All in love story

Susanna the Foundling

Sara Stratton
book review, being an author, love story, historical fiction

SUSANNA’S BALLAD, Volume 8 in my series, Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle, tells the story of an abandoned child: Susanna. She was a “foundling,” an infant left on a porch by a destitute single mother, who hoped that whosoever found the tiny and sickly baby girl would have mercy, accept her as a gift, love her and raise her as their own. Susanna’s story is a “ballad,” because, as Webster’s says, it is “a slow or romantic dance song,” with a happy ending.

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A Time to Heal

Sara Stratton
love story, being an author

In these stories, healing comes from falling in love with a compassionate and understanding young lady, who helps her lover carry his burden. The pain and bad memories will never go away. But love heals. And bearing the burden together, the couple will be able to live happily ever after.

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Better Days

Sara Stratton
love story

I grew up on fairy tales. They always begin, “Once upon a time …” and always end, “… they lived happily ever after.” My romance novels are like that. They’re set in the Texas Panhandle of the 1950s, but actually they could be set anywhere, anytime. The town and the county where they take place are fictional. The characters—usually two young people—face a series of impossible obstacles to their love, but in the end they overcome the odds, kiss, marry, and live happily ever after—à la Hallmark, Disney, and traditional Hollywood. So when my Chinese international student friend, Doris, sent me to see the current Chinese blockbuster movie, Better Days, of course I interpreted it in the same way I would an American movie.

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WHY DO MY STORIES ALWAYS HAVE A HAPPY ENDING?

Sara Stratton
love story

My stories always have a happy ending. Why is that? Actually, they not only have a happy ending, but they always end, “and they lived happily ever after.” That is, there is no doubt that nothing will happen that will keep the two people in the romance from staying together the rest of their lives … and in love—no matter what!

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Why Do I Write Romance Novels?

Sara Stratton
love story, being an author

People often ask me why I write romance novels, rather than some other genre. Well, I didn’t plan it that way. But it seems that no matter what I set out to write about, it ends up a romance of one kind or another. By “romance,” I mean a love relationship between two persons—of whatever ages … or even of the same sex.

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Book Inspiration for Beths Story: A Runaway Bride

Sara Stratton
love story

  I’ve always liked “Runaway Bride” stories. It’s a genre unto itself. As my wife and I meandered down the winding, narrow canyon drive, I began to imagine a runaway bride, who was lost and running out of gas in one of the many rustic campsites along Oak Creek.

            In this genre—actually a sub-genre within romantic fiction—brides run away for all sorts of reasons. I imagined that the bride in my story was running away from an arranged marriage. I pictured her in a car she had stolen from the gentleman whom she was being forced by her family to marry. She was coming from Texas and going west to California. I saw her ending up in a campsite of a man who was coming from California and going east to Texas.

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WRITING INSPIRATION FOR LITTLE ALICE LANDERGIN

Sara Stratton
love story

Suffering from “shell shock,” as they called PTSD in World War I, Billy had gone to New Mexico and married into a Navajo Indian tribe. In 1947, when he died in an automobile accident, he left two Indian granddaughters, Alice and Harriet Landergin. What if Julia went to Gallup next to the Navajo Reservation and brought the two little girls home, to raise as her own?

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WRITING INSPIRATION FOR NADYA: THE RESTORATION OF A FLYING TIGER

Sara Stratton
love story

The novel is not a war story. It’s a love story and an adult romance. Nadya is a human being who doesn’t even know that she is also an angel. By falling in love with a suicidal veteran, she slowly brings him back home and restores his will to live. She keeps “Joe” from dying. So that now when I remember him, I remember going to his funeral, after “Joe” died an old man, surrounded by his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

That’s why I wrote this Flying Tiger story.

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