A Farewell to Love by Belle Calhoune

As I'm writing this post, our nation is reeling from a devastating attack in Las Vegas, one that took 59 precious souls from our world and left hundreds injured.  Personally, I am still in shock over this act of evil.  The idea of someone crafting such chaos and pain in our world is incomprehensible.  My first reaction was to kneel.  Pray.  And above all else, embrace love.  As much as evil lurked in Las Vegas, so did love.  The acts of courage, bravery, and kindness were awe-inspiring.  Seeing the long lines of people wanting to donate blood shows who were are as a nation and as humans.  We need to love one another.  Love with all of our hearts, even when it's not easy to do so. 

Love is the theme of my post.  A few years ago I came up with the concept of a series for Love Inspired set in a fictional town in Alaska.  A town named Love.  The premise for this series was a remote town in Alaska that had a shortage of females.  Add in a curmudgeonly town mayor named Jasper who creates a program named "Operation Love" to bring single women to the lovelorn town, plucky heroines and handsome heroes...and a series was born! 

Now, having written the last book in the series, I'm saying goodbye to this town I've loved so much.  Saying goodbye for me is never easy.  I'm not a person who loves change.  I never truly expected to feel such sadness at leaving my characters behind.  I'd gotten so used to the quirky characters, the quaint town and the vibe of the setting that it feels like I'm closing a door on beloved friends.  What I'm learning is that I'm way more sentimental than I ever realized.  I have cried each and every time I edited a book in this series because the characters feel so real to me.  Thankfully, my readers have expressed this same sentiment.  I am blessed.

When my first book came out in the series a reviewer left me a snarky review where she criticized the name of my Alaskan town.  Love.  The reviewer said it was corny.  Huh?  That baffled me.  How in the world can love ever be corny?  Love is a healing thing.  Love endures hardship, betrayal, loss, pain, human frailty.  Corny?  I beg to differ.  Love is the most powerful force in the world.  I feel sorry for anyone who can't fathom that.  As a romance writer, it's incomprehensible to me. 

And so, I've decided to focus on continuing to do what I love to do.  Create heartwarming, inspiring romances that encourage love and faith and forever.  I would love to live in a world where evil and hatred don't exist, but I know that may never happen.  Until then, I'm going to continue to shine a light on inspirational romance and happily ever afters. I'm going to follow God's command to love one another. 

Over on my Author Belle Calhoune Facebook page, I'm trying to bring a little sunshine in the darkness.  I'm offering a complete set of my Alaskan Grooms series to one lucky person who comments.  Winner will be picked at random.  Please stop by and leave your name.  It has been an honor to write this series and spread love to all of my readers. 

Blessings to all!