Guest Post - Bookmarked with Joanne DeMaio

Greetings and Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Today I have a guest post from author, Joanne DeMaio.  Her book, "Whole Latte Life" was released this past March and today she is sharing a short passage from the book as well as her reflections on that passage.

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We all have favorite passages we enjoy as readers when we’re immersed in a novel.  I actually keep a book journal in which I write certain details about books that move me, and I enjoy thumbing through that journal, re-reading favorite passages.

But as a writer, I also have favorite passages I’ve written for the page.  They might be lines that evoke a certain mood, or a reflection of my own heart, or a turn of a phrase that inspires a sweet memory.  So from my novel Whole Latte Life, I’ve Bookmarked certain passages that are favorites of mine, as the writer.  I’d like to share one of those here with you.

What fills their quiet are the birds singing, a boat engine idling.  It would be nice to catch it, she thinks, to reach to the sky and snatch some of that summer sound and put it in a flowered box and when you need it, you open the lid and a robin’s call rises.  Sometimes you’ll hear the boat far off idling, waiting for you to board on a crystal lake framed by tall green pines.  And she thinks the sound of a horse nickering would be in that box as well.
Bookmarked, P. 143 Whole Latte Life

This particular passage evokes memories of summers I’ve spent at a cherished beach along the Connecticut shoreline.  Often during the evening hours, a lone robin might trill until the sun sets, and it is the only sound within a summer stillness.  It is the type of sound I can always recall in a quiet moment, a memory that transports me to a serene place, literally and figuratively.  That place, a little notch in the coast along Long Island Sound, is also framed by tall green pines, and so I brought that visual from my life into the passage.  To me, that is some of the beauty of writing, to be able to preserve in a story, or on the page, places and memories that will always be special.

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Wishing you all a summer filled with peaceful sounds and memories.

~Joanne

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This passage definitely resonates with me as so many of my childhood summer memories involve time spent near the lake waters of Minnesota.  The sounds I'd like to capture are the waves hitting the shore, the hauntingly beautiful sound a loon makes, and gentle sound of boats trolling on the water.

What are some of the sounds of summer you'd like to capture?