OTM 2009 Blog Tour - Home: That Special Fit

CRR Blog Tour – November 2009

Host: Lindsay’s Romantics  Nov.19

http://lindsaysromantics.blogspot.com

[This blog was originally posted at the above link. You can still find it there.]

Permalink to Tour Posts

A big Hello to Lindsay and all the Romantics. Is it me or does that sound like a music group? 
I’m glad my blog tour, hosted by CRR Promotions, stopped here at the Pink Blog. As I try to adapt my subjects to each blog as possible, I searched my mind for a “special” theme related to my new book, Off The Moon, and came up with Home. Not just any home, but the right home, the home where our characters find a special fit.

How many of you have moved homes more than once? More than that? According to TimePage.org, my generation is that of the nomad. We’re risk-takers. We came from “an unprotected background” and have a tendency to be alienated. Trying to fit somewhere when you have the natural tendency to be a nomad can be difficult. Look at the way so many of us are constantly on the move. Few of our parents, other than those with travel jobs, strayed far from their home base and families. If they needed more space, they built on. Moving was rare once a household was established. And yet, it’s hard to find many of us who have lived in fewer than three homes during our lives so far. I’ve lived in ten different dwellings, but fortunately am now settled until I’m too old to maintain the place. Of course, things change and you never know.

 I’m one who believes a home chooses us as much as the other way around. It’s much more than a place. It’s a feeling. Of all of those places I’ve been, only two have been truly comfortable. Most were okay for temporary purposes. Two were near soul-killing. It was the place. I didn’t fit. Something inside when I was young told me the state where I grew up was not where I belonged. The east called out. As I settled in a place I chose, a place that felt comfortable, I made an incredible discovery: things that bothered me in those other places hardly have an effect here. My whole inner nature feels more at peace.

 So how do we relate that to our characters?

Ryan, my POV character, was an Army brat and talks now and then about having to move. He especially mentions one place he felt at home. It still calls out to him even though he’s grown up and has chosen New York City as his residence. He likes NY, not only because his job is centered there, but also because it reminds him of nomads (which he is, also). Residents go about their own business, not connecting to each other and not noticing that he doesn’t connect. He fits and he doesn’t, and it’s a comfortable place to be. He visits his brother’s family in Vermont now and then and enjoys the visit but remains detached from the place. It may be his family’s home, but it’s not his. He is never fully at ease there (for reasons beyond place but we’ll stick with place for this post) and relaxes upon return to his NYC loft.

And then he finds Kaitlyn, an unwilling transport to the city. She’s homeless and even more disconnected than Ryan. The difference is that she doesn’t deal with it as well as he does. She needs connection. She needs Home. Ryan senses it in her. It draws him in and pushes him away. As other people become involved in the decision of where she should be, against her will, Ryan has to choose to give in or to fight.

 “You can’t tell someone where their home is. Trust me, I know. I lived in lots of houses. Lots of towns. It’s only home if it feels like it to you, not because someone says it’s supposed to be. This one was her choice.”

 By the end of my stories, my characters not only find their special mate, but they also find their special place: their true home. I suppose I do so because it has been such a deep issue personally.

 How about your special place? I would love to hear Home stories!

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