Author Bio:
I grew up in southern West Virginia and being the middle child, was surrounded by family, namely my two brothers. After high school, I married a man I met in college. He left school and joined the Navy, and we traveled to different bases along the East Coast. He gave me two great boys before we parted ways.
After the divorce, I attended beauty college, which helped me express my creativity differently than the poems and stories I’d written in the privacy of my bedroom. I began a twenty-year career in the beauty industry including teaching at my alma mater and then working for the state cosmetology licensing agency.
I always had a vivid imagination and dreamed of writing and publishing my own stories. Now, that I’ve hit fifty, my dream has been realized because of the love and support of my retired coal miner husband.
I live in rural Boone County, West Virginia, with my fabulous husband, one cat, one chunky dog, and six pet chickens. When I’m not writing, I’m helping my husband preserve the goodies from our garden, walking my dog, or gathering eggs.
What inspires you to write?
I've always had a vivid imagination. I could spend hours alone, listening to music and writing. I grew up watching science fiction and loved the endless possibilies that genre afforded me.
Teleporting? Loved the idea.
Self-flying vehicles to avoid traffic jams? Yes, please!
Food that tastes great with no calories? Sign me up!
Being able to create my own world, according to MY rules is just too good to pass up!
Tell us about your writing process.
I am a certified pants writier. I can't plot or outline to save my life. It kills my creativity. I love to write a story by watching my characters. I get just as shocked by some of the twists and turns as the reader. I really have no idea where my characters will end up. Sometimes I read my story when I'm getting ready to send to my editor and I get surprised by some of the things I see on the page. "I wrote this? Wow!"
I did just get a five subject notebook and different colored pens to start charting my characters and their lives so I can keep track of it all. I have cross-overs and I want to make sure I remember all the details of my people. I don't want Jonah to have purple eyes in 'Mine', then green eyes in another series I happen to put him in (or his own book).
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I talk with my characters, watch them interact with others. I know this is so strange but I'm being serious here; when I write a book, I always write a love scene with my two main characters first. It gives me an insight to their personalities. I can then go back and build up to that part of the story without changing too much of the content of that scene.
I also search the web for pictures of the male character so I can put that picture in a folder and go back to study him. I ask him to tell me how he feels about 'this part or the story or 'that thing that happened' between characters.
Who are your favorite authors?
My genre tastes are like my music tastes…vast and varied!
I found ebooks with J.R. Rain (he's why I use my initials) but I found and fell in LOVE with Laurann Dohner (have all her books). I just recently discovered Lucy Lennox and Rosalind Abel. Em Petrova writes amazing books too.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
When I first started writing, decades ago, ebooks weren't around. I knew I could never afford to go to a publisher and get paperbacks printed. When ebooks came into being, I was so interested but I never had a clue how that worked. But, I became friends with a few self-published authors on social media and got their advice.
I really wanted to be published before I hit the big 5-0. I had read somewhere that to be successful, an author needed to have several books ready to hit the internet one after another. I worked my tail off, and got my first series ready to go then hit "publish" a few weeks before my 50th birthday.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think books will always be popular! They are a comfort, an escape, an education, and a way for us to find universal common ground.
I realize not all my books are someone's cup of tea. I write traditional m/f books, m/f/m menage, m/m and m/m/f menage because, as my characters have told me "Love is never a bad thing." But I also know some people don't want the explicit love scenes I write, or they like mysteries or books that are more like real life instead of aliens or shifters. That's great! We can all agree books are wonderful ways to expand horizons and meet others through our connections over the web from fan sites of our books or author pages.
What genres do you write?
Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi Romance, Shifter Romance
What formats are your books in?
eBook
Website(s)
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Author’s Social Media Links
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All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.
