Denise Hunter: On Writing Inspiration
The question I’m asked most often is where I get ideas for my stories.
The seed for the Riverbend Romance series was planted when I was in Georgia, researching the Blue Ridge series. Quite by accident, I discovered that the Appalachian Trail started in a nearby town, so I decided to check it out. From there I became more curious about the trail.
I learned that the AT is over 2,000 miles long, and each year 3 million people hike some portion of it. More than four thousand of those are thru-hikers (walking from Georgia to Maine), but only 1 in 4 complete the journey due to injury, illness, weather, or lack of perseverance. Some are seeking an adventurous challenge or looking to escape the stress of city life. Others want to go off the grid or are simply looking to heal a broken heart.
Along the trail there are towns that cater to and encourage these thru-hikers in their formidable quest. One such town is Hot Springs, North Carolina, which is the inspiration for my fictional town Riverbend Gap.
Nestled in the valley along the scenic French Broad River, this town serves the many Appalachian Trail sojourners and offers a temporary respite from the harsh realities of trail life.
The Riverbend Romance series revolves around the Robinsons. This blended family is led by parents Jeff and Lisa, who come from a long line of respected townspeople. The couple has passed on to their three children (Cooper, Gavin, and Avery) the tradition of supporting and serving their hiker-centric community. In the series, the care and support of travelers serves as a backdrop for the family relationships and love stories, and the trail serves as a rich metaphor for life’s challenging journey.
In the series, each of the siblings star in his or her own story.
In Riverbend Gap, Cooper is a twenty-six-year-old deputy with his eye on the Sheriff’s office. He has no lack of female attention, but no one has yet captured his attention for longer than two seconds. Enter Katie Loveland—his brother’s girlfriend!
In Mulberry Hollow, Avery has completed her medical training and is opening the town’s first emergency medical clinic. When she’s not needed at the clinic, Avery enjoys an active social life, which does not include any romantic entanglements as she’s determined to remain single for life. Until ill hiker Wes Garrett stumbles into her clinic.
In Harvest Moon, Gavin is divorced and itching to move past the heartbreak of his past. But when a tragedy leaves his ex-wife and him with guardianship of their friends’ little girl, the two must put aside their complicated past for the sake of the child.
Throughout the course of this series the Robinson siblings find true love and discover that sometimes family is not the situation you’re born into, but the people who’ve chosen to love you along the way.
I’m always excited to start writing a new series, but the culmination of a series is also exhilarating. Readers who’ve been along to the journey are eager for that last story, and I’m just as eager to share it. I hope readers enjoy learning about the AT, and that they come to love this trail town and the characters who live there as much as I do!
Author Bio:
Denise Hunter is the internationally published bestselling author of more than forty novels, three of which have been adapted into Hallmark movies. She has appeared on the The 700 Club and been featured in Southern Living and Woman’s World.
Denise writes heartwarming, small-town love stories, peopled with layered characters who have real-life issues. Her readers enjoy the vicarious thrill of falling in love and the promise of a happily-ever-after sigh as they savor the final pages of her books.
In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she’s been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!
When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling, drinking chai lattes, hiking, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband raised three boys and are currently enjoying an empty nest and two beautiful granddaughters.
Learn more about Denise through her website: www.DeniseHunterBooks.com
Or by visiting her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authordenisehunter
HARVEST MOON
She thought he was arrogant. He thought her walls would never come down. Then they fell in love.
Forever walking the line between passion and conflict, Laurel and Gavin’s relationship ended in divorce after years of miscommunication and unmet expectations. Now pursuing their own separate lives and careers, the two are content . . . though not completely happy.
When their best friends, Mike and Mallory, are killed in a plane crash, Laurel and Gavin are stunned to learn they’ve been named guardians of their friends’ young daughter, Emma. Putting their differences aside, the estranged couple search for a suitable guardian as they care for Emma and manage Mike and Mallory’s apple orchard.
Soon tempers flare—as does the passion they both remember so well. And Laurel and Gavin find themselves working through their past—their mistakes, their miscommunications, and ultimately the tragedy that ended their marriage.
Will the seeds of love, still growing inside them, thrive and flourish? Or will grief and regret strangle the feelings before they can fully blossom?
- “A beautiful tale of second chances, self-sacrifice, and renewed romance.” —Pepper Basham, author of The Heart of the Mountains and Authentically, Izzy
- Sweet and thoughtful contemporary read
- Book 1: Riverbend Gap; Book 2: Mulberry Hollow; Book 3: Harvest Moon
- Book length: approximately 80,000 words
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
PREORDER HERE
Category: Contemporary Women Writers
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