About Me

About

Vonda Sinclair writes Scottish historical romance. Her manuscripts have finaled in over a dozen writing competitions including RWA's Golden Heart. She served for two years as the Vice President and Education Coordinator for Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. In addition, she is a PRO level member of RWA, From the Heart Romance Writers, Hearts Through History, Celtic Hearts and a wonderful critique group. Her writing articles have appeared in a number of RWA chapter newsletters as well as online at writing sites. She holds a BA degree in psychology, a minor in studio art and has studied the French language. Her hobbies include reading, watching movies, amateur photography, gardening, candle-making, hiking and bicycling. She lives with her husband in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Putting psychology to work

It is said that a writer has certain themes and messages that run like a thread through each of their stories. For me, one of those themes is the healing power of love.

My novels tend to be about people with emotional baggage, something painful from their past. They have lived through a lot--emotional pain, physical pain. They have endured hard times, perhaps crushing guilt, poverty, or torture and lived to tell about it. They are not yet healed from these past hurts when my stories begin. With the love of the most important person in their lives, they begin to put the pieces of their lives back together and mend. This can play out in dozens or hundreds of ways.

by Vonda Sinclair
Ring O'Brodgar

Above is one of my favorite sites in Scotland, the Ring O' Brodgar on Orkney Island. This is a Neolithic standing stone circle. Check out my Scotland page for a link to my detailed travelogue to this site and others.

Quotes

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. ~Anais Nin

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~Henry Miller

If you can imagine it, You can achieve it. If you can dream it, You can become it. ~William Arthur Ward

The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense. ~Tom Clancy

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. ~Carl Jung

At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you. -Goethe-

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. -William Jennings Bryan

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make. ~Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. ~Erin Majors

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away! ~Unknown

If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little berserk. ~William Shakespeare

The world moves for love; it kneels before it in awe. ~Edward Walker, in The Village

Is it any wonder I love writing about the Highlands of Scotland? The mountains, the mist, the shadows at dawn. The above photo is not Scotland; it's the view from my house here in the mountains of NC.