Caridad Pineiro Romance Author

Whenever I hear that question, or see that look that slides into someone's eyes as they see the cover of one of my novels, this is how I feel: I wonder, what do they consider a "real book"? Do they mean a hardcover? Trade paperback? Or maybe they're expecting something more "literary", believing that with my many years of higher education, I aspire to the cult of the literati. Invariably, what it comes down to is, a "real book" is "something more". "Something better". What I write presumably being "something bad" because it involves the most horrible of elements -- a romance. I wonder, why so much disdain for something that most people spend so much time searching for? Why is it so bad to write a story about two people who are lucky enough to find happiness? I've been told that romances somehow make women develop unrealistic expectations. That they can't separate the fiction they read from the reality of life.

I discovered last night that the blog goes down for maintenance. Unfortunately, that was after it ate my blog. So, last night's blog was about Mom me v. writer me v. wife/friend/everything else me. You can imagine. Or maybe you don't want to. In any case, the good part was that I spent a great weekend being Mom me. My daughter and I went to see the Chanel exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . It was the last day of the exhibit and totally worth waiting in line. The dresses were stunning as was the glimpse of a woman who refused to be bound by the conventions of her time. After, we strolled through the museum and enjoyed the sites, especially the Temple of Dendar where we noted of all things - Graffiti! On the way home, we stopped at Jersey Gardens for some great pre-birthday and pre-school buys! We had a great time just hanging together and shopping while hubby was at home, making Sunday dinner -- pasta, what else? He's Italian. After that, back to writer me as I am

After I posted last night, I realized just how often I had used the word 'tough'. In reality, while it takes some juggling (and if you're coming to the 2005 NJRW Conference you can come to my workshop on juggling various careers), it's worthwhile. My mom always said that nothing easy was worthwhile and she was right. As for lawyer me . . . Most people ask how I do this and write. Concentration for starters. When I'm in a zone, it's hard for me to get pulled away. Plus I find that as I had more and more work I got neater and more efficient. Not that I'm necessarily into the whole feng shui thing, but clutter does detract from the time you spend on what you want to do. Why? It takes you longer to find the things you need. (Also read an interesting article that said a small bowl of water with a turtle had something to do with increased profits -- unbeknownst to me, but my turtle Buffy will be very glad to hear that). Back to lawyer me. I work in Manhattan whic

It's been a few months basically because I've been absolutely insane. First, my law office moved to the Chrysler Building! It took a good month or more to recover and in the midst of that I was trying to write MORE THAN A MISSION, a romantic suspense for SIM. It took a bit of time to get off the lawyer hat and get back into the writer mode, but it finally happened! Then, time to put on Mom and writer mode. My daughter had a school trip to San Diego and I tagged along to be Mom and also do some research for a proposal I hope to sell to Harlequin for the Bombshell line. San Diego was great! Here's a wonderful photo of the view from my hotel room! I also had a great time meeting with my friends Sylvia Mendoza and Lara Rios, some of my fellow Encantadoras that live in California. We met in Temecula and went to the Callaway Vineyard for a great sunset dinner. Talked about writing and all the different projects we were working on. Sylvia and I also did an amazing hike a few days

Tried to get started on that new project, but I found it hard to switch from the blood and bite mode my brain has been in thanks to vamp book #3. Plus, I spent a nice bit of time on Sunday morning with a reporter from Catalina Magazine who is going to do a story on my work for an upcoming issue. She was great and lots of fun to speak with about writing. But back to that new project -- so with much trepidation I did the first chapter and found it to be all of 3 pages long. Add to that my worry that the tone lacked the humor and lightness that gave TORI GOT LUKCY so much life. With it being Valentine's Day thought, I tried to force such negative thoughts from my mind and tackled it again on Tuesday morning, especially since I would be meeting with my critique group that night. Whew, was I relieved that for the most pary, they found it humorous and wanted to read on! So, I'm back at it, brainstorming where I want this story to be right now so I can take it somewhere logical in

Having just finished rewrites on my third vampire book, it's time to tackle something new and something different. I find that going from one kind of genre to another helps rejuvenate me and keeps my writing fresher.And since Phil the Groundhog saw his shadow and winter returned to New Jersey, I have a great excuse for settling myself down in my office this weekend and tackling that new project.As I mentioned before, I just accepted an offer from Pocket for a chick lit and have some idea of what I want to be the follow-up. Not really a chick lit, since it will be more about the mother of the heroine from TORI GOT LUCKY, but not really a mom lit since I plan on doing a lot of the chapters from the POV of the daughter.I'm hoping for something humorous as the daughter, Tori, deals with the fact that her parents are revisiting their earlier relationship. Also, something sexy for her mom, Virginia, since I want to show people how women of a certain age are more vibrant and sexy now