Carmen DeSousa

Okay, he didn’t say ‘blog’, but he would have if blogging had been the thing back in ’97. I didn’t look that date up, so if it’s wrong, oh well. As I said, this isn’t a mission statement; it’s a memo, rather a ranting to fellow authors. I just realized—though my husband and kids have known for some time—I’m obsessed. There, I said it, and admission is the first step. A friend of mine once said, “If you don’t like what you’re doing, ‘work’ is a four-letter word. Well, I love my job. My job is to write, which entails my favorite pastime, reading. If you’re an author, you should understand this. Yes, we write, but really, we write only about ten percent of the time. The other ninety percent of our time, we read; editing our own writing (requires reading), reading other authors’ works to keep our craft sharp (requires reading), researching characters (requires reading), learning how to become a better writer—reading blogs and books on writing (requires reading), and hey you’

I love reading all genres of books. I know, I’ve said that before, but I really do. I’ve read everything from Beauty and The Beast  (the original) to The Godfather . I’ve said that before, too, but bear with me, as I will try not to repeat myself too much. The reason I mention those two books is because they are so opposite of each other, and I believe reveal to my readers that what I mentioned above is true. I love to read! Well, I guess I don’t read everything … I’m not into sci -fi—though I would probably read if something caught my attention—and, I stay away from anything extremely graphic as in rape, hurting children, or anything that glorifies any type of violent act. That said, on to my point of this blog about me being a Christian and writing romantic-suspense. I read tons of Christian books as well as secular books; I don’t limit myself to any specific genres or markets. If it catches my attention, I read it. If it’s bad, I put it down, but I usuall

My Newest novel will be available this spring, so until then I've been sharing little snippets of the prologue—six sentences at a time—until it publishes. If you’d like a brief look at the mini synopsis and last week’s six sentences, you can sample them through this link: Land of the Noonday Sun We left you off last week with his mother apologizing and Walter wondering why, when she never apologized. This week's six: Especially when she wasn’t responsible. Walter rolled over, drew his legs in tight and repositioned himself into a ball. He wished he could change the past, wished he’d never returned, wished they’d locked him away forever. It was his fault; everything was his fault. He wished he’d never been born. Only fifteen and he’d already ruined his life.   Want more? There is a sneak peek at Land of the Noonday Sun  at the end of She Belongs to Me , available now through Amazon  and Amazon Prime Click here to view all my Six Sentence Sundays . For m

I’m guest blogging today with Minnie Lahongrais—I mean Sinner, as I believe she has taken over the blog from Minnie today to conduct my author interview and then tomorrow because of my controversial blog post, “Yes, I am a Christian, and yes, I write Romantic-Suspense”, so make sure you visit tomorrow too. As Sinner is somewhat feisty when she takes over, she made me promise not to share my entire interview, because she wants you to come visit and play with her for a while today. So, here are the first couple of comments she allowed me to share. For the rest of my interview and tomorrow’s blog please visit: Lahongrais How did you come up with this story?   Honestly, I just sat down one day and started typing. I had an idea, and from there, it just blossomed. How do you get your juices flowing? I use little snippets of reality and mix in a whole lotta ‘what if’. I will literally be driving down the road and an idea will pop in my head. Thank goodness for Dragon Dictation

Dear readers, if you enjoy a novel filled with mystery, suspense, and of course, romance, here is an excerpt from my current release, She Belongs to Me . After reading, please leave a comment below of your favorite—if any—novel line from the passage. Out of the remarks, I occasionally will select commenters and send a full novel to read, and hopefully, review. She Belongs To Me A loud crack startled Jordan from his sleep. His hand flew to his pounding head as he looked around the room for the source of the noise. It sounded like a gunshot, or perhaps he was just having another nightmare. Sometimes he couldn’t tell the difference. Years in the military and working as a cop had unquestionably done a number on his psyche, so he always investigated. Often it was the dog chasing a squirrel in his sleep or the cat moving through the wood shutters as she stalked a lizard from behind her prison of glass and brick. These sounds he knew. A gunshot, though also familiar, didn’t encro