Growing up, Liz spent most her days in libraries, diving into the world of books. In her spare time she reads a lot, travels, creates jewelry and designs digital scrapbooks. That's of course when she's not weaving stories. She's in her element whenever she is doing anything that requires creativity.
Liz is the author of a young adult fantasy novel, Tangi's Teardrops, and a romantic women's fiction novel, Chocolate Aftertaste.
Take it away, Liz!
Chocolate Aftertaste: Dipped in Life, Sprinkled with Love
A few weeks ago, Chocolate Aftertaste received a lovely review from a reader who said the novel was “more than a love story”. That’s true, but it wasn’t like that when I started writing the book. When I wrote the first draft, it was all about creating a beautiful romance novel. By the time I got to the second draft, I realized it was much more than that—more than rose petals and sailing off into the sunset. The novel is about life—shattered dreams, broken hearts, betrayal, forgiveness, laughter, tears, and of course a nice dose of love and romance.
If life were a pill, it would come with a very long list of side effects. As a result, I always end up making my characters suffer (I suffer with them of course). I place them in tough, painful situations and watch how they manage to free themselves. That’s what life is all about. What’s important is not how painful a situation is, but how we react to it. I placed my character, Nora, in sinking sand and hoped she would be strong enough to pull herself out, to stand on her own two feet.
If someone picks up or downloads Chocolate Aftertaste, expecting it to be dipped in romance and sprinkled with love, they could end up being disappointed. I like to think that Chocolate Aftertaste is dipped in life and sprinkled with love. I have to tell you this because I write to make readers happy not to disappoint them.
I would like to encourage readers of Chocolate Aftertaste to pursue their dreams and live life according to their own rules of happiness. Sometimes we allow our dreams to dim, we make mistakes. That doesn’t matter because we can always start over. Nora did. She had almost given up on her childhood dreams, until she got a little push. Sometimes all we need is just that, a tiny little push toward our dreams, toward believing in love again.
I believe each dream is a raw diamond planted in the center of our hearts and each step we take toward reaching it is an extra polish, one extra shine. There comes a point where the dream shines so bright, it can’t be hidden. No dream is too small to neglect. Nora dropped everything and started polishing her raw diamond. As a result, her heart opened up and she got so much more. She found love.
Thank you for stopping by, Liz!
1 comments:
Rachel, thanks very much for hosting me on your lovely blog. i appreciate it. Liz
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