MEET AUTHOR CHANTA RAND AND FIND OUT WHAT SHE'S THANKFUL FOR

This month we're going to introduce you to one of our authors every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each short interview ends with what they're thankful for because, it is after all almost Thanksgiving, and the time of year when we often reflect.
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​First up is Chanta Rand! 
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​What was the first concert you ever went to?
Picture it: 1983. San Antonio, TX. Prince (or the artist now formerly known as Prince) comes to the Convention Center. I’m just two months past my 13th birthday. All I knew was that my cousins (all older boys) were going to a concert. I begged my parents to let me tag along. They’d never heard of Prince. After all these years, the one thing that burns in my mind is Prince laying on the stage and dry-humping while singing Do Me Baby. Even as a preteen, I knew I had no business being at that concert! I think I was scarred for life.

Do you have any crazy roommate stories?
The one and only time I had a roommate was when I was twenty-nine. A co-worker of mine got kicked out of the home in which she was housesitting. Her boyfriend broke up with her that same day. My heart goes out to any female going through so much drama. So, I let her stay with me for the weekend. It ended up being a whole month! She played glaringly loud evangelical sermons at 5 AM every day. When people called for me, she never gave me the messages. Finally, when I came home one day and found her washing my panties, she had to go! I’ve never had a roommate ever again.
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Which celebrity do you shamelessly follow in the news?
Cardi B. I love her music. It’s raw and real. A lot of people say she’s tough. But if you listen to the words of her songs, she’s really vulnerable. In Be Careful, she’s pouring our her feelings when she says, “My heart is like a package with a fragile label on it.” Between the lines of her braggadocio lyrics, she admits to loving a man so much she hates him. In her song, Thru Your Phone she expresses the outrage of having her heart ripped open and her trust broken. Haven’t we all been made a fool of at one time or another by a man? When you get to the level of serving someone a “bowl of cereal with a teaspoon of bleach” you know he’s done you wrong!  With numerous awards, 4 million Twitter followers, and being the first female rapper to attain multiple number-one songs in the Billboard Hot 100, I guess I’m not the only person who shamelessly follows her.

Writing-wise, what are you working on?
My first love is sci-fi. When it comes to anything space-related, I’m the HNIC (Head Nerd in Charge). So, I took my passion for that and translated it into a series about a female bounty hunter in outer space. Abandoned at birth and forced to work on a penal colony until she escapes as a teen, my heroine now has commitment issues. So, instead of focusing so much on the romance, I focus on her growth as a young woman. Once she learns to love herself, she’s in a better position to be loved by a man who’s worthy of her. 

What’s the hardest part about being a writer?
For me, the hardest part about this business is definitely marketing and promoting. I’ve been a published author since 2009, and I’m still trying to find a healthy balance between writing the next book and marketing the current one. I’m an extrovert; I can work any room full of strangers, but all that promo exhausts me. What I love about the Garden Press family is that they’re constantly promoting their authors and teasing readers with new releases. They make it easy for me to piggyback on all of the catchy tweets and posts they create for First Love Second Chance.
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What are you thankful for?
I’m thankful for the freedom to express myself. We live in a country with a lot of injustices that concern me: racism, sexism, police brutality, sexual assault, and immigrant children being snatched from their parents and thrown in cages.  Despite all this, I’m free to protest and write about these atrocities on social media and in my books. Not everyone is that blessed. When I say my prayers at night, I thank God that I’m able to fight these battles, and I pray that I’ll be able to stand up for others around the world who aren’t so fortunate.
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Chanta Rand writes romance with unpredictable characters, laugh out loud moments and well-placed profanity. You can find out more about her books at www.chantarand.com or follow her Amazon page.  
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Come back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to meet another author!
​November 5: Chanta Rand
November 7: S. Taylor
November 9: Nyora Rene
November 12: Tiye
November 14: Colette Miller Watkins
November 19: J.L. Campbell
November 21: Delaney Diamond