Interview with Tanya Stowe

This week, I interviewed author Tanya Stowe.

On your blog you mention, “Have motorhome will travel.” Where have you traveled thus far?

We just retired a little over a year ago so we haven’t been far. Last summer we planned a trip from California to Florida. It was going to be a nice leisurely drive but my husband needed surgery. They scheduled it for August so we ended up driving home with the motorhome in one week. Long daily drives. Not much fun. But we saw lots of amazing country and before that, we flew our granddaughter out for a graduation present and went to Disney World in the middle of July. I thought I’d be miserable since I have an aversion to bugs, humidity and alligators but I loved it. Florida is beautiful. It rained every day. The clouds were so close to the ground it felt like you could touch them. And the lightning! I had no idea Florida was the lightning capital of the U.S. Our return trip was rushed but I have every intention of going back through the Gulf States at a much slower pace and enjoying those areas as much as I did Florida.

But I have to say our most interesting trip last year wasn’t in the motorhome. We had an opportunity to tour China and we jumped on it. The best impulsive idea we’ve had in a long time! China is fascinating. I’ll be blogging about it for many months to come.

You’re a multi-published author. Which book has been your favorite to write?

Every book is your baby so it's hard to pick just one. But I have to say the one that was the most fun to write was Santa Fe Sunrise…simply because I love everything about Santa Fe. The scenery. The history. The food and clothes. Even the music. I’d put on my Nouveau Flamenco tunes by Ottmar Liebert and start typing. That book just seemed to flow. It might not be my best book or the most compelling but it was fun to write.

Did you always want to be a writer?

I wrote my first book when I was eleven years old. It was about a princess named Shalimar set in Ancient Egypt. So yes, I’ve always wanted to write. And it’s interesting to note that my first published book was a time travel romance about…you guessed it…an ancient Egyptian slave girl named Mara caught in a plot to murder the Pharaoh.

You have a large family. How do you find a good balance between family and writing? 

What is balance? Is there really such a thing? Lol. I think balance is a lot like a faith walk. You stumble and fall. Get back up and start again. It’s the getting up that’s important not the state of being “balanced.”

Having said that, I will tell you I’m a list maker. Always have been. Lately I’ve found a planner that incorporates all aspects of my life, work, relationships, faith, chores, appointments. It even has a scripture passage for each week. I sit down on a Sunday night, name all of my goals and tasks for the week then plug them into a daily calendar. I find that if I get busy and drop the ball, it’s on the planner and I can pick it up the next day or the next week. Things I need to do don’t disappear into the ether, especially those important writing or PR goals I need to meet. I also find that my daily to-do list that seems overwhelming in my head isn’t such a monster when it’s down on the page.

Tanya's latest release, Mojave Rescue (Love Inspired Suspense), is available on Amazon.