#RARM2019 Archives - Read-A-Romance Month

#RARM19 – Maida Malby – Book A Magical Trip

August 31, 2019 Leave a Comment

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A quick word from Bobbi Dumas, your host.

Hi everyone! Welcome to Read-A-Romance Month. You can find out more about this fun, month long event here. And check out all the great authors taking part this year on the calendar, here.

The theme this year is The Romance Of Reading, The Magic Of Books and we have an awesome assortment of writers – both romance and mainstream fiction authors – sharing about books, reading, romance & magic. I hope you’ll visit everyday.

(Also, be sure to check in to The Romance Of Reading FB page, where one of the RARM authors will be hosting the page each day in August.)

Enjoy….

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Maida Malby – The Magical Passport In Books

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“A book is a magical thing that lets you travel to far-away places without ever leaving your chair.” Katrina Mayer’s words expressed my thoughts perfectly about this year’s Read-A-Romance month theme: The Magic of Books.

I grew up in the Philippines and coming from a poor family, I did not have the resources to travel out of my birth country until I was already a working adult. Thankfully, I had a bookworm for a father and a teacher for a mother who both encouraged me from a young age to read books that took me all over the world before I was able to actually travel to the locations in which they were set.

Judith Krantz’s I’ll Take Manhattan familiarized me with New York City landmarks prior to my first visit there in 1994. I had seen the grandeur of the Sydney Opera House through Emma Darcy’s Harlequin romances set in Australia before I beheld it for the first time in 1998. Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence had me enthralled with the South of France years before I toured Europe in 1999. Imagine how often I’ve been to England from reading books by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Barbara Cartland, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, and Johanna Lindsey. Truly, if there’s a special passport that gets stamped every time I travel in books, I would have to renew it every year.

I want to believe that this is the same for millions of readers all over the world. In reality, however, the US-centric world of Romancelandia has limited book travel options to Asia. There’s Sonali Dev’s angsty A Distant Heart which transported me to India and Hong Kong, Sherry Thomas’s epic The Hidden Blade and My Beautiful Enemy duology set in Imperial China, and Mina V. Esguerra and her Romance Class cohorts’ works which always brings me home to the Philippines.

There are a few others but I feel strongly about the need for many more books to take readers to the biggest continent on Earth without leaving their homes. That’s why, when I started writing, I’ve chosen to conjure the magic of traveling through books by setting my first series in my home region of Southeast Asia. I’d like readers of Carpe Diem Chronicles to not only visit the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand when they read Boracay Vows, Singapore Fling, Samui Heat, and Palawan Promises, but also to experience the cultures through the languages, customs, and food I feature in them.

People fall in love all around the world. The magic is in witnessing that love blossom within the pages of a book.

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Maida recommends:

Linda G. Hill – lindaghill.com – @Amazon

Linda’s The Magician’s Curse and its sequel The Magician’s Blood are perfect for my topic not only because of the magic tricks in the books, but also because the scenes take place in various places in Canada.

Catherine Stein – www.catsteinbooks.com – @Amazon

Catherine’s How to Seduce a Spy is an award-winning steampunk romp that takes place in France, Egypt, USA, and England.

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2019 RARM Questions:

Tell us about a time in your life that felt magical to you.

2004 stands out as one of the most eventful years in my life. It was a year of travels for me with trips to Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, the US, and the Philippines. It was during my summer vacation in the US when I met my now-husband Brian. In the fall, he visited me in Singapore where I was based at the time and we went to the Philippines where I introduced him to my family and friends. I also brought him to my favorite place in the country: the island of Boracay.

Tell us about a book that was magical for you.

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist changed my life. I was at a holding pattern when I read it – no romantic relationship, no promotion at work, no budget for travel. Then I came across the famous line: “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

It’s not a wish or a prayer that will be magically, instantly granted, but that of a goal I’m going to work hard to accomplish, with the entire universe surrounding me with positive energies. The hope it gave me was so profound, I made my dreams come true shortly afterwards.

Tell us about a “magical moment” in your writing or your career?

I wrote BORACAY VOWS during NaNoWriMo in November 2016. It was already November 26 and the book was only at 37,000 words. I needed to write 13,000 more in four days in order to win. On the 27th, I wrote 4,000 words. Something just clicked. After that, the next three days flew by with the creative juices flowing and the words coming out fast and furious. The competitor in me rose up to the occasion and urged me to finish in style. Also, magic. And the universe.

