Diana Bletter | On Writing About Mr. Right—And Mr. Wrong

My novel, A REMARKABLE KINDNESS, tells the intertwined love stories of four American women who, for various reasons, all wind up in a small beach village in Northern Israel. I knew that this faraway, rugged place would be the perfect setting for this novel which explores completely unpredictable loves romance and passion.

There’s nothing like a good romance to get your heart beating really fast. In real life as well as in books, who can resist a love story? I especially like love stories in which two people who are not meant to be together overcome all odds and follow their secret dreams— and their passion.

In fact, each of the four unique women in A REMARKABLE KINDNESS finds an interesting twist on Mr. Right. Emily, for example, is an artist from Charleston, West Virginia, who lands in Israel after her first husband dumps her for a “thinner woman with legs like stilts.” After a time, she falls in love with someone who is Romeo to her Juliet. Not only are their families at war; in Emily’s case, she and her true love are from different sides of a serious conflict. This would make for great fiction! As Emily confides in her best friend, Lauren, “What happens if Mr. Wrong really is Mr. Right?”

I decided to give her best friend, Lauren, a different challenge. She’s a maternity nurse who fell in love with the perfect guy—a doctor. The catch for Mr. Right? He wants to move back to the Israeli village where he grew up and Lauren is a diehard Bostonian. Lauren is faced with a tricky dilemma: how far do we move for someone we love? Should we step out of our safety zone and travel halfway around the world? How far would you go? How much would you sacrifice? These are important questions I wanted to write about.

To prepare for writing my novel, I re-read two favorite romance novels of all time: Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. No matter how many times I’ve read both books, I still feel on edge with suspense leading up to when Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy finally confess their love for each other. And I can’t sit still until Mr. Rochester declares his unbridled passion for Jane Eyre. . .

Part of what makes reading about love so special is because we become so involved with the story, we just can’t wait another moment for it to resolve itself. Well, writing is the same way! While writing the love story of Rachel, a recent college graduate, I found she was hesitant about falling head over heels with a very special young Mr. Right. As the author, I wanted her to speed things up a bit. But I’ve learned that characters (like our friends, husbands, parents or children!) need to move at their own pace.

Writing is like passion. It is about letting go. . . And the best part of writing this novel is the startling moments when the characters became so real that they ended up doing things that even surprised me!

GIVEAWAY

What's your favorite love story? Love at first sight? The long, slow fall into love? The star-crossed lovers? Something else? Leave a comment below and be entered for a chance to win a copy of A REMARKABLE KINDNESS. 3 winners; US shipping only.

About Diana Bletter

Diana Bletter grew up in New York, and then set out to explore the world. She has worked as a freelance journalist in Paris and Rome and now lives in a small beach village in Northern Israel. She met Mr. Wrong—a Harley Davidson motorcyclist with an earring and a tattoo—who turned out to be Mr. Right. They now have a blended family with six children and Diana even learned to ride a motorcycle herself. In fact, she rode it from New York all the way up to Alaska and back—and lived to tell about it in her memoir, The Mom Who Took Off on Her Motorcycle.

Diana’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour and Family Circle, where she won First Prize in the 2011 Fiction Contest.

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About A REMARKABLE KINDNESS

Through a largely hidden ceremony . . . four friends discover the true meaning of life

It's 2006 in a seaside village in Israel, where a war is brewing. Lauren, Emily, Aviva and Rachel, four memorable women from different backgrounds, are drawn to the village. Lauren, a maternity nurse, loves her Israeli doctor husband but struggles to make a home for herself in a foreign land thousands of miles away from her beloved Boston. Seeking a fresh start after a divorce, her vivacious friend Emily follows. Strong, sensuous Aviva, brought to Israel years earlier by intelligence work, has raised a family and now lost a son. And Rachel, a beautiful, idealistic college graduate from Wyoming, arrives with her hopeful dreams.

The women forge a friendship that sustains them as they come to terms with love and loss, and the outbreak of war. Their intimate bond is strengthened by their participation in a traditional ritual that closes the circle of life. As their lives are slowly transformed, each finds unexpected strength and resilience. Brimming with wisdom, rich in meaningful insights, A Remarkable Kindness is a moving testament to women's friendship, illuminating a mostly unknown ritual that underscores what it means to truly be alive.