Austin, Texas

Much of the action occurring in Dreams Are What Life Is Made Of  takes place in Austin, Texas. This blog will give readers a taste of what Amber and Alex experience during each chapter as they explore our fair city. We will take a look at many aspects of Austin including its ideal location, roust contemporary lifestyle, and innate natural beauty  Photographs included in this post are provided by Limelight Imaging and myself.

Downtown Austin from Palmer Auditorium

Austin is located in Central Texas, on the northeastern border of an area known as the Texas Hill Country. The metro area of Austin is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Town Lake), Lake Austin, and Lake Travis, all of which are part of the Colorado River, as well as Barton Springs and McKinney Falls, just to name a few. 

Zilker Park looking towards downtown

Lake Travis, just west of Austin

Austin is the capital city of the Great State of Texas. It is also the county seat of Travis County, so there are always plenty of interesting political activities taking place here. As Austin has grown over recent years, the city limits have also stretched into portions of Hays and Williamson Counties. Austin is the 11th largest city in the United States and the 4th largest in Texas behind Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation with a five-county metropolitan area of over 2.2 million people. Austin is also home to the University of Texas at Austin, which hosts around 51,000 students annually, as well as Concordia University, St. Edwards University, and Huston Tillotson University. 

Littlefield Fountain
and the University of Texas Main Building Tower

Pennybacker Bridge on Loop 360 transverses
 Lake Austin/Colorado River on Austin's West side

Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836. In 1839, an area along the north bank of the Colorado River was chosen as the new capital for the Republic of Texas and was named Waterloo. It was later renamed Austin after the "Father of Texas," Stephen F. Austin. On December 29, 1845, Austin became the capital of state government for Texas as it became the 28th state of the United States. The capitol building standing in downtown Austin was constructed with red granite from the Texas Hill Country. It was completed in 1888.

Capitol dome at night

Texas State Capitol and grounds in downtown Austin

Numerous world renowned companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin including  Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Applied Materials, Apple, Dell, eBay, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, 3M, Tito's Vodka, Whole Foods and Yeti, to name a few. Recently, Tesla began construction on a new manufacturing plant in Manor, just outside of the Austin city limits.

Downtown Austin from Zilker Park area

Downtown Austin with boardwalk from Riverside near IH 35

Austin, known as the "Live Music Capital of the World," is home to the long-running PBS TV concert series "Austin City Limits," as well as its spin-off, the "Austin City Limits Music Festival," which is held each fall in Zilker Park. The city also hosts the SXSW Music, Film, and Interactive Festival each March in numerous venues throughout the city. Besides these two huge events, live music can be heard any day or night throughout the city in hundreds of different venues.

Zilker Park filled with fans during Austin City Limits Music Festival

Zilker Park's Rock Island

Austin has followed the motto "Keep Austin Weird" for a number of years as a mantra to show the city's eccentricity, but the city's weirdness hasn't actually been a bad thing. In the past few years, Austin has received accolades for being the "Greenest City in America," being one of the "Best Places to Live," and having the "Best People."  In 2013 Austin was named "America's Fastest Growing City," "Best For Small Business," "Best City For Job Seekers," and "Texas' Most Romantic City." In 2018, Austin was listed as the "Best College Town in America," as well as being listed in the Top 10 Best Foodie Cities in America. In 2019 rose to the top once again as the "Best Place in America for Starting a Business" and the "Best Place to Live in the U.S."

Graffiti at Hope Outdoor Gallery

A beautiful, sunny afternoon on Barton Creek near Lady Bird Lake

A Little About The Author, J. Grace Moore

J. Grace Moore’s passion for books of all kinds began at an early age. While listening to her mother read stories to her each night, her mind was opened to the universe around her. Using her vivid imagination, she was able to place herself in the middle of the worlds she heard about, living exactly what each tale was telling her. The spoken word became a part of her and she couldn’t get enough of it. Soon she learned to read these spellbinding words for herself and the written word became her passion. The more she read the more fascinated she became. She marveled at how simple words could actually transport her to another day, place, or time.

