 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
Q: Where do you get ideas for your books?
A: There’s no single or simple answer, alas. Some strike out of nowhere like lightning
out of a clear sky. Other ones simmer for years. Some seem clear-cut when I start,
but then the book does a bend on me and takes a turn I hadn’t foreseen.
.
Q: When you revise, are you a putter-inner or a taker-outer?
A: A taker-outer, definitely! I do a lot of cutting.
Q: What’s the best thing about being a writer?
A: I don’t have to dress up or drive to work.
Q: What’s the worst thing?
A: Keeping up with technology is hard. I don’t mean just learning to cope with your
computer when you want to dropkick it out the window. Everything keeps changing
at an amazing rate: the technologies of communication, medicine, crime investigation, and
crime itself. You try to stay current and faithful to the facts, but the facts are in constant flux.
Q: How many books have you written?
A: Fifty, counting the anthologized novellas.
Q: What’s your latest?
A: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES, which comes out in March. It’s a Harlequin Special Edition
Series with a NASCAR theme.
Q: What’s your next?
A: THE SECRET HEIRESS, another Harlequin Special Edition. This one’s set in Australia and is part
of a continuity series about thoroughbred racing...
Q: And then?
A: Then it’s back the track for another ROMANCE based on NASCAR. It’s set primarily in the
mountains of North Carolina.
Q: Do you know what you’ll write next?
A: I’m playing around with a romantic suspense set in Key West, one of my favorite cities.
Q: How important is setting in your books?
A: It depends on the book. Some stories demand to happen in a certain place, but others
offer you more flexibility. I wrote a romance called HEARTLAND that was arbitrarily set in
Nebraska, but it could have had almost any rural background. I grew up in Nebraska, so I
chose it because I was familiar with it. But another book, EVERY SORT OF HEAVEN had
events that could occur only in New Orleans. Ultimately, though, the story’s got to be the boss,
not the setting.
Q: What was the most important influence on your writing?
A. Without question, my parents. They encouraged me in everyway, bought me books, drove me
to the library, and on Christmas when I was twelve, they gave me a big old used Underwood
typewriter. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world!
A: There’s no single or simple answer, alas. Some strike out of nowhere like lightning
out of a clear sky. Other ones simmer for years. Some seem clear-cut when I start,
but then the book does a bend on me and takes a turn I hadn’t foreseen.
.
Q: When you revise, are you a putter-inner or a taker-outer?
A: A taker-outer, definitely! I do a lot of cutting.
Q: What’s the best thing about being a writer?
A: I don’t have to dress up or drive to work.
Q: What’s the worst thing?
A: Keeping up with technology is hard. I don’t mean just learning to cope with your
computer when you want to dropkick it out the window. Everything keeps changing
at an amazing rate: the technologies of communication, medicine, crime investigation, and
crime itself. You try to stay current and faithful to the facts, but the facts are in constant flux.
Q: How many books have you written?
A: Fifty, counting the anthologized novellas.
Q: What’s your latest?
A: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES, which comes out in March. It’s a Harlequin Special Edition
Series with a NASCAR theme.
Q: What’s your next?
A: THE SECRET HEIRESS, another Harlequin Special Edition. This one’s set in Australia and is part
of a continuity series about thoroughbred racing...
Q: And then?
A: Then it’s back the track for another ROMANCE based on NASCAR. It’s set primarily in the
mountains of North Carolina.
Q: Do you know what you’ll write next?
A: I’m playing around with a romantic suspense set in Key West, one of my favorite cities.
Q: How important is setting in your books?
A: It depends on the book. Some stories demand to happen in a certain place, but others
offer you more flexibility. I wrote a romance called HEARTLAND that was arbitrarily set in
Nebraska, but it could have had almost any rural background. I grew up in Nebraska, so I
chose it because I was familiar with it. But another book, EVERY SORT OF HEAVEN had
events that could occur only in New Orleans. Ultimately, though, the story’s got to be the boss,
not the setting.
Q: What was the most important influence on your writing?
A. Without question, my parents. They encouraged me in everyway, bought me books, drove me
to the library, and on Christmas when I was twelve, they gave me a big old used Underwood
typewriter. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world!