Literary Love

In honor of Valentine’s day, we asked 5 authors about Love in Books!

1. First literary love?
   

Amy E. Reichert (Author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and Luck, Love & Lemon Pie): My first book boyfriend was probably Laurie in Little Women —the quintessential boy next door.

Amy Impellizzeri (President of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association & Author of Lemongrass Hope): Oh you took mine! I had a huge crush on Laurie. But actually, that was only until he gave up on the bookish Jo March and moved on to her prettier sister. My first true literary love was Margaret Mitchell’s Rhett Butler. Rhett ruined me, convincing me that the only men worth loving were those who would love you for your worst flaws, not in spite of them. Kristy?

Kristy Woodson Harvey (Author of Dear Carolina and Lies and Other Acts of Love): Well, it’s kind of cliché, but I’ve had a long-standing love of Cinderella, so, I’m pretty sure my first, first literary love was Prince Charming. But, after that, the first man I remember loving was Johnny Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was in the third or fourth grade, roughly the same age as his daughter Francie, and, just like she did, I loved him because he was so handsome, so much fun and such a good singer and dancer.

It wasn’t until I was older that it hit home that his wife was scrubbing floors night and day and his children practically starving while he was spending his earnings at the bar. Fortunately, in the years since that first reading, I have learned that good dancing and clever lines don’t a true love make!

Cynthia Swanson (Author of The Bookseller: A Novel): Oh, this is an easy one – Almanzo Wilder. That smile! Those horses! The way he was in cahoots with Laura to trick Nellie Olson when Nellie invited herself along for a Sunday buggy ride.

Brandi Megan Granett (Writer, Teacher, and Author of the upcoming book, Triple Love Score): My first literary love wasn’t a character in any single book, but rather the man that introduced them to me.  My high school English teacher Harry Schultz entranced me with his love of the written word and the way he taught us to deconstruct what others have written.

The stack of books so I could graduate high school early spanned a variety of literary styles from Kafka’s short fiction to Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.   I loved the challenge and the beauty each one, but most of all, I loved the man that trusted that I could read and appreciate them.

2. Favorite literary love scene (or line)?

Brandi Megan Granett: Amy Bloom’s story short collection, Come to Me, amazes me with its often haunting portraits of love. Love is Not a Pie contains a moment where the narrator expects to see her parents in bed but find much more: “I pushed open the creaky door and saw my mother spooned against my father’s back, as she always was, and Mr. DeCuervo spooned up against her, his arm over the covers, his other hand resting on the top of her head.”

This moment reveals a tenderness the adults of the house shared that the young narrator isn’t quite able to understand, which to me, reflects most of our experiences with love anyway.  Love sometimes evades all attempts at definition.

Amy E. Reichert: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I just finished it and I’m still recovering, but this line is one of my favorites. “I just…want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress.”

Amy Impellizzeri: Oh that line (and that entire book) slays me too! I am really drawn to unconventional love stories that re-define happily ever after. I love so many scenes and lines in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, but especially this one: “To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life.”

Cynthia Swanson: Here’s a quote from one of my favorite novels, by one of my favorite authors: “Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It’s light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best – well, that sort of a love is ineffable. It deserves its own word.” – Liane Moriarty, What Alice Forgot

Kristy Woodson Harvey: Lately, Amy Impellizzeri’s Lemongrass Hope. [Amy: oh! Thank you!] I can’t give the specific scene because it’s a total spoiler, but this was a love story that has stayed with me ever since I read the book. I recommend it to everyone! Also, as someone who wrote her Master’s thesis on Jane Austen, it’s not a huge surprise that I think she writes about love about as well as anyone in the business—despite the famous lack of steamy scenes. I am fairly sure there has seldom been a more romantic line than when Mr. Darcy tells Elizabeth: “You have bewitched me, body and soul.” The British accent doesn’t hurt much either!

3. Have you ever fallen in love with a character you’ve written?

Amy Impellizzeri: Well, I suppose it would be easy to fall in love with Ian in Lemongrass Hope. And maybe I did, a little. But, there’s a character I’m writing in my newest book who is so mesmerizing – and I’m doing something I’ve never done before. Writing from the male point of view. There is something very intimate about trying to get inside this character’s head. He’s searching for redemption and he is very vulnerable. It’s a little hard not to be in love with him, frankly.

Kristy Woodson Harvey: No matter what their opinion about the rest of the book, I’ve yet to find a woman who didn’t love Graham, Khaki’s husband in Dear Carolina. He’s that strong, manly, cowboy type who can plow a field and lift a bale of hay and then change a diaper, get the baby to quit crying and tell you how beautiful you are… He is the perfect complement to his wife, Khaki, the slow and steady to her frenetic energy, and, even better, spent years in high school pining after her. He’s pretty hard not to fall in love with.

In my book releasing in April, Lies and Other Acts of Love, Father Rob, affectionately named Priest Charming by his parishioners, is just so adorable as well. I love his banter with Annabelle and how he seems to do the right thing at the right time without being asked. He’s maybe less of an obvious man to love than Graham. But I love him all the same!

Amy E. Reichert: In [my upcoming book] Luck, Love & Lemon Pie, I have a very soft spot for Doyle Kane and all his bad boy swagger.

Cynthia Swanson: I’m frequently asked how Lars, the husband character in The Bookseller, can be so perfect. The reasons are twofold. First, I felt Lars needed to be a wonderful husband because Katharyn already had enough complications in her Katharyn-life; a difficult marriage would have upset the apple cart. Second, I’m married to a fantastic guy. He makes breakfast every day. He’s very involved with our kids – helping with homework, coaching their teams, putting the little one to bed. He compliments me daily; his nickname for me is “Gorgeous.” (I can hold my own, but I’m pretty sure no one else thinks of me that way except my husband.) So yes – I’m in love with Katharyn’s husband, but only because Katharyn’s husband is based on my own.

Brandi Megan Granett: My upcoming novel, Triple Love Score, places my protagonist, Miranda, in the path of the delicious poetry student, Ronan.  Even thought it makes no sense for her, both Miranda and I fell prey to Ronan’s charms.  I love his brash ability to go after what he wants (both in and out of bed)!  The Irish brogue I imagined for him doesn’t hurt, either.

 

Over to you! What are your literary loves?

 

Tags: featured, inspiration, literary love, valentine's day, women writers, women's fiction

Category: On Writing