Author's Books

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Writing is my passion. I can’t picture a world where I’m not writing. Even when I was very sick for eight months, I managed to do a little writing every week because it made me feel better. Besides, I have all these stories in my head that clamor to get down on paper. I’ve been doing it seriously for the last twenty years.

The excitement of selling a book never dims. I still want to jump up and down and yell like I did with my first sale when my youngest told me to be quiet. I was scaring the cats. I call and email everyone I can think of each time I sell another book or short story.
There is nothing quite like holding my book in my hands and know that other people are enjoying the characters and world I have created.

My books start with a character. The ideas for characters can come from anywhere. They come from movies or books I read, they pop into my head unbidden, or sometimes I have to go hunting for them. Lila, in my historical fiction THE LUCKY LADY, came from a scary movie I was watching one day. The main character took off her shirt and her back was covered in scars. Lila was born from that character, though the only resemblance is the scars on her back.

When a character pops into my mind, then I have to figure out who she is and what her story is. Rayna, whom you will meet in my first WHISKEY SHOTS, “The Lady’s Guard,” sat on that porch with her dying grandmother for four or five years. I always thought she was part of a western historical. Then WCP started their WHISKEY SHOTS and I knew Rayna belonged in a fantasy realm and the grandmother wasn’t really hers.
Both Rayna and Dyna will make their debut in August 2007 when my first WHISKEY SHOTS is released [WHISKEY SHOTS VOLUME 8]. They come from a realm inhabited by two species: the Ancient Ones with magical powers and the humans. Rayna is a human who is part of the lady’s guard. Her responsibility is to keep the lady of the castle safe. Dyna, in “Hunting the Ancient Ones,” is a very young Ancient One who is on a mission to save an innocent. Dyna was one of the characters I had to go hunting for because I needed a second story and someone to be the star. These are the characters I try to create by sheer force, usually when I’m trying to fall asleep. They tend to keep me awake until I can figure out who they are.

Once in awhile I find a setting, then have to find a character that will fit into it. I went on vacation to the Florida Keys and thought this would be a great place to set a pirate story, but I had no characters. I won a pinup calendar of men and found Eric, who became the main character in my novel A MOMENT IN TIME. He’s sitting in a chair with a towel in his lap and a smile that could melt any heart. He’s framed and hanging on the wall by my computer, which makes my youngest son’s friends uneasy. When I need inspiration, I enjoy looking at him. However, with A MOMENT IN TIME, I didn’t want to make Eric the pirate. The man’s always the pirate, so Felicity became the pirate and Eric, a present day lawyer, ended up on her pirate ship in 1692.

With THE IRISH COUNTESS, a 2007 EPPIE Award Finalist for Historical Romance, Ciara popped into my head. I saw her running away in the middle of the night. I knew she was Irish, but I didn’t know from whom she was running. That scene never made the book, but started the story.

I have a new romance/fantasy book coming out in February 2008 from Whiskey Creek Press called THE ENCHANTED HAWK. Brylyn, a shape shifter, came into existence when I was judging the RITA Awards one year. I read a book about a shape shifter and thought; “I haven’t done one of those. That would be fun.” However, I didn’t want to do a vampire or werewolf, so I went in search of some other type of shape shifter. She’s actually polymorphic since she takes various shapes. Her hero is a lord’s son and lives in a medieval castle. Together, they must fight the invaders and overcome the prejudices their peoples have against each other. Be sure and watch for Brylyn and Thom when they make their debut this coming February.

Historical settings are my favorite and I especially like medieval settings. I’m also found of western America.

My writing schedule is fairly strict. I write on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The rest of the week I have to go to my “other” job and am too tired to care about writing. I try never to get to the computer before one in the afternoon. I find mornings are best for sleeping or staring at reruns on the television. My brain isn’t into being creative too early in the day.

Sometimes it takes me two hours to actually start writing. When I do get going, I can do about 20 pages in a day. I write late into the evening until I accomplish my goal for the day. Since I’m single and my sons are grown, I can keep my own hours.
Chewbaca, my 70 pounds blue Queensland Heeler, is my helper while I write. If mom’s at the computer, then she must want to play ball. I can usually get four or five words typed before he brings the ball back from across the room.

When I have the characters and start a book, I do a loose plotline with three turning points, the climax and resolution. Then I write straight through. I write without a lot of planning. I have an idea as to what needs to happen in a scene or chapter and then just go. My first draft has very little description. Also, I do as little research as possible. I tend to get hooked on the research and forget to write. I generally read a book about the era or write in an era I already know. I keep my research books handy while I write and will look up necessary facts as I go along. I like Google or Wikipedia for little facts. Other times, I put a note in the middle of my manuscript and look up missing pieces after I finish the first draft.

When I’m writing a book, I always get stuck around page 150 and haven’t a clue as to where I need to be going. It’s like leaving the map on the kitchen table when you leave on a road trip. I plow through until it clicks in again. Then the rest usually goes fine. If I run into a problem, I take it to my plot group and they help me figure it out. I end up with a lot of sagging middles, but my sister is great at finding them so I can tighten them up.
I go back and rewrite, adding description, taking out redundancies and adding more emotion. Then I send it off to my critique partner and my sister and work on something else while I wait for them to tell me where it’s slow or I’ve left something out. They’re also very good at finding typos and wrong word choices. Since I write mostly historical pieces, my critique partner marks where something sounds too modern.
When they return the book to me, I go through it again making final changes. Then I send it out. I know my editor is going to ask for some more changes, but so far they haven’t been too extensive.

I generally work on more than one project at a time. I will be working on a book and then stop and write a short story in the middle of it. Or I’ll write a scene in my book, then switch and write a scene in a short story. At the moment, I’m working on more fantasy short stories. I also write character short stories for each of my books that I give away as prizes in the contests I run off my website. These stories tell how the characters came to be, where they were, when they met.

My computer sits in the middle of the family room. That way I can keep track of anything going on in the house. I don’t like not being able to hear someone at the door or not know who is home. I also write with the television on. I can’t seem to create anything when it’s turned off. It’s too quiet and I get the feeling someone’s into something they shouldn’t be. It used go be my sons I worried about. Now it’s Chewbaca. It also probably goes back to all the years I corrected papers and did lesson plans in front of the television.
I enjoy writing and plan on having many more books written before I stop!