Delsora Lowe Shares Stories
‘Welcome back, Delora. I can’t wait to learn more about your writing life.
Is there an event in your life that affected you as a writer? When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
I would say there are two events in my life that set me on the road to writing my first book. The first was my daughter’s wedding that took place at an old inn on the ocean in Maine. It was a few years later, when a story started to percolate about the mother-of-the-bride meeting and falling in love with a guest at the inn. It was so long ago, I’m not sure when I started writing. I may have jotted some notes. The second event was in Washington, D.C. where I had moved to work at my old high school as the alumni relations director. My friend, also moved to D.C. to open the first out-of-state L.L. Bean store in VA.
The two of us bunked in the extra bedrooms at my parents. Later we roomed together in a row house in Virginia. The same week we moved, 9/11 happened. Our community fire department was the first to respond to the Pentagon that day. And my new daily commute took me by the gaping hole in the Pentagon. The only thing that saved me mentally was writing. I started jotting down poems to free my brain from dwelling on the carnage of that day. Then I started writing the story that had percolated for years. The hero was an admissions counselor. And strangely, years later I ended up working in a college admissions office. Alas, my roommate had an internet issue, and when they fixed the problem, it wiped out everything on the computer. Somewhere, buried in a box is a print copy of a finished draft. Many elements of that story still roam through my head. Maybe someday…
What was the most interesting place you ever visited?
As a child, my family moved a lot. My dad worked for the federal government. I lived in Turkey as a young child, then moved to Taiwan when I was in fourth grade. My dad had a lot of vacation time saved up over the years, so on our trip home to the states when I was in sixth grade, we took a plane to Hong Kong, then flew to Singapore, where we met up with an Italian ship that took us through the Suez Canal, where the desert spread out as far as the eye could see on both sides of the line of ships slipping through the canal.
We traveled through the Mediterranean, stopping in Italy. We had Thanksgiving dinner in Rome and visited several cities and the ruins of Pompeii. I can still feel the eeriness of the volcano-lava ravaged city of Pompei—as if the inhabitants’ ghosts still wandered the entire city.
Our next stop was in Spain. We traveled the country by car and I have vivid memories of that trip, including getting locked in a bathroom at a gas station with my mom and sister. They finally realized we hadn’t come back and rescued us. We then ferried from Gibraltar to Morocco and we wandered the outdoor markets teeming with people in native attire. The strange-to-me scents and the colorful dress are also vivid memories. Then on to Portugal and our visit to a winery, where they produced an after-dinner Port. As a 6th grader I got to taste the offerings, because in those western Mediterranean countries, kids drank wine for meals, right along with their parents. I felt so grown-up. We then steamed into NYC harbor on a huge ship – it was either the Constitution or the Independence. I can never remember which ship, but I remember sitting on the deck in rough weather, since I was a bit sea-sick. Then the seas got too rough and we had to stay inside.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
My first novella was independently published in an anthology that the Maine Romance Writers put together. I ended it up being one of the leads in putting the anthology together with another member. It was the hardest publishing task I have ever had. Even after spending part of my career as an editor for alumni magazines in two independent schools and one college, and helping put together the magazines, with appropriate photos, etc., this experience allowed me to learn the ins and outs of indie-publishing romances, from writing front and back matter, blubs, tag lines, etc. to actually managing the choice of editors and formatters, to helping on the cover selection team. Once I got my rights back from the novella, I ended up writing two more novellas in the Serenity Harbor Maine series. I ended up putting the three books, plus a new short story into a Collection: Starlight Grille. And that set me on my indie-publishing journey. This experience taught me a valuable lesson in networking with other authors, working as a team, and promotion.
What project are you working on now or what book will be next?
I have just released Holiday Hitchhiker, and earlier, in October, I released The Inn on Gooseneck Lane, my first book published by The Wild Rose Press. My plans for 2023 are to edit two books already written, both in the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series. Rescuing the Sheriff is the story of the adopted son in the Peter’s family. I will also work on The Rancher’s Second Wife. This is a novella that looks back to the marriage of Mitch, the patriarch of the Peters’ family, and the woman he married later in life. Madge plays the matchmaker role in all the other books. I’m so excited to get back to editing these two books and getting them out to my readers. I still have two more books written in the series, plus ideas for several others. I can’t wait to get started on all these in the new year. I also hope to get out the sequel to The Love Left Behind, Hartford Estate, which is already written and needs to be edited, as well. Too much to do, too little time…
Holiday Hitchhiker
Christmas in Angels Glen
by Delsora Lowe
Two strangers, one snow-worthy vehicle, and a cozy cabin in a blizzard
Cole Peters is ready to escape the bustle of the wildlife management symposium and the overpopulated conference complex in Reno, and get back to his solitary, mountain cabin in the state park.
What he didn’t plan was a road trip with a stranger, clad in the most unnatural, fluorescent colors, who hops into his truck. With a blizzard approaching, how can he say no to a “hijacker” in tears?
Addy Adams had a rough night. Fired, no place to escape to, and a missing car service, how can she get to her parents for Christmas before the blizzard shuts down the roads? Now stranded on a highway, in a white out, with an accident up ahead, did she trust the right man?
Can two strangers find friendship and more, while stuck in a log cabin with a sweet and welcoming couple and their two kids who are super excited about the arrival of Santa? And will Cole and Addy make their way to their respective homes in time for Christmas? Or will they realize they were meant to celebrate together during the magical season?
See the other two stand-alone books in the Christmas in Angels Glen trilogy.
Christmas Reunion (Christmas in Angels Glen) by Sue Ward Drake (Oct 19, 2022)
If You Believe in Love by Luanna Stewart (Nov 8, 2022)
Available from:
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/mY8eaW
~ cottages to cabins – keep the home fires burning ~
Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.
Author of the Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, and The Love Left Behind, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. This holiday season, look for both the novel, The Inn on Gooseneck Lane, and the novella, Holiday Hitchhiker.
She will be editing the third Cowboys of Mineral Springs book, as well as the second Hartford Estate book, for release in 2023.
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Congratulations on the new book! Your travels are inspiring
Ilona – Zara’s questions are always so much fun to answer – brings back many memories.
Loved the interview, and the book looks so good!
Love small town stories and accidental meetings that bloom into Romance. Looks like my kind of story. So nice to learn more about you. You certainly have a wealth of travel experience to tap into. Enjoy!
Kim – thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the book. As a former big city and traveling gal, I have been happily settled in a small east coast town. Although the inspiration for this story was from a long-ago trip to Reno, NV for a conference. As a break from the business of the meeting, we took a bus trip up through the Sierras in NV, through an old gold mining town, and back down through CA and Truckee. The scenery from that trip was a great inspiration for this book. And the inspiration for the epilogue came from a small mountainous town where my daughter lived in CO (the setting for my Cowboys of Mineral Springs series.) Always fun to work past experiences and settings into a story.
Kim – sorry to be so tardy in replying. Thanks so much for checking in. I too love small town stories, despite (or maybe because of) growing up in a big city and traveling so much. I now enjoy living in a smaller town, where the people who work in the grocery store have been there for a long time, etc.
Jennifer – thanks so much for stopping by. It was amazing. In each country my sister and I collected a doll in the dress of the country. We had that collection for years. I just wish I had a better memory about all our adventures. 🙂
Wow, such a fascinating childhood. All that traveling must have been amazing. Good luck with your book.