I've always loved making up stories. It's in my blood. I've been making up stories since before I even knew how to write them down. In the first grade I would pretend that the ivy-covered gate leading out of the soccer field was a doorway to a magical land full of fantastic creatures, and I would tell all my friends that we had to go there to help so-and-so save the realm from whoever... You can imagine how this went over with my "normal" friends. Sure it was all fun and games when we were in first grade, but when sixth came around and all of them were chasing boys while I was playing in an invisible land... I still remember the looks they gave me. What I still find humorous is how it didn't bother me. They made fun of me and spread around the school that Brieanna had imaginary friends when she was eleven years old. Kids would come up and be like, "you talk to imaginary people?" I remember looking at them like THEY were insane and saying, "Yeah." With no qualms, no fear of being made fun of. I couldn't understand why they didn't. I thought everyone had people in their head.

That was the beginning of it all. I've been writing ever since.

My life has been anything but ordinary. It's been full of craziness and chaos and things that people tell me they only read about in books. So, of course I use my own experiences as inspiration for my novels. My contemporary series of books, the Serendipity Series, revolves around the out of ordinary and bizarre things that can happen in life. I love people and I love the way they work. I am very interested in psychology, the make up of the human mind and human emotions. I am also deeply dedicated to the motto that everyone should be true to who they are. These are all themes that run through my Serendipity Series. The books are about real people in real life, dealing with real problems with, of course, humor thrown in. Without humor, life would be much too depressing.

But one can only spend so much time in the real world before they need an escape. So my real love is, and always has been, fantasy. There is so much free reign in fantasy. The whole world can be your playground and I thrive on that. Anything is possible. Shape-shifters, fairies, dragons, mysterious realms, dark heros and strong, sword-weilding heroines. All of these and more are found in my fantasy worlds. They keep my imagination fresh and active. I would live in that world if I could.

So tell me, what genre do you prefer? Life in the real world? Or life amongst the extraordinary? Post a comment and share your thoughts.

Also, feel free to check out my website and learn more about me and my books www.brieannarobertson.com

Hmm. Why do I write? I’m one of those people who would love to be an airline pilot, a UN peace treaty negotiator, a club DJ, a porn star, a wizard, an owner of a casino, or a pharmacologist who discovers cures for diseases. I’d love to have a job as a king whose duty is to sit around, eat cookies, and name things like streets and colleges and brand new towns. I suspect I’ll never have any of those careers (being king, in particular), but I can write about characters who do and experience a bit of each life. In the way that readers indulge in escapist fantasies, I’m often doing the same thing, and I don’t need millions of dollars, a pilot license or a book of spells.

Of course, you may be wondering why careers aren’t central for my characters in Claiming Danny or Simple and Easy. I think their job is to dive into a world of desire that the average person does not dare to seek. Oh, to be them. Happy reading. Gavin Atlas' Web Site

What inspires you to write? How do you come up with such odd ideas? I have readers who ask this and even fellow authors who wonder how my brain got so off kilter. Sometimes I wonder too, especially when stories take turns into the darkness I never expected.

When I first started writing children's stories during my creative writing class, way back when I thought I wanted to write tales to teach my children to be nice, I took a little break and skimmed through one of my favorite books: "A Field Guide to Demons, Faeries, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits" by Carol K. Mack and Dinah Mack. While this book is informative, I also find it a wealth of inspiration and lore on myths from all over the world. Myths fascinate me.

I've loved the Greek god Pan since 6th grade when my teacher assigned him to me to do a speech on. I created a little clay figurine of him and discussed his place in the hierarchy of the gods (in as much as a 6th grader can). Pan, the son of Hermes and a nymph of Arcadia, was god of the woods, a guardian of flocks and shepherds. Half man, half goat, he has cloven hooves, a wooly coat over his lower body and a tail. He also has goat ears. He is rumored to carry a shepherd's staff and play his pipes. Getting back to my Field Guide book, in it, there is a small quote which inspired me.

