Introducing Me

Hello all. First, my name is not Claudia Dante. That is my penname, and I use a penname for my writings because I'm a very private person, which is the same as saying I'm not a natural blogger. I guard my privacy because I have a very in-your-face job, in which I deal with every man and his uncle eight hours per day, and when I get home I like peace and quiet. However, here I am blogging, and you'd have to ask why.

This is the blog you MUST have, if you're a writer in the year 2011 ... there is no such thing as a writer without a blog. Though there are numerous things such as blogs without writers. And I AM ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED!!! Which is amazing in itself.

My editor has told me, "Girl, you gotta blog. If you don't blog, readers won't feel like you're a real person, and probably won't buy your books, which will be a crying shame because they're good books that deserve to be read."

I said to her, "I'm too private to blog. I have nothing I want to put out there in front of the world."

She answered with a lot of common sense instructions. "You have plenty to blog about. You have your writing. Your books. That's what people want to read about anyway."

Made sense to me, so here I am ... blogging.

I guess I need to introduce myself first...

My name is not Claudia Dante.
I live in Anchorage, AK, USA...
...work for the state government.
...write romance to warm up the long cold Arctic nights.
...was married up to six years ago, but am not married now. Thank God.
...live with two big lazy cats called George and Ursula.
My hobbies are reading and drawing.
Am a very good reader and a very bad artist.
Favorite actor: Tommy Lee Jones.
Favorite Hunk: Brad Pitt.
Favorite Movie: Snow Dogs.
Favorite Music: Loreena McKennitt
Favorite Reading: romance, esp. m/m
Favorite writer: Mel Keegan
Best book read lately: When the Lights Go Out by Tanith Lee
Last vacation: Vancouver, BC, too long ago.
Dream vacation: ride CP, BC to Nova Scotia, fly home.
Favorite Restaurant: The Sea Galley, Anchorage
Loves: Mexican food, animals, good books, Kindle, sound sleep.
Hates: breakup, fast food, alarm clock.
Wants to: lose 10lbs, learn to ski, publish many books.
Least wants to: punch clock and commute till retirement. Yuk.
Favorite color: yellow.
Favorite drink: Bailey's Irish Cream.
Vital statistics: variable and subject to change without notice.

That's me in a nutshell, and more than I wanted to post, but I got carried away. Everything else is private except for the writing, the books, the stories. So that's what I'll be posting about on this blog.

In my next post, I'll tell you the story of how I come to be ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED. How it came about and where I hope it's going to go. It makes an interesting story in itself.