The industry tends to denigrate romance. There's an underlying implication that these stories are silly or insignificant. In my estimation, that could not be further from the truth. Love is about transformation. It's about faith. It's about grace. It's about becoming the person we want to be and often having to fight for it, and having someone at your side believing in you while you overcome the obstacles in your way. Love wrecks us, and it redeems us. Love is transformative, and the thought that we, flawed and imperfect vessels though we are, could be a conduit for such a force--that's magic. It's a miracle. And it is not insignificant. Love lets us find the best of what we are.
I have always written. I write like I breathe, and I need it every bit as much. But the one who inspired me to write WELL was one of my high school teachers, Julian Kite. He gave my writing direction, and intent. He taught me the underlying elements of story, and how to pour out the words in a way that ensured I could say exactly what I wanted to, and be understood. He taught me that language is intoxicating, and important. I use things he taught me every single day of my life. As Dar Williams put it in one of her songs, he 'gave me the language that keeps me alive.' I am profoundly and forever grateful.
Water for Elephants. It is BEAUTIFULLY crafted and brilliantly researched, the characters breathe and the story is compelling. And it has one of the greatest literary reveals ever executed, and I wish to GOD I'd written it.
Oh yes. I think we all do. My first book is about a woman fleeing domestic abuse with her daughter. I did that myself, almost twenty years ago. I didn't have to do it while on the run from the mafia, like she did, but many of my own struggles in overcoming the things that happened to me are woven into her story.
