Q. What type of characters do you like to write? What characters do you find inspiring?

A. I love to write characters with passion, outside of their love lives. Whether for their business, their job or a hobby, such as art or woodworking. I’ve written poets, musicians, actors, activists, lawyers and business women. Professions that require drive, determination and passion.

I especially like to write about people who take jobs that give back, such as social workers, teachers, nurses or firefighters. The unsung heroes of society. I’m not interested in writing about billionaires, princes and princesses or cowboys. I like to write about everyday people, like myself, like the people I work with or went to school with, like the people that will read my books.

Q. What type of stories do you like to write?

A. I like to write smaller stories, focused on the heroine and hero (or heroes). Not a lot of extra characters, not a lot of locations or subplots. Just them. I’m not fixed on genre. I love my contemporary works but I also love historical, paranormals and fantasies, especially if the world building is dense and deep. As long as the focus and emotion is strong between the characters.

Q. What types of themes recur in your work?

A. The most common theme in my work is following your heart. Whether it means overcoming what others think, powering through their own fears, or embracing their pasts. My characters always follow their hearts and find their greatest love and passion at the other end.

Q. What is your favorite part of the writing process?

A. My favorite part of writing process is those light bulb moments. The moment you realize why your heroine loves the hero, when you realize what has kept them apart. Or even when you find just the right wording, or the exact analogy that describes how your character feels. That’s what I sit down at the computer for.

Q. What’s the hardest part of the writing process for you?

A. My least favorite part is the first revision. There are always down parts during the first draft, times when you’re stuck and you can’t figure your way out of it, but that doesn’t compare to the first revision for me. It’s like pulling teeth. I’d rather be doing anything else. But I soldier through it, and each progressive revision gets a little easier.

Q. What author is your work most like? What author would you like to be more like?

A. I believe I write similarly to Joey W. Hill, and yet also wish I could be more like her. She writes smaller stories like me, with few extra characters, few scene changes. She writes much hotter than me, but I’m working my way up there. But I’m amazed by her ability to be red- hot and very emotional at the same time. That is something I’d definitely like to emulate more.

I’d love to write more like Christina Dodd, her ability to move through different genres, her volume, and I wouldn’t mind her sales either.

Q. Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

A. At heart I’m a pantser. When I get an idea I just start writing, I don’t wait to plot out or do character charts. I think my writing is better when it’s fresh. But the more I write, and the more ideas I get, the more I find I have to make notes, write outlines and clarify character details while I’m writing to separate all the thoughts and other stories running around in my head.

I’m also an inspiration writer, which means I write the scene that in the moment I’m the most inspired to describe. I rarely write a story in chronological order, and I can only think of a few times when sitting down to write, the first scene I wrote was the first scene of the novel. I usually start with a more pivotal scene, closer to the black moment.

I don’t know how it works, but even though I rarely use an outline, it all just works out.

Q. What fictional character are you most like?

A. I’ve been compared to two fictional characters in my life, both are cartoons (don’t know if that means anything).

One was by my friends in high school. We had gone to see Shrek and all my friends starting saying I was similar to Fiona. Their main arguments being that I live in my head as she does (what writer doesn’t?) and that I kick butt when I have to. Especially when someone’s annoying me, like Robin Hood did to Fiona. I’m not prone to physical violence, but I can certainly slash with my words when needed. I took the comparison as a compliment.

My family has compared me to Lisa Simpson. Not only because I don’t fit in as the only literary and liberal arts minded member in a sea of engineers, but because I’m always fighting for a cause like she does, whether it’s an environmental issues, human or animal cause. We’re both vegetarians and we both have a tendency to get a bit loud to get our point across.

Q. What’s your biggest pet peeve?

A. Waste. I can’t stand it when I see someone being wasteful. Leaving lights on when they’re not in the room, running water when they’re not using it, keeping a room abnormally cold or hot (especially when the temperature isn’t that dramatic outside). That’s the environmentalist in me. If you’re not using it, save some for the rest of us, or the next generation. 

This also applies to waste of intellect, ambition or energy. I can’t stand people with tons of potential that just don’t bother, or people that spend years talking about what they’d like to do while making no effort to do it. It’s been hard, and sometimes very challenging, but I wouldn’t trade anything for living my dream of being a published author. And it’s only getting better.

Q. What do you think is the most romantic trait in a hero?

A. I think the most romantic thing anyone can do, hero or heroine, is to put someone else’s needs before their own. Selflessly giving up something, or prioritizing someone else’s ambitions and desires over their own shows a depth of emotion that always pulls at my heartstrings.