Lemons Instead of Lattes
When life gives you lemons instead of lattes… hmmm, I can relate.
Scrolling through Instagram, this vivid image stopped my finger in midair and resonated with my soul. When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes! Feelings churned as lemons danced in my head, partially caused by my current addiction to lemons. In this COVID riddled world, bright yellow, sunshiny lemons lifted my spirits more than once when skies were gray. They’ve made their way from Pinterest boards to my crafting room and now fill the kitchen.
Excuse me, I digress. It happens often.
Lemons & Lemonade
A lemon often refers to a sour experience, a difficulty in life, a challenge. A broken-down car is a lemon. A lemon is followed by advice to turn it into something else, often, lemonade (or to add vodka).
Lemonade is sweet and represents overcoming a challenge by turning it into something positive (a craft, perhaps). In other words, it encourages optimism in the face of adversity. Life is a matter of perspective after all.
The Cover is Key
On the journey of writing a book of my own, I’ve learned the cover is key. Content aside, the cover will make or break the reader’s decision to buy the book, open it, read it, and ultimately give a glowing review. Authors are tasked with the job to grab attention, speak volumes in a few words, and follow through with their promise. No easy chore. Rayna, thumbs up, you’ve delivered on all accounts with When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes!
Title: When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes
I liked the Instagram image and promptly reached out to the author, Rayna York. The trek to title her book, When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes, is too good not to share (with her permission).
She made a long list of possible titles and went on a tangent.
Title: Life Isn’t All Rainbows and Sunshine
Thought of the saying: When Life Gives You Lemons…
Title: When Life Gives You Lemons, Squeeze the Hell Out of Them and Make Effing Lemonade
Thought: Way too many words.
Title: When Life Gives You Lemons, Throw Them Against the Wall, Stomp on Them, Then Go Get a Latte
Thought: Well, that’s ridiculously long, but I’m on to something. Let me whittle it down a bit.
Title: When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes
Thought: Bingo!
About the Author
Rayna York grew up with hippie parents who liked adventure. Where change was the norm, books were her constant—a way to escape. She earned her degree in Hard Knocks from the University of Life. As an adult, many careers came and went, but writing has remained her passion.
On a Personal Note
From Rayna:
I’ve always been an avid reader and can easily get lost in a good book for hours. So when I was going through a rough patch about ten years ago, I decided, crazily enough, to write a novel. An escape I could control and manipulate seemed like pretty good therapy to me. All said and done: I wrote an eighty’s throwback fiction, based on my life when I was sixteen, intertwined with my crazy upbringing. The New Girl took me six years because life intervened as it usually does, but I finally finished. So where is it, you ask? Well, it’s happily saved on my computer and may never see the light of day, but that’s okay.
Published Debut
Rayna’s first published novel, Everything I Knew to be True, grew from a detailed dream.
From Rayna:
Dreams aren’t unusual for me, but this one was something more. When I woke up, I wrote it down, and over time transformed it into a novel. I hope you love reading it as much as I loved writing it. Check out the back of the book for the journal entry of the actual dream.
Side note: I have four other outlines, based on dreams, waiting to be transformed into novels.
Everything I Knew To Be True
It was never easy for Cassie and her mother, struggling to make ends meet in their tiny apartment in the Bronx, but they had each other and that was enough. When her mother dies suddenly from cancer, Cassie is forced to finish high school in California with a wealthy friend of her mother’s.
Living with the Stanton’s is the complete opposite of what she’s used to—the massive house, a traditional family unit, and Cody, the spoiled, insanely good-looking son with the bedroom across the hall.
But when events tumble out of control and an attraction disguised as friendship turns into something more, things get complicated. Cassie always kept people at a distance. Was it a mistake to trust?
Deep, emotional situations mixed with lighthearted banter, Everything I Knew to be True, will have you riding the twists and turns to the very end. Perfect for young adult fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han.
When Life Gives You Lemons Instead Of Lattes
Kylie’s summer after high school graduation was supposed to be celebrated in Europe, not some podunk town in Ohio. But when the FBI shows up at her parents’ California beach house looking for her father, the life she’s known suddenly disintegrates.
With the family assets frozen and her father on the run, the only place left to go is a dilapidated house that once belonged to her great-grandmother. Now her family is broke, her social status is in ruins, and the only internet access is at a café where a nerdy barista boy wants to be her new best friend.
But life has a funny way of teaching its lessons and being catapulted into this new reality might be the help she needs to learn that sometimes you have to let go of everything you know to discover what is real.
With unlikely friendships, family secrets, and a budding romance, Rayna York crafts a heart-warming story about the deception of appearances and starting over in unexpected places.
Follow the Author of When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes
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- Check out my writing articles:
- 101 Ways to Improve Your Writing (free editing PDF)
- “Show Don’t Tell“
- Adjectives to Describe Your Characters (free PDF’s)
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