Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: I always jump out of the box if someone’s put me in one.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A: Out of more than 117 works in progress, I have published 23 books.
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: I have a book that just released on November 13th. The title is Blue Vision, and it’s a science fiction romance. Additionally, I am editing a contemporary romantic drama collection, titled Directions of the Heart, and I hope to see that out in early 2017.
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
A: Multiverse genre, because I write in and cross so many genres with my books.
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: Blue Vision is about a woman who escapes her life to mid-winter Montana. There she discovers a strange man and events that she can’t wrap her head around. Except there’s so much more to all of it than she’ll ever guess.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A: I love shopping!
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
A: My favorite author these days is probably J.R. Ward. I love her Black Dagger Brotherhood Series.
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: A contemporary Western romance titled Under Her Skin by Susan Mallery.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: A little of both. I am a pantster and a plotter. I write as much as I can, the scenes spilling into my mind and onto the pages haphazardly. Then I do a full plot outline, and write some more. Afterwards, I do a lot of research and finally, I do character worksheets to explore my characters further, and add some of those details into the book.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I write because the characters won’t leave me alone. I write to honor their stories. I write because my hands won’t stop writing. I can’t stop discovering other worlds and the tales which unfold.
Q: Do you read your own work a lot? If so, what does it do for you?
A: Yeah, sometimes I go back and read a previous entry to familiarize myself with where I left off. That way, I know what scene to work on next. Also, when I’m in the editing stages, it helps me to look over my work critically, to see if anything should be changed.
Q: What is your favorite type of music? Is there one genre (or song, band etc...) that brings out your creativeness more than others?
A: Mmm-hmm. It’s usually either OneRepublic, Paramore or the softer, electronic sounds of Ellie Goulding, Owl City and Lights.
Q: As an author, I find that the hardest thing to write (for me) is the synopsis that will be on the back cover or book’s description. When you write, what is the hardest line to write, the first line, the last line or the synopsis for the book?
A: Fiction professors advise you to write ‘en media res’, or ‘in the middle of things’, so writing the first line is challenging but not impossible. Yes, the last line of a book is also important. But I have to agree with you. Writing a synopsis or blurb is the hardest for me, not only because it’s hard to summarize a book you’ve spent so much time on, but also because you have to face a book’s description from a completely different angle than usual. As an author, you must put your marketing hat on, and pray that you’ve summed up the book, hooked a reader without giving too much away.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: I am a firm believer that we all have a purpose in this world. We’re meant to do something specific, something important that will drive us forward. So follow your dreams, preserve them well, and never let anyone tell you that you’re any less for those dreams you love so much.