"The Great God Pan is dead!" It was written by Plutarch in the reign of Tiberius that a sailor heard a mysterious voice call out said quote three times. Further rumor has it that at that very moment, Jesus Christ was born. There is no recollection of Pan's end, and this led to my inspiration and my story.

What if he was still around, trapped perhaps, in a place he couldn't escape from? What if only certain people could hear his pleas for help? What if his imprisonment and eventual freedom came with a catch? In order for him to escape, he would need to find a woman who could love him as he is. I find that commonality in all of humanity--we want someone who can love us unconditionally, who will look past all our faults and still smile upon us and help us up when we fall.

I wrote "The God in the Stone" all those years ago. While it was good at the time, I wrote it before I had the courage to explore the erotica genre. Going back many years later, I stumbled upon it and realized it was a story in need of revision, a love story in need of spice to make it whole. "The God in the Stone" releases this Thursday at Forbidden Publications. It's a short work taking place in eight days' time and every moment is a vacation in the mysteries of modern day Greece and a warm embrace of a love who cannot truly be seen until the very end.

So fellow writers, what inspires you to write your tales?

Find out more about Anastasia Rabiyah by clicking: here.

From the beginning of the story it's an emotional rollercoaster. There’s a shocker that makes After All These Years really interesting and causes even more turmoil. It's almost purely a romance. It was a nice change of pace and the ending had me smiling.

Labels: After All These Years, Gwen Masters, reviews

You’re Invited!

Join author Anastasia Rabiyah and author A.C. Croom for a release party at our publisher’s online chat room for fun, prizes and a chance to speak to us! Ask about our books and what keeps us writing. Stop by and say hello. We'd love to hear from you!

Located here: http://ForbiddenPublications.com

(scroll down the main page for the link to the chat room)

Date: February 15, 2008

Time: 6pm Pacific, 7pm Mountain, 8pm Central and 9 pm Eastern.

Shahzar III Sorcerer and Shadow

By Anastasia Rabiyah

(author website: http://RabiyahBooks.com)

Fantasy Romance

In this third part of Shahzar’s journey, she learns to call the Gift of the Goddess, to use her magic at will. But no great power is without its consequences, as she soon discovers.  While she is away from Kaladia, her goddess continues to reach out to her, troubling Shahzar over the responsibility she abandoned.

War comes to Kaladia, stronger and more dangerous than the raids of prior years. Left behind to care for the city, Raynier struggles to prove his worth. He must seek out a new way to end the attacks by Dalin, the power hungry brother of the dead Klemish king.

But all the humble bishop desires is the return of his queen.

0____________0_________________________________________0___________0

Showdown in Shadow Creek

By A.C. Croom

Historical Western Romance

(author website: http://accroom.com)

What could be better than loving a brave and beautiful woman? What could be better than seeking a true home after years of the dangerous life a gambler and gunfighter leads? What could be better than having friends willing to back your play, with no questions, because it's the right thing?

What could be better than all that?

Surviving a Showdown In Shadow Creek!

Showdown In Shadow Creek steps back in time, to a place where men earned what was theirs at the end of a smoking gun, where nothing was free except the air to breathe, where a bend in the trail could hide fortune or death, where the only land a man was sure to own was a four-foot by eight-foot plot on boot hill.

Being shot at was nothing new to J. R. Bell. A gambler by choice and gunfighter by necessity, it was the risk he faced everyday of his life. But now he wants to change that life and his fate leads him to Shadow Creek and his one chance to settle down. In town only hours, he meets Eve Southerland and is wounded by an unknown assailant. His fortune and misfortune combine and lead him inextricably toward a confrontation with destiny.

Amid unanswered questions of a town hiding a secret, the streets of Shadow Creek becoming over-populated with hired guns and a murderous scheme to separate him from what’s rightfully his, J. R. falls in love. Only one thing stands in the way of his claiming the heart of Eve Southerland and starting a new life. A showdown is building. Are John and Eve willing to fight to get what they want? Or, will they lose everything in the Showdown In Shadow Creek?

0____________0_________________________________________0___________0

Labels: After All These Years, Gwen Masters, review