For writers who use magical aspects in their books, what attracts you to those elements? For those of you who don’t, are there specific themes or elements you’re attracted to and find yourself going back to? Why do these resonate with you?

Somebody traveling to a faraway place and finding their forever partner there is magical to me. How else can two strangers with vastly different backgrounds come together in that particular place, at that specific time and decide that nobody else will do? They’re it. Attraction. Love. Magic.

Creativity is a kind of magical experience. What inspires you, keeps you going, helps you when you lose focus, etc.?

When I’m blocked, I go to Amazon and search for my debut novel Boracay Vows. I click on “Similar books” and see only my other book New York Engagement there. Nobody else tells the stories I do – Filipina main character paired with an American love interest and their romance happens outside of the US. I get back to work right away and write more of my love story and the love stories of many couples all over the world who are like me and my husband. If I don’t represent them, nobody else will.

Drawing – Maida is generously giving away a Book-A-Magical-Trip package containing:

– A signed paperback copy of Boracay Vows

– A charm bracelet/anklet that can also be a fancy bookmark

– A cute sinamay hat with blue ribbon

– A fashionable pair of shades with white frames

– A sea-themed blue and white sarong

– White flip-flops

– Soak Up The Sun tote bag

To enter, leave a comment below. Drawing open until September 6, 2019 11:59 PM EST.

However, all comments will also be entered to win a bundle of books from the Week 4 participating authors. You may enter by commenting on this original blog post and/or on the Read-A-Romance Month Facebook page post, here.

Each first unique comment at each space offers an extra chance to win, so check in with each author. Must comment by 9/05/19 11:59pm Eastern to enter.

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Maida Malby writes, reads, reviews, and lives Romance. With her multicultural contemporary romance stories, she takes you to her favorite places in the world and shares with you the experience of their rich cultural heritage.

She is a member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), San Antonio Romance Authors (SARA), Cultural, Interracial, Multicultural Special Interest Chapter of the Romance Writers of America (CIMRWA), and several romance book clubs. Her To-Be-Read Mountain and reviews of romance novels are featured on her website maidamalby.com.

When not writing, reading, or reviewing books, Maida consults her husband on word selection, debates with her ten-year-old son regarding the Oxford comma, cooks the dishes she features in her stories, procrastibakes using Baileys as her secret yummy ingredient, and watches golf and food shows on TV.

Connect with Maida:

maidamalby.com | Facebook | Twitter

Discover all of Maida’s books:

*Please note that the Amazon button, most cover images and text links connect to an affiliate portal. Thanks so much for your help & support!

#RARM19 – Vanessa Kelly – When The Magic Saves Us

August 30, 2019 Leave a Comment

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(Also, be sure to check in to The Romance Of Reading FB page, where one of the RARM authors will be hosting the page each day in August. Today Karen Hawkins will also be on the page.)

Enjoy….

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Vanessa Kelly – Love, Hope & The Essence of Magic

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Life can be magic. Life is magic, in huge, amazing ways—like the birth of a child, or falling in love, or starting over and finding something better. How is that not magic?

Then there’s everyday magic—a baby’s smile, a hug from a loved one, a dog’s wagging tail, a beautiful sunset, or a really good glass of wine. Those moments, as small as they are, give a glimpse of the ineffable something that makes you think, damn, life is good.

Books, including romance novels, catch a slice of these glorious moments. Frozen in time and yet always ready to come alive in our imaginations, books are flashes of magic whenever we want them—or need them.

And sometimes we really need them. And that’s because life can be really, really hard.

I’ve had one of those years where life came at me in many crappy ways: health, family, work issues…just, ugh. We’ve all been there, of course. It’s the human condition. Life is a gift, but bad comes with good. You have to find ways to cope with the big bad, ones that help rather than harm.

Books help. Books help a lot. There have been times when books literally saved me, at least from doing something that would have made my situation markedly worse. In desperation and instead of doing the stupid thing, I would pick up a book. For that small slice of time, I stepped away from my problems and into another space where I could lose myself and, sometimes, find myself, too.

