Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

What is your favorite reading memory? Mine is rather recent:  Last summer, we went on a family vacation to Northern California.  After a week of big trees and winding, nausea –inducing mountain passes, we came to the Pacific coast.  Being a Southern, east coast girl, I was enthralled with the great cliffs rising above the ocean. In fact, our little beach rental was perched on one of those majestic overhangs.  In the den was this fabulous chair by the sliding glass door.  My husband took the kids down to the beach one afternoon.  I had nothing to do but sit in the chair, listen to the roar of the sea, and read a fabulous Stephen King novel that was left in the house. Here is a picture of the chair! Now it’s your turn. What is your favorite reading memory? Susanna Ives is the author of the funny Victorian romances  Wicked Little Secrets   and the upcoming  Wicked, My Love . Ooh! Pretty cover! You can learn m...

I’m not that happy. There. I said it. I have been happier in my life. The last few years have been filled with changes and sorrow, and I’ve struggled to find my balance and my joy. I love my little girl, but I loved my life before her. I love writing and the publishing industry, but I also love reading, watching TV, and spending time with friends—all things I have to give up or cut back to find time to write. But we aren’t guaranteed happiness in life. Even the Constitution only gives us “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So we’re free to pursue happiness. But what does this mean? How do you go after happiness? Is it a tangible thing you can grasp? Is it something to be achieved? For me, happiness is an ebb and flow. I try to find joy in the moment. Honestly, I can’t do it for every moment. But I won’t do it for any if I don’t make an effort. And I find that some things make me happier than others. Routine and schedules make me happy. I do not like surprises and chaos. If I...

Since there are two of us, whenever something comes up that we need to write -- be it a book, or even a blog, we usually chat with one another on the ‘net until we solidify our idea. We started chatting last night about an upcoming blog (this one) for the Casablanca Author’s blog, and we thought we’d show you what it’s like to be Lydia Dare. Here’s how it went: [9:54:23 PM] Tammy Falkner: So, Jodie, what's your take on happiness? Do we have to agree on this thing? If so, that's about as likely to happen as moss growing on the wrong side of the tree. [9:54:55 PM] Jodie Pearson: You don’t know which side is the wrong side of the tree, do you? [9:55:09 PM] Tammy Falkner: Not a clue. But there's a right side and a wrong side. [9:55:20 PM] Jodie Pearson: Well, the theme is the "pursuit of happiness". So that's kind of different than my TAKE on happiness. [9:55:27 PM] Tammy Falkner: Told you we wouldn't agree. [9:55:34 PM] Jodie Pearson: When do we? [9:56:...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Every American school child is required to memorize these lines penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. I remember agonizing over them, practicing endlessly so that I could stand before the class and say them aloud. We had to get every syllable correct or we would fail our government class and then – gasp – not graduate! Oh the pressure! Shaking in a cold-sweat terror of nervousness I remember, but I don’t remember the nitty-gritty analysis of what these words actually mean. Do you? I am sure we did study the history but over time we develop our own concepts of “liberty” and “life” and that tricky one: “the pursuit of happiness.” As I thought about what brings me happiness for this month’s blog theme, it was easy to make a list. Yet I found myself wonderin...

Many years ago, before I met my husband, before I became a writer, I went through some not so happy times. I remember making a collage on a large poster board of things that made me happy. I smiled every time I looked at it, and I looked at it frequently. It helped keep me going. I don't remember everything on that collage, but I remember a few things. A smiling woman in a flowery sundress, a man holding an infant, a barbeque. These images meant something special to me and probably wouldn't mean the same to you--but we all have our happiness collages. Around that same time, I began collecting letters of recommendation. Nurses tend to change jobs frequently (every 2 years was the average back then,) so I figured instead of going back and bothering these past supervisors time and again, I'd just keep a letter from them on file. There were days I wanted to quit. If it got bad enough, I dug out those letters and reread them. It reminded me exactly why I had become a nurse, and...