Shelly Hickman & her Fortytude series @shellyhickman @GoddessFish #RomCom

Today we have author Shelly Hickman visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Living in Las Vegas since she was two, Shelly Hickman has witnessed many changes in the city over the years. She graduated from UNLV with a Bachelor of Art in 1990, and in her early twenties worked as a computer illustrator. In the mid-90s, she returned to school to earn her Masters degree in Elementary Education. She now teaches computer literacy and media technology at a middle school in Las Vegas. She loves to write about people, examining their flaws, their humor, spirituality, and personal growth. Shelly lives with her husband, two children, and their dogs, Frankie and Junebug.

Today Shelly Hickman will be talking about how she became a writer and what inspired her in regard to the story she's promoting.
* Though I’ve enjoyed writing from the time I was in high school, I never really had aspirations to become a writer. My career is actually in teaching and my writing had always been sporadic. After my daughter passed away in 2000, I wrote my first book Believe, which had no other purpose for me than to work through my grief. I had started the manuscript before Sydney’s first of several relapses, so the story was something I came back to again and again.
* Years later, my niece told me that she knew someone who had a small publishing house and asked me if I would like her to give this person a copy of Believe. Long story short, she liked the story and offered to publish it.
* Believe is contemplative and metaphysical—not the tone I write in now. My second book, Somewhere Between Black and White, moved more toward the romantic comedy genre that I now favor, but also addressed some deeper concepts.
* I’ve always had a love of romantic comedy films, which is probably why I enjoy writing romantic comedy so much. Because it can be a challenge to find light-hearted novels with middle-aged characters, that was partly my inspiration for writing Vegas to Varanasi and Menopause to Matrimony. Plus, since I’m middle-aged (as hard as that is to accept), we write what we know, right?
* Each stage of life comes with its own challenges, and I think trying to find humor in those challenges is what helps get us through this crazy life.
A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * BLURB FOR VEGAS TO VARANASI
* Anna has never been the beautiful one; she’s always been the nice one. So when the gorgeous man sitting across the table at a wedding reception remembers her from high school—and quite fondly at that—she’s taken off guard.
* Formerly overweight and unpopular, Kiran has never forgotten Anna, the one person who was kind to him when no one else could be bothered, and Anna’s a bit flustered as she slowly comes to grips with his intense attraction for her.
* In what feels like a romantic dream come true, all-grown-up, hunky Kiran invites Anna