Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an indie author with three published books, soon to be five.
Someone once told me a good bio should contain five things nobody knows about you, so here are some things you might not know about me:
• I’ve written two books that haven’t seen the light of day. They were practice. I have two children’s book published, Meena Mouse’s Perfect Raspberry and Hubert Little’s Great Adventure. I also have a novel, Gatekeeper, a collection of dark short stories, Myth, Magic and Monsters.
• My love of things fantastical and stories in general began when I was four. My mother read me and my brother Gulliver’s Travels. My brother only remembered how Gulliver put out the fire in the Lilliputian town by urinating on it. I saw the story as a portal to magical worlds. From around the same time I remember a book about fairies, brownies and other little people.
• I had a fantastic teacher who nurtured my storytelling. When I was in the second half of fifth grade and sixth grade, we lived in Ismay, a tiny town in eastern Montana. It was my father’s first superintendent of schools job. There were eight kids in my classroom ranging from fourth through eighth grades. My teacher, Evelyn Hoem, was well ahead of her time and involved students in reading and writing activities appropriate to their development and interests. She nurtured every talent in every kid. I was a story teller, sometimes implicating and scapegoating my brother or friends. I also loved horses.
• I wrote my first story in Mrs. Hoem’s class. It was about a Montana ranch girl who caught and tamed a wild horse. The story won a blue ribbon at the Montana State Fair. I also won blue ribbons on a couple of ink drawings. Someone actually bought one and paid me five dollars. I thought words were more thrilling that pictures, so I’ve been writing stories ever since.
• As a teacher, I always remembered what Mrs. Hoem instilled in me: a love of story. I tried to pass that love on to students. I recently Googled her name, thinking about her for this bio and found an obituary. She died in 2003.
• I’m terrified of spiders.
• I am a proud member of the South Carolina Writers’ Association (Formerly South Carolina Writers’ Workshop). I live with my sports junkie husband in Murrells Inlet, SC. When I’m not writing, I knit and create video book trailers for myself and authors.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Twenty years ago a friend and I wrote a romantic suspense called Double Danger. It had a protagonist with baggage who falls for a man with a mysterious past. There are spies, assassins and computers. Some readers might not know that back then computers were booted from a 5 ½ floppy disk.
We’ve updated the book, and it will be released in May. It’s set in Michigan, where both my friend and I spent our working years. We’ve been to all the places we used in the story. We’ve been in the little towns with lyrical names like Bevort and Epoufette. We’ve both crossed the Mackinac Bridge numerous times: Mighty Mac.
After thirty years I’m still good friends with my co-writer, Nancy Tucker.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write everywhere in notebooks, on sticky notes, on torn pieces of paper, dictating into my phone.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love stories about fairies and other magical things. Especially the Harry Potter books.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a sequel to Meena Mouse.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I rely on other people’s word of mouth. It’s not what you know, but who you know. If someone mentions me, the information spreads. I try my best to repay other authors who give me shout-outs. Besides this website, I also like fkbt.com.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never give up. Just do it. No matter how little you think you know about the writing/publishing process, just start. Tell your story, finish it and then learn how to revise, publish and market.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Consider the character arc. Your character begins as an ordinary person with a history and ends being an ordinary person. Ordinary is changeable.
What are you reading now?
I just finished reading Station Eleven. It’s a remarkable take on the post-apocalyptic trope. Art brings change.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep on writing. I also make videos for myself and other authors.
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?
All the Harry Potter books. There is so much to them I could read and reread them forever.
Author Websites and Profiles
Trilby Plants Website
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