Once upon a time, I wrote a little Scottish contemporary novella about an
American florist who falls in love with a Scottish farmer, and as so often
happens, down the research rabbit hole I did go. The florist and the farmer
were standing up as maid of honor and best man with her sister and his friend,
and my heroine was also doing the flowers for the wedding.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that for many wedding planners, everythingโ
everythingโrevolves around the brideโs dress. The choice of venues, the
flowers, the typeface on the invitations, the lighting (the lighting?), the
groomโs attire, the cake, the guest bookโฆ everything must harmonize with,
flatter, and focus on that dress (and presumably, the person wearing it).
Novels will often have organizing symbols too.
In
DANIEL'S
TRUE DESIRE, I use toads, books, and eyeglasses in symbolic ways (no toads
are harmed!). When Lady Kirsten sees Daniel wearing his spectacles, her
impression of him changes. Heโs not merely a kind, honorable vicarly sort of
fellow, she sees for the first time that heโs also a scholar. He loves
literature, languages, the natural world, and sharing his love of learning with
even unruly small boysโespecially with unruly boys, in fact.
Until Daniel puts on his glasses, Kirstenโs view of him is narrow. One of
Danielโs scholars, Matthias, has the opposite problem. Heโs wearing his
fatherโs second pair of spectacles, and told to never take them off, lose them,
or let them come to harmโฆ but they donโt fit. They slip down his nose, limit
the activities he can participate in, and instead of improving his vision, they
cause him constant worry and make him an object of pity.
Daniel is similarly afflicted with troublesome paternal admonitions, though
Danielโs father has long since passed away. Daniel is still trying to view the
worldโand himselfโthrough his fatherโs lenses, and as with Matthias, the fit is
all wrong. When Daniel and Matthias are searching together to find the boyโs
missing spectacles, insight as well as clarity of physical vision can intersect
on the page.
I was born literally cross-eyed, and while many babies are, my mother was a
nurse. When my vision didnโt gradually correct itself, she went looking for a
pediatric vision specialist whoโd give her solutions instead of lectures about
over-reacting. I was wearing thick glasses by the time I was three years old,
an eye patch before I was five. The right glasses (and my motherโs tenacity)
likely saved my entire academic career, if not my self-esteem, and other
aspects of my well-being.
I know firsthand what itโs like to be unable to see well, and we all know how
hard it can be to set an outdated self-image aside. Symbols and scenes that
twine emotional and dramatic arcs together are purely enjoyable for the author,
but I think they make the story more resonant and memorable for the reader,
too!
Grace Burrowes started writing as an antidote to empty nest and soon
found it an antidote to life in general. She is the sixth out of seven
children, raised in the rural surrounds of central Pennsylvania. Early in life
she spent a lot of time reading romance novels and practicing the piano. Her
first career was as a technical writer and editor in the Washington, DC, area,
a busy job that nonetheless left enough time to read a lot of romance novels.
It also left enough time to grab a law degree through an evening program,
produce Beloved Offspring (only one, but she is a lion), and eventually move to
the lovely Maryland countryside.
While reading yet still more romance novels, Grace opened her own law practice,
acquired a master's degree in Conflict Transformation (she had a teenage
daughter by then) and started thinking about writing.... romance novels. This
aim was realized when Beloved Offspring struck out into the Big World a few
years ago. ("Mom, why doesn't anybody tell you being a grown-up is hard?")
Grace eventually got up the courage to start pitching her manuscripts to agents
and editors. The query letter that resulted in "the call" started out: "I am
the buffoon in the bar at the RWA retreat who could not keep her heroines
straight, could not look you in the eye, and could not stop blushing--and if
that doesn't narrow down the possibilities, your job is even harder than I
thought." (The dear lady bought the book anyway.)
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From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes comes
a brand-new Regency romance filled with love, desire, and drama.
An honorable life
Daniel Banks is a man of the cloth whose vocation is the last comfort he has
left-and even his churchman's collar is beginning to feel like a noose. At the
urging of family, Daniel attempts to start his life over as vicar in the sleepy
Kentish town of Haddondale, family seat to the earls of Bellefonte.
Challenged by passion
Lady Kirsten Haddonfield has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood. Then
the handsome new village vicar, Reverend Daniel Banks, becomes a guest of the
Haddonfield family while the vicarage is being renovated, and Kirsten finds
herself rethinking her position. Lady Kirsten does not know that Daniel's past
is about to cast a shadow on love's future.
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