Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
Great question.
Inspiration, for me, comes in any and all forms. It could be a smell, a color or the scruffy dog trotting down the street. I never know when a story idea will hit me, so I try to always have pencil and paper handy. I’ve even been known to scratch on paper napkins in restaurants.
I’m also an avid people watcher. In the mall or stuck in traffic. I imagine where the different folks come from, what their days are like. Is anyone waiting for them at home? Why? Why not?
I’ve been inspired by kids on a playground and by the name of a business. By the earthy smell of a horse stable and the sweet scent of a newborn baby.
I don’t know how the process works in my head, I only know that it does – kinda.
I want to be a writer. How do I get started?
So you want to be a writer, eh? Got people taking up residence in your head, whispering in your ear and just being general pains in your backside? Best advice on getting started is to sit down and simply start writing.
Don’t worry about the ins and outs. Not right away. There’s time enough later for the dos and don’ts of writing. First and foremost, you have to write.
Get those characters, those settings and plot twists on paper. Don’t think you’ll remember them later because you won’t. Put your story together the best that you can, then start taking writing classes to hone your craft. Whether from the local community college or an online class, learn all that you can about this wonderfully frustrating job of writing fiction. Learn about GMC. Learn about fresh ways to turn a phrase. Learn and read.
Read books from your different authors. Authors whose stories touch your heart; make you laugh and make you cry.
There’s a ton of hard work that must go into your writing. You have to read and study and learn and grow. But most importantly, you have to put the back of your front in the chair and write.
Period.
What books did you read growing up?
Ooh…tough question because it taxes my memory. <wink>
As a kid, I loved the usual suspects, Curious George and anything by Dr. Seuss—especially The Sleep Book. I also loved Little Golden Books. Of course the ones I read are now categorized as “classics…” The Red Hen, Poky Little Puppy and Three Little Kittens were some of my favorites.
The first *novel* I remember reading was a middle-grade story about a girl and her horse, titled something like Tawny…I don’t remember for sure. I tried reading Little Women—several times—but never could get into the story. When I was in 6th Grade, I read Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson as part of a literary contest, in which I was a runner-up.
Why do you write romance?
Because I love writing stories that have happy endings!
I also love creating characters that are kinda broken, putting them together with other broken characters and letting them heal each other.
And I write romance because I love the genre; because I can’t ever see myself not writing it. There was once a time, very early in my writing career, when I was severely frustrated. I told my husband that I was done. Finished with trying to put these $%&# stories on paper. I boxed up all my writing material and books, cleaned my office and turned off my computer… That lasted less than a day. When hubby came home after work the next evening, my office was again a scattered mess with my computer humming happily.
Bottom line, I write because I have to.
How did you get into writing erotic romance?
I’ve always written pretty hot love scenes, but I stayed just this side of the line. That is until a critique partner, who wrote erotic romance, finally prodded me into crossing that line. And I haven’t looked back since.
What’s the best part of writing for you?
Typing The End!
What’s the worst?
Pretty much everything before typing The End… <giggle>
What’s your writing process?
What writing process? Seriously? Truth is, I don’t have a process—not a consistent one anyway.
Every time I write a new story, the process is different. I’ve done everything from a fast draft to plotting out each individual scene. What works one time, will not work the next. I can’t explain it. And I’ve reconciled myself to the reality that this is simply the way things are for me. *sigh*
