Cindy Victor

Cindy Victor

It is said that writers should write what they know. I would add that writers should write what they love. Simply put, I love love. This probably is why I've been happily married for fifty years to the man I fell in love with the night we met at the University of Arizona. And I love dogs. Hence, my books include five romance novels, one suspense novel with a love interest and two Dobies, and four dog books, two of them fiction. In fact, all but one of my novels have dogs in them, and the one that doesn't has a parrot (birds being another of my passions). My short stories published in six literary reviews also are love stories with a sprinkling of dogs.

There is something else in every book of fiction I have written: The heroine either has the ability to do something I would love to do but never will, or she overcomes a weakness that I simply cannot overcome. In my new romance novel, A New Kind of Magic, the heroine is a timid driver with absolutely no sense of direction. But to get her man she hops in a borrowed truck and drives from South Dakota to Wyoming, and Montana. I shudder at the thought.

It is also said that the essence of romance is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. In general, I think this is true. But in A New Kind of Magic, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and decades later girl gives everything she's got--including a right hook to boy's jaw--to get him back.

My novels, with one exception, are set in places I've lived in and loved: Minnesota, where I was born and where I now make my home, and in California, Hawaii, and South Dakota. The exception is my historical romance, A Heart for the Hermit Kingdom, which takes place in Korea. But while living on Guam I adopted a child from Korea, which gave me a sense of connection to the country.

Sometimes our loved ones know us better than we know ourselves. I was thirty, raising children, and caring for an assortment of pets while having several volunteer jobs. It wasn't enough. I wanted to be an artist, so with two friends who were artists coaching me, I threw myself into what I thought would be my future. When I excitedly told this to my sister, she said, "You'll do anything to keep from becoming a writer, won't you?" It was a jaw-dropping surprise, but I stopped painting. Some months later my first short story was published.

I've always enjoyed hearing from readers, some of whom have become close friends. My e-mail address is cgvbooks@comcast.net.