Frequently Asked Questions

Who are your favorite authors?

This question is always difficult to answer! It’s like asking what kind of chocolate I like best (I haven’t tasted any chocolate I didn’t like). I’m always finding new authors and great reads. I love giving someone new a try and I’m usually rewarded for the risk.

The following authors not only have a permanent place on my keeper shelf, they often inspire me in my own writing: Douglas Adams, Agatha Christie, MaryJanice Davidson, Dave Eggers, Christine Feehan, Pauline Baird Jones, Charlaine Harris, Robert Ludlum, Katie MacAlister, Laurie Notaro, Elizabeth Peters, Patricia A. Rasey, Nora Roberts, J.K. Rowling, Shel Silverstein, Jeff Strand, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain, and many, many more!

Where do you get your ideas?

I’ve never been able to answer this question to my own satisfaction. I think most writers’ brains are wired for storytelling and they absorb certain things about every place they go and every person they meet. We must tell a story. And because we must, the ideas form. It was YEARS before I realized other people didn’t have two characters having a conversation in their heads. But I can’t remember a time I wasn’t thinking about some part of a story-a conversation, a scene, a plot twist. I’d be brushing my teth and suddenly, in my mind, these two people I knew nothing about would start arguing. The dialogue sounded so good, so real, I just knew I had to write it down.

You write erotic romance … heheheheh … how do you research the sex?

C’mon! There’s no way to answer this question without laughing. It’s fiction! It’s fantasy! I keep waiting for a mystery author to be asked if the murders committed in her novel are based on how many people she’s killed. Or for a horror novelist to be asked just how many people he dismembered with an ax. Some things I write because I’ve done ’em and other things I imagine because I haven’t.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I spend time with my family. We go to the library, to the zoo, and to the movies, among other activities. My daughter and I spend an inordinate amount of time at the mall. I also go to bookstores for no particular reason (other than lattes and romance novels). Like most writers, I love to read. I’m completely enamored of the Amelia Peabody series, which feeds my obsession of all things Egyptian. I love nonfiction, too, and I’ll pick up a grammar book or a history book with just as much enthusiasm as the next novel in the J.D. Robb “…In Death” series.

If you were giving a dinner party who (living or dead) would you invite? Why?

William Shakespeare, Brandon Lee, Keanu Reeves, and Jensen Ross Ackles. I’d love to sit down with ol’ Will and talk about writing (if we could get beyond his idea of English and mine). I’ve always thought it tragic that Brandon Lee died so young, especially given how his father died. It’s always struck me as really damned unfair. I adore Keanu and would love to talk to him. Jenson wouldn’t have to say anything. I’d just look at him.

When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first manuscript?

I’ve been making up stories since I was a little ‘un. I got really good at oral fiction in my teenage years--just ask my mother. Of course, she called it “fibbing.” I decided I wanted to be a writer in the seventh grade, at the tender age of twelve.

I loved the written word … reading stories and creating them. I was twenty when I decided to write a novel. I took a Novel I course from Tulsa Community College. I wrote this angst-driven dreck that made my instructor flinch. One day she said, “You know, maybe you should try to write in a genre that you like to read.” Although I read lots of books in different genres, romance books were my favorite escape. So I sat down to write an angst-driven romantic suspense.

Took two years and lots of computer time at school. I used every romantic cliché ever conceived … but I finished it. Then I gamely sent it out to agents and publishers and promptly received my share of form-letter rejections. My Novel I instructor always told us, “You have to write your thousand pages.” Boy, she was right.

What is your writing routine? How do you balance writing and personal time?

I don’t have a routine. I don’t balance writing and personal time. I envy other writing moms who can and who do, but not enough to actually to follow-through with a Routine That Must Be Followed. I wish I was that writer who rolled out of bed, fixed a pot of tea, and, after reviewing yesterday’s pages, started on the next chapter while sipping Earl Grey. My day starts more like this:

I crawl out of bed, stumble down the hallway and listen to Mac, our noisy guinea pig, squeal for lettuce. My nine-year-old son chimes in with pleas for food, clean clothes, or permission to go outside (usually all three). I feed the guinea pigs (yes, we have two) and my kid, then I help him find clothes, shoes, toys. After at least three arguments about picking up messes and two loud reminders about PUTTING YOUR SHOES IN THE SAME PLACE, I pop a Prilosec and vitamins, downing them with juice. If I’m feeling guilty about the crusty dishes in the sink, I’ll load the dishwasher. Eventually, I collapse into my office chair and turn on my laptop. Sometimes, I actually remember to change out of my nightgown. If I’m really lucky, I get to take a shower.

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