As a young girl, she was a voracious reader, devouring anything she could get her hands on. Both fiction and non-fiction were on her menu. Cinderella stories were especially enchanting to her. The idea of living “Happily Ever After” with the man of her dreams sounded very appealing. She longed for the day she would find her own Prince Charming.

As she grew older, and her own life became more complex, so did her taste in books. No longer was the simple “boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy marries girl, then they live happily ever after” story line enough for her. She realized that life isn’t that easy. There are usually a plethora of unfortunate obstacles thrown onto the road to happiness. Huge potholes lie in wait, ready to deflate our happiness. When J. Grace became fully aware of this reality, her interest turned from fairytale fiction to biographies and autobiographies, the real stories of real people struggling to overcome real problems.

In her late teens, Moore became interested in music, particularly the combination of words and sounds and how they meld together to tell a story. She spent hours learning about different artists, processing in her mind the “why” of the songs each wrote and sang. She discovered different music genres are used to convey different types of stories, just like the books she loved to read.

College gave Moore a chance to experience an even wider array of sources of the written word. She studied everything from Shakespeare to Dostoyevsky to Asimov and Wells. It was during this time when she decided that teaching others about the greats of the written word was her life calling. Of course, real life does not always follow the predictable fairytale route, so she recognized it’s good to have a backup plan. Writing is that plan.

In The Dreamers Series, Book One: Dreams Are What Life Is Made Of, Moore combines three of her favorite things, Romance, Reality, and Music, while throwing in a dash of her latest interest, the Paranormal, to create a captivating New Adult love story for today’s more sophisticated, astute readers.

Welcome To My Dream

Congratulations! You have just entered into the world of The Dreamers, a New Adult Paranormal Romance series penned by author J. Grace Moore.

After many years of writing, editing, editing, rewriting, and more editing, the first book in The Dreamers Series, entitled Dreams Are What Life Is Made Of, is once again available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback forms. 

Dreams Are What Life Is Made Of  is the coming of age story of two teens, raised under completely different circumstances, yet linked to one another in absolutely incredible and fantastically improbable ways. If you like reading romantic love stories, stories about young adults trying to figure out their lives, stories about dreamers chasing after and realizing their dreams, or just need a fun way to pass the time, I would appreciate you giving my book a read.

The following is a brief description of Dreams Are What Life Is Made Of.

"Life has become a nightmare for eighteen year old Candice Jones. Dad's dead and Mom probably isn't far behind. Candice needs to escape from this downward spiral called her life, so the day after her graduation from Topeka High, she packs up her car, grabs her guitar, and follows her DREAMS of a better life, and the boy with the breathtakingly gorgeous eyes who has been visiting those dreams. After taking on a new identity, Amber Jones settles into her new life in Austin, Texas.

Alexander Matthews' childhood in Georgetown. Texas was almost perfect. Now, as he graduates high school at the top of his class, he wonders what's next. Should he follow his parents' wishes and go to med school, or should he follow his DREAM of singing on stage with the beautiful blonde girl? Needing time to think things out, Alex moves to Austin to live with his grandmother. Here he hopes to make a decision about his future and, just maybe, meet the bewitching siren starring in his dreams.

Music and love fill the air as Alex and Amber meet, not by accident, but through the keen planning of Alex's psychic grandmother. The teens form an instantaneous bond through music, but soon find themselves struggling with an ever-growing physical attraction. An unexpected family connection and Alex's own burgeoning psychic abilities add more confusion to their lives. Through it all, the teens learn they can deal with anything, be it a triumph, a tragedy, or even the supernatural, as long as they have each other."

  Downtown Austin skyline from Zilker Clubhouse

Over the coming weeks, I will be posting articles and photos on this blog about the cities and places around Austin and Texas mentioned in the story. Keep checking back. You never know. You just might want to pack up your car and follow your dreams to the 'Live Music Capital of the World', too.