October!

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By Martha Rogers

October! How I love this month. To me, October ushers in the holiday season with the most gorgeous display of colors nature could provide. Orange, gold, red, yellow and burnt orange burst forth in an array only God could design.

Several of my novels take place from summer into fall or fall into winter simply because it’s my favorite time of the year. My newest release, Christmas at Stoney Creek begins in the early fall and continues until Christmas. Another novel has the same time frame and my characters celebrate the fall season at a church Fall Fest that is based on one our church has every year.
Christmas at Stoney Creek
In one novel, Autumn Song, I write about the sounds the trees and wind make in the fall months as the air grows heavier. I actually went outside in our backyard which is full of oak and pine trees and listened to the wind in the fall and again in the spring. There is a definite difference to the sounds. One is crackling and crisp, the other is smooth and comforting with a hint of new life and freshness in the air.

Research like this and the previous novels mentioned is so much fun, and I learn many new things from it. When we write from what is familiar, we often can find new information to change perspective or give new insight into what we already know. When we add that to our writing, we can give our readers new experiences.

No matter which genre we choose for our writing, we must know what we’re talking about. I try to avoid putting things into my manuscripts that I can’t easily find out more about. If the research takes too much time from actually writing, I will usually take another route to get the scene I need or the situation I want to use.

Of course the best thing about October is that Rex and I married in October. This year we celebrate fifty-seven years of marriage today, October 24. That’s the kind of romance I want my readers to see as they read my stories. These are love relationships that will last a lifetime because they are based on God’s love as the foundation.

So many times love happens quickly in a story and the reader isn’t quite sure about how a relationship to last a lifetime could develop in such a short period of time. Rex and I knew each other only four months before he proposed. Six weeks after we met, he left for the army. We’d had a total of six dates in that time. When he returned from basic training, he was in town for a week. He proposed, got the rings, set the date and started our plans. He left again, and I didn’t see him again until his furlough began the week before the wedding.

Love can and does happen quickly, especially when the couple is following God’s plan for their lives and building their love on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. That is one of the most important thing we can convey to our readers in romance.

martha-rogersMartha Rogers is a free-lance writer and multi-published author from Realms Fiction of Charisma Media and Winged Publications. She was named Volunteer of the year at the ACFW Conference in 2014. She is a member of ACFW and writes the weekly Verse of the Week for the ACFW Loop. Her latest release is Christmas at Stoney Creek.

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