When I was in my late teens, I left college and went to live in Greenwich Village. I had dreams of being an actress, and the Village was where all the actors and artists hung out. I did a little acting, but made a living for a short time writing beat poetry. I wrote it but looked far too young to read it at the coffee houses that were springing up. So my boyfriend read it and, after throwing a few swear words into the poems, we pretended it was his. As far as anyone knew, I just passed the hat. There is an LP somewhere of my poetry recorded at the Café Bizarre. He is reciting.

He left for Los Angeles to get into the movie industry. He asked me to go with him, but I wanted to see the world. I traveled to Rome, where a good friend from high school was living. But the winters in Italy were cold and wet, and I ended up buying a Vespa and heading to Malaga, Spain, with a guitar and a suitcase strapped on the back. There was a small group of American and British ex-patriots living on the beach in a little fishing village outside town. Since the availability of reading material in English was so limited, we would exchange books. That is when I was introduced to Historical Romance. I loved the genre, the hint of a past life where I could be beautiful, courageous, and adored.

That time in my life was terribly romantic. I met and fell in love with a Spanish guitarist who played in a local band. We married, had a baby, and began to travel around Britain and Europe with the band. It was still adventurous but, after a time, it wasn’t very romantic any more. Since he worked nights and slept days, I was left alone with the baby much of the time. At nights, when the band was playing and the fans lining up to meet them, I was back in the hotel with the baby. In most of the places we stayed, there weren’t any books in English.

So I decided to write the kind of book I wanted to read. I would write about a woman who was strong and adventurous, who lived and loved passionately, and one who couldn’t be contained by the constraints society placed on her. I wrote an outline of the plot and a detailed description of the most important characters. That is as far as I got before I returned to the United States.

Once home, I found myself a single parent with far too little time to indulge myself in writing. Getting a job, going back to school, and taking care of my daughter were all I could manage for several years. Finally, an old friend from high school took me out to lunch and urged me to go back to the book. He even promised to take it to a friend of his who was an agent if I finished it.

I began to write again. Researching the 17^th century fascinated me, and the book grew. But something strange started to happen. The plot I had outlined in Spain took new turns and the characters developed in ways I had not anticipated. It was as though they were telling me, the author, their story. I remember once I was so angry at the heroine for something she had done, that I had to put the manuscript away for a whole month! Other authors tell me that is what happens when your characters come alive.

Sweet Abandon was my first book, and so it has a special place in my heart. I hope it will in your heart as well.

Curious about Sweet Abandon? Never fear! We’ve got the book trailer right here:

Wendy Lozano dropped out of college her freshman year and ran off to New York to do off-Broadway. Her one acting claim to fame includes working in a showcase with Dustin Hoffman. After deciding she needed more adventure in her life than theatre would give her, she went with friends to Mexico and then on to Spain, where she married a Spanish rock musician. She lived in Europe and Britain for ten years before returning to the United States as a single mother. Working as a folksinger and Spanish-English translator in Chicago, she began attending community college. But Chicago’s cold winters drove her to California. Still working as a folk-singer, she began to waitress and tend bar while she completed her college education and then went on to get a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary social sciences. She recently retired Professor Emerita from the California State University System, and now spends large parts of her days on the computer writing historical fiction.