Only Wheat not White by Varsha Dixit ♥ Book Tour & GIVEAWAY ♥ (Contemporary Romance)

What if following your heart means failing your family? Eila Sood leaves India for the U.S., hoping to unite her family and mend fences with her estranged older sister. She soon learns that her sister’s intercultural marriage, which outraged their parents, has hit rock bottom. To help pay the bills, Eila accepts an accounting job at a strip club, working for the fascinating yet infuriating Brett Wright. As their friendship and mutual desire builds, Eila chooses keeping family peace over following her heart. After Brett misinterprets her fears and accuses Eila of prejudice, his ex-girlfriend steps in to offer solace. Eila realizes that whichever choice she makes will rip her life apart. What will Eila choose? Love of her life or a life ruled by tradition? Fall in love with love, in this steamy saga from a best selling romance author.

Balancing life and writing

Balance is the center of everything proper, everything sane. Without balance nature, humans and societies do not flourish. Balance is important in every aspect of our lives be it professional or personal.
Balance is crucial in writing too. Broadly speaking, two kinds of balances influence writing – one is the balance in writing itself. This balance simply ensures that the story has a beginning, middle and an end. The end of the story usually balances the beginning and the middle takes the story forward.
The other balance is the one that the writers’ needs to exercise. For those who don’t know about me – I’m the author of four contemporary romance books. I have been penning contemporary romance for nearly a decade.
My debut book, Right Fit Wrong Shoe, the first part of a romantic trilogy was a best seller in India. I wrote my first two books back to back in a year and a half. I’m also the kind of author that edits my books at least seven to eight times before I send it to my publisher.
There is a reason why I shared little history about my writing habits and myself. The unbridled writing of two years, I just mentioned, literally dried up my overactive imagination. Story and plot ideas that usually ran amok in my head became eerily quiet. I love writing second to only living. Nothing scared me like the silence in my mind. I tried everything under the sun – meditation, excessive reading, excessive thinking, constant listening to music, taking long walks by myself– everything that usually had my mind exploding with new story ideas and new characters. However my imagination stayed silent.
Then, just a like a letter dropped in the post box, I woke up one morning with a plot in my head. Characters slowly tiptoed back in my mind and befriended me. The gratitude and relief I felt was immense. The kind that made me want to rush to my laptop and type pages and pages without taking break. Myriad plot ideas, story twists and character details! The operative words being, ‘want to’ not that ‘I did’.
My writing days were back but with a difference. That difference was I. This time I wrote with the same passion but I balanced my writing hours with hours where I left my writing to live and function normal. Voila! I wrote a writing schedule. I wrote from nine in the morning to two in the afternoon. Then rest of the day was about family, chores, some TV time and myself. Weekends I took off completely.
This time my mind did not shut down. Ideas kept flowing and characters continued frolicking in my head.
According to me, a good writer is blessed with imagination, an expressive vocabulary and the gift of observation. Gift of observation is an important tool for any writer. However the catch with this gift is that you need to move away from your writing so you can write better.
One area where I feel a break is of utmost importance for any writer is between edits. In my experience a break of minimum two weeks allows you to edit better and sees flaws you might have missed earlier.
In summary all I would say is be a writer but don’t function like a typewriter. Work hard to fulfill your dreams but don’t forget to take some time to dream some more.
I hope you enjoyed my take on balancing life and writing. If any of you have questions about writing fiction, please feel free to email me at varsha@varshadixit.com. I will try my best to answer them based on my own writing experiences of nearly a decade.

Eila exhaled and her shoulders slumped. Her head felt stiff with anxiety. She unlatched the perpetual hair clip at her nape. Her dark, voluminous hair broke free and cascaded down her back, swirling in gentle curves. Picking up her bag, she went to the door.

“Oh!” She jerked back as the door opened from the other side. It was Brett.

He could only stare at her. “Finally,” he voiced faintly, his expression tender.

“Wh-what?” Eila stammered, confused by his affectionate gaze. Brett advanced into the room and Eila retreated. Brett stopped close to her. His fingers gently caught her chin and raised her face to his. His touch froze Eila. Wordlessly, she stared deep into his eyes. Everything else just melted away. Eila’s breath lodged in her throat as Brett’s fingers roughly and then gently and then roughly again stroked her plump lower lip. His eyes were fixed on her lips. Brett’s own mouth parted in anticipation of a kiss.

Eila thought she would explode with desire. Brett’s spicy smell assailed her and the more she looked into Brett’s eyes the further removed she became from everything coherent. Eila’s eyes felt heavy. Sighing, she lowered her lashes as she swayed toward Brett.

His mouth lightly caressed her cheek. Eila blindly turned her face into Brett’s. She delicately shivered at the sensation Brett was causing as he nudged and rubbed under her ear.

Eila’s shiver drove Brett wild. His mind started imagining ways to make her shiver more. There was something very sacred about the way he touched her. Desire wasn’t far away, their hoarse breaths indicated.

There was a loud knock on the door and Judith called out loudly, “Brett, your cab is here!”

Shocked, Eila’s closed eyes sprung open and jerked away. Her mind was spinning.

Brett caught Eila’s arm and pulled her back close to him.

Varsha Dixit is the best selling author of four successful contemporary romance books. Her debut book, Right Fit Wrong Shoe was a national bestseller for the year 2010. Varsha was a part of the Indian Television Industry and worked as an assistant director and online editor. She considers herself a dreamer who thinks deep but writes light. Even though creativity is gender free, Varsha feels blessed and enriched to be a woman. Currently, with her family, Varsha resides in CA, USA.