Passionate Pursuits and Other Life Choices

Romance. Just the word elicits so many feelings in us all. We want it. We hate it. We miss it. We lost it. We crave it. We wish we understood it. We want to dive into it and swim around for a bit or are looking for a life raft to pull ourselves out. We write songs and poetry about it. We also write books. This is the story of my romance with romance in books.

In high school, I discovered my first romance novel in our basement. It was a silhouette book and it came as part of a set of three. That book changed my life and set me on a course I couldn’t have predicted. I reread those three romance books, but especially that first one, so many times. I can still remember that it was about a reporter coming to a ranch in Florida to interview an old rich man whose birthday was a big deal. She falls for his son who then finds out she is a reporter and gets really mad thinking she was going to smear his family in her report. The best part, which is true of all romances, is that through various events, they come back together and get their happily ever after. Melt.

I eventually started buying a bunch of romance novels of the thin book harlequin/silhouette variety from the grocery store. I can’t remember when I decided to branch out, but I eventually found my way to historical romances. My mind loved traveling to times long past. I fell in love with balls, gowns, vixens, rakes, and especially wild Scottish men and their kilts..

As a stay-at-home mom and with a baby in one hand and whatever else I need to do in another, reading went on the back burner. I used to say, I don’t get the whole e-reader thing because I like holding real books. That was then and that was why I never had the time to read. You can’t exactly read a romance to a toddler. They just don’t get it.

A few years back, I realized I was driving around A LOT carpooling my kids. I downloaded my first audiobook and e-reading book. I now had two stories going at any given time. My imagination was all fired up again and romance was making a comeback. I expected to turn towards the type of books I used to love. Instead, I fell in love with paranormal, erotic, and comedic books. The long novels that have sweeping, immersive story lines.

Today, I am a co-parenting mom of two beautiful children. I’ve tried on many and diverse hats over the years. I’ve studied fashion design, ceramics, Spanish, anthropology, photography, writing, and have a degree in programming. I have worked as a cashier, a store clerk, a waitress, managed a store, worked in the video game industry, in a radio station, for a community center, as a secretary, in accounting, as a programmer, and now ultimately an author. I am well traveled and have lived in many places. All of this richness of experience is what I want to bring to my writing. Whether I am building my own paranormal world or writing in modern times, I can draw something from somewhere in my past.

I want you to laugh, cry, rejoice, and most importantly connect and fall in love. Join the journey with each of my characters, and love the ride.

Love, Michelle Mars