Four Tales of Love and Wonder

Fire and Ice came to me on a morning while living in Sierra Madre, California. It was like watching a film, and I simply wrote what I saw.
The Grave was an experiment in writing in a different style, and was written after visiting an overgrown and disorganized graveyard in the hills east of Cambria, California.
Meet Me at Ala Mar is a fictional tale focused on a quaint motel on the Cabrillo Highway in Santa Barbara, California, overlooking the Santa Barbara harbor. It tells the story of a beautiful and passionate woman who meets, clandestinely, with a man at the Ala Mar Motel.
My Life with Luke and Heidi is auto-biographical. It was written two months after my dog Luke died. You may have noticed some similarities between, ‘Meet me at Alar Mar' and ‘My Life with Luke and Heidi. It was done consciously.

The Stories and the writing styles of these four tales could not be more dissimilar. There is, however, a similar theme that reveals itself in each book. Can you find it?