I've been writing since I can remember. But I didn't get serious about it until I was an adult, and it has been quite an odyssey. I wrote my first book in 1986. It was published in 1988. A second book followed in 1989. After learning more about how the publishing industry worked, I decided that writing a book was too much work to just give away to the publisher--royalties were a pittance and I had to give up all rights for 10 years. So, I quit writing and concentrated on raising my daughter. The concept of Print on Demand came along with iUniverse. I could retain all my rights and it cost me nothing, so I wrote "Destiny's Shadow" and co-wrote "Millionaires' Row" with my mother. Unfortunately, iUniverse provided no distribution and they priced the book too high for the day. Seeing no good options, I quit writing again. Then, Smashwords pioneered eBooks. Again, it cost me nothing, and it provided that all important distribution to indie writers for the first time. I began writing again. Amazon and Ingramspark provided the same benefits for print books with their Print on Demand programs, and I have recently released all my books in print.

I am a romantic at heart, and I love history. It is so much more interesting than what is being taught in the schools today. So much has been left out. It has been boiled down to memorizing dates, and little is taught about the human aspects and significance of events. It's all bone and no meat. If we don't learn our lessons from it, the past is a window into the future. As I look around me today, we don't seem have learned many, if any lessons. Maybe we need to do a better job of teaching history.

When I get an idea for a book, I do some research to get a feel for the events of the time period in which I am writing. I then start writing and do the rest of the research as the book progresses. I have never been able to write with an outline. It seems to stifle my creativity. I know how I want the story to start, how I want it to end, and the main plot. The rest--the muddy middle--falls into place with subplots that come to me from the research. I hate to waste time, so once I get the story started, I don't sit down to write until I have a complete scene or chapter worked out in my mind, including dialogue. I don't have a routine. I write for as long as the story keeps coming to me. Some days, it will be all day; some days not at all. Just because I am not writing doesn't mean that I am not thinking about the story and crafting the next chapter in my mind.

Music inspires me. If I have a difficult scene to write, I find a song that captures the sentiment, put on my headphones, and jump on the treadmill. The scene unwinds like a movie, dialogue and all. It works every time. For example, my Western "A Little Gentle Persuasion" required something really epic for key scenes. I think I Iost a pound or two on the treadmill that day with that music. "Millionaires' Row: The Legacy," which I co-wrote with my mother, required something more poignant. Believe it or not, Connie Francis' song "Follow the Boys" inspired the last scene.

I have learned not to sweat it. If I am really stuck, I go back to the research to look for a path forward. Generally though, all I have to do is mentally state the problem, then go and do something else. Most times, I don't get more than a few steps away from the computer before the answer pops into my head and the floodgate opens. Sometimes I am surprised, myself, how well this process works.

No. Sometimes I wish I did. A book is a year-long project for me. By the time I am ready to publish a novel, I am so burned out. After the "Paradox," I told everyone it was going to be my last book. Then, I became possessed with the need to write the Western "A Little Gentle Persuasion." Before I was finished with that, "Lady of the Sea" popped into my head. I always have ideas milling around in my head.

It seems like two ends of the spectrum, but it really isn't. "The Paradox" has a historical romance component to it. The departure is that it is triggered by a fascinating event of which few people are aware that occurred at the time of the writing of the book.

I wanted to do a pirate book but not the usual swashbuckler. I couldn't find the right angle though and was about ready to give up on the idea, when I read a book about America's conflict with the Barbary pirates after the Revolutionary War (1795), and the angle for my story came to me. In the course of doing further research of this time period, I was amazed at the threat these state sanctioned pirates actually represented to America's continued existence. This was an important inflection point largely forgotten by history, and a time of great social and cultural changes ushered in with the French Revolution. It is a very interesting time period.

"Destiny's Shadow" was the most difficult to write. It was not easy to craft a love story against the backdrop of the American Civil War. The war was so tragic, so horrifying, so all encompassing that it was a challenge to narrow the focus to a narrative that captured all the elements of it. "A Little Gentle Persuasion" also proved somewhat challenging. My research turned up the fact that much of what the world knows about the American Wild West was created by Hollywood. Unfortunately, these myths are deeply ingrained and the facts are not as exciting, so there was a bit of tightrope to walk between crafting an exciting story and observing historic accuracy.

I am frequently asked that question, and, at first, I think I have an answer. But as the other books come to mind, I find that, no, I don't have an answer to that question after all. I love all my characters and their predicaments, and each book is uniquely a labor of love. They are all special to me in different ways. With that said, "The Homeward Heart" is close to my heart as it was my first book. And the "Millionaires' Row" books (the Douglas Saga) will always be special to me because I co-wrote them with my mother, and the stories are based upon the rich history of our hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania during the fascinating era of the lumber barons.

Yes, strong women. If they don't start out strong in the beginning, they are a force to be reckoned with by the end of the book, whatever the limitations of the time period. In researching "Millionaires' Row: The Legacy," I was shocked to find how few rights women still had going into the "modern age." This is brought home even more so in my book "A Little Gentle Persuasion." The challenge for these women is finding a way around those strict limitations of the day to succeed in spite of them. In addition to entertaining the reader, I strive through the research to provide teachable moments and a message.

Two things: that eBooks did not come along sooner and that my first two books "The Homeward Heart" and "A Love Too Proud" are still in the used book marketplace. These books were written in a different day when research was limited to the public library and publishers preferred simple plots and characters. With the return of my book rights from the publisher, I had the autonomy and the opportunity, thanks to Smashwords, to re-edit these books into works of more sophistication and depth. Now, there are new, more accurate historical details, layered plot lines, and added depth to the characters. Then too, I am older, and I think that the writing reflects that maturity. Due to several requests, I have recently released these books, as well as "Destiny's Shadow" and "Millionaires' Row," as 2nd edition print books. Thus, I recommend that readers read the eBooks or the 2nd edition print books for a more satisfying experience. My later works as an indie author are also now available in print on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo and other bookstores.