The Autumn of Life

by Maureen O.  Betita

I love the fall. My absolute favorite time of the year. The change of the seasons, the strange hush the afternoon takes on as the sun nears the horizon, the silver sheen the waters of Monterey Bay carry, and most of all, the way my yard opens up to reveal what was hidden all summer.

Let me explain. I live in a town that literally translates to ‘the jungle beach.’ No, not a tropical jungle, but a California coast jungle of poison oak, ivy, vinca and berries with thorns that make summer gardening a true nightmare. There isn’t a real ‘no growth’ time of the year here. Just a slow down and shedding time of the year. My house sits on the down slope of a narrow valley that is full of oaks, eucalyptus, coffee berry and the assorted vines I mentioned above. Plus camellia, fuchsias, and the assorted remnants gone wild of whatever the tenants before us planted.

Come spring and summer, I am closed in with growth. But now, this time of the year…the poison oak has done its brilliant red dance and is going dormant. The berry is drying up, the oaks drop a bazillion leaves, the coffee berry goes bare. And suddenly, the slopes of the hillsides are revealed. I can see the burrows of the wood rats, the paths the deer have been taking all summer…more light makes it through to actually touch my windowpanes.

It’s nice!

Autumn is a revelation. Everything is slowing down and I can appreciate what is going on around me. Which leads me to the book I’ve written, The Kraken’s Mirror. My hero is 65. My heroine is 53. They are in the autumn of their lives but are by no means ready for rocking chairs or snuggies. The have the keener eyesight their age has brought them and the ability to focus beyond the immediate. Though after falling through a magical mirror to a pirate paradise where the swashbuckling heroes wear ipods and matchmaking kraken meddle in human affairs, Emily takes some convincing that she isn’t simply insane.

I loved writing a story featuring a couple our society views as past the season of romance. But one never knows when romance is around the corner. My Mother-in-Law is in her 80s and happily engaged to a man she met ten years ago on the internet.

Keep your eyes open, the autumn season is full of the unexpected.

The Kraken’s Mirror, coming soon from Decadent Publishing.

Blurb –

Treated by our youth oriented society as invisible and sexless Emily Pawes attends a pirate festival to recapture the make believe magic she knew as a younger woman. She wins an interesting bit of booty at an old woman's bric-a-brac stand. The Kraken's mirror is a magical portal and transports her to a land of Hollywood piratitude, where swashbuckling heroes own iPods. With little choice, she embraces the madness, deciding she’ll play pirate until she figures out how to get home. Or wakes up in a padded cell.

Instead of men in little white coats, she encounters the handsome Captain Alan Silvestri. He is a man haunted by a strange curse. Good luck is his to command, but it comes at the cost of any place to call home or people to call family. Resigned to die shunned by all, forced to sail every three days, he begins to dream of a special woman.

When they meet, sparks fly, passion flares. He needs her to be free, but more than that, he needs her to be whole. They set sail, uncertain of who has control of the wheel, seeking to defeat his curse of good luck and discover all the Kraken’s mirror plans for them.

Celebrate the season, celebrate romance. One lucky commenter will win some bright bit of pirate swag, courtesy of me and my creative fingers. And chocolate. Always a tempting bit of treasure…

Maureen O. Betita

www.maureenobetita.com

www.romancewritersrevenge.com (blogging as 2^nd Chance every Friday)

www.believinginsecondchances.typepad.com

www.castlesandguns.com (every Tuesday)