Wickeds, I was going to ask about the first time you fell in love. Instead, let’s delve into some protagonist back story. Who was the first person your protagonist fell in love with? How did it start, and how did it end? Are they still (or again) in touch? Anybody Go! I will give away a copy of any of the Country Store mysteries except the first one (sorry, out of copies).
Julie: In my Garden Squad series, I love Lilly’s love backstory. Her first husband was Pete Frank. They’d known each other forever, and marrying him felt like the logical step in Lilly’s life. She may have thought she was in love with him, but Lilly is very practical and I don’t think she expected hearts, flowers and fireworks. Pete left her, and she focussed on her career. Then she met Alan. Alan was her first love. When the series starts, she’s just coming out of a period of deep grief over his death. I love how grateful she is to Pete for leaving her, so that she could meet and love Alan. Lilly’s in her mid-sixties now. As I’m working on the 5th book, I don’t think she’s done with love.
Edith/Maddie: I love Lilly’s backstory, too, Julie. Mac Almeida in the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries had a big love when she was in college at Harvard. He was affectionate, creative, and nudged her out of her obsession with neatness and order a little. Alas, he died in a skiing accident. After she got over her grief, Mac found the dating scene too messy for a number of years. She can’t quite believe her luck at finding baker Tim, who is pretty much perfect and adores her.
Barb: This question is an easy one with the protagonist in the Maine Clambake Mysteries, Julia Snowden. She’s in a grown-up relationship with Chris Durand, her middle-school crush–the heart-pounding, weak-in-the-knees, tongue-tying kind of crush. But now they’re adults, with adult baggage and adult challenges, and life is a lot more complicated.
Jessie: My sleuths are on opposite ends of this spectrum. Edwina, a proper English spinster and surplus woman is actually a desperate romantic and has never been in love with an actual person. She has had rather a soft spot for many fictional characters however. On the other hand, her dear friend Beryl, has been in and out of love so often she could probably not remember her first love!
Sherry: It’s so interesting to see the different takes everyone has on romance in their books. Sarah was eighteen when she met her husband CJ. Her mom forbid her from dating the men stationed at the Army and Navy bases in Monterey. So Sarah rushed right up to the Presidio near her house and ran (literally) into CJ. I didn’t know how they actually met until I wrote about it in book three All Murders Final. It even surprised me!
Readers: Tell us about your first love, human, furry, or literary! One of you will win a copy of one of my Country Store Mysteries, your choice (except book #1, Flipped for Murder).
His name was Danny and we were in Kindergarten in Riverside, California. He was going to let me ride his pony, but my family moved to Baltimore instead.
Aww, Barbara.
My first love, puppy love, was in the 7th grade. He was one in a set of twins, but definitely the cutest. 🙂 I remember a gathering at a friends house of boys and girls. We thought we were so smart and had figured out a way to be matched up with the boy we wanted to be with. There was a contain of colored strings of which the boys picked one out of when they came in. Later the girls would pick a colored string to be matched up to start the dancing supposedly to make it easier on the boys so they didn’t have to be nervous about selecting a dance partner. In the meantime the girls had a secret code to let us know which color to pick to be matched up with the boy of our dreams. I can remember that my color was black. 🙂
2clowns at arkansas dot net
Great details, Kay!
First love for me and not to sound cloying was reading Blueberries for Sal by myself. I fell head over heels in love with words on paper and still feel that way today. As for romantic love, my first real love is my husband of almost 50 years. All others before him were friends as he alone makes my heart sing!
Aww, Judy. Lovely words!
My mom says that in kindergarten I came home and told her I was going to marry the red-headed boy in my class. I guess I got over him quick because I don’t even remember saying it! Lol!
I got “married” to Linn Cornelius in kindergarten, and his duck was his best man!
My first love (besides Skip Johnson of Rescue 8) was in second grade. We had a fast and furious relationship that involved my sharing my sugar marshmallow hot dogs (remember those? Before Peeps) with him and his mother frequently making me lunch. The family moved away when we were in third grade and I never saw him again. Sigh….
Sigh is right.
I developed the biggest crush on a classmate in high school. She was already dating someone else, however.
Somehow, I always seem to fall for people who are already dating someone else.
Rats! (My brother has done the same thing…)
I had a major crush on our paper boy, Mark. I even baked him cookies one night (not that I told him, I “just happened” to have fresh chocolate chip cookies when he came collecting). Sadly, it never went anywhere. I don’t even know where he is now, even though we graduated high school together.
High school crushes are something!
Oh, Kevin who played the piano so well (in my ignorance) compared to me. It was in second grade. After that, I “fell in love” with lots of boys who didn’t know I existed. First real returned attention was in my freshman year. Oh, how I remember that first kiss. But after lots of other “loves”, including a disastrous marriage, I met my husband of 46 years and am still totally in love with him.
Perfect, Ginny!
My first love was in 5th grade…well maybe I was his first love. Unfortunately, he expressed his affection by trying to break my toes week after week, when we were partnered learning to dance. Not sure I was quite so fond of him after a few weeks! The love that helped me know I fell for scoundrels was Rhett Butler, the first time I read Gone with the Wind. I was in 7th grade.
Rhett, of course!
My first love was in Kindergarten. His name was Brett. We would play together at school at recess time. We would hold hands when we could! He even kissed me on my cheek and told me he would marry me one day.
Thanks for the chance!
jarjm1980@hotmail.com
Ya can’t beat kindergarten love!
Puppy love and kissing in basement with a couple of boys (separately) in kindergarten and first grade. I can’t believe my mom didn’t supervise us better—lol. legallyblonde1961@yahoo.com
My first love was in the first grade. Because I am left-handed and both my parents were right-handed, it was very hard for me to learn to tie my shoes (watching them was backwards to me). I loved him because he would tie my shoes for me. ❤️