A: I've always been a story teller, but when I was seventeen my high school English teacher told me I could write and gave me my first 'A'. Before that I'd been a science and math nerd. After I got a degree in journalism, life and children interfered. Then one day someone advised me I needed to do something for myself and I started writing again. That was in 1988 and I started writing romances.

Q: What type of books do you write? Is there a reason you write (for instance) historical romance rather than science fiction?

A: I write Thursday evenings through Sunday evenings. My goal is to write forty pages a weekend or spend the same amount of time on rewrites, promotion and other writing activities. When I sit down to write the first draft, I try to do a chapter at a time, which is about sixteen pages. Sometimes I make the goal. Other times I write two.

Q: How do you come up with the idea for a book? Once you have an idea, do you plot it out, fly by the seat of your pants, or what?

A: Ideas for books can come from anywhere. Sometimes something in a television program will spark an idea. Or reading a book will make me stop and think about writing that type of book like a shape shifter or an amnesia book. Other ideas come from talking with other writers. And I've had some ideas just pop out of nowhere.
Once I have an idea, I rough out the first three chapters. By then I know my characters. Then I plot out the major points that need to be covered to get to the end. I then start over at page one. I make a scene list for three or four chapters, then write that section. Then I do the same thing for the next section.

Q: What comes first--plot, the characters, or the setting?

A: My characters always come first. They are the most important part of the story. If the reader doesn't like the characters, they won't care about the plot and the setting. I usually see the heroine in a scene and start from there figuring out what she's doing and where she's going.

Q: Are your books something you alone create, or do you have trusted advisors, brainstorm partners, or first readers you rely on to help you get the story right?

A: When I come up with an idea, I explain it to my sister who will add her thoughts. Then I tell my critique partner of fifteen years and she adds ideas. I also belong to a plot group that meets once every six weeks and we brainstorm ideas which helps flush out the story. Then my critique partner reads the second draft and tells me where I need to add and where I need to cut. She cuts quite a bit since I tend to overwrite the first time. Then I rewrite and my sister reads the whole manuscript twice looking for mistakes and anything I might have skipped over that needs to be added. Then I rewrite again.

Q: Do you ever suffer from writer's block? Have you found any effective ways for dealing with it?

A: I don't often have writer's block. When I'm stuck, it's because I haven't thought through where the story is going. Cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry often helps because it gives me time to think.
The worst case of writer's block I ever had happened one day when I was writing a romantic suspense and my hero and heroine were being chased by everyone and had holed up in a motel room. I was home alone and concentrating intensely on what I was writing. As I wrote "There was a knock on the door" someone knocked on my door. I screamed, my heart lodged in my throat and who was on the other side of the door in the story flew right out of my head. It was hours before I could even think about it.

Q: What's your current writing project? How did you come up with the idea?

A: I'm currently working on a fantasy romance where the heroine is a shape shifter or polymorphic as my youngest son keeps informing me. She can change into any type of animal except another human, her favorite form being a hawk.
I got the idea when I was judging the RITA contest for Romance Writers' of America. I was judging the paranormal category that year and one of the books had a hero that turned into a lion. I thought, I've never done a shape shifter, but I didn't want to do a werewolf, so I came up with Brylyn and put her in a medieval setting.

Q: Tell us about the first time you got the call or email from a publisher wanting to publish one of your books.

A: It was July and I was working a split shift at a Sylvan Learning Center. I had three hours between classes so I would go home to check on my son., get him up and off to the swimming pool so he didn't spend the whole day sleeping. He was twelve.
When I got home there was a message on the answering machine from an editor from Berkley. I hyperventilated as I scribbled down the number. Then I checked the time. It was four in New York and I hoped she hadn't left early for the day. I called her and tried to be cool, calm and collected. I wrote down everything she said. When I hung up, I started screaming and jumping up and down. My son told me to be quiet. I was scaring the cats. I told him to go to the swimming pool. Then I called everyone I knew in the world to tell them.

Q: Tell us a little about your life outside of writing.

A: I'm the Director of Education at a local Sylvan Learning Center where we have over 200 students who I have to make sure they are doing the right lessons. I also start new programs, deal with parents and supervise twenty teachers, which isn't an easy task. Besides that I have three sons, two of whom still live with me. The youngest just finished his first year of college and requires much of my time. I speak with my sister every day since she is my best friend. I try never to schedule more than one activity a weekend so I can spend most of my time writing. And I avoid housework whenever possible.