More Austin Memories in Love Lives On

The latest bookmobile novel, Love Lives On, takes place in Austin, Texas, mostly. So why the photo of Bruges, Belgium on the cover? Bruges is where Brian and Karen go for their honeymoon.

I said mostly Austin, because Brian goes back to California a few times to visit his parents. Mainly because the book is about Karen. Also, there are a few scenes in Sunset Valley, which is technically not a part of Austin even though it is surrounded by Austin. The married couple also stop in Hildesheim, Germany for a night.

After the wedding Karen moves into Brian's place on Mt. Bonnell Road near Dry Creek Cafe. If you read Where Love Once Lived, you know this is the place where the Combine rented a cabin when they were students at the University of Texas back in the 1970's.

There are scenes at the Austin History Center, a fictional law office on Congress Avenue, Allandale mall and references to the Austin Public Library, Travis County Courthouse, Wooldridge Park, MoPac, 35th Street, Sun City Texas, Georgetown, Thundercloud Subs and Dr Pepper, a Texas favorite.

Several scenes take place in Clarksville, where Brian's best friend Phil lives with his wife Kay. His dad George, who played a prominent role in Where Love Once Lived, lives in an apartment out back and manages to help Karen in Love Lives On.

Marriage on Mount Bonnell

Steps leading to the top of Mount Bonnell
(Photo by Sidney W. Frost)

Here's an excerpt from Where Love Once Lived near the beginning of the scene on Mount Bonnell in Austin, Texas.

Rain covered the mountain and the whole city, and it wasn’t going to blow over in a matter of minutes, or even hours. Dark clouds hovered over their cars and blocked the sun and sky, covering them with an ominous darkness.

“Why do they have to get married out here, anyway?” Ron asked. “This is what happens when you don’t get married in church.”

“That’s silly,” Susan said. “They want to marry here because it’s special to them. It’s where they first kissed. That’s what Josh told me.”

“Really?” Liz said as she turned to face Ron and Susan. “Now, everything is beginning to make sense. Being new to Austin, I studied up on this place because of the wedding. Know what I found out? There’s a legend that says a couple who climbs to the top together will fall in love.”

“I never heard that,” Brian said. He’d hiked to the top with Karen once or twice back when they were in college.

“There’s more,” Liz said. “A second trip to the top together, so says the legend, means they’ll get engaged.” Liz’s voice got louder as she talked, and Brian knew she was getting excited. “A third time up that mountain, the story says, and there’s a surefire chance for wedding bells. Does anybody know how many times Josh and Cindy were on that magic mountain together?”

“Well, it must have been at least three times,” Susan said.

“Hogwash,” Ron said.

The weather prevents the couple from getting married on Mount Bonnell, so Brian comes up with the idea of having the ceremony in the bookmobile parked at the base of the mountain. The bride loved the idea. Here is an excerpt that follows the wedding just after they get to the cabin for the reception:

Once inside, Cindy grabbed Brian’s arm. “It was perfect, Uncle Brian. Getting married in the bookmobile was better than what we’d planned. Thank you so much.”

Brian looked at Cindy and realized how much she’d matured in the past few months. It may have been the makeup and wedding dress, but it could have been because she was married and going out on her own and saying goodbye soon to her husband as he went into the marines.

The look on her face turned serious. “When I say perfect,” she added, “you know I wish Dad had been here.”

While a student at the University of Texas, I climbed to the top of Mount Bonnell many times. Usually with my buddies, the Combine, but sometimes with a special girlfriend. We felt safe there back then. If you go today, you'll see a sign saying to beware of crime in the area. I'm sure Mount Bonnell has a special place in the hearts of many Austinites. In Kit Frazier's Dead Copy, there is a scene on Mount Bonnell that describes the area perfectly.

Mitford on Wheels

While reading Jan Karon's books, I fell in love with Mitford, a fictitious small town in North Carolina with a large number of interesting characters. I created a database of the characters while reading the second book in the series and tried to keep it up to date as I read one book after another. I finally gave up when the number of characters got into the hundreds, primarily because stopping to make notes was taking away from the enjoyment of reading. If you look on Jan Karon's website you'll find someone has made a list of characters in several of the books.