Because books can heal, right? That’s a big part of their magic. If you find the right book—and it’s amazing how often, how magically, that happens—it can speak to that part of your spirit desperate for healing. Books, including romance novels, are a light along the path out of the dark.

The magic of romance never grows old for me, which is why I re-read my favorite romances when most worn down. Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, and Victoria Holt, those early book loves have carried me through some very tricky patches. But whether it’s a treasured re-read or a shiny debut, romance novels are magic because they are always hopeful, even when the characters face epic, heart-breaking, impossible odds.

Love is hopeful, and hope is the essence of magic.

Clan Kendrick, my latest series, features a boisterous family of Highlanders. Logan Kendrick, the hero of THE HIGHLANDER’S CHRISTMAS BRIDE, has certainly had his share of challenges and sorrows. Handsome, brawny, and with a boatload of charm, life always came easily to Logan—until it didn’t. Now a widower with a little boy, he wants nothing more than to be a good father and make his son happy. A challenge he’s never faced on his own, he’s making a bit of a hash of it.

But Christmas is coming and the magic of that lovely season—along with Donella Haddon, a sensible young woman who’s decided she’s been sensible for much too long. Donella wants the magic of love and hope, and she wants it with Logan Kendrick and his adorable little boy.

As a reader, I am so grateful for the wonderful books that have given me the courage to carry on through the difficult times. As a writer, nothing—and I mean nothing—makes me happier than when a reader says: hey, I was having a rough day, and your book made life a little bit better.

That, dear friends, is truly magic.

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Vanessa recommends:

Minerva Spencer – www.minervaspencer.com – @Amazon
Minerva’s books are challenging, rollicking, adventurous, sexy, and just plain cool.

Jessie Mihalik – www.jessiemihalik.com – @Amazon

I love futuristic romance and space operas, and this is one of the best starts to a new series I’ve read in quite some time. Smart and fun.

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2019 RARM Questions:

Tell us about a time in your life that felt magical to you.

When I was in graduate school, I spent a summer in England doing research in Oxford—at the Bodleian Library, no less. After spending several hours in a gorgeous building that was once the intellectual home to some of the greatest minds in English literature, I would then pick up lunch at a little stall in the local market. I would head out to one of the college gardens and pick a quiet, shady spot to eat my lunch and think. All around me were the “dreaming spires” of Oxford, a most ancient and beautiful place. I also went tooling around the countryside with my brother, ending up in places like Tintagel and Lyme Regis—following in the mythic, magical footsteps of Merlin and King Arthur, and the real but no less magical footsteps of Jane Austen. It was glorious!

Tell us about a book that was magical for you.

I would have to say books rather than book—specifically, The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. I am not generally a fan of paranormal books, but A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES blew me away. It’s big, complicated, beautiful, smart, scary, and, of course, intensely romantic. The entire series transports the reader to a world that is magical, both literally and figuratively, but also grounded in science, medicine, and history. It’s world-building on an fantastic scale, with tremendously distinctive characters. I was SO happy to see it made into a mini-series. Harkness deserves every bit of her acclaim, IMHO.

Tell us about a “magical moment” in your writing or your career?

Donella, the heroine of THE HIGHLANDER’S CHRISTMAS BRIDE, was a secondary character from HOW TO MARRY A ROYAL HIGHLANDER, a book from an earlier series. At the end of that book, she hiked off to a convent—presumably never to be seen again. When I realized that she would get kicked out of that convent (think Maria, from The Sound of Music) and become the heroine of my latest book, it was a moment of story magic for me. I never thought much about Donella, and then I realized in a flash of inspiration how much she needed her own story. It made it SUCH a fun book to write.

For writers who use magical aspects in their books, what attracts you to those elements? For those of you who don’t, are there specific themes or elements you’re attracted to and find yourself going back to? Why do these resonate with you?

I find myself going back to themes about family. We start and end with families, in a myriad of versions. It’s a theme that is magically fascinating to me—how we lose families, find them, forgive them, and create new ones that fulfill our need for love and connection.

Creativity is a kind of magical experience. What inspires you, keeps you going, helps you when you lose focus, etc.?

To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m a very creative person. I’m more of a worker bee. Doing the job, honouring my commitments, trying to write stories that will make my readers happy (and me!), that’s what keeps me going.

