Guest Alison Chambers Says Love of Books=Love of Writing

Alison Chambers

                I can trace my love of writing back to one thing:  books.  Since this is Library Lover’s month, I remember walking to the library every week, in bad weather and good, in search of more exciting books to read.  When I decided to go to college at twenty-four, the first place I turned to was the library.  I studied on my own, carrying a heavy armload of books every Friday, and took the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests.   I managed to earn thirty-six college credits before I even walked into the front door at college and was able to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in just two and a half years, so I owe a lot to my local library.

                I remember getting books as a child and loving the shiny covers, the slick pages, the beautiful pictures of fairy princesses inside.  And when I was older, I read more complicated stories and loved every one of them.  But particularly mysteries, especially those starring Nancy Drew.  Nancy Drew was the first true female heroine to me.  She was smart and spunky, able to best all the men around her, including her boyfriend and her lawyer father.  That made a huge impression on me. 

                When I wrote my first book at eighteen, I used the library again for tips and tricks and ‘how-to’s.’  I still do.  And with the advent of the Internet and electronic books, my love of books has never faltered.  I just learned to love them in a new way.  And now that I am a published author, I am still a voracious reader of other people’s books and hope to never stop learning from them.  Books offer so much:  wonderful stories, fantastic adventures and a key to an exciting new career or profession.  They can inspire or sadden, anger or entertain, but most of all, they can educate. 

                My focus has always been on entertainment and telling page-turning stories of romantic suspense.  Stories about buried treasure, unsolved mysteries, lost loves.  When I was in grade school, we were supposed to write a story called the “Lost Moon.”  While everyone else wrote about the cow jumping over the moon, I wrote about a pirate ship called the “Lost Moon,” carrying a cargo of buried treasure.  My imagination has been geared to the great ‘what if?’  ‘What if this’ and ‘what if that?’  A dangerous twist of fate.  A pinch of luck that could have turned the tide in the opposite direction and saved the day.  And where did I get all those ideas?  From books, reading about history’s tragedies and triumphs, of fabulous treasures that have never been found, of dark mysteries no one can fathom.   Things that still fascinate us, spark our curiosity and make us ask the inevitable ‘what if?’ 

                For example, did you realize the treasure of the great Aztec emperor Montezuma has never been found and people still continue to search for it?  That’s the subject of my latest book called “The Montezuma Secret.” 

Here’s a blurb:  Hunky Trey Zacco, gritty survivalist and host of the Miami-based Holiday Channel’s hit "Wildman" series and glitz and glamour girl, Erica Kingsley, host of the channel’s "Lap of Luxury" show, are thrown together in the steamy jungles of Belize as a publicity stunt. Erica’s father, Arthur Kingsley, the owner of the Holiday Channel, has proposed the angle, not only to boost ratings, but also as a way to toughen up his spoiled daughter. And Kingsley wants them to search for Montezuma’s lost gold, presumably moved to Belize from the Guatemalan jungle. Zacco cannot hide his resentment at having to share the spotlight with the flighty fashionista Erica, and he locks horns with her every step of the way even as both try to ignore the strong physical attraction growing between them.  But when Arthur Kingsley’s plane crashes in the jungle on his way to film the opening of the show, Trey and Erica launch a desperate search to find him. And when, one by one, members of the camera crew are killed and the equipment sabotaged, Trey and Erica find themselves stranded in the middle of the jungle with sultry producer Morgana Montez, Trey's ex-lover, where no rescue crew can reach them.  

 "The Montezuma Secret"
Available on www.amazon.com  Click to purchase:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JU0IX6
Only $.99 in e-book format for your Kindle, PC, MAC, iPhone,   Blackberry, iPad, or Android.  Also available on Smashwords!  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49140
FIVE STARS on Goodreads and Amazon.com

Voted Book of the Month-Best Romantic Suspense on www.ibookbuzz.com.  Visit me during the month of March on ibookbuzz for blogs, chats and more!

Also available “The Secret Sentinel” from The Wild Rose Press

www.thewildrosepress.com

FIVE STARS-Night Owl Reviews and Goodreads

Visit me on www.alisonchambersromance.com and http://alisonchambers.blogspot.com

Thanks to the great Roses of Prose authors for having me and keep on reading or as our local library advertising campaign says: ‘Put your face in a book!’