Hello Dear Readers!
Today, I am delighted to introduce to you Elizabeth Rose of Literary Lane. A while a go I purchased the paperback and I found Elizabeth really has a lovely talent with words, tells a compelling story, and has a unique twist on her angle of telling the story of the Titanic, that I don’t think most people think to cover, or contemplate. I can’t wait for her next book to come out.
So without further ado Elizabeth Rose….
What do you love about writing?
The opportunity to capture a bit of humanity in all its beauty, conflict, and toil on paper. I love tracing the hand of God through history and then weaving it into my own tales. I write stories about great men and I write stories about small men, but no matter the character or setting, my favorite part is painting that certain something in the hearts of all mankind that yearns toward their Maker.
Who is your favorite book couple ever?
I have too many favorites. If the homeschooling community has made Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy a cliche and therefore an implied answer, I’ll add Sir Percy and Marguerite Blakeney from The Scarlet Pimpernel. If you have not read the book, please do so at once, as it is little short of phenomenal.
What is your favorite “first meeting” between a story couple?
Barring Elizabeth and Darcy again (of course), that would be Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. Cracked slate, candy heart, and all.
What couple did you ship, only to be disappointed?
Chad Buford and Melissa Turner of the sadly little-known Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. I’m a strong supporter of romance that sprouts from childhood friendship, and I still cry when I read the necessary ending. Who knew an assigned book would make such a lasting impression?
What couple ended up together, but you wish they hadn’t?
Following the theme of the previous question, Chad Buford and Margaret Dean. To be fair, Margaret, the lovely Southern coquette, does improve by the novel’s end, but I still preferred Melissa for her spitfire passion and selfless love.
What confession / proposal or wedding touched your heart?
The last scene in Rilla of Ingleside is one of my favorites, though it doesn’t quite fit into the above categories. To this day, it remains one of the few passages I choose when I want something happy and dearly familiar to read.
On a different kind of love, what is your favorite bromance or sisterhood in a novel?
I love the relationship between Jo and Beth March, especially towards the end of Little Women. Even with all her flighty ways, Jo softens and grows much more womanly and gentle around Beth, and she in her turn understands Jo better than anyone else.
What book really illustrates the love of God for us in a way that caught your attention?
I’m only partially obsessed with the famed Chapter XIII in A Tale of Two Cities, a scene that takes place between Lucie Manette and Sydney Carton. “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything.” We know from the Gospel of John that true love is not self-seeking but sacrificial, and if you’ve read Dickens’ classic (the ending! the ending!), you’ll know why I love this passage so.
What is your favorite form of love to write into your own books?
I most often pen love of the Avonlea sort, a romance with little pomp or blare that “creeps to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways . . . unfolding naturally out of a beautiful friendship, like a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.” I hope my own future love will spring from such circumstances, but who can know the plans of the Lord?
Do you have a favorite couple of those you’ve written? Why?
My favorite couple is always the only I’m currently forming in the back of my mind. Right now I’m fond of a certain pair from There Blossoms Red, my next historical novel, but to give more detail than that would be Telling.
Was there ever a couple in your stories that you were not planning on ending up together but finally ended up writing in?
Goodness, you are plying for spoilers! I set my jaw against Susannah and Kenneth of Rifles in the South Field becoming romantically attached, desperate not to write the age-old story about love across the fill-in-the-blank divide, but I’m grudgingly content with what resulted. It isn’t a romance, per say, so don’t get any notions, and I hope it is a bit different while remaining true to the period and human nature as a whole.
Do you find it harder or easier to write romantic love or friendship love in your books?
There was a time when I felt terribly silly writing romance of any kind in stories because it was an area with which I had no experience. I have little more experience now, being just shy of seventeen, but good books and honest, friendly conversation have been my greatest alibis in understanding the other sex. I still prefer friendship love, since I’m quite hobbit-like in my affection for the comfortable things, but sometimes it’s fun to put in a dashing, madly romantic love for the temporary thrill of it.
Do you have a favorite friend pair in your books?
Violet Bradshaw and Ethan Hartley, being characters in my debut novel, Violets Are Blue, and the first friendship pair between male and female that I successfully wrote, take the laurel in that category. There’s a hint of romance to come, but the book ends several years before either of them come of age, and their relationship remains open and unblemished in its youthful simplicity.
Favorite love story you’ve written?
The one that lives only in my head and has yet to see the light of day or Blogger.
What is your definition of love?
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:10
Elizabeth Rose is a young lady of tender years who takes pleasure in a variety of pastimes, chief among them being writing. She lives in the southern United States with her large family, and has been home schooled her whole life. When she’s not scribbling, she reads, dances, drinks tea, and blogs at Living on Literary Lane. Her debut novel, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, was published in April 2012.