Autumn vs Fall. One season with many names — and one question every romance reader will understand: which one fits a love story best, especially when you live in a place that doesn’t get autumn at all?

Two Names, One Season — With No Red and Gold Leaves in Sight

As a geographically challenged author living in Australia’s tropical north, autumn doesn’t show up with fireworks or fanfare. We don’t get red and gold trees lining footpaths or crunchy leaves under boots. Instead, we get wind-blown grass and skies that finally stop threatening us with either scorching heat or monsoonal downpours.

So you can imagine my hesitation when naming the season in Forget Forever.

Do I call it autumn, the proper British and Australian term?

Or fall, the North American favourite?

The answer felt simple until I realised my readers span the globe, and my postcode sits in a place that skips the season of autumn entirely.

 

Fall vs Autumn debate— Same Season, Different Stories

Here’s the delightful bit of history: fall came from an old English phrase in the 16th century, meaning fall of the leaf or fall of the leaves. British colonists carried the term to North America, and, well, Canada and the U.S. kept it. Meanwhile, the rest of the English-speaking world circled back to calling it autumn.

Autumn comes from the Latin autumnus. It marks the transition between summer and winter — the moment the world changes gears. Crops are harvested, orchards are pruned, animals grow thicker coats, and people dig out blankets, sweaters, and the emotional baggage they thought they’d buried.

So while fall = autumn, the season didn’t change — only the label did.

 

What Is Autumn, Really? (The Practical Version — I Promise to Keep It Brief)

Still with me? Here’s where the Fall vs Autumn debate gets interesting, when it comes to meteorological terms:

Australia: Autumn runs from 1 March to 31 May. Every year. No exceptions. The same dates are set like clockwork.

UK/Europe: Autumn is dated from 1 September to 30 November. Also set, year after year.

North America: There’s no set date, as it’s based purely on the autumn equinox (22–23 September) and ends with the winter solstice (20–23 December).

For farmers, this season matters. To them, it’s not fall or autumn but the harvest season.

AKA the reaping. That finish line before winter shuts everything down.

Also, farmers didn’t just harvest their crops — they partied when the reaping was complete. So many small towns still honour this tradition with harvest festivals, country dances, along with questionable levels of spice in the spiked cider.

 

Writing a Romance Set in Autumn When You Live Somewhere Without It

Thank goodness for the internet and a childhood spent down south, where I did see autumn do its thing.

I watched leaves change colour. I helped prune trees and harvest crops on my grandparents’ farm. There was the annual dig for winter blankets from cupboards that smelled like mothballs and memories, followed by hot chocolates and stories told in front of fires that crackled like secrets.

Even without autumn outside my window now, I can still write a season that signals change, consequence, and connection — the perfect backdrop for romance.

And honestly? That time of quiet transition holds more romance than people give it credit for.

Because romance loves a metaphor. And the wind that clears the old to strengthen the new is a pretty solid one, especially when autumn is such a natural trigger for change.

 

Why I Chose Autumn for Forget Forever

I chose autumn, and yet I used both words within this story to somehow call a tie in the battle of Fall vs Autumn.

Not because fall is wrong — but more because I miss that gloriously obvious shift in seasons where autumn carries:

  • The poetic weight of change
  • The harvest mood
  • And the atmosphere of endings folding into new beginnings

And that is the pulse of Forget Forever.

The story begins just after Ashwick’s Harvest Festival, when Strathmuir Estate’s orchards are pruned for winter, and the winds of change arrive in the guise of a small-town librarian who meets a haunted lord with a past that still echoes in the walls of a manor that holds onto their ghosts the way autumn holds onto summer’s last warmth.

Cosy. Spooky. Consequence-rich. Romantic.

 

Romance Readers, Your Seasonal Escape Is Waiting

If you’re the kind of romance reader who loves:

  • Small towns with secrets
  • Sweeping estates wrapped in atmosphere
  • And a love story where the season changes everything, including hearts

Then Forget Forever is written for you. Found here >>