Drawing – Vanessa is generously giving away signed, print copies of Three Weeks With a Princess and The Highlander Who Protected Me to one reader. (Open to international readers). To enter, leave a comment below. Open until August 5, 2019 11:59 PM EST.

Each first unique comment at each space offers an extra chance to win, so check in with each author. Must comment by 9/05/19 11:59pm Eastern to enter.

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Vanessa Kelly is USA Today bestselling author, whose Regency-set historical romances have been nominated in a number of contests. She’s won multiple awards, including the prestigious Maggie Medallion for Best Historical Romance. Her books have been published in nine languages, and she is well known for developing vibrant Regency settings, appealing characters, and witty storylines that captivate readers.

Connect with Vanessa:

www.vanessakellyauthor.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Discover all of Vanessa’s books:

*Please note that the Amazon button, most cover images and text links connect to an affiliate portal. Thanks so much for your help & support!

#RARM19 – Nina Bocci – Magical Escape

August 29, 2019 Leave a Comment

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(Also, be sure to check in to The Romance Of Reading FB page, where one of the RARM authors will be hosting the page each day in August. Today Nina Bocci will also be on the page.)

Enjoy….

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Nina Bocci – The Transporting Magic Of A Great Novel

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Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, books have been always been that magical go-to that helped me escape whatever was ailing me. That’s as true then, as it is now – especially given the current state of the world.

The quote, ‘A reader lives a thousand lives’ has always been something that I’ve enjoyed passing on to children, and even other adults. We do live inside the books as we’re devouring them. There is truly something magical about a great novel. Even if they’re not fantasy or have supernatural elements. You’re transported to a big city, a small town, a foreign country you’ve always wished to visit. How can you not love that?

With the world being a bit terrifying lately, books have that magical way of healing, calming us down, and making things seem just a little bit less stressful.

Which brings us to my new book, ON THE CORNER OF LOVE AND HATE (Gallery 8/20/19). It’s got a bit of everything; friendship, love, politics (eeep), small town chatter and a cast of characters that I hope, put a smile on your face.

The town of Hope Lake is make-believe, but I think you’ll recognize pieces of it, and characters from it, in your own towns, no matter how big or small. There’s always a gossip, a flirt, a know-it-all, the town heartthrob and the best friends that do the will they or won’t they dance. I loved writing this book and living in the small-town of Hope Lake for a little while.

I hope you do too!

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Nina recommends:

Tif Marcelo – tifmarcelo.com – @Amazon
I recently read Tif Marcelo’s The Key to Happily Ever After and it was pure joy. I loved it!

Evie Dunmore – eviedunmore.com – @Amazon
I’m waiting on Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke.

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2019 RARM Questions:

Tell us about a time in your life that felt magical to you.

My son and I had been reading the Harry Potter books in preparation of a trip to Universal Studios. The first time that he walked through the section of bricks leading to Diagon Alley was pure, literal magic. His little face, in total awe, is something I’ll remember forever.

Tell us about a book that was magical for you.

There are epistolary novels from Nick Bantock that are to this day, my favorite. Griffin & Sabine is probably the book that I recommend the most to people. The artwork is interesting, and thought-provoking, the story is transportive and delightful. I remember reading them for the first time in college and I read them every year since (so, a long time J They’re worth checking out

Tell us about a “magical moment” in your writing or your career?

The first book signing I had at my local B&N in my hometown was the most wonderful time. I didn’t expect the crowd that came out in support. It really made me feel that for the first time, I was an author.

For writers who use magical aspects in their books, what attracts you to those elements? For those of you who don’t, are there specific themes or elements you’re attracted to and find yourself going back to? Why do these resonate with you?

I’m in the process of mapping out a magical realism middle grade book. It’s a far cry from what has been published by me, but I love it so much. The idea sparked from a tiny article about a historical event, and it stuck with me. I couldn’t shake it. I spoke to my son (12) and we came up with a pretty cool idea. So, we’re writing the project together. Even if it never sees the light of day, I can’t wait to dig into it.

Creativity is a kind of magical experience. What inspires you, keeps you going, helps you when you lose focus, etc.?

What keeps me going is just how much I want to be an author. I’ve always wanted to be and while my life took a different path for many years, I’m so glad that I circled back and found my passion for it again. That’s what helps me stay focused.

