This month, Fabulous Florida Writers is pleased to welcome guest blogger, Joanne Lewis. Lewis is the author of two series, the Forbidden Trilogy and Michaelangelo and Me, and three stand-alone novels. Lewis was our featured writer on July 25, 2012.
It is said that
everyone has one true love in life, but I have learned this is not true as I
have fallen in love many times.
As a child, I was in love with my parents who protected, nurtured and guided me. Dad made up bedtime stories
that carried into daytime hours. Mom encouraged me to be brave and try new
things: food, activities, and friends. They told me I could achieve anything.
When I was eight years old, I wrote my
first book about the weather. I
covered two pieces of cardboard with wallpaper, bound the pages together and was thrilled when it was placed in my
elementary school library. I fell in love with writing.
As a pre-teen, my focus became talking on the phone with friends and testing
boundaries with authority figures. I was in love with freedom. While a
teenager, I read all of Judy Blume’s books, the Nancy Drew series, and many popular novels as well as the classics. I fell madly
and irrevocably in love with reading.
In high school, I fell in love
with my first boy, or at least I thought it was love. He was wiry and muscular
and had a hint of a moustache. I
passed notes about him to my friend in history class. I didn’t mind when I was caught and sent to
detention. It gave me more time to think about this new kind of love, romantic
love.
After graduating college, I went to law school and became a
prosecuting attorney, specializing in sex crimes and child abuse offenses. I
fell in love with helping people, especially children.
Years
later, I married my high school sweetheart. I fell in love with being
someone’s everything. When my husband and I divorced, I was sad
and invigorated. I examined who I was and who I wanted to be. I learned to
accept myself. I fell in love with me.
As a novelist who has published seven novels,
I do not pen traditional love stories yet I have learned something different
about love from writing each one.
Forbidden Room, book one of the
Forbidden Trilogy, is a murder mystery about Sara, a woman charged with
murder, and Michael, the new attorney that represents her. Michael believes in
her innocence, but did Sara really do it? It is a novel that questions the
meaning of love. Writing Forbidden Room caused me to reevaluate my
definition of love.
Forbidden Night, book two of the
Forbidden Trilogy, is my latest release. This novel delves further into Sara
and Michael’s relationship, and reveals more about the murder and secrets from
the past. From writing this novel, I learned that love traverses time and has
no boundaries.
Make Your Own Luck is a murder
mystery about a young attorney who defies her father to represent a
thirteen-year-old girl accused of murder. Writing this novel I learned about unselfish love.
The Lantern is a historical
novel about a girl in fifteenth century Florence, Italy who dares to compete
with the great Renaissance artists. It is a story of the search for truth in
art. I fell wildly in love with Michelangelo while writing this novel.
Michelangelo & the Morgue and Sleeping
Cupid (books one and two of the Michelangelo & Me series) are
historical fantasy novellas. There are three more books to be released in this
series in 2017. Writing this series has fortified my love of research and prose.
Wicked Good is the story of a
mother and her son, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. I wrote this novel with my
sister, it brought us closer together and I learned about unconditional love.
I was diagnosed with cancer and am now cancer free. From that experience I fell in love with life.
What are your love stories?
For more information, visit Lewis's website at www.joannelewiswrites.com or her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/joannelewis,
Ah, your blog offers an inspiring view of life as it unfolds.
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