As you know, I’m busy compiling my “senior” writers’ latest anthology, to be titled Bridges. We have explored bridges between generations, actual bridges we’ve known in our lives, railroad bridges, friendships, people we’ve known in our travels or careers, stories about our animal pets, and what we’ve learned from history–wisdom we can pass on to grandchildren and beyond. We should complete this, our fourth anthology since January 2024. We have legacies to leave.
I took out time to read a fantastic book in the last two days. I literally couldn’t put it down. I read the large print version–my eighty-five year-old eyes, with a damaged retina, can only do so much. I’m just thankful I can still read and can type this anthology with my large-screen monitor and the print zoomed to 250! That’s why our books are printed by KDP in 14 size font.
Anyway, I’m concluding the book with this article. Hope you’ll enjoy my epilogue, followed by the pictures of our writers and their short biographies.
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BETTY WHITAKER JACKSON
Another Kind of Bridge
I’m amazed about what a privilege it is to mentor this group. The amazing women and their stories have blessed me in more ways that I ever dreamed of when I began this adventure in early January 2024. Listening to their life stories, living through them as they reminisced, and developing new friendships has been a rich blessing, especially where I needed a distraction from pressing family problems I’ve been trying desperately to solve.
One sweet lady, a new friend, recommended a book to me and let me borrow a copy. I have just finished it, a marathon read, in two days and want to share its significance. It is another type of bridge, and a few pages from the end, which surprised me as a storyteller myself, the word bridge was there used in a new way, and I was reminded about a special bridge in Paris, Ponte des art. I’ll address that one first.
Paris-Pont-des-Arts-Paris-Lovelock-Bridge-1 – CONASÜR look this up!
For years, lovers placed locks on this bridge and threw the keys into the Seine. Recently, the locks were removed. When I googled, this is what I found. Hopefully, by quoting this, I am not breaking too many copyright rules: Until last year, the Pont des Arts was known as the “lock bridge.” Its sides were crowded with these objects that, according to recent tradition, symbolize the eternal love of couples who attach them to the bridge.
For safety reasons (both for the bridge and for the boats passing underneath), the locks were removed, and it has returned to being (almost) what it once was.
We visited this week to ask tourists (and Parisians) what they thought about the change. Were they disappointed? Did they think the bridge was more beautiful before? And now?
But the lock issue is a cat-and-mouse game between authorities and tourists. The Pont des Arts was cleaned (soon few will remember that there were ever locks on it) but the movement has migrated to the next bridge, the Pont Neuf. The railing around the equestrian statue of Henri IV, at the Île de la Cité, is already taken over by love locks. https://paris-story.com/pont-des-arts-end-of-love-locks/
The characters in this book are well-developed, and as an author myself, I enjoyed the author’s methods in creating this wonderful book. She did a great deal of research, as I do with my books, and found a way to weave the Napoleonic era with modern times, chapters alternating. I learned about wines, and this is a legacy story where the main character is writing to a great-great-granddaughter. I’ve done something similar in my Saga series completed in 2024.
Of course, because we’re working on the Bridge theme, at the end of the book, a character meets his end in this sentence—yet another possible theme in bridges: the author writes, again, forgive copyright issues, When Louris Bohne passed in 1821, I lost perhaps my dearest friend. Some thought us too close for employer and employee but never again did I meet someone so aligned with my mind. There was never an affair of our hearts, only our minds. I assumed we would work together until the end. For such a good man to be taken from this life by a slip from an icy bridge seemed too absured to be real. Life often laughs at our effort to have it make sense….He believed in me and my dream. If one dares bold things, you will need people like Louis by your side.Someone who can hold your belief for you when you waver.Now that he is gone, I hold on to my memorie of him, keeping that tiny spark of him alive to pay him back for all thi8 work and kindness. This is what love and friendship can do—make one immortal.
( p. 417-418 large print edition)
If I can editorialize a big, writing memoir means we are indeed leaving legacies, long after we are gone. One of my writers shared this book with me, knowing I love history, love good writing, and find great joy is developing stories of my own. Four of my novels became series because I literally fell in love with my characters.
It’s obvious this author, a new favorite of mind, agrees with me that people’s stories need to be told, and it’s all right to “borrow” from history, add creative details, and weave a story that “bridges” life lived immorally.
I expect to read other books by this author, a new writing friend. This is from her website:
Timeless tales of transformation
Kate MacIntosh has a passion for historical fiction and a belief that women are capable of amazing things. Her books offer a window into the struggles and triumphs of women, set against the backdrop of significant historical events. Her unique storytelling style blends past and present to craft a story that keeps readers turning pages. https://katemacintoshbooks.com/
About the Author