Where Love Once Lived is set in Austin, Texas with a 2008 population of more than 750,000 people, while Holly Springs, North Carolina, the city some say Mitford is based on, had fewer than 10,000 citizens at the time Jan Karon was creating Mitford. The Austin from my memories had a population around 150,000 which is still much larger than Mitford.

The characters in Where Love Once Lived get outside the confines of the mobile library frequently, but when needed, I use the bookmobile to limit the size of the locale. Friends meet on the bookmobile, and many of the most serious conversations take place there. It's used to chauffer the mayor in one scene. Children find the support of caring adults there. Adults get their dreams fulfilled. One of the highlights is when a young couple gets married on the bookmobile while parked at the base of Mount Bonnell. There's a chase scene involving the bulky vehicle which is more humorous than exciting, especially when it flies over Austin's traffic calmers. Books fall from the shelves, helping solve a crime. I call my book Mitford on wheels.

Once you've read the book, tell me what you think about this approach of using the bookmobile to make the surroundings smaller.

Austin, the Friendly City

Where Love Once Lived is set in the current time in Austin, Texas. However, the male protagonist has lived in California for the past thirty years and his memory of Austin is different than the way the city is today. It doesn't bother him that Austin's slogan has changed from Austin the Friendly City to Keep Austin Weird. He doesn't even notice. He finds the place on Dry Creek near Mt. Bonnell Road where he and his college buddies rented a cabin and he builds his house there, including a replica of the cabin that had fallen to the ground from decay. Brian is determined to recapture his youth, and marry his college sweetheart. He buys a bookmobile, because that was the last place where he had been with Karen, and makes a deal with the city to try it for a year as long as he pays the expenses.

In addition to the cabin, scenes take place at an elementary school built in the 1950's, Mt. Bonnell, Clarksville, and the city library (the old one, not the new one), the University of Texas campus, and Manor.

It was fun revisiting the Austin of the past while writing the book, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. I was born in Austin and went through school there. I joined the marines after learning I wasn't ready for college, and didn't get back to Austin for 20 plus years. It had changed so much by then I hardly knew where I was. But, it didn't matter. Everywhere I went I could see and feel the past, the place where the memories lived. Once, I told an old friend I'd meet him at the drug store. When we both got there, we noticed the corner we'd been thinking about was now a strip mall and there wasn't a drug store anywhere near there. Another fun thing is that we, my buddies and I, know routes through town that newcomers don't.

How about you? Have you experienced a change in your life or your surroundings that made you wish for the good old days? Were the good old days as good as you remember? How do you handle change? Do you embrace it or fight it? Place is not as important as who you are. You can take your beliefs and faith in God wherever you go. Likewise, you can't move to another place to get away from problems. They go with you, too.

In Where Love Once Lived, Brian never recaptures his youth, of course, because that's impossible. But he does learn that what he was searching for was the love of God.

Austin, the Friendly City

Where Love Once Lived is set in the current time in Austin, Texas. However, the male protagonist has lived in California for the past thirty years and his memory of Austin is different than the way the city is today. It doesn't bother him that Austin's slogan has changed from Austin the Friendly City to Keep Austin Weird. He doesn't even notice. He finds the place on Dry Creek near Mt. Bonnell Road where he and his college buddies rented a cabin and he builds his house there, including a replica of the cabin that had fallen to the ground from decay. Brian is determined to recapture his youth, and marry his college sweetheart. He buys a bookmobile, because that was the last place where he had been with Karen, and makes a deal with the city to try it for year as long as he pays the expenses.

In addition to the cabin, scenes take place at an elementary school built in the 1950's, Mt. Bonnell, Clarksville, and the city library (the old one, not the new one), the University of Texas campus, and Manor.

