Books and Chocolate, by Patricia Charles

Chocolate. I love chocolate. I love any kind of chocolate: white, milk, dark, covered, drizzled, with cherries, with anything. I just love chocolate. I would rather have one piece of chocolate than a steak, caviar or champagne.

For me, books are like chocolate. I love them all. I love every kind of book: romance, historical, contemporary, pop, supernatural, thriller, suspense, and even young adult. I love any way you can visit a novel: paperback, hardback, digital, audio, movie. I just love books. And yes, sit me down with a box of chocolates and a good book, and I’m in heaven.

Which brings me to today’s quandary. No, it is not about detoxing from chocolate or even about dieting. It’s about writing. What? Writing? How can it be about writing, you ask? It’s my time to ponder what to write next.

  Unconditional Surrender was released in April. It’s a contemporary romance, but set at a Civil War Reenactment. It deals with the pain of the present shadowed by the background of war.

  Crescent Moon, to be released at the end of this month, is a romantic suspense set in New Orleans.

Now, what to write about? Do I write another contemporary? Do I write another suspense to follow this one with characters from the first to set up a series? Or do I write a historical, which I also love? I have one started.

Seriously, putting all jokes aside, it is a dilemma. As writers, you understand. How many books do you have floating around in your mind vying for your attention, vying to be the one written? And how do you choose?

It’s like being in a Chocolate Factory. Chocolate everywhere you turn.

Years ago, I gave my nephew cash for Christmas. We went to a big toy store where he could spend his money. An hour later, he came back with tears streaming down his face. It was so overwhelming. There was so much to choose from. We left with nothing. Chocolate, books, writing-there is so much, I don’t know what to choose. Oh wait, I have a great idea – the form of a book made in chocolate. Want a bite?