I’d like you all to give a warm welcome to my pub sis, Tara Chevrestt aka Sonia Hightower. She’s stopped by the blog to tell us how her life and writing intertwine.

I live in my books.

No, really, I live in my books, and a part of me will always exist. Long after I’m dead, someone will pick up a book I wrote or flip through their kindle and find a story I penned that they bought long ago and are just now getting around to reading, and I will live forever this way.

Because I am in my books.

I live through Angeline and Adelaide in Ride for Rights. That moment when the sisters are riding their motorbikes up Pike’s Peak during the first ever Annual Hill Climb, and all the fellows are shouting insults and jeers at the women… “There was one instance when Adelaide was almost certain her sister had waved a single finger at an insult hurler, but surely she was seeing things.”

He he. That’s me. I’ve done that many a time, and it’s usually aimed at an insult-hurler, some rude fellow who doesn’t think a woman should do a “man’s” job.

In A Facebook Affair, when Kelly is labeled retarded… The blonde snorted. “She talks funny.” She jabbed her friend in the shoulder. “Sounds retarded.” She laughed.

It was Kelly’s turn to frown. “Oh no,” she corrected the girl. “I’m not retired. I’ve never had a job.”

The blonde’s mouth fell open and the short girl stared at Kelly, a look of disgust on her face. Kelly didn’t know what she had said wrong, but wanted to hang her head in shame.

That’s me. I lived that for real and put the scene into a fiction novel. The story revolves around a young, hearing “impaired” woman who despite excessive school bullying and “you can’t do its,” made something of herself and finds love.

In Afterburn, Crystal faces sexual harassment on a daily basis. She’s a man working in a “man’s” world and is constantly reminded of it. That moment in the break room when she feels like she can’t win, when she’s sent out on yet another assignment while the rest of the crew plays cards and looks at nudie mags…

Crystal gulped. “No, sir.” She didn’t need another black mark on her record from this guy. He had already held her back from one promotion. What was his deal? Was his detestation of her due to the fact that she wasn’t welcoming his little “accidents”?” She knew that Roxy was. She had caught them in a compromising position just two weeks ago. Was that what she had to do to get respect around here?

Yes, been there.

I did the EEO office thing, too.

And then there’s Deaf Isn’t Dumb. There’s a whole lot of me in there as I clip-slap my high-heels from job to job, admitting I can’t speak on the telephone and being paid cash and sent home.

Heck, even my f/f bdsm has a bit of me in it. What author hasn’t sat there in despair and pep-talked themselves like Katia does in The Submission?

Katia closed her eyes and laid her head back against her leather office chair, trying to regain control of her tumultuous emotions. All her hopes and dreams were going down the drain right in front of her. She would be a waitress for the rest of her life. Instead of asking people, “Who would you like me to inscribe the book to?” she would be asking, “Would you like fries with that?”

No! No. After three years of writing, she couldn’t give up now. Katia opened her eyes, straightened her spine, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and glared at the blinking cursor with determination.

There’s a part of my heritage in Maiden Behind the Mask as well, my lady Zorro tale. The heroine was named after my great grandmother, Catalina, my grandmother’s mother. My grandmother passed away just this year, and I dedicated the book in her memory. I sincerely hope she knows it. I think she would be thrilled I used her mother’s name in a novel containing a spunky, sword-wielding Spanish heroine.

And that is how I live in my books.

***

Tara Chevrestt is a deaf woman, former aviation mechanic, writer, and an editor. She is most passionate about planes, motorcycles, dogs, and above all, reading. That led to her love of writing. Between her writing and her editing, which allows her to be home with her little canine kids, she believes she has the greatest job in the world. She is very happily married.

Tara also writes as Sonia Hightower. Sonia writes the racy stuff and argues that she was here first. She just wasn’t allowed to be unleashed until the last year.

While Tara and Sonia continue to fight over the laptop and debate who writes the next book, you can find buy links, blurbs, and other fun bits on their website:

http://tarachevrestt.weebly.com/index.html

or their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Chevrestt-Sonia-Hightower/218383211513877.