Q & A

1. What are your current projects?

BONES ALONG THE HILL is a romantic suspense being published by the Buroughs Group on November 18, 2014. The suicide of her teenage fiancé ten years ago sent GENEVA OAKLEY (Neva) hiding deep in the basement of her family’s funeral home in Nashville, where she painstakingly erases disfiguring injuries so the dead look almost alive in their caskets. When she stumbles onto the murder of a classmate, she becomes the target of human traffickers. With courage she didn’t know she had, she brings the trafficking organization down and at the same time solves the mystery of that long ago suicide. But in the doing, she skates along the edge of losing her new love interest and her own life.

BLESSED CURSE, the book I’m writing now, is a paranormal romance. JORIE WAINRIGHT, descendent of the Second Sons of historic Rugby, TN, is stalked by a tragic ghost seemingly bent on killing Jorie’s three month fetus. As Jorie and her fiancé Logan Mathis work together to discover what the ghost wants, they also unravel the mystery of Jorie’s past and finally understand the very personal connection between Jorie and the ghost.
 
2. How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I like a novel that brings all the themes back in the end. All presented questions answered. All mysteries solved. My novels tend to have several layers of problems, all of which are connected to the main problem eventually.

3. Why do you write what you do?

I write what I like to read. I tend toward suspense and paranormal stories, love a spooky twist in an otherwise straight novel. I am captivated by strong characters and big themes.

4. How does your writing process work?

I work two days a week at an out-of-the-house job, which leaves five days to write at home. My laptop sits on a table beside my red leather recliner.

On my allotted five mornings a week, I grab a cup of coffee, which is needed to make my heart actually beat, and sink into the recliner with the laptop in my lap. Immediately, Ginger, my red classic Maine Coon, leaps to the chair arm and attempts to crawl onto the computer keys. Generally, she is unsuccessful.

I open Scrivener, re-read yesterday’s product, which is usually a first draft, ragged, uneducated and showing no sign that I’ve attended a writing class or written anything. Ever.

When that work is edited, I begin writing the next new chapter, a first draft as god-awful as the ones before and keep moving until mid to late afternoon. At that point, I move to the requirements of life. Herbs, plants, housework, laundry, all the things that keep a house running well enough so varmints don’t come to live with us.

When I think a chapter might be right, I send it to my incredible critiquing partner, Joan, who tears it literally to pieces and sends it back for me to edit once again. It’s a good thing I am one determined editor.