What would I be doing?

For once, an easy question! My day career, librarianship, is my second love. No, I don't get to read books all day. The particular job I'm in right now isn't a job I ever expected to have when I started out being a librarian, but it's very fulfilling. My dream librarian job is to be the manager of a popular fiction/materials collection where I can at least *talk* about books and movies and music all day. I truly have a deep love for the entertainment factor of reading and I can't imagine working in any other fields besides librarianship and writing. Being a librarian is a *lot* more than books, but that's a lecture for another day ;)

What I Do To Pay The Bills

I know I've talked about this before and folks are probably getting tired of hearing me piss and moan about it. LOL But here goes...

For over 20 years I've been in the Human Resources field in one aspect or another. I started out as a receptionist for a personnel recruiting firm, worked my way up to Office Manager/Interviewer. From there I went to a large home health care company where I was recruited nursing and non-nursing staff, and ended my tenure there as a generalist providing overall HR support to two of their divisions. Then I went on to a cable company as Risk Administrator, where I handled Workers' Compensation, General Liability and Vehicle Liability and leaves of absences for employees. In 2000 I decided I'd had enough of Ohio and moved to Arizona, where after 3 weeks of being unemployed I took a job with a credit union as their benefits person. After a year and a half I was promoted to Assistant Vice President. When I left there after 5 years, I had been Vice President of Human Resources for 3 1/2 years.

Then I took 11 months off and wrote, wrote, wrote. At the end of July 2006 I had to go back to work. I started with my current company as a part-time HR Assistant and, in December, went full-time as their HR Administrator. I'm back to being a generalist, doing just about everything that needs to be done that's personnel related.

Beginning today, I'm cutting back my hours to 30 hours a week, and I hope those extra 10 hours will be put to productive use. My dream is to be able to support myself with my writing--it seems there aren't a lot of authors who can do that. But my needs are simple LOL. I'd be willing to live on popcorn and green beans if I had to...

I remember the first time I picked up one of my Mom's romance novels and read a bit of it. Unfortunately I don't remember the title, or the characters. All I remember is one line:

"...Previously, she'd been a virgin in both passages..."

I had NO idea what that meant. I vaguely recall something about the hero flipping the heroine over before that line, but I still had absolutely no idea what it meant. I remember puzzling about it in the creek behind my house. At least, I puzzled on it until a big dog came along and scared me and I ran away. I'm not joking. He was (I now know) a Great Dane. It's a very clear memory.


But the first one I really remember reading, cover to cover, was "Romancing the Stone" by Catherine Lanigan writing as, of course, Joan Wilder.

I grabbed it because I'd loved the movie. Boy was I stunned. There's a sex scene like two chapters into it! And another fully detailed one later, where Joan and Jack finally get together.

I was eleven or twelve, and I was frankly shocked. And really intrigued. I must have read those scenes dozens of times, glancing around frantically so no one would see--I'd love to find a copy of the book now to see if they're as explicit as my recollection. (Not too much later I happened across a copy of "My Secret Garden", Nancy Friday's landmark collection of women's sexual fantasies. THAT scorched my eyeballs. WOW. I've actually been tempted to pick up another copy of that one too, to see if it's as hot as I remember. It probably is.)

I wanted to intrigue people like that. I wanted them to not be able to tear their eyes away from the page. I wanted to write exciting, sexy stories about people doing exciting, sexy things.

I wanted to write romance, so I could fit it all in.

The magic bookshelf

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A Primer in Romance

So many books, so little time to blog, but here are some highlights from my road to romance reading and writing! My very first book with romantic elements was "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. I read it for the first time at age seven and then reread several times after. When I was a little shit, I didn't understand that Jo and Laurie wouldn't have been good together, however, and would mourn his marriage to Amy every time. (Dumb! Now I know better, lol. Who would want to be married to Laurie?)


"Anne of Green Gables", the entire series, still one of my favorite romances, though I stop after she and Gilbert get together because Anne gets kind of bitchy in the later books. Probably all the children...says the woman with three, lol!


Kelly totally stole this one from me yesterday (biznatch!!!, lol), but I have to mention it anyway. Another one of my early favorites. Probably too early. My mom let me read anything I could get my hands on as long as it was in the children's section or considered a 'classic' or 'award winning' books. I'd read a LOT of interesting things by the time I was ten.



What she wouldn't let me read, however, were HER romances. But I read them anyway :). I would sneak them out from the pile beneath her bed and hide them in my room until I'd finished. I read "Knight in Shining Armor" when I was probably....eleven? I still think it is one of the BEST romances ever. (Haven't read it in a while, but still...it just rocks, the heroine goes back in time, lots of adventure, a very compelling read!) My early exposure to 1980's romance is probably responsible for my taste for writing erotic romance. I mean, once you've grown a taste for ripped bodices, you never go back right? Lol.

Happy Wednesday!

Anna J. Evans

http://annajevans.com

Most influential book/s

My life has always been full of books since I was a baby. My dad is a *huge* pleasure reader. It's hard for me to think of one book that's had the most influence on me. The book I remember most from when I was a wee child is "One Fish, Two Fist, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. The next book I remember marking a milestone for me was "Bunnicula" by Deborah and James Howe because it was the first book I read which was around 100 pages (99). After that, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare really struck a chord. I think it's probably the first time I read a book and realized the part of the plot I liked best was the development of the relationship between Kit and Nat. A couple of years later, I read "Strictly Business" by Leigh Michaels, my first "adult" romance. It's been downhill ever since :)

One of My Favorite Books From Childhood

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I absolutely loved this book. It had a female protagonist who was awkward, unsociable and uncomfortable with her looks. Just like me at that age. Meg Murray had tremendous untapped potential but felt overshadowed by her brilliant and beautiful mother. Her greatest strength was the love of her family, especially her little brother Charles Wallace.

Meg, Charles Wallace and a boy from Meg's school (and her later love interest)--Calvin O'Keefe--meet up with Mrs. Whatsit, a celestial creature who looks more like a tramp. She and her friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which take the children to find Meg and Charles Wallace's father, who's captive on another planet. Along the way they must fight a great evil and meet alien creatures that are amazing and wonderful.

A Wrinkle in Time is about the battle between good and evil and the ultimate triumph of love. This book is followed by A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. But I think Wrinkle is still my favorite, because it introduced me to that awkward girl who was so much like me, and was my introduction to fantasy/sci fi.

Have you read these books? If so, what did you think of them? If not, what's one of your favorite childhood books?