Who's RAD? Sandy Lo!

Please welcome Ms. Sandy Lo, author of upcoming novel Lost in You which mixes romance, modern music culture, and pop musicians.

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Random Q&A:

A genie decides to grant you three wishes. What are they?
A long writing career that's both profitable and self-fulfilling, to meet John Travolta, and for one more day with my mother.

What is your idea of the perfect vacation?
A beach, beautiful ocean, swimming, dancing and still have time to write. I'm always inspired on vacation!

What's the most embarrassing outfit you've ever been caught in? Or, if you are so fashion forward, what outfit would you not want to be caught dead in?
Ooh, there have been quite a few doozies in high school. Now I consider myself fashion forward, but then...I wasn't sure what I was doing. For my eighteenth birthday, I wore a silver pleather skirt with a sequined top. I looked like I was from outer space!

How does your everyday environment influence who you are?
My everyday environment has always involved my crazy family. I mean crazy in both good and bad ways. I have always been someone who observes the people around me and decide which qualities I love about a particular person and wish to obtain, and which qualities I dislike and hope I don't develop.

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the guest blog:

Fame, Love and Chick Lit Romances

Some would label me a chick lit author. I have no problem being that. However, the dreadful connotation of the genre is something to be ashamed of. Being a fan and an author of romance novels, I resent anyone who calls it "fluff". Can they be unrealistic? Sure. So are most books in any genre unless it's a biography, and I'm sure even they are exaggerated half the time. Romance novels give hope to those who haven't found love. And faith to those who have it. If men read more romances and actually took them as lessons on how to make women happy, the world would be a better place.

I'm not going to continue on ranting and sticking up for an over saturated literary genre...but I would like to explain where my book Lost In You fits in. Skeptics probably think the thought of a famous music group as the lead male characters is a little far fetched. I suppose for me, it's not. As an entertainment journalist, I meet celebrities all the time and are friendly with many of them. They date normal people like anybody else. For millions of die-hard fans, Lost In You fulfills their fantasies of marrying their favorite celebrity.

I wanted to explore fame in Lost In You without exploiting it. I never make the fact that Ryan and JT are pop stars interfere too much with the love story. I could have made their fame its own character, but this is more of Cooper Jackson's story. She's the star of the book and doesn't get too smitten with the celebrity factor. I felt that was important. She has enough problems without being clouded by their fame.

The funny thing about Cooper is when I created her, her mindset was farther from mine than any other character I ever wrote. Now, in hindsight, somehow part of me turned into Cooper. She foreshadowed my own life. In Lost In You, Cooper's mother died and her father abandoned her. Well, where I am now...my mother passed away from cancer in 2007 and shortly after, my father and I had a falling out. As far as Cooper's fear of love, I share that, too. I'm afraid to get hurt the way my father hurt my mother. Writing Lost In You has really helped overcome my own fears, though, and it has made me stronger.

This is why I write. I'm amazed at what I can create with my mind. I'm even more amazed at how much my own mind can teach me about myself, about others, and about life. Learning while entertaining myself and hopefully my readers makes writing my greatest gift. I won't pay attention to labels on my writing just like I don't believe what tabloids say about celebrities. Both are here to entertain and cynics should allow that to happen, no strings attached.

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Ah, the great romance novel, I love thee, and I totally agree with Ms. Sandy Lo’s view of this lovely genre.

You may visit her online at her website: www.sandy-lo.com