Sara Reyes | Holiday...I'm really going off the clock...

Probably for about six hours. GASP. I know, it's a shocker and I really should have thought about this earlier and had someone else guest blog today, but duh, sometimes the details overwhelm.

Anyway, it was brought...FORCIBLY ... to my attention that I haven't had any "Sara" and "family" time this year, what with celebrating our FIFTH, isn't that a kicker! It seems like we just started two years ago -- ANNIVERSARY. I always say, go with your passion and you'll be happy. And it works for so many people including me!

So talk among yourselves or take the day off with a good book! I'll be back tomorrow or definitely Monday (like I can go away for longer than 24 hours, ha!) and we'll chat then.

Oh, yes, taking a book or two with me in case I have free non-people time. I'll tell you about it later.


Until next time...
Get out there and READ a book...
Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group
Join us at Readers 'n 'ritas November 14, 2009!

Tracy Wolff | Why I Love New Orleans

Writing my newest novel, Tie Me Down, was a bittersweet endeavor, because it took me back to a city I know intimately well, a city I love and miss and despair will ever be the same.

I went to New Orleans when I was twenty years old because a tug deep in my belly told me that that city was where I was meant to be. I’m not usually one to change my whole life around on a feeling, but no matter what I did, the niggling sensation wouldn’t go away. It kept bothering me—all spring and into the summer, until finally a letter came from one of the grad school’s I’d been accepted to offering me a last minute teaching assistantship that paid all of my tuition and gave me enough to live on. That was the sign I needed and I sent a letter to the grad school I had originally decided to go to asking to be removed from the list of incoming students, packed up my car (with the help of my dad) and headed to New Orleans to take the university up on its very generous offer.

And I have never, once, regretted it. Within a few months of moving to New Orleans, I met a man, fell desperately in love with him and married him—three months after we met. He is currently my husband of thirteen years—and the father of my three children. New Orleans is alsothe city where I first learned how much I love to teach, it is the city where I turned 21, the city where I first became pregnant—and became a mom, the city where I learned what it really means to be a grown up. The city where I really, truly, learned how to write.

To read Tracy's top 10 list and comment click here.

Judith James | The Muse

Muse - the source of an artist's inspiration; the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like... sometimes represented as the true speaker, for whom an author is merely a mouthpiece"

I spoke in an earlier blog about the "magical thinking" some creative types (myself included) are prone too. In particular I talked about synchronicity, or those seemingly meaningful coincidences that suggest you’re on the right track by providing you something you need when it’s most useful, or giving you a direction when you’re lost. Today I’m going to muse about...the muse.

To read more about the muse, and comment for a chance to win a copy of Highland Rebel click here

Tasha Alexander | Reality Bites...or What Was It Really Like in Victorian England?

Being a historical novelist has its perks and pitfalls. The perks? Being able to work in pajamas is probably my favorite. I love the travel that comes with the job--whether it’s when I’m on the road meeting readers or embarking on a research trip. I love being to stay up till four in the morning writing and getting to sleep late (mornings have never been good for me; I’m much more coherent in the middle of the night). And I love the reading my work requires--poring over diaries and letters written by Victorian woman, studying the history of the time.

It’s this perk that leads to a pitfall--a pitfall that is one of the hardest things to deal with when writing historical fiction. Often, when you study history, you find that the actual truth does not always match with modern ideas of what the past was like. We like to think we know the Victorians--how they were prudes who never let any female out of the house without a chaperone and admonished their daughters to lie back and think of England.

None of which is quite true. According to Michael Mason’s fantastic book, The Making of Victorian Sexuality, in the middle of the 19th century a third to half of English brides were pregnant at their weddings. Not what you expected, right? I was surprised. Just as I was surprised to read about how the servants mapped out the bedrooms assigned to guests at country house parties--the arrangements were organized so it would be easy for gentlemen to slip into their mistress’ rooms. The staff planned accordingly when delivering morning tea.

While working on Tears of Pearl, I started off with the prejudices and assumptions most westerners have about Ottoman culture. I set the book in Constantinople because I was fascinated with its exoticness. The last thing I expected to learn was of the significant roles played by Ottoman women in the government--the sultan’s harem was not, in fact, a debauched playground. Instead it was full of well-educated, intelligent women, most of whom were fluent in multiple languages. This was a society where upward mobility was possible, even for girls. One of the sultans brought into the harem a girl whose beauty struck him as she carried a bundle of laundry across a city square. She came to the palace, learned everything she could, and became the sultan’s favorite. When her own son inherited the throne, she was titled Valide Sultan--sultan’s mother--more powerful than many government ministers.

Want to know more about the ups and downs of being a historical author then click here.

SHOBHAN BANTWAL |INDIA'S SHY HEROINES AND SILENT HEROES

When I took up creative writing--romantic fiction no less--I faced some tough challenges. I wanted to write about my own Indian Hindu culture with all its colors, tastes, scents, and textures, with the firm belief that it was interesting to non-Indian readers.

However, most people don’t associate romance with India, where arranged marriage, dowry, male dominance, repressed women, and loyalty to family overrules individual needs and aspirations. To add to that, I decided to become a novelist at the ripe age of 50, so my writing career began as a"menopausal epiphany."

Want to know more about the shy heroes and heroines of India? Click here.

INGRID WEAVER | VOICES IN YOUR HEAD, AND OTHER WRITING SIDE EFFECTS

One of my pet peeves are the drug commercials on TV that show happy, smiling people who seem totally oblivious to the Voice Of Doom in the background that's listing all the dire side-effects of whatever they took to get them that happy. So...I got to thinking that nobody warned me before I started to write. No, I just hauled out a typewriter (yes, it was that long ago) and started pounding away. By the time I graduated to a computer, I'd noticed all kinds of side-effects. As a public service, I thought I'd list a few:

Symptom: Writing can be hazardous to your health. Long hours spent at the keyboard can lead to eye fatigue, joint fatigue and a whopping case of secretarial spread.

Treatment: To relieve eye strain from writing, ensure your computer has several solitaire games, which should be practiced regularly for medicinal purposes. To combat joint fatigue, get a swivel chair or even better, a desk with plenty of interesting things in the drawers that you can take out and play with. Tape dispensers are ideal, as are pens with flowers on the ends. As far as secretarial spread, accept the inevitable and get a bigger chair.

To read about the rest of Ingrid's pet peeves, and to tell about your own please click here.