Monday, January 7, 2019

Small-town/Country vs. City ~ Jean C. Gordon

Are you a small-town/country person or a city person? Having spent most of my life living in or outside of small towns (or villages as we call them in New York State)—except for two years of college in Los AnglesI can say I'm a small-town person. And by small, I mean fewer than 5,000 people.

So, it's probably not surprising that I generally set my books in small towns, usually in Western NY, Central NY, or the Adirondack Mountains. But for my upcoming book, No Time for Apologies, Book 5 in the No Brides Club series from Sweet Promise press, I had to dig up those small-town roots and temporarily transplant them to New York City. I had fun leaving my writing comfort zone.

Letchworth State Park in WNY, where my husband proposed, the Adirondack Mountains, the Hudson River Valley, where my hero owns a beef cattle farm with his grandfather and, of course, the NYC skyline.

An aside: Despite spending most of my life in New York State, I didn't visit New York City until I was in my thirties and had to go there on business related to my financial writing job in Albany. Since then, I've been there several more times for Romance Writers of America conferences, BookCon last year, my son's eighth-grade class trip as a chaperone, and once to go sightseeing with a writer friend.

So, I had a feel for the city, but I had to do more research than usual for details. And because you can't completely take the country out of a person, the hero and heroine in my new book are originally both from fictitious Genesee in Western NY, near where I grew up. 

Question: When it comes to your romance reading, do you have a City/Country preference?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MHFN41J/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&linkCode=ll1&tag=jeacgoraut-20&linkId=1d7fc64185a2e181472d9dbaf4860e63&language=en_USWhen six friends make a pact not to let love get in the way of their careers, the No Brides Club is born. But could meeting the right man at the wrong time cause them to break their vows to each other?

Kate Lewis left her family’s dairy farm and fell in love with everything about New York City—especially the high-powered, fast-paced world of finance. Once content to lie in the grass and watch clouds float across the sky, her biggest dream now is to work her way to the top of Wall Street.

Jon Smith is so much more than his plain name implies. He’s also a rising star in the world of finance, on a mission to save his grandfather’s cattle farm, and Kate’s former high school admirer.

When a shocking twist of fate puts these two in direct competition for a job they both covet, the last thing they need is any new sparks of attraction. Too bad fate isn’t done with them yet.

Will they give in to their attraction, or is their newfound rivalry too intense to put aside? Find out in this sweet big city twist on the classic second chance romance theme. 

Releases February 1


 To learn more about all the books in the No Brides Club Series,
click on the picture.
https://sweetpromisepress.com/no-brides-club/

5 comments:

  1. Such a fun series, Jean, and love the gorgeous cover. I'm a native upstate New Yorker, and love New York City!

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  2. Thank you for the insight, Jean. I'm so excited for you with this new series! I am a small town person, and I mostly write small town stories. But I like to read about small towns, country, or city.

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  3. I'm a suburban person. I like living near a big city, but not in it. I like reading stories set in both cities and small towns. I know many readers love small-town settings.

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  4. I enjoy reading about both small towns and big cities especially when I've never been there and can "see" it all through the eyes of the characters.

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  5. I have lived in small towns and big cities. I enjoy reading about both kind of towns. :-) Even in a big city, everybody is related in some way. :-)

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