On Writing Elizabeth’s Mountain
Emotion-heavy women’s fiction is the genre that captures me the most. It is the one that stays with me long after I have finished a book, which is why I write in the genre I most like to read. Living all those experiences of longing, pain, or misfortune, the characters who overcome difficulties and hardships are the ones I empathize with the most. The outsider, the resistor, the sufferer. The disheartened, and the griever.
When my granddaughter, Sofia, was around sixteen months old, she and her older sister, Olivia, were in a contest to see who could eat a very sour candy without making a face. No matter how many times Sofia tried, she couldn’t keep her face still. Frustrated and wincing, she finally cried out, “But I want to be a champion!”
Haven’t we all felt that way? No matter what age, we want to champion our choices, and be the champion in our own story. In creating characters for my novels, I try not to forget that. I will advocate for them – whatever their struggle or sacrifice – they are to become the champions in their own life. Hopefully, their ‘real life’ stories will champion others.
In my novel, Elizabeth’s Mountain, Elizabeth is ninety when she tells her story – spirited and wise. She has lived a long, rewarding life. But in her most formative years, she had to contend with great loss, hardship, and adversity. Her granddaughter, Amanda, is selfless, sometimes to her detriment, but remains resolute in her goals for herself. Joe is slightly wounded, yet reliable and conscientious. Jesse is impulsive and driven and opts for less vulnerability. All of them have interchangeable weaknesses and strengths, often competing, sometimes overtaking. And then there are those bewildering times when weakness turns to strength.
Elizabeth’s Mountain came to me in a dream followed by a telephone conversation I had with my ninety-two-year-old aunt, and I went straight to my laptop and started writing my story and didn’t stop until it was finished one year later. Elizabeth’s Mountain explores enduring relationships through a lens of 1950s American historical and contemporary romance. People who are drawn to stories that span different periods and showcase the complexities of life and love will like this multigenerational romance novel.
Alternating between the perspectives of Elizabeth and Amanda, readers will journey through love, trauma, and fear as they tackle life’s challenges. The parallel drawn between Elizabeth’s past and Amanda’s present is particularly poignant, their male counterparts enriching the story with their steadfast support and commitment. While this story is under the category of women’s fiction, men too have said that they enjoyed this book as it delves into the intricacies of family saga.
Elizabeth’s Mountain is the recipient of a Literary Titan Gold Book Award and Readers’ Favorite Award.
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ELIZABETH’S MOUNTAIN
“A wonderful, moving story about love and loss, focusing on two generations: grandmother and granddaughter.” -Marie W. Watts, author of the award-winning trilogy, Warriors for Equal Rights
A beloved home. Matters of the heart. Can an elderly woman find the key to saving her precious heritage?
Asheville, North Carolina. Elizabeth has a dilemma. After celebrating a milestone birthday, the feisty ninety-year-old anxiously contemplates a developer’s lucrative offer for her Blue Ridge Mountain farmhouse. Worried her adult children will pressure her to sell, the lively senior recalls how her journey to this forever home began back in the 50s when she met the man who would become her husband…
Present day. Amanda yearns to stop wasting time. After ending a dead-end, three-year relationship and moving in with her spirited grandmother, the thirty-four-year-old nurse sees her dream of marriage and kids vanishing. But when she meets a handsome widower at a hospital summit, she cautiously lets down her walls.
As Elizabeth’s memories take her back to when she was a hopeful young woman, she reveals how a horrific accident led to the ER and a charming doctor. While Amanda fears the worst when she overhears the enigmatic man she’s fallen for talking on the phone with another woman.
Do both women’s stories lead to a grand legacy and a lifetime of love?
In an emotional rollercoaster that interweaves the two women’s chance at a future, their parallel romances illustrate the power of resilience and hope despite heartbreak. And as one story comes to its twilight years while the other is just beginning, readers will fall hard for this poignant inheritance of happiness.
Elizabeth’s Mountain is an enchanting women’s fiction novel. If you like relatable characters, dual timelines, and multi-generational romance, then you’ll adore Lucille Guarino’s touching tale.
Buy Elizabeth’s Mountain to believe in tomorrow!
BUY HERE
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Lucille’s first novel, Like Wine, was a tribute to her mother, and getting it into print before she passed was her goal. She considers Elizabeth’s Mountain, winner of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award and Readers’ Favorite Award, to be her true debut novel.
Lucille loves stories that lift her up and gratify her. Taking little pieces of characters and sometimes seeing herself in them is one of her favorite feelings. An avid reader of most genres, the only thing Lucille likes more than delving and escaping into a good book is visiting noteworthy locations. Her most recent escapade road trips took her to Asheville, NC, Charleston, SC, and the Grand Canyon! And an international trip of a lifetime – Venice, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast.
Lucille has lived most of her life in northern New Jersey and now lives in South Carolina with her husband, and close to her two daughters and grandchildren.
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Book sites:
https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeths-Mountain-Lucille-Guarino/dp/1685133924
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4597355.lucille_guarino
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144426768
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/3251934308
www.blackrosewriting.com/romance/elizabethsmountain
Category: On Writing
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