Shannon here: Angela Ruth Strong shares the inspiration for her latest Contemporary Romance, Finding Love in Eureka California. Comment on any post dated Feb 20 – 23 to enter the drawing for a copy. Deadline: March 3rd, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Angela:
Five Real Life Stories in my Novel by Angela Ruth Strong
People often ask me where I get my ideas. Many times I will look for real life stories that fit my plot, and often these stories come from my own life. Here are five reflections of me in my latest novel, Finding Love in Eureka.
- My hero Matt is a pilot while the heroine is an airline station manager, and he’s always offering to buy her coffee when he lands. In real life, the woman who hired me to work at my local airport got engaged to a pilot on New Year’s Eve this year. When dating, he’d fly into our airport then come in and flirt and buy her French fries. (We have REALLY good fries here in Idaho.) Congrats to my old boss, and good luck to Matt on wooing Genevieve!
- Though Matt usually flies commercial airplanes, he takes Gen for a flight in a Cessna, and at one point he lets her take over the controls. I got to do this once with a friend in high school. The funniest part was when he would dive the plane. I couldn’t keep from screaming, and he would be concerned. I’d have to explain that I really did think it was fun then I’d try to hold back my scream the next time he dove, but I couldn’t. So of course, I had to work that into the story too.
- Genevieve learns a lot about balance in her life through yoga, and I don’t only mean physically. Through prayer and meditation, she gets back on balance spiritually. I’ve taught yoga for years, and I believe the most important thing about it is doing it in faith, just like we should do everything. Though I haven’t tried goat yoga like they do in my book, I have done aerial yoga and paddle board yoga, and I’m excited to make my first Faith Filled Yoga class available on youtube later this month!
- Gen’s adopted siblings all deal with some pretty big problems. One of those problems is drug abuse, and sadly, I currently have a family member in jail for that very issue. It’s human to want to fix their problems for them and it hurts when they turn on you when you can’t. Like Gen, I have to learn to set boundaries in love.
- Gen’s sister Rosie started doing yoga when recommended to her by her physical therapist because she has to learn to go through life without toes. Rosie is based on a real person. She came to my class, and when I asked why she didn’t have any toes, she blew my mind. I only met her once, but her story is so powerful that it inspired a whole section of this novel. I hope someday she’ll come back to my class so I can thank her.
Stories surround us every day and everywhere we go. If God is the author of life, then it’s our job to grow through the stories He gives us.
About Angela: Angela Ruth Strong studied journalism at the University of Oregon and published her first novel, Love Finds You in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2010. With movie producers interested in her book, she’s decided to rerelease it and write sequels as a new series titled Resort to Love. This Idaho Top Author and Cascade Award winner also started IDAhope Writers to encourage other aspiring authors, and she’s excited to announce the sale of her first romantic suspense novel to Love Inspired Suspense. For the latest news or to contact Angela, visit www.angelaruthstrong.com.
About the book – Finding Love in Eureka California: Raised in a family of six adopted siblings, Genevieve
Wilson fights to keep her dysfunctional brothers and sisters together, but everyone still seems to leave. If she’s not good enough to prevent her birth parents from giving her up or her siblings from abandoning her, then there’s no way she would ever be enough to have a lasting relationship with the cute pilot from work…which is exactly what makes him a safe subject for her daydreams.
Matt Lake is dating the perfect woman and working a great job. Life is easy until he starts to enjoy hanging out with the airline employees more than with his girlfriend—one sweet female employee in particular. He tells himself he’s only intrigued by Gen’s quirkiness, but nobody else makes him smile the way she does.
Can Matt give up the flawless life he’d planned in exchange for the messiness of love? And if so, will Gen risk her heart on reality when it’s never paid off in the past?
Question for Readers: What would your dream job be?
Come back Feb 23rd for Angela’s excerpt!
my dream job would be housemom at a college
How fun. And you’d definitely get a lot of stories there!
I’m not exactly sure but something where I could be more creative than stressed out. I hope that makes sense. Thank you for the giveaway opportunity.
That makes a ton of sense. What do you like to create?
My dream job would be to open a coffee/book/craft shop.
*happy sigh* My next series is about two women who open a coffee/tea house together and because they are trying to woo passengers toward their own beverage preference, they notice everything that happens in their shop and discover clues that can solve crimes. Owning a coffee shop would just be fun.
I volunteer in the church library and have for almost 40 years.
So you might say that I am living my dream job.
That’s fabulous, Janet! Keep up the good work.
Dream job, eh? Hmm… being paid to write worship songs for church or Scripture-memory songs for children, to read and review books, to go on short-term mission trips, or to cook or bake special meals and desserts for people I love/who are in need. Or just be independently wealthy so I could do them all the time, regardless of expense. Anything that would allow my husband to quit working, because he suffers horribly from psoriatic arthritis and yet has a manual labor job. (I do/have done these things, but-
dang it!- I don’t get paid. Haha!)
It sounds like you are a giver. Sorry to hear about your hubby. Hopefully something works out for you both.
Hmm. My dream job. I’m not sure. I’m a retired computer programmer and loved it. But I did not like the office politics that went on. So I guess it would be programming without the backbiting, etc. But I think I’m happy being retired!
That’s always hard. Well, enjoy retirement!