Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Romance Author
I think you know by now that I love summer. I love the heat of the sun on my skin and the susurrus of the ocean waves that lull me into a beachside nap. I love the smells. Suntan lotion. Food frying at a nearby festival on the boardwalk. The tang of sea salt and dampness of a misty fog. The sharp scent of tomato leaves and the sweetness of basil. I live for the summer and inside I keep a little bit of summer with me every day. Have a great hump day!
I think I’ve mentioned that I wanted to be a writer since writing my first book in the fifth grade. After that taste of story-telling, I keep on writing and of course, reading. I read anything I could, even the cereal box at the breakfast table. I was an avid reader and a lot of what I read was passed down to me by my mom.
Back then we didn’t have young adult books. We just kind of jumped into adult reading. So at an early age, I was reading the Brontes and then Taylor Caldwell and whatever else I could put my hands on.
But even then I gravitated toward stories with a strong romantic element, not knowing that I was meant to be a romance writer. In fact, it wasn’t until one summer that I realized that’s what I wanted to be.
Back then, department stores had book sections and since everyone at the store (B. Altman’s, now long gone sadly) knew that I liked to read, I was the natural summer fill-in for someone who was on medical leave.
My job was to recommend books, ring up the sales, and fill in stock when it emptied. There was this one dump, a bright orangey one, that was empty when I got there and people kept on coming in and asking for Shanna. I had no idea what it was and after some research, discovered that it was a novel that had been sitting on the NY Times bestseller list for a while.
When we finally got a shipment, I was kind of surprised by the cover. Orangey pink and with a couple in a passionate embrace, it wasn’t like what I’d seen before at home. I was kind of put off by it for a moment, but I had a job to do, so I filled the dump and within a couple of days, it was empty again.
This continued for the next week or so. Got a shipment and it sold out.
Well, I finally had to find out what the big to do was about and bought myself a copy with my store discount.
Wow. I could not put it down. Action. Adventure. Romance. More action. More adventure. Betrayal. More romance. Hot steamy romance.
Not only was I hooked on the story, but it occurred to me at that moment that this was the kind of story I wanted to write. This was just like the stories I’d had rattling around in my brain for so many years.
This was the book that made me realize I wanted to be a romance writer.
Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. I am eternally grateful for that and for one of my all time favorite books – The Wolf and the Dove.
If you’re a fan of historical romance and haven’t checked out these books, take a moment and do so. You’ll be glad you did.
The Discovery shuttle took off for the last time yesterday. It made me sad. So much has been sacrificed to make space travel possible. So many new things have been invented and made their way into the everyday thanks to our quest to explore space.
I remember growing up, imagining myself living in space or visiting another planet. When the first STARS WARS movie came out, my hubby/then boyfriend and I sat on line for hours to see the movie. Like me, he had grown up on a fare of science fiction and space movies and envisioned the future in space.
Well, NASA may be headed in directions other than space these days, but it’s still possible for me to imagine myself out there, isn’t it? So today I bring you, Caridad boldly going somewhere silly in a spoof from STAR WARS! If you can’t see the video below, please click here.
This Fun Friday I have a very sneaky cat for you! It’s amazing how determined she is and how careful as she approaches her objective. It makes for a good chuckle. Also remember you have until midnight EST TONIGHT to leave a message on the Nancy Thayer blog to possibly win a SINS OF THE FLESH t-shirt.