Q: What are your favorite romance genres to write?
A: Anything and everything in paranormal, sci-fi, futuristic, fantasy, and magic with pre-history thrown in, especially Atlantis.
Q: How long have you been writing paranormal?
A: As I recall, it was about age sixteen, inspired by all the romance novels I'd read (that was the era of sweet, keep-the-bedroom-doors-closed romance). Also, inspired by War and Peace, and of course, by Dr. Zhivago (Omar Shariff oh be still my beating heart!), I began writing about an alternative timeline in Russia, where the hero rescues the heroine after she escapes from her abductors. My heroine is in need of a bath, so the secluded ice-cold pool it is, before he takes her back to his grand estate, since he's been in love with her for a long time.
Q: Did you continue writing paranormal fiction during your college years?
A: I took the creative writing classes available. Since that was ages ago, there was no actual degree, and the classes were newly offered. But yes, I wrote a short story about the day Atlantis was destroyed, sinking beneath the ocean waves. In an advanced writing class, I wrote a short story about a white witch who casts a spell for her 'perfect man'. One of the media students wanted to use my story as his final exam project, which was to produce a cable TV video. Unfortunately, my story was labeled as 'having no socially redeeming value' by the supervising professor. Gee, come to think of it, there went my promising script-writing career.
Q: Since you were writing paranormal romance stories before they became a mainstream staple, when did you realize you might have a chance to be published?
A: My sister gave me a book by one of her favorite romance authors (and mine), Jayne Ann Krentz. It was Sweet Starfire, published in 1986 under her pen name, Jayne Castle. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the story, I thought, My Gawd! I might actually have a shot at getting something published now.
Q: Do you have a favorite paranormal subgenre you prefer to write? Or is it a free for all?
A: With me, it's a free for all, definitely. I love combining various elements of all the paranormal subgenres, futuristic and magical, shape-shifting and sci-fi, the goddesses and gods of myth living in alternate timelines. If it's out there, I want to write it. Well, as long as it fits within the world I'm building for my heroine and hero.
Q: As a published author now, how did your career begin?
A: It was two almost simultaneous opportunities. Becoming a finalist in the American Title IV, the Romantic Times contest sponsored by Dorchester, for my entry, Murder by Hair Spray in Gardenia, New Atlantis. And! Signing my very first contract with Siren Publishing for All Shades of Blue Paradise [World of the Blue Pearl Moon, Book I].