DRAWING – is hosting The Romance of Reading page, and her giveaways will take place there.

Each first unique comment at each space offers an extra chance to win, so check in with each author. Must comment by 9/05/19 11:59pm Eastern to enter.

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Nina Bocci is a USA TODAY bestselling novelist who loves reading and writing about swoony, relatable heroes and smart, witty heroines. If it’s set in a small town, even better.

You can always find her chatting on social media about her massive, crazy Italian family, and her favorite person in the world, her son.

Connect with Nina:

ninabocci.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Discover all of Nina’s books:

*Please note that the Amazon button, most cover images and text links connect to an affiliate portal. Thanks so much for your help & support!

#RARM19 – Shana Galen – Books, A Lifelong Friendship

August 29, 2019 Leave a Comment

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(Also, be sure to check in to The Romance Of Reading FB page, where one of the RARM authors will be hosting the page each day in August.)

Enjoy….

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Shana Galen – The Magical Friendship of Books

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When I was young, my family moved a lot. This was in the late seventies and early eighties when the economy was shaky, and my dad, being a banker in Michigan, found himself out of a job several times when the auto industry faltered. So I began Kindergarten at one school and finished at another. I began first grade at one school and finished at another. I began—well, you get the picture.

One of my earliest memories is walking home from first grade and not being able to find my house. This was in the days when parents let kids walk alone, and my school was just a few blocks away. On that day it had snowed while we were in class, and I hadn’t lived in my new house long enough to recognize it if the area surrounding it changed. I couldn’t recognize the house with snow on the lawn.

While that was a particularly traumatic experience, probably the most challenging aspect of all those moves was the difficulty of making and keeping friends. Just when I’d make a friend, I’d move to a new city and have to start all over again. I am not particularly outgoing or social, and it wasn’t easy for me to make new friends.

And that’s where books came in. I did not have many friends as a young kid. I also don’t remember being a lonely child. I always had my books to keep me company, and the characters in those books were my friends. Is it weird if I admit I would talk to them in my head? I’d have conversations with Trixie Belden and Lucy Pevensie. Through the magic of books, I’d have a fictional friend to walk to school with or play on the swings with at recess. Laura Ingalls and I could play hopscotch. Nancy Drew and I would eat lunch together.

Of course, eventually I would make a friend to play with at school, but the nice thing about my book friends was that even when my new friend was absent or ignoring me for the day, I still had my fictional friends. And when I moved, they always came with me.

When I got to be a bit older, my family finally settled in one place and I was able to make more lasting friendships, but I never lost my love of reading or my penchant for making fictional friends. I might swap out Laura Ingalls for Lestat or Nancy Drew for Elizabeth Bennett, but I always had a companion between the pages of a book.

And now that I’m a writer, I can create my own companions, and I’ll admit to talking to them once in a while too. To me the real magic of books is that they can be the friend to a lonely first-grader, an escape for a tired mom at the end of a day, or a comforting companion to a daughter hoping for good news in the hospital waiting room. There’s a book and a story and a character for everyone, and I hope this year all of you find new fictional friends and cherish the old.

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Shana recommends:

Janna MacGregor – www.jannamacgregor.com – @Amazon
Janna is an historical romance author who writes such fun, witty stories.

Minerva Spencer – minervaspencer.com – @Amazon
Minerva writes historical romance with action, danger, and intensity.

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2019 RARM Questions:

Tell us about a time in your life that felt magical to you.

Mornings are magical for me. I know many of you will not agree! But there’s something about the sunrise and the quiet and stillness that inspire me. Anything seems possible. Everything seems possible. Who knows what a new day will bring?

Tell us about a book that was magical for you.

Star Wars was magical for me. I know it was a movie, and I saw the move then read the book(s), and I read that book and the others in the series (move adaptations, I suppose) over and over again. I wanted to know everything about that world. I wanted to know all the space jargon and technical terms and futuristic inventions. I was obsessed ,and when I read those books or watched the movies, I entered a magical place.

Tell us about a “magical moment” in your writing or your career?

