Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I began my career as a reference and collection development librarian in the Art and Music Section of the San Diego Public Library and then transferred to the Literature and Languages Section, where I had the pleasure of managing the Central Library’s Fiction collection and initiating fiction order lists for the entire library system. Although I also enjoy reading biography, memoir, and history, fiction remains my first love. In addition to the three R’s—reading, writing, and research—I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.
My earliest ambition was to be a “book maker” and I wrote my first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library to spend more time on my writing
My stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, Thema Literary Journal,, The Binnacle, The Nassau Review, Orbis, and Australia Burns (benefiting Australian wildfire relief and recovery.) The Wild Rose Press published Seventeen Days in 2018 and The Rebound Effect in 2019.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Guilty Knowledge. Two different subjects I had been considering fit together for the plot, but the real trigger came when a TV character asked a question, and I imagined what my answer would be. I gave that answer to Sariah, and her character grew out of it. When I began to imagine who Jesse would be, I happened to see an attractive black man, and that became part of the character. I hadn’t intended it to be an interracial romance, but it gave me an opportunity to say something I had always wanted to say on the subject.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can write with rock music on the radio, in front of the TV, or with someone sitting beside me, but not with anyone behind me. I consider a lizard my muse and Huxley, a writer mouse from Starbucks, my sometime collaborator.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
A major influence early on was the Williamsburg series by Elswyth Thane. It’s now very dated and politically incorrect, but I still see echoes of it in my writing. I’ve also written several captivity stories, including “Rumpelstiltskin,” (published in Eclectica, April/May 2018), undoubtedly influenced by memoirists Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, Katie Beers, Amanda Berry, et al.
What are you working on now?
Promoting Guilty Knowledge and working on a story called “Moon Shadows”–I don’t know yet how long it will be or exactly where it is headed.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I prefer Twitter to Facebook, and found Silver Dagger Book Tours easy to work with. My fellow Wild Rose Press authors are very supportive, sharing tips, guest posts on their blogs, retweets, etc.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read! Read anything and everything. The more different styles you read, the more easily you will develop your own. Don’t worry about writing in chronological or logical order; it can all be sorted out later. Write for yourself and polish for editors. Don’t give up.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Richard P, Brickner said that although a novel is an ocean to its writer, it’s a mere drink of water to the reader. It reminds me to never be discouraged by indifference or criticism and just enjoy the swim.
What are you reading now?
Long Way Home by Cameron Douglas
What’s next for you as a writer?
Reworking the beginning of another romantic suspense novel, tentatively titled The Way to a Woman’s Heart, about a female cop and a software designer who loves to cook.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Found and Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck, Against Wind and Tide by Anne Lindbergh, and Ten Years of Freedom by Natascha Kampusch
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