BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR CARIDAD PINEIRO

Back to join us today is award-winning author Caridad Pineiro, who also happens to be one of author Lois Winston’s favorite people, to talk about all she wants for Christmas this year. Read more about Caridad at her website.-- AP 

Every year my husband and I go through the same little dance at Christmas time.  He asks me what I want and I tell him nothing.  It’s a truthful answer and yet it never seems to satisfy him and so we begin the dance again.

Honestly, my hubby can’t really give me the one thing I truly want year after year.  What is that you might wonder?

Time.  Not like immortal time like my vampires in THE CALLING/REBORN series have.

More like time to just be free of work and responsibilities.

You see, in addition to the writing gig, which I truly love despite all the hard work, I still have my demanding day job.  That means long hours on a regular basis with very little free time and that “free time” is generally taken up by household chores and an assortment of other tasks.

I know I’m not alone in feeling this way.  Many people I know are in the same boat.

But this year I am going to give myself and hubby that free time.  I am going to take a much deserved break from work this Christmas season!

Being that it is so precious, what would I do in that free time?  In a perfect world, I’d travel.  I’d love to visit so many different places and one of the nice things about being a writer is that I can vicariously travel to a great many locations and take you there as well.

For example, in my latest release, AMAZON AWAKENING, I take a trip to the Amazon rainforest and explore a very unusual “sacred space” which some believe may be the Garden of Eden.

To write the novella I did lots of research on the Amazon, which is truly a remarkable place.  Besides being immense (did you know it touches 9 countries in South America?), the rainforest is one of our most important ecosystems.  It contains over 50% of the world’s species of animals, insects and plants and is also one of the biggest producers of oxygen.

Truly amazing and I can just picture myself one day taking a boat trip down the Amazon, although I’d refrain from taking a dip.  I’ve watched one too many RIVER MONSTERS television shows about the many dangerous things in those Amazon waters.

Where else would I like to go?  Well, I’ve been lucky enough to climb up a Mexican pyramid despite my fear of heights.  That helped inspire AZTEC GOLD and THE FIFTH KINGDOM.

I love the Jersey Shore and have taken you to some of my favorite places there in THE LOST and the books in the SINS series.

But I still have to visit soooo many locations, like Ireland, Scotland, Tuscany, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, and the Pyramids in Egypt just to name a few.

In retrospect, as I consider the gift of time and all that I’d do with it, something occurred to me.  It’s one of those sayings you see here and again on little plaques and stuff and possibly corny, but I’ll leave you with this thought anyway, especially given the shopping frenzy we sometimes get caught up in during the Christmas season.

So here goes…

The important things in life are not things.

Have a wonderful and very happy holiday season!