Susan Fox on romances that take on heavy issues

Susan Fox, author of Love Me Tender, reflects on why she writes romances that include weighty issues, such as disease and loss.

Susan: In my new Caribou Crossing Romance, Love Me Tender, the hero, Dave, lost his beloved fiancée to brain cancer three years ago and is still grieving. The heroine, Cassidy, whose dysfunctional childhood turned her into a self-sufficient, free-spirited drifter, finds her life turned upside down by a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Why do I include issues like these? Well, I like to write about normal people, people similar to you and me. And you know what? Normal people don't live rosy-colored lives. They lose loved ones. They have parents who mess them up. They get diseases. They face crises of various sorts, and somehow manage to survive. They're flawed and vulnerable, and yet they can be amazingly strong. Often, it's the crises that call upon a strength that people may not even have realized they possessed. What doesn't kill you makes you strong, right?

I write to entertain, of course. To give the reader a few laughs and maybe a few tears. To provide distraction from the reader's own issues, large and small. I write to give the reader characters she can identify with and would like to know — and feels that she does know as she gets involved in their story and comes to root for them to find their happy ending.

I also write to inspire. To demonstrate that people who face challenges in their lives can come to terms with those challenges — and with their personal vulnerabilities, flaws and fears — and can find the strength, creativity and hope to move onward.

Here's the blurb for Love Me Tender:

Pay a visit to Caribou Crossing, the rustic, inviting Western town where broken hearts mend and new love takes root…

Dave Cousins, owner of the Wild Rose Inn, is known throughout Caribou Crossing as the nicest—and loneliest—guy in town. He's had his heart broken more than once, and he's determined not to let it happen again. So it's no wonder he's wary when a free-spirited drifter leaves him longing for more than just a steamy fling…

Like the wild goose tattooed on her shoulder, Cassidy Esperanza goes wherever the wind takes her. For her, a new day means a fresh start. And yet something about her days in Caribou Crossing—and nights with its handsome hotel owner—makes her think about staying a while. But when life takes an unexpected turn, her first instinct is to take flight once more. Is Dave strong enough to help them both face their fears, come to terms with the past, and believe that sometimes love truly can last a lifetime?

And here's an exclusive excerpt …

A few minutes later, they were all in the living room. Cassidy curled into one corner of the couch, Dave sat on the other side, his daughter Robin was between them with the popcorn bowl, and the dog lay on the floor at Robin's feet. Cassidy clicked play.

Immediately, Dave had a sense of déjà vu. He remembered seeing this movie when he was a little younger than Robin. His mom had played it for him and his siblings. All he remembered now was that a nun became governess to a bunch of kids and taught them to sing.

When the nuns queried, musically, how to solve a problem called Maria, Robin giggled. "I like Maria already."

"Me too," Cassidy said. "I'm—I was—like her. A wave on the sand ..." Her voice faded in sadness.

Robin leaned forward to stroke Merlin, and when the nuns next asked how to solve their problem, Cassidy muttered, so quietly Dave could barely hear, "You give her MS."

"What?" His daughter straightened.

"Nothing," Cassidy said quickly.

Listening to the words of the song, he realized that the woman sharing the couch did make him feel much the way the nuns did about Maria. Cassidy frustrated and confused him, yet she brought joy into his world. Especially before she was diagnosed. Of course she was going through a tough time now. But once she came to terms with her disease, she wouldn't let it hold her back. She'd regain her optimistic, sparkly, will-o'-the-wisp personality. And she'd be gone.

His life would be easier. His life would be ... less.

When it was time for her to go, he couldn't try to hold her back. As the nuns said, you couldn't hold a moonbeam in your hand. And so, over the next months, he had to be careful not to let himself get too attached. He took a handful of popcorn and moved back farther into his own corner of the couch.

As the movie progressed, he watched the two females beside him as much as he watched the screen. As Cassidy was drawn into the story, she became her old self, totally engaged and animated.

During a lightning storm, Maria distracted her charges by singing about her favorite things. A couple of verses in, Robin cried, "The wild geese! That's your tattoo!"

Cassidy smiled at her. "A wild goose flying with the moon on her wing. She's me."

He'd always thought her tattoo was beautiful and haunting, a symbol of her desire to fly free and solo. Now he was curious to hear the full story behind it. Later, when they were alone.

When the children started to repeat the verses, Cassidy said to Robin, "How about you? What are your favorite things? Galloping Concha across a meadow filled with wildflowers?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Watching a foal take its first steps." She glanced at Cassidy. "What are yours? Those baby sea turtles? Rafting in the Grand Canyon?"

"For sure."

"Picking wild strawberries."

"The scent of a wild rose. Is anything more perfect than that?"

"Making my baby brother smile."

"Oh, that's a good one," Cassidy said.

And Dave thought: This. This was a good one. Having the two of them beside him, lighthearted and having fun.

***

Cassidy knew her singing voice was pretty awful, but who cared when she and Robin were having such fun, singing along to "Do-Re-Mi," then trying to yodel to "The Lonely Goatherd"?

The first time she saw The Sound of Music, she was a year or two younger than Dave's daughter, and she and her brother had sung along too. They'd been staying with Gramps. Luis was living in France with his girlfriend and Justine had gone on a skiing trip with the guy she was dating.

Parents sure came in different flavors. She and JJ had got the self-absorbed kind. Robin's parents had divorced too, and no doubt there'd been some difficult times, but Dave and Jess obviously still cared for each other and supported each other. More importantly, they'd always ensured that their daughter knew they loved her and put her first.

Gramps had done that. With his daughter, Justine, and with Cassidy and JJ. If he hadn't died when she was fifteen, Cassidy probably wouldn't have rushed off to Europe as soon as she graduated. What would she have done? She'd been so driven to get away from her shitty life at home, she'd never considered an alternative other than escape.

A rich voice drew her from her musings. The abbess was singing "Climb Every Mountain." It sent shivers up and down Cassidy's spine. Wasn't that what everyone wanted? To find a dream that would last all your life, and to follow it?

But it had to be a realistic one. Her own dream had been to explore the world and enjoy life to the fullest, and that was exactly what she'd done for ten years. Now, she hadn't the faintest idea what restrictions MS might put on that dream.

And somehow, as she lounged here with Dave and Robin, a life of moving from place to place, from one set of strangers to another, no longer seemed so full. In fact, it seemed a little ... hollow.

Find out more about Susan and her books at www.susanlyons.ca.