There have been many magical moments in my career, but the one I remember the best was when I found out The Making of a Gentleman won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Historical Hero. My daughter was eighteen months old, still not sleeping through the night, we’d just moved to a new house, and my publisher was doing some “rebranding” that was throwing off my entire career. I was honestly thinking about quitting writing because it was a daily struggle to find any time for it. And then I got that call, and it was like the universe telling me to hang in there. To give it one more chance. I’m glad I listened!

For writers who use magical aspects in their books, what attracts you to those elements? For those of you who don’t, are there specific themes or elements you’re attracted to and find yourself going back to? Why do these resonate with you?

I don’t have magic in my books, unless you consider falling in love magical, and I do. But I do have elements I come back to over and over. One of those elements is characters who don’t fit in. Characters who feel like they don’t belong. I felt that way a lot as a child, and I still feel that way often as an adult. It’s something I like to explore because not only can I relate to it, I feel like a lot of my readers can too.

Creativity is a kind of magical experience. What inspires you, keeps you going, helps you when you lose focus, etc.?

I think most writing is not done under any sort of inspiration or creative whirlwind. It’s hard work and dedication and the discipline of sitting down every day and doing the work. But I do find pockets of magic in the process. Sometimes after I’ve written 500 or 1000 words, something clicks. My hesitant tapping on the keyboard becomes confident and quick. The words and ideas flow. I no longer need to think about every single word. I just know the words. I know the next sentence. I know the next scene. In moments like that, I just want to keep writing, keep going. I always wish those would last longer. I always wish those would come at the start of a day of work, but they inevitably come once I’ve struggled and persevered past those first few pages.

Drawing – Shana is giving away copies of the first three books in her Survivors series (Third Son’s a Charm, No Earls Allowed, and An Affair with a Spare) in print or digital (winner’s choice) to one lucky reader. Open internationally. To enter, leave a comment below.

Open until Sept 5, 2019 11:59 PM EST.

Each first unique comment at each space offers an extra chance to win, so check in with each author. Must comment by 9/05/19 11:59pm Eastern to enter.

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Shana Galen is a three-time Rita award nominee and the bestselling author of passionate Regency romps, including the RT Reviewers’ Choice The Making of a Gentleman. Kirkus says of her books, “The road to happily-ever-after is intense, conflicted, suspenseful and fun,” and RT Bookreviews calls her books “lighthearted yet poignant, humorous yet touching.” She taught English at the middle and high school level off and on for eleven years. Most of those years were spent working in Houston’s inner city. Now she writes full time. She’s happily married and has a daughter who is most definitely a romance heroine in the making.

Connect with Shana Galen:

shanagalen.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Discover all of Shana’s books:

*Please note that the Amazon button, most cover images and text links connect to an affiliate portal. Thanks so much for your help & support!

#RARM19 – Sonali Dev – Books, Time & Magic

August 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

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(Also, be sure to check in to The Romance Of Reading FB page, where one of the RARM authors will be hosting the page each day in August. Today Sonali Dev will also be on the page.)

Enjoy….

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Sonali Dev – The Magic of Books & Time

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Of course, I believe in magic. It’s everywhere, and the simplest name for it is “time.” One minute you’re a little girl running through the grasses looking for fireflies to catch in glass jars (and letting them go almost immediately because you think the jar might suffocate them and stifle their light), and the next you’re driving across the country to drop your child off at a college one too many state lines away. One minute you’re stuck in architecture school dreaming of being a writer some day and the next you’re passing your book in a Target aisle as you shop for your child’s college dorm room.

Sensing a theme, are you? Yes, I’m a recent empty nester. Also, yes, I’m a hot mess. But I have been thinking a whole heck of a lot about time and how we’re all standing in a spot that feels often like we got here in the snap of a finger. One moment we were somewhere entirely different and then boom here we are. It’s the most powerful of truths: that time doesn’t stand still and that it transforms everything in its path, oftentimes brutally and too quickly.

This truth is also at the heart of why we love stories and why storytelling is as old as humanity. Because stories trap and track time. They take characters across a story arc, which essentially is the act of examining a character’s growth over time. They let us play with the relationship between actions and consequences and then let us play with it again another way. They give us answers for ‘what ifs’ in the time that it takes to turn a few hundred pages.

