Thanks very much for having me on Romance Junkies!
I wrote THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE for the hopeful romantic in all of us. I mean this in a general, global way–of being in love with life–”hopeful” in the sense of a belief in unexpected opportunities awaiting us around the next corner.

There’s an unpredictable quality to life. It doesn’t confine itself to algorithms. You can be holding a map but still get a flat tire, or miss an exit because you’re belting out “Mamma Mia” at the top of your lungs, or turn off the highway to get gas and end up at a diner eating the most delicious pie a la mode ever. And there, sitting beside you at the counter, wearing a decidedly thread-bare shirt that smells like fish-bait, is the person who becomes your soulmate. You just never know. It’s important to stay open to the serendipities and synchronicities in order to make the most of every moment.

Along the way of this delicious adventure we call the human experience, you’re going to screw up. It’s inevitable. We all do. There are at least as many failures, mishaps, errors, humiliations, mistakes, and utter catastrophes as there are successes, victories, conquests, and delights. It’s part of the program. So what do you do when you find yourself there again, in that place of having arranged your life in as FUBAR a fashion as possible?
Repeated experience has taught me to own my mistakes, make them right if I can, and then move on. You can fix a lot simply by acknowledging your error. Other brainfarts require more effort, more work. Some can’t be rectified at all, even with prayer and the best of intentions. You still have to find a way to forgive yourself. You have to come back to your core truth and soldier on.

In that very process of moving back on track is the hopefulness of it all. Despite everything, you can pick up the pieces…that’s what makes it all so hopeful.

So these ideas were in my mind when I was writing THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE. The story itself started with a random amusing daydream: what if a scruffy man showed up one day out of the blue, claiming to be my soulmate in another universe? Would I believe him? And what if he turned out to be my soulmate, but I could never be with him, because he had to return to his universe? This novel evolved from there.

About the Author:

Traci L. Slatton is a graduate of Yale and Columbia, where she taught freshman composition. She lives in Manhattan, though her love for Renaissance Italy inspired her historical novel Immortal [Bantam Dell], which is currently in film pre-production and reached bestseller status in Italy, Russia and Brazil. Also the author of The Botticelli Affair and the After trilogy (Fallen, Cold Light and Far Shore [forthcoming late spring 2013]), Slatton has published The Art of Life, a photo essay about figurative sculpture; a book of poetry; as well as a non-fiction title on science and spirituality, Piercing Time & Space. Her forthcoming novel, The Mission, is a meaty historical saga set during World War II.

To learn more please visit, http://tracilslatton.com/ / http://parvatipress.com/

Buy THE LOVE OF MY (OTHER) LIFE on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984672621

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