- When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I think I always wanted to but for sure it was in elementary school. We had this Young Author’s competition and I entered with a friend every year. Neither he nor I ever won but we loved every minute of it! I always joked with my Grandmother that I would make it big one day with a book and we would move to Vermont and get snowed in every winter while I sat and wrote my next best seller.
- How long does it take you to write a book?
Well, that is still up in the air. I took about two months to write Out of the Wreckage. Changing Fate was about four months but edits were about half of that. The characters seem to have lives of their own and it poured out of me. Although I had my cousin reading as I wrote and she wouldn’t be happy if she had to wait too long for the next chapter to be emailed.
- What is your work schedule like when you are writing?
Luckily I am a stay at home wife and mom or I would surely be crazy by now if I had a full time job out of the house as well. My two daughters go to school in the mornings and my son is homeschooled so it is hectic. I take the girls to school and set my son up for the day. He does his work right alongside me. Whether it is research, writing, edits or whatever I try to work through the day until the girls get home all while cleaning, and errands are shoved in-between. Weekends and late nights after everyone is in bed I usually get a lot done. Of course my oldest is a HUGE help with occupying the younger two.
- What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have heard this enough to know… I write it a chapter or so at a time on paper then type it. Something about curling up on the couch with a notebook and it flows out faster…better…I don’t really know. Then once I am done I print it all out and put it in a three ring binder and read it as if it weren’t even mine.
- How did you choose to publish your books?
Well that choice wasn’t actually mine… I was writing a book I have yet to publish and between friends that I let read it and my husband telling me that I needed to go for it. I just did it. I was terrified and so I wrote Out of the Wreckage to sort of jump in with. I had never really let a lot of people read what I wrote especially something I poured everything I had into but it was such a rush and I am loving the ride so far.
- Where do you get the information or ideas for your books?
Out of the Wreckage just sort of came to me… I can’t explain it. Changing Fate has a lot of truth to it. There is a lot of myself in both Rachel and Kate. More so Rachel though. Although like I said they sort of became their own characters and that story came together so well I couldn’t believe it. I still look at some of the pages and say, “Holy Crap did I come up with that?”
- When did you write your first book and how old were you?
Well I remember writing as early as first grade for the Young Authors contest, so what is that like seven? Although I wrote my whole life, I did attempt a novel when I was eighteen and after someone found it and read it out loud I was embarrassed. So I hid my writing from everyone until last year.
- What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?
Well I read A LOT and have a serious one-click problem. I spend time with my family and we do a lot of fishing, and going to the park. We have regular movie nights. I love going to the track with my IPOD and just blaring the playlists and doing laps until my legs give out. I get my best ideas on the track.
- What does your family think of your writing?
I think it is a mixed review like anything else. My husband hasn’t read anything other than bits and pieces but he is proud and tells anyone who will listen. My oldest daughter is almost thirteen and she loves that Mom is a writer. A lot of my family is very supportive and proud readers. I nearly died when I heard that my cousin took her kindle to my seventy year old grandmother who read Out of the Wreckage!
- What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
How much fun it would be to just let go. I had spent so much time being a wife and mom that to just do this… it was freeing. It was like I had come into a whole new part of myself and I am rolling with the ups and downs and loving every minute of it. I never thought I would have so much support from the writer and blogger community. Oh and the fact that so many of my favorite authors are self-publishers too! It is like a revolution or something. HA HA I couldn’t be in better company.
- How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I have written countless honestly all my life but this genre I have written three: Into Focus which hasn’t been published yet, Out of the Wreckage, and Changing Fate. Changing Fate’s sequel has been started as well and is due out later this year.
I don’t know if I have a favorite it would be like choosing a favorite child…
- Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so what are they?
Write what you love, always research and have fun! Take everything with a grain of salt there are honestly a lot of bullies out there reviewing even though I know I will get a bad review…they are inevitable some are just cruel and are not constructive at all.
- Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
Yes I think that is one of my favorite parts of this! I get emails, posts on my facebook and twitter and etc. I actually got a post letting me know that a woman who was reading Changing Fate cried so hard that her boss came into her office and asked if she needed a personal day. I have had so many tell me how touched they were by what I wrote and that absolutely makes my day.
- Do you like to create books for adults?
Yes! I love the triangles, and the romance. The clenching in the pit of your stomach and the tingles you get from all the emotion. The heat, humor and banter, I crave it. It is what I read. Although I am all over the spectrum with what I read, I don’t think I could write anything else.
- What do you think makes a good story?
There has to be a balance between heat, romance, and humor. There needs to be plenty of emotion and a great story. It needs to be real, I mean you need to be able to put yourself in it and feel the story yourself. It needs to become a part of you and you should be different after reading it.
- As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I absolutely always wanted to be a writer. I know my Mom would agree she was always finding paper everywhere I wrote everything and I mean everything. It was always so much easier to get the thoughts out on paper. I can remember her picking me up from school because she found something I wrote when I was mad at her and well I was a teen at the time so it was pretty bad! HA HA
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