If we let stories teach us, they sometimes help us tweak our own actions, changing our own relationship with time and taking us somewhere more exciting and peaceful in our own journey. I don’t mean just an escapist getting away (which is great, by the way) but an actual doing of things differently because a book taught you something you would not have learned without it.

I read Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind when I was fourteen and there’s a line in it that changed the course of my life. “Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.” Growing up in India, in a society that felt like a glass bowl of judgement and rules, having a story show me that society’s opinion is a burden you do not have to carry was at once so radical and so freeing to me that it did truly change how I saw myself and consequently the choices I made.

In every one of my stories I overtly play with the magic of time. The stories of generations and how they influence one another, the stories of childhoods and how they influence adulthood. The stories of a choice made a long time ago coming home to roost and the courage that it takes sometimes to heal and to let go, so that in the next snapping of our fingers we may end up in a place where we are no longer ruled by those choices of our past. The other simpler magic of books is that when you suddenly find yourself standing by yourself, your hands empty of the hands they held, there’s something to fill them with.

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Sonali recommends:

Farah Heron‘s Chai Factor –
farahheron.com – @Amazon

Uzma Jalaluddin‘s Ayesha At Last –
uzmajalaluddin.com – @Amazon

Tif Marcelo‘s Key to Happily Ever After
tifmarcelo.com – @Amazon

Casey McQuiston‘s Red, White & Royal Blue
caseymcquiston.com – @Amazon

K.M. Jackson‘s Too Sweet To be Good
kmjackson.com – @Amazon

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2019 RARM Questions:

Tell us about a time in your life that felt magical to you.

I think every single time I hold a copy of my book in my hand it’s magical. Exactly in the way that I talked about in my essay. It’s a moment that condenses time and pulls into itself every moment before that I hungered for that precise thing to happen.

Tell us about a book that was magical for you.

Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. It was the first mainstream English language book I read that had Indian protagonists who lived and acted like me. Not only was the prose so seamless and beautiful that I fell into the story body and soul, but for the young writer in me, finding a book in a store that was populated by the kinds of characters that inhabited my own stories turned an impossible dream possible in my mind.

Tell us about a “magical moment” in your writing or your career?

I’m part of a Facebook Group called Fiction From The Heart with eleven other author friends I love dearly. We recently published an anthology called ONCE UPON A WEDDING and we hit the USA Today Bestseller list. The entire experience can only be described as magical. About a year ago in one of our daily chats we thought: wouldn’t it be fun to write an anthology?

After that magic upon magic followed. We set goals, we came up with a schedule, we adjusted and readjusted goals, we held each other as we panicked about deadlines, we brainstormed, we stood together in a huddle of unshakeable sisterhood. We became rocks for one another, refusing to be afraid to speak our ambition and our fears. We were a mass of joy and silliness and LOVE for one another’s stories. Because the stories that emerged were ALL us. Because we created a place where we could go for it without fear of falling. Every time a roadblock came, we shrugged our collective shoulders and then put them into blasting that baby down! I can’t think of a more magical thing. (The authors: Jamie Beck, Tracy Brogan, Falguni Kothari, Barbara O’Neal, Amy Liz Talley, Priscilla Oliveras Kissinger, Hope Ramsay, Sally Kilpatrick, Kwana M. Jackson, Donna Kauffman, and Virginia Kantra – who was by our side even when she couldn’t be in the book.)

You can find the book here – ONCE UPON A WEDDING @Amazon

For writers who use magical aspects in their books, what attracts you to those elements? For those of you who don’t, are there specific themes or elements you’re attracted to and find yourself going back to? Why do these resonate with you?

I’m obsessed with a woman’s struggle to balance social expectations with identity and personal fulfillment. So, I’d say my theme is the search for an individual’s place within the context of family and community and its impact on the pursuit of happiness.

Creativity is a kind of magical experience. What inspires you, keeps you going, helps you when you lose focus, etc.?

Travel, reading, binging TV shows, whining to my author friends about how I’ll never be able to write again.

DRAWING – is hosting The Romance of Reading page, and her giveaways will take place there.

Each first unique comment at each space offers an extra chance to win, so check in with each author. Must comment by 9/05/19 11:59pm Eastern to enter.

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Sonali Dev’s first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and writing, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and websites. With the advent of her first gray hair her mad love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler.

Sonali lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband the world’s most perfect dog. She has two children in college.

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