Portsmouth resident R. Ann Rousseau is a busy woman. In addition to her job as a business consultant, she is a member of the Portsmouth Zoning Board of Adjustment, president of the Seacoast Astrological Association, a blog owner, book reviewer and family woman. With all those priorities to juggle, it took Rousseau three years to complete her debut novel, which is more than 400 pages long.

And yet, once she got started, the story came naturally, Rousseau said. Ideas came to her in sudden “downloads” at all hours of the day.

“It was just very easy for me,” she said. “It was a really fun process. It wasn’t difficult for me. I had a story in me and it just kind of took on a life of its own.”

It didn’t hurt that the city where Rousseau has lived for more than 20 years is at the heart of the plot. “Portsmouth: A Love Story” follows Severine Champagne, a business woman who, following her intuition, moves to Portsmouth and becomes absorbed in its rich history. She also becomes romantically involved with Peter Nicholas, a successful real estate developer with a turbulent past in the city. As their relationship develops, their lives take unexpected turns, both painful and enlightening.

Rousseau started working on the novel in 2009 for the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest but wound up self-publishing the book this year.

The book is overflowing with tidbits of local history, from the origins of certain downtown restaurants to the controversial urban renewal project that forever changed the face of Portsmouth in the 1960s. Although the story is primarily set in the not-too-distant past, it often flashes back through the decades. The setting is prominent throughout, with vivid descriptions of familiar local landmarks and businesses.

“When you write a novel and you invest a lot of time in a novel, it’s great to write about what you know and love,” Rousseau said. “Hopefully you can get across your love or interest in the characters and the environment to the reader.”

Rousseau used a variety of sources to research Seacoast history. She culled information from the websites of downtown eateries like The Dolphin Striker and The Library Restaurant and worked them into the story. She dug through archives at Portsmouth Public Library, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, the New Hampshire Historical Society, and even the Library of Congress. She believes infusing real nuggets of history into the narrative makes the story more believable and relatable.

“It’s real. I like to make it more like reality than hokey fiction. I just think it helps the reader put themselves in that place,” she said.

Her research sent her on a couple of unexpected tangents. For instance, she found references to Daniel Webster’s former law offices on Market Street, but could not pinpoint the exact address of the building. When she called local historian Dennis Robinson for clarification, he encouraged her to keep digging.

“So that took me down a rabbit hole of history,” she said. “It took me around the country, and to this day I’m still in the process of researching that.”

When she does discover the address—and she believes she’s close—she hopes to get a plaque placed on the building.

“We have so much great history that’s not marked in Portsmouth,” she said. “Nobody knows where his law office was exactly. When we find it, it has to be well documented and supported, because what we’re going to do is make history.”

Rousseau was also stunned to learn more about Portsmouth’s urban renewal project, in which the city government took properties in less prosperous neighborhoods and sold them to developers for new construction. Approximately 176 homes and businesses in downtown Portsmouth were taken by eminent domain, primarily in the Italian neighborhood of the North End.

“I’ve been living in Portsmouth since 1991 and I had never heard of Portsmouth urban renewal,” she said. “I was in shock.”

The story of the people who lived and worked in the North End is being documented and catalogued by Portsmouth Public Library this fall. Residents are sharing memories of the era, and an online exhibit is available at www.portsmouthexhibits.org.

In the book, the character of Peter Nicholas grows up in a household on Vaughan Street that was taken by eminent domain, forcing the family to move to Dover. The incident motivates him to become a powerful real estate developer.

“I wanted little Peter as a child to witness his parents receiving the notice that his family home is being taken by eminent domain,” Rousseau said.

Urban renewal is not the only underplayed history to come up in the book. It references times when downtown Portsmouth was filled with brothels and carousing sailors. Rousseau did not want to shy away from the full story of local history.

“We have to know where we come from, and it wasn’t that long ago. It’s important to know the history so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said, adding she brings that mentality to her work on the Board of Adjustment.

Many of the book’s flashes into history come through Severine’s mystical clairvoyance. She communicates with a guardian spirit, follows extrasensory clues toward her destiny, and channels visions from past lives and events. Rousseau believes all people have powers of intuition, though they often go unused.

“I know people who have those abilities, absolutely. Everyone has those intuitive abilities. It’s all a matter of whether or not you want to pay attention,” she said. “It’s something you can develop more, but definitely, we all have it. This particular character is paying attention to those abilities.”

In addition to learning about local history, Rousseau learned new things about herself while writing the novel. She’ll discuss some of what she learned during an author talk at the Discover Portsmouth Center on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m.

“I’m always supporting other people’s dreams, inventions and ideas, and it was great for me to create something myself,” she said. “Fiction really pulls you into a strong creative process, and the story starts writing itself.”