It was fun revisiting the Austin of the past while writing the book, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. I was born in Austin and went through school there. I joined the Marines after learning I wasn't ready for college, and didn't get back to Austin for 20 plus years. It had changed so much by then I hardly knew where I was. But, it didn't matter. Everywhere I went I could see and feel the past, the place where the memories lived. Once, I told an old friend I'd meet him at the drug store. When we both got there, we noticed the corner we'd been thinking about was now a strip mall and there wasn't a drug store anywhere near there. Another fun thing is that we, my buddies and I, know routes through town that newcomers don't.

How about you? Have you experienced a change in your life or your surroundings that made you wish for the good old days? Were the good old days as good as you remember? How do you handle change? Do you embrace it or fight it? Place is not as important as who you are. You can take your beliefs and faith in God wherever you go. Likewise, you can't move to another place to get away from problems. They go with you, too.

In Where Love Once Lived, Brian never recaptures his youth, of course, because that's impossible. But he does learn that what he was searching for was the love of God.

Note: This is repeated from 4/2/10.

Making Your Settings Come Alive

To make your settings believable, try visualizing the location where the scene takes place. Best yet, use a photo of or a visit to a real place.

In Where Love Once Lived, I could see in my mind the places where each scene took place. Some settings were imaginary and some were real, but they were all clear to me as I moved the characters about in the scene.

There is one scene in the book where the male and female protagonists meet on the campus of the University of Texas. I'd been there often enough to easily describe the scene, but before I began writing, I went there again.

I walked along the same sidewalks described in the book and sat on the bench where my fictional characters sat. I went to the Student Union and found out Brian and Karen's favorite place to eat had been replaced by a cluster of fast food stands you find in malls and airports today. I went on a Friday and listened to the Carillon play.

I took photos and posted them on my website, not only for future readers of the book, but for me to look at as I edited.

The photo shown here is of the bench where Brian and Karen had a picnic lunch while talking about their future. To see the other photos, go to http://sidneywfrost.com/settings.htm and click on the setting locations to see the photos. There are also photos taken at the State Capitol, the Cabin, Mount Bonnell, and a church in South Houston that was in my mind as I wrote about the one set in Redondo Beach, California.

Let me know what you think about setting descriptions. Have you read books that made you feel you were there with the fictional characters? What if the author is describing a place you know quite well and you find errors. Does that bug you the way it does me?

In an early version of Where Love Once Lived, I described Manor as being west of Austin instead of east. None of my writing classmates noticed. But as soon as my Austin friends read it, they all pounced on me.

Marriage on Mount Bonnell

Here's an excerpt from Where Love Once Lived near the beginning of the scene on Mount Bonnell in Austin, Texas.

Rain covered the mountain and the whole city, and it wasn’t going to blow over in a matter of minutes, or even hours. Dark clouds hovered over their cars and blocked the sun and sky, covering them with an ominous darkness.

“Why do they have to get married out here, anyway?” Ron asked. “This is what happens when you don’t get married in church.”

“That’s silly,” Susan said. “They want to marry here because it’s special to them. It’s where they first kissed. That’s what Josh told me.”

“Really?” Liz said as she turned to face Ron and Susan. “Now, everything is beginning to make sense. Being new to Austin, I studied up on this place because of the wedding. Know what I found out? There’s a legend that says a couple who climbs to the top together will fall in love.”

“I never heard that,” Brian said. He’d hiked to the top with Karen once or twice back when they were in college.

“There’s more,” Liz said. “A second trip to the top together, so says the legend, means they’ll get engaged.” Liz’s voice got louder as she talked, and Brian knew she was getting excited. “A third time up that mountain, the story says, and there’s a surefire chance for wedding bells. Does anybody know how many times Josh and Cindy were on that magic mountain together?”

“Well, it must have been at least three times,” Susan said.

“Hogwash,” Ron said.

The weather prevents the couple from getting married on Mount Bonnell, so Brian comes up with the idea of having the ceremony in the bookmobile parked at the base of the mountain. The bride loved the idea. Here is an excerpt that follows the wedding just after they get to the cabin for the reception:

Once inside, Cindy grabbed Brian’s arm. “It was perfect, Uncle Brian. Getting married in the bookmobile was better than what we’d planned. Thank you so much.”

