espresso-and-chocolateI’m sitting here drinking my mocha latte, enjoying the sensation of being awake, and the sweet and smooth taste of chocolate in the morning.  I’m looking forward to this afternoon when I might have a couple of minutes to myself.   Well of course, the mind is working, the cranks turning (caffeine doing its job) and its gotten me to thinking about what women do for fun, which then of course led me to fantasies… and so you’ll find today’s post is a mixture of both.  Fantasy is fun!

 

So I did what I always do when I start thinking and wanting to share, I called my BFF.  She’s got two small children and works full time.  We started talking about how to relax, what we do for fun and how hard it is to actually do those things when you have small kids and work full time.  She’s always known I was a reader, and she is one of my biggest supporters as an author.  Then they came, the words I’d been praying would fall from her lips since we were twelve years old…  She says, “I think I might want to start reading books.”  Cue the bell chimes and celestial music. Someone help me I’ve floated to the ceiling. 

 

We’ve known each other since we were kids and she’s never been a big reader for pleasure.  Sure she’d read books for school, but to go to the bookstore and pick up a book to read for pleasure wasn’t something she chose to do. That’s not to say she didn’t like fiction, quite the opposite in fact.  Her and I had a running comedic Scottish medieval series we wrote.  We wrote comics too.  It was so exciting, we’d come into school, probably 8th – 10th grade, every few days with the next chapters to exchange.  We didn’t share it with anyone, just ourselves, it was hilarious.  We also wrote a continuation to Anne Franks diary, which was quite an emotional experience.  I would tell her about books that I was reading, so in detail in fact that when she asked me to tell her the story of Jane Eyre she wrote a paper on it and got an A.

 

sil-kiss2So naturally I was quite excited that she wanted to start reading for fun.  I’ve heard that a lot of women start reading for pleasure later in their lives, and romance especially.  I don’t know if its because with kids, work and chores, our own personal relationships get put on the back burner and we crave the romantic high we get from reading, or if its because when we get older and reality hits we start to crave the fairy tale.  I don’t know what it is, but I do know that reading romance gives us an escape, a dream, a high. 

 

Then again, there is always the fact that I love, love.  Romance has always been a favorite part of my life from the time I first watched Cinderella, or The Sound of Music, or my mom read me a fairy tale. 

 

Heck lets face it, when your day comprises of poopie diapers, making lunch for 5, doing a dozen loads of laundry, trying to get your a** to look like it did when you were 18, and hoping your hubby will take a quick smooch and pat on the back as “making love” for the night (or is that just me after having a baby?), you may find an alternate world is just the thing! 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband dearly, in fact our anniversary is next week and I’m looking forward to our date night this weekend!!!  YAY!!!  We actually laughed this morning about how we weren’t sure when the last time we went out to dinner alone was.  It may have been last year on our anniversary.  We make a point of “date night” at home, watching movies together, reading together, or having a drink on our deck after the kids go to bed, but it isn’t very often we get to LEAVE.  Even more funny to us was how at the tender age of twenty-something when we got married we thought every night would be date night, lots of “playing” in bed, traveling, doing whatever we wanted…  Reality Check! We consoled ourselves that in about 18 years we’ll get to do all that, lol.  It’s our prize for raising the little cherubs up into functioning responsible sweet citizens.

 

gerardandeliza1So in the meantime I get my fantasies….we all have ours.  When you’re reading a romance, how many of you don’t imagine yourself as the heroine?  Come on, admit it, I know I’m not the only one. 

 

Author friend Kimberly Killion was Santa for me this year and gave me an early present, a night with Gerry!  Yes, Gerard Butler.  See our pic? J  So what did I do with one Scottish hunk of pure male sexiness?  Well a girl doesn’t kiss and tell, but I will say this, whatever I asked, the Butler did it.

 

So let’s hear it mamas!  When did you start reading romance? Why do you read romance? And do you have a crush on Gerry too?

 

 

 

 

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hercaptainsurrenders_w3647_300Eliza Knight is the author of sizzling historical romance and erotic time travel Highlander romance. Eliza is the author of the award-winning blog, History Undressed and has published numerous articles on writing craft and history. She is a freelance copy editor, professional critiquer, President of the Celtic Hearts Romance Writers signature chapter of the RWA and Contest Chair for Hearts Through History. She presents workshops on history, researching techniques and writing craft, to writing groups online. For more information on Eliza, please visit http://www.elizaknight.com/ or http://www.historyundressed.blogspot.com/.

Upcoming Workshops:

December:
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