While I should be concentrating on the next book coming out, from a series of eight, my real thinking is how the culture in which my characters lived impacted them. That's not very romancey , but it is what has driven all of my books (30 so far) as I set them into a situation where romance is important, relationships matter a lot, but also into their cultural time frame. For some people, the culture in their world works fine for them. What about when it does not?
Book 1, which is already out, Beyond the Broken Road, is about the couple, but also what is the broken road for them. We are born into a time and often that culture either helps or damages our next choices as we reach the age for such options.
To me, the broken road is a broken culture for these lead characters. It's the the other side of what could be, but often is not, for those, growing up in the same time span. I could go into that for our time, but the book, and those to come, are not about our time-- though we do bring our own insights to it.
For Sam and Abigail in Beyond the Broken Road, both are much impacted by their culture but in very different ways, which does not make the road less broken.
This book begins with showing the difference between the two sides of one culture. Abigail is standing outside the office where she works. She is feeling stifled by the world in which she lives. She hears raucous laughter from the down the street where the freedom seems greater. Then a man rides out on a powerful horse, showing all the power she had never felt over her own life. To her shock, he stops to watch her for a long moment. She wonders what he sees but has no way to know. When he rides on, she is left with the lack of freedom she feels.
That's just the first chapter with two people with no clue what the other side of a current cultural set of norms means for their lives. The book is about what they find.
Each of my books and that means even the contemporary look at this cultural divide, which I think is still a big thing today.
If a book with more than a hot romance is of interest, it's the book for you to explore. It's not simple with how life outside of ourselves can impact us. But I believe it is reality and to get the life we want, we need to be aware of those outside influences.
Second book comes out the 19th, with different problems, but no less a cultural divide. I'll link to it here when it's live. These books are both wide but no paperbacks yet.
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