think we all do that. My parents, in the above photo, were older parents. I was their only child. My father, a Filipino, died when I was 9 years old. My Mother died when I was 30. Tomorrow would have been her 100th birthday. 

I didn't know either set of grandparents. I think that was due to age and location more than anything.  My maternal grandparents lived in Missouri and paternal grandparents, from the Philippines, died long before I was born.

There was no one to grow up with. Don't get me wrong, I had neighborhood kids I ran around with, but there was no one to grow up with in my home. Today, my biological family is comprised of my two sons and beautiful feline, Bou. Since I have no cousins, no aunts, uncles...no one...I've chosen my family. I have chosen sisters and brothers all over the world that are either real, in person friends chosen as family, or online internet never-met family.

photo created by photofunia

When I penned The Acorn Hills Series, I based it on a close-knit group of friends who experienced life together. They grew up going to sporting events, catching each other's tears, and laughing and rejoicing at each other's accomplishments--much the same as a real family would.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7QFRUK/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Whether you have a fabulous biological family, a family you've chosen through friendship, or a fantasy family that you'd like to someday have, I hope you make memories together that all will remember and maybe one day write stories about.

Love's an Adventure at Any Age Part 2 #OurAuthorGang

     by Grace Augustine

As a high school student, I fell in love with the idea of falling in love. I read Harlequins when Harlequins were sweet with nothing more than a kiss or thought. My favorite books were from authors Janet Dailey, Anne Mather, and Grace Livingston Hill.

    In my early 20's, I gravitated toward self-help books. I think that was because I was the Administrative Assistant to the Offices of Student Services at Western States Chiropractic College. (Say that ten times really fast!)
    Soon marriage and children came along and the only books I read were Dr. Seuss and Good Night, Moon...over and over and over.

     Now that my life is void of children or grandchildren who need my undivided attention,  I've come full circle and am embracing romance/love again.
     The thing about love...it is timeless. It has no boundaries except those we put on it.
     The tag-line for my Acorn Hills series... "Acorn Hills--Where Love is Ageless and Dreams are Reality" sums up the feel of this series. You can be in love and be loved at any age. We don't have to put numbers on it--you don't have to be 25, 35 or 40. My characters are in their 60's by the time the books end and still very much in love.
     An excerpt from Mystic Capers, Book 2 of the Acorn Hills Series.
http://a.co/9RatJc2

    "Charles pulled away from his daughter and looked down at her. He still saw the younger version of his wife in her. Her eyes, her hair, her spirit were all Kathleen O'Reilly Farnsworth. He smiled and pulled Ginger back to him, resting his chin on her head.

        “That’s another thing, are you sure that you are doing the right thing by moving in with Jordan, that you aren’t just doing this because you don’t have the apartment any longer?”

        “Daddy, I’m hopelessly in love with Jordan. I don’t know if he’s there yet, but my heart is his. Yes, I’m confident that what I’m doing is the right thing for me. I love him, Daddy,” Ginger confessed.

        “Then, honey, that’s all that matters. Jordan seems a good, responsible man. He’s the type that will take care of you. Trust me, dear girl, I see in his eyes when he looks at you the love I felt for your mother when I first laid eyes on her. You’ll be happy with this man, Ginger. Just be open and honest. Be you and ‘love the stuffin’ oot o’ him’ as your mother would say.” They both chuckled at that."

Love's An Adventure At Any Age

Grace Augustine, Author

www.graceaugustine.weebly.com

  My tagline..."Love's an Adventure at Any Age" fits perfectly with my writing genre...love, romance, and life issues.

  We have a tendency to think love is all about the fireworks. While fireworks are nice, they are momentary...blasting the sky with color that soon fades, leaving us a dark sky.

  Love, true lasting love, is a lifetime adventure. If you are fortunate to find that one special person to spend the rest of your life with, the fireworks happen, the tears happen, children happen, death happens. 

  Enter romance. Romance, as I said in my prior blog, is the icing on the cake, the sprinkles on the ice cream, and definitely the bling on love.

   Think of adventure when you think of love. Think of adventure when you think of romance. Love and romance are timeless and each is an adventure in its own right.

   

My Acorn Hills series was born from the aftermath of a bad relationship. But, once I started writing, I knew the characters I'd introduced in book one, Bittersweet, had their own stories to tell. So, the characters took me from their time in high school through present day. You will read of betrayal, friendships, teen pregnancy, adoption, death of a parent, birth of twins, disease ridden bodies that don't obey, and most of all romance.

An excerpt from Bittersweet, Book 1 of The Acorn Hills Series, free on Amazon 

 http://a.co/8SYu7IL

     “I don’t just want to be normal, Jake. I want to be YOUR normal. But, after what you just said, normal isn’t enough and I will never BE enough for you. I have never denied you anything. I gave you all of who I am and it still isn’t enough.”

          “But, Baby Doll, you know I love you,” Jake interjected as he walked back behind his desk, putting even more space between them.

           Jillian wasn’t having any of it. She stood up and followed him. She began barking at him again, just inches away from his face.

          “I cannot and will not stand by while you charm your way into the beds of other women.  You knew how I felt about all this when we agreed you could stay in my home.  Now I know what it is all about, I’m not just going to sit idly in the same space with you, not saying anything, when you get phone calls and text messages that put this stinking, slimy smile on your face!”

          She seldom ever raised her voice, but it was at a decibel right now where those in the outer office could hear every word. She was so angry! A fire-breathing dragon had nothing on her right now. She fingered the Polish crystal paper weight on Jake’s desk, wondering if she threw it at the window behind him just how many shards of glass there would be surrounding them."