Please welcome guest poster, Jessie Salisbury. Her newest book, Any Rainy Thursday comes out September 19th.
WEATHER
We can’t really help it, but weather affects all of us in a wide variety of ways both good and bad – including the characters in our stories. In my newest book, Any Rainy Thursday, now on pre-sale and due out on Sept. 19, the weather is almost a character. The heroine owns a farm stand and her vegetable crops depend on the cooperation of sun and rain. The lovers meet in a wild August thunderstorm, revel in the warm gentle rains of summer, and the story concludes in the misty sleety drizzle of November. The cold of the approaching winter adds to her feeling of loss and desperation.
Rain is life-giving. It washes the air clean of dust and car fumes and the breeze brings us the scents of new mown grass, the Christmasy smell of pine trees, the lingering aroma of lilacs and June roses, and the heady scents of the herb garden and the field of wildflowers. Smells add to the ambience and invoke memories, good and bad.
Weather is full of the colors that bring life to our stories: the flaming orange sunrise above a cloud bank that presages a stormy day; the vanilla pudding sunrise of a cloudy day; the arch of clear blue above the picnic spot or the lakeside camp; the puffy fair weather clouds that fill a perfect summer day; the reds and purples that end a long full-filling day that brings hope for another; that sudden wash of clear green that follows the sunset just before the deep turquoise blue of evening.
We feel buoyed and confident on a clear day, ready to face whatever comes along; depressed and less sure on a cloudy one; apprehensive as a storm approaches; and several days of rain can leave us gloomy and depressed. A violent storm full of thunder and lightning can exhilarate us, or leave us trembling in fear, depending on the circumstances.
Being isolated by a snowstorm can be frightening, or a time for quiet contemplation by the fireplace until the roads are plowed. The snow can be a welcome blanket protecting the plants from the winter’s frosts, or an impediment to doing what is needed. The first golden rays of sunlight after an ice storm can turn the commonplace into a glittering world of diamonds, but the frozen crust on the snow can shatter into razor-sharp shards.
It is all a matter of perspective, one we can use to advantage in any story to add a touch of beauty, of the magical, making the usual into something more, something that touches the soul. Weather is the scent of roses as well as the villain rain ruining our picnic. Let’s all make the most of it.
Jessie Salisbury
Althea owns a farm stand and she wants to make it as close to what her grandfather and uncle owned, if the weather and all will cooperate. The land is her heritage and she loves it. She needs a partner who understands that.
Miles is a wandering minstrel, the handsome, gifted musician who wants to win the lady's hear but never commit. He has never settled anywhere.
They meet in an August thunderstorm. Although the attraction isn't quite instantaneous, it grows, and Miles' painful past emerges as Althea discovers her own deeper desires. Can two such different personalities really connect?
If you would like to pre-order Any Rainy Thursday here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Any-Rainy-Thursday-Jessie-Salisbury-ebook/dp/B07FB3Q5V1
As for me:
For the past 40 years I have covered several small towns for various newspapers, currently the Milford, NH Cabinet and the Nashua Telegraph.
Any Rainy Thursday is my sixth novel with Soul Mate, plus a collection of short stories. I am also the co-author of two history books Images of America- Wilton, Temple Lyndeborough, from Acadia Press, and Lyndeborough Central School 1949-2015, commissioned by the School Board. Currently, with two others, we are updating our town’s history, beginning in the 1890s and filling in omissions in our two previous histories, 1905 and 1955. It is a great – and fun – adventure.
