Sometime in the fall of 2000, after hearing that I loved
reading historical romances a co-worker thrust a paper grocery bag full of
books on me. For the most part, the books were what I loved to read,
historical, mainly regency romances. However, hidden deep within this newfound
treasure of books, I found a book of a type that I had never read.
The avid historical romance reader in me shuddered to find a
vampire novel hidden deep in the bottom of that bag. Still, my husband was a
sailor and out to sea. After reading the historical, I was bored. To me, an
avid reader of almost everything, reading a vampire novel for the first time
was infinitely better than reading an historical novel a second time.
Gingerly, I picked up the vampire novel and with very low
expectations—boy I was a snob, wasn’t I?—I began to read. I stopped after the
first chapter. It wasn’t because I didn’t like it. It was because the book was
so good, so well written and quite in the middle of a series. Anyone who knows
me and my reading habits, knows that I never
start reading a series in the middle. I put down book four of the series and
immediately went out to find books one through three and any others she may
have written after book four.
After a year or so of reading every paranormal book I could
get my hands on, I complained to my husband that my favorite authors didn’t
write fast enough.
He said, “You’ve been wanting to write a book of your own
for some time. Why don’t you give it a try while you wait?”
“Why not?” I replied and I immediately got to work. It
should be easy, I thought. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t taken college English
and vocabulary. This would be a piece of cake, right?
Wrong!
After countless writes and rewrites and close to a hundred
rejections from agents and publishers alike, I almost gave up. Again my husband
stepped up. “Darlin’,” he said, wrapping his arm around me and kissing my
forehead. “You write all of the time. You write during your breaks at work, you
write at breakfast, you write in bed… What will you do if you stop writing? You
can’t stop writing. You love it too much.”
That made me think. I do
love to write. I adore spinning tales that others read and touching people in
some small way with whatever emotions are packed in my books. As much as I hate
to admit it, he was right.
Not too long after that, a woman who I have come to realize
is as beautiful inside as she is outside, offered me a contract for Virgin’s
Blood.
The rest is, as they say, history. Now, after over eighty
published stories later, I’m still writing and still hoping that I touch at
least some of my readers the way my
favorite authors have touched me. It’s my goal to make my readers laugh, cry
and maybe hate a character or two before they see the character’s redeeming
qualities. If I’ve made even one reader feel strongly about any one of my
characters, I think I’ve done my job as a storyteller.
Pulling my readers into my stories is what I strive to do
every time I write a new book. If I succeed in pulling readers into my fantasy
worlds in some small way, then I’m happy in a job well done.
To see blurbs and excerpts please visit www.tiannaxander.com
Hello Tianna, a wonderful article. All the best with your writings.
ReplyDeleteThank you, JoAnne. I wish you the same.
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