Turn the Corner and You're in Another World

When are you too old to stop pretending? Is a senior in high school too old? I was 17 when my friend Ted and I would walk down Calhoun Street, the main drag in Charleston, SC, to Norm's sub shop during our free period at school. On the way, there was a tiny alley between two buildings–so tiny, we used to imagine that if we walked down that little lane, we'd enter another world, the Narnia world we'd read about in those books C.S. Lewis wrote.

It was a fun fantasy. Ted and I acted as if this "alley to Narnia" was a big joke, but somewhere inside us was this delight in magic, in alternative worlds that shimmered somewhere beyond our ordinary reach.

Even now, when I roam the picturesque streets in historic Charleston, I look down tiny alleyways and imagine them opening on to another story, another place and time.

Which is why I loved writing Cloudy With a Chance of Marriage so much. I got to invent a street that doesn't exist. It's in London's wealthy Mayfair section. My fictional Regency-era passersby don't even notice it's there. Overgrown bushes frame the entrance–all anyone knows about Dreare Street is that it's unlucky.

Of course, once Stephen (my devil-may-care naval hero) and Jilly (my feisty bookseller heroine) move in, the dispirited neighbors on Dreare Street aren't going to stay content with being called the unluckiest residents in London!

Once hope takes root, all kinds of good things can happen–even to those among us labeled unfixable and unlovable. I write the kind of stories that make you feel that anything is possible…if you believe. Even the residents of Dreare Street, once they commit to following their dreams, have a happily ever after, my favorite kind of ending.

Here's a secret: part of me–the quirky, imaginative part–insists the street my characters lived on really existed and still does. Next time I go to London, I'll know exactly where it is. No one else will see it, but I will. I'll look for the two overgrown bushes. I'll wait to feel that familiar flash of magic and mystery ripple through me. I'll touch that part of me that still feels wonder.

And I'll keep walking–refreshed, renewed–into that ordinary world that's not so ordinary, after all.

Click here if you'd like to read Cloudy With a Chance of Marriage, a fun, romantic Regency tale sure to warm your heart, and thanks for stopping by. I'm always on Facebook and Twitter if you ever want to say hello. Or feel free to leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you!

Hugs from Kieran :>)