Brian looked at Cindy and realized how much she’d matured in the past few months. It may have been the makeup and wedding dress, but it could have been because she was married and going out on her own and saying goodbye soon to her husband as he went into the marines.

The look on her face turned serious. “When I say perfect,” she added, “you know I wish Dad had been here.”

While a student at the University of Texas, I climbed to the top of Mount Bonnell many times. Usually with my buddies, the Combine, but sometimes with a special girlfriend. We felt safe there back then. If you go today, you'll see a sign saying to beware of crime in the area. I'm sure Mount Bonnell has a special place in the hearts of many Austinites. In Kit Frazier's Dead Copy, there is a scene on Mount Bonnell that describes the area perfectly.

Have you been to Mount Bonnell lately? Here is a photo I took of the steps leading to the top: http://sidneywfrost.com/StepsToMtBonnell.htm.

Mitford on Wheels

While reading Jan Karon's books, I fell in love with Mitford, a fictitious small town in North Carolina with a large number of interesting characters. I created a database of the characters while reading the second book in the series and tried to keep it up to date as I read one book after another. I finally gave up when the number of characters got into the hundreds, primarily because stopping to make notes was taking away from the enjoyment of reading. If you look on Jan Karon's website you'll find someone has made a list of characters in several of the books.

Where Love Once Lived is set in Austin, Texas with a 2008 population of more than 750,000 people, while Holly Springs, North Carolina, the city some say Mitford is based on, had fewer than 10,000 citizens at the time Jan Karon was creating Mitford. The Austin from my memories had a population around 150,000 which is still much larger than Mitford.

The characters in Where Love Once Lived get outside the confines of the mobile library frequently, but when needed, I use the bookmobile to limit the size of the locale. Friends meet on the bookmobile, and many of the most serious conversations take place there. It's used to chauffer the mayor in one scene. Children find the support of caring adults there. Adults get their dreams fulfilled. One of the highlights is when a young couple gets married on the bookmobile while parked at the base of Mount Bonnell. There's a chase scene involving the bulky vehicle which is more humorous than exciting, especially when it flies over Austin's traffic calmers. Books fall from the shelves, helping solve a crime. I call my book Mitford on wheels.

Once you've read the book, tell me what you think about this approach of using the bookmobile to make the surroundings smaller.

Austin, the Friendly City

Where Love Once Lived is set in the current time in Austin, Texas. However, the male protagonist has lived in California for the past thirty years and his memory of Austin is different than the way the city is today. It doesn't bother him that Austin's slogan has changed from Austin the Friendly City to Keep Austin Weird. He doesn't even notice. He finds the place on Dry Creek near Mt. Bonnell Road where he and his college buddies rented a cabin and he builds his house there, including a replica of the cabin that had fallen to the ground from decay. Brian is determined to recapture his youth, and marry his college sweetheart. He buys a bookmobile, because that was the last place where he had been with Karen, and makes a deal with the city to try it for year as long as he pays the expenses.

In addition to the cabin, scenes take place at an elementary school built in the 1950's, Mt. Bonnell, Clarksville, and the city library (the old one, not the new one), the University of Texas campus, and Manor.

It was fun revisiting the Austin of the past while writing the book, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. I was born in Austin and went through school there. I joined the Marines after learning I wasn't ready for college, and didn't get back to Austin for 20 plus years. It had changed so much by then I hardly knew where I was. But, it didn't matter. Everywhere I went I could see and feel the past, the place where the memories lived. Once, I told an old friend I'd meet him at the drug store. When we both got there, we noticed the corner we'd been thinking about was now a strip mall and there wasn't a drug store anywhere near there. Another fun thing is that we, my buddies and I, know routes through town that newcomers don't.

How about you? Have you experienced a change in your life or your surroundings that made you wish for the good old days? Were the good old days as good as you remember? How do you handle change? Do you embrace it or fight it? Place is not as important as who you are. You can take your beliefs and faith in God wherever you go. Likewise, you can't move to another place to get away from problems. They go with you, too.

In Where Love Once Lived, Brian never recaptures his youth, of course, because that's impossible. But he does learn that what he was searching for was the love of God.