I write novels for the same reason I read…to escape. As a woman running a business during a pandemic, I need to escape now more than ever. Most women read for the same reason. As women, we bear so much stress on our shoulders, escaping for a little while into the pages of a book makes life a bit more enjoyable. We can’t all go to Venice during carnival, sail the ocean on a pirate ship, or experience ancient Rome. When we open a book we’re transported to as many places as there are talented authors to write about them. I am not discounting men as needing book escapes, but the data shows the majority of fiction readers are women.