Its almost Christmas time!

And since I only blog on Wednesdays I will wish you and your family a Merry Christmas today! The kids and I usually celebrate Christmas by opening presents and lounging around on Christmas Eve. We cook together and have loads of family time on Christmas Day. This year will be different though. It is Ash's and my first Christmas together so he will be here as well.

What are your traditions for the holidays? I'd love to hear about them.

Themes and family~ A tie that binds!

My post is not about me getting nominated but I'd like to announce Tierney's novel along with mine (Jesse's Brother) have been chosen to compete for Book of the Month over at Dark Diva Reviews. Have some time? Stop on over and vote!

http://darkdivasreviews.webs.com/bookofthemonthpoll.htm

Thanks for the being patient. Now on to the blog post:

I recently took a workshop given by a wonderful author. She mentioned something (I don't remember her exact words) about every writer having a theme in their books. She asked if we knew what our 'theme' was. My critique partner, Buffy Christopher and I were talking about this the other day because she figured out that her books all focus on the heroine trying to save herself. Every book of mine has had the characters dealing with family issues of some type. In Jesse's Brother, Samantha is home to deal with issues she has with her mother and adores her father. In Confessions, Chelsea has to face her dysfunctional family after her disappearance so many years ago had convinced them that she'd been abducted. My release for 2010 has a heroine who a normal family but doesn't desire to have a connection with them.

If you know me on a more personal level, you probably know I have a lot of family issues and I admire people who have healthy relationships with their family members. It's the holiday season and it has gotten me thinking about families and my book theme. For awhile I believed the theme came up from the issues I have and have tried varying up a little since who wants to read family drama all of the time, right? So I went further back in my life to see if it held in relevance.

My mom had been a single parent and ran a foster home for most of my childhood. I often felt alone and on the sidelines. I started reading V.C Andrews at a young age so I believe my attraction to family issues goes way back then what my family is like today.

What about you? If you are writer, do you notice a theme in your books? For the readers, do you tend to gravitate toward a certain theme? How do these mirror your life?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this!

Wendy Ely

The Love Letter

I have a great writer's group I formed in my hometown of Dallas, Texas. It's a writer's and wine tasting group. We haven't had a wine tasting yet but I'm planning one soon. Last Friday night we met in a funky little coffee shop near my home because it's just so hard for me to leave my baby behind. He's 1 and 1/2 and two to three hours without Mommy is his max. The coffee shop was five minutes from my house in the old downtown square. My group has like fifty members but usually only 15 to 20people show. And now that I've scheduled it closer to home, even less people come because they prefer the meetings in the heart of Dallas. I figured the people that truly want to come will show, right?

Well, I only had four people show up last Friday night but it was a great night because it was much more intimate. Everyone shared a bit of their work. We had a new guy show up. Bruce is a friend of one of my regular members. He's 79 years old. He showed up and read a love letter he wrote to his wife. His wife died last October. He became emotional toward the end so his friend finished reading it. I was crying my eyes out as I listened to this beautiful letter about a doll he found in a doll shop. The doll was over 100 years old and he bought it because it reminded him of his wife and her beautiful face. This beautiful letter reminded me of something. We are all writers. Published or unpublished. When we put our thoughts and feelings down on paper, we can remember it for a lifetime and it will be there when we are gone for others to enjoy.



I hugged this special writer after the meeting and asked him to come again. He smelled like a pipe and I made a mental note to choose a location where he can smoke his pipe next time. I love the smell of apple wood smoke. He bought one of my books and I tried to tell him that he won't enjoy it because it's a romance. He protested and insisted that he reads romance. Bruce called me today to tell me how much he is enjoying my book, particularly the Indian legend within. I have to admit I was worried he'd cringe at the sex scenes, but I reminded myself that even though he's 79years old, he's still a man. A man that has lived a big life and loved big. I can't tell you how much that phone call meant to me. I've asked dozens and dozens of readers to please email me when they read my book and let me know if they liked it. I stopped asking that because I rarely get feedback from my readers. And now I wonder if Bruce knows how much his letter to his wife meant to me last Friday night as we all sat in a cozy coffee shop. It started pouring down rain and my heart began to ache for Bruce and his loss. He said this after he read. "I was in love with my wife." He shook a little when he said it and I could picture his face when he was younger. I could picture his beautiful wife and their life together. And how fast the years must have flown by.





I was happy to be only five minutes from home so I could rush home and see my family. As I pulled into the drive in the pouring rain, my headlights shined into the carport. My husband was sitting there with our two little ones on his lap, waiting for me, watching the rain. I slammed the car door and ran to keep from getting drenched. My husband asked me what I was cooking and I couldn't help but smile. It was good to be home.

~xxoo Alisha

Relationships and writing

It occurred to me that I as a romance writer focus a lot of my writing on the relationship that develops between the characters. Thus romance. However in my personal life it might surprise you to know that I have issues. I am insensitive and sponge like when it comes to the love that is given to me. I am married to a wonderful man who would move heaven and earth for me and considers me just as beautiful now at 250 as I was when he married me at 130. God bless him.

I have some idea why I'm like this really. I was raised by a mother who has admitted in recent years that she didn't know she was allowed to love her children and thought her job was to keep them at arms length while making sure they didn't hurt themselves. In addition to that I have a father that sexual abused me and then was ripped from my life. That alone is enough to give you issues. My step father never had children of his own he was an instant father once he married my mom and he did the best he could loving us in the only way he knew how. My parents (that is my step father and mother) were not very affectionate people in general. So when my husband asks me to hold his hand or kiss him in public it's almost a foreign concept to me. This has led me to train myself over the years to show affection. It's still hard for me sometimes and can be uncomfortable.

I learned a lot the instant my kids were born. I have been told I was a natural mother. Beyond the fact I was determined not be like my mother. I loved my kids from the instant I saw them something inside me swelled and filled a place I didn't know was empty. I have no problem showing my kids affection.

It makes me wonder now as I reflect how I can easily break down other peoples problems and create relationships even though I have issues of my own. Am I that smart? Do I know human emotion that well? No I'm just a regular person who is able to visualize and comfort others and has been through her own relationship issues. I use those as building blocks to create and weaver characters that are real and believable.

Check out Buffy's book The Mating Moon visit http://www.sapphirebluepublishing.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=20&osCsid=c63d74bc724f3a8761262b42df2b3e0c

Buffy Christopher