Guest Author, Celia Yeary

Today's guest is Celia Yeary, friend, fellow Wild Rose Press author, and moderator at The Bookspa, where readers and writers alike can find an oasis of calm in a world of words. Speaking of words, Celia has a blog you don't want to miss, full of heartwarming stories about growing up in Texas and other fun things. Celia is here today to celebrate the release of Showdown in Southfork, part of The Wild Rose Press's wildly popular Wayback Texas series, where a cowboy falls in love every 8 seconds. Congratulations and welcome, Celia!

Who are you?

I am…free to be me, a dreamer and thinker, the anchor for my family, a loyal friend, a faithful wife, a lucky woman who has it all. I haven’t always “had it all”—I had to fight for it, wait for it, work hard and live for the day when I could say, “I have it all.” I wish I could assist every helpless creature in the world, but I can’t, I’m not God. So, I try to do my best, don’t always succeed, though, so I tend to my own little corner of the world.

What type of stories do you like to write and why?

Love stories, for sure, but I also like to write stories about women, I suppose labeled “women’s fiction.” Sometimes, I think there’s more humor, more tragedy, more heartfelt caring, and yes, even more real love in women’s relationships. I’m re-editing a ms right now titled Making the Turn that involves a young woman, her daughter, her mother, a man, and a young boy not her own. During the course of the novel, the college-age daughter brings all them out of their shells and ruts, connects them, and she does it with the blithe spirit of youth.

What type of stories do you like to read and why?

The same that I write. Except those I read are much better than mine—that’s why those authors are with the NY publishers and I’m not! I remember The Shell Seekers as the first women’s fiction I read, and the story was very touching—very different emotions from romance novels. Belva Plain’s novels are angst-filled family sagas. I enjoy Beverly Lewis’s Amish/Mennonite series, because again, they’re family based sagas, always with real people finding and losing love and acceptance .Needless to say, my favorite type of romance are series—usually Western—but I love Susan Wiggs’ contemporary series, too.

Where do you go to think?

I move away from the computer, lie down, close my eyes, and daydream. Or I go for a walk down the road, the county road we live on where the houses are a few acres apart. I’ve straightened out many scenes and pages of dialogue in this manner. And sometimes—I go to a movie. Yes, to think. I have nothing else in my head except the movie—and in one corner of my brain, a WIP or a new novel. You see, I don’t have to talk to anyone or respond to a phone.

How long did you write seriously before your first book was published?

I wrote for about three years before The Wild Rose Press accepted All My Hopes and Dreams. I had about eight novels written, all badly, all needing much work, so I looked at all of them, narrowed them to three, and asked my critique partner to look at the first chapters of these three. Which is best, I asked? She chose the two others over All My Hopes and Dreams! Really! But I knew, deep in my heart, that “Hopes” was my best….hope.

Why do you write?

To stay sane, I guess. I’m rarely bored, because I always have something to do. In my earlier years, my marriage, my children, my household, my college years, my teaching years, and a retirement filled with international travel and a lot of golf kept me fully occupied. But all that either slowed or came to a halt, and I found emptiness and boredom begin to creep in. I began to write, when I never had in my entire life, but my brain was full of stories. If someone wanted to torture me, he could just put me someplace where I had nothing to do, and I’d quickly go insane.

Celia Yeary is a life-long Texan, proud of her roots, happy living among live oaks and deer, and grateful for her entire family. She appreciates and nurtures good friendships, and tries to help someone else when the need arises. Her passions are her husband and grandsons and books—in that order. Her successful grown children are a source of pure joy. Celia and her husband have traveled widely, but in the end prefer their home.