Jane Austen is my hero. I have Persuasion on audiobook, and I listen to that every few months. I also listen to Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice at least once a year.

The woman had an astounding gift with words and wit. Her dry humor and the artistry of her sentences continue to amaze me almost two centuries after she wrote them.

I also love Mary Ann Gibbs and Norma Lee Clark, both Regency and historical romance writers who are no longer in print. I have yet to figure out how they can write characters I absolutely love and craft an engaging, enthralling story I can’t put down.

As I child, I adored Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. I loved how Menolly could overcome so many difficulties and yet stay true to who she was.

I have a personal Scripture verse, John 12:32: (Jesus speaking) “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” It reminds me to lift up Christ in my writing, and He’ll be the one to draw people to deeper relationships with Him through my stories. It’s by His power alone that I write and that He accomplishes His purpose through me.

There’s no way my faith could NOT play into the picture. The only reason I’m even writing is because God has led me down this path.

I think I’m fortunate in that I had a very obvious word from God to be a writer. He told me to lay down my writing at one point, and He made it very clear when He wanted me to take it up again. Because of this, I have no doubts that this is what God wants me to do.

It helps that I have friends who keep me accountable and pray for me. I couldn’t walk this journey without them.

I try to spend time with God every day. That time in His Word every morning helps me orient myself for the day. I also like to think it helps me to write better every day, but that might be just positive thinking.

I’ve noticed that I tend to have a theme through my books (so far, anyway), which is something I struggle with a lot—surrender to God. Complete giving of myself to Him, to His will, to His love, to all that He is.

I tend to write about characters who struggle to surrender to God in some way. I hope my books encourage readers toward that complete surrender to Him in their own lives, so that they can experience how absolutely beautiful God’s love for them is.

My favorite verses are Philippians 4:7-11 because they reiterate what I continue to strive toward in my life: complete abandonment to God.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

My husband, Captain Caffeine, and I got rid of my old desk, a heavy wooden one (which I couldn’t complain about because it was free) and we got a door at Home Depot to lay on cinderblocks for my desk. We wrapped the cinderblocks in black plastic trash bags so they wouldn’t rain gravel on my carpet.



My monitor, keyboard, and trackball are elevated on cardboard boxes so that I can stand and type (it’s better for my back), but my ergonomic chair is rolled to the side so I can sit if I want to (the keyboard and monitor are easy to move down from the boxes). 



I also have a rolling caddy with drawers for my stuff, and my file cabinet is on the far right, out of the picture.



I love my door desk! It’s 36” x 80”, so it’s HUGE!

Honestly, I think God gives me my story ideas. He definitely has His own opinion about what issues He wants me to write about.

Sometimes He speaks by an idea that forms in my head, other times He speaks through friends who mention things to me. Sometimes I feel like He wants me to write from my own experience, sometimes I feel like He’s asking me to write about someone else’s experience.

I also try to keep things in prayer as I’m in the formulating-my-characters-and-storyline phase, so that He has His finger in everything.

I’ve always loved writing. I wrote my first novel in high school—a 600-something page monstrosity. High fantasy that was going to take the world by STORM! Uh, maybe not. :)

But then I felt God convicting me that my writing was for me, not for Him. That I was more interested in my name on a book cover than writing for Him. And He told me to lay it down.

At first I thought He was nuts, but once I realized He was serious about it, I fought Him long and hard over it. Eventually, I did it—laid down my writing, stopped cold turkey. I went into biology research—probably as far from fiction writing as I could go—and made up stories in my head, but never wrote anything down.

Then, I got laid off from work and out of the blue, God gave me the green light to start writing again.

From that day until the day I sold was about 3 jam-packed years—reading hundreds of online writing articles, a couple dozen writing books, taking the Fiction 101 track at Mount Hermon taught by Randy Ingermanson and Brandilyn Collins, and several dozen workshops.

I got lots of rejections. I had horrible comments from judges in the contests I entered. I wrote five complete manuscripts with Asian American characters during a time when publishing houses weren’t actively looking for multicultural stories. And I had to eventually go back to work because it’s just too expensive to be a writer without a contract in the San Francisco bay area.

I guess I had an advantage because I had already laid down my writing once, and God had clearly told me to take it up again. I knew without a doubt that I had His blessing for my writing, so even though things were really hard, I didn’t give up. I knew this was what God wanted me to do.

SUSHI FOR ONE released in 2007. My husband was so proud of me—holding that book in his hands affirmed to him that this “writing thing” really is what God wants me to do.

My family is always great about supporting and encouraging me. My mom was a high school English teacher, and she always encouraged me to read. When I said I wanted to be a writer, she and my dad never tried to discourage me with the reality that writers don’t make much money, and they never pushed me to be a doctor or lawyer or something with a more stable income.

My husband is wonderful, because he let me quit work for 6 months to see if I could gain some success in my writing career (at the end of 6 months, if I hadn’t gotten a contract, I’d get another job). At the end of those 6 months, I had a contract, and he has let me stay home to write ever since. He is very encouraging and is very proud of me.

My husband. After I started writing again, I had to reenter the working world. I was frustrated because I wanted to write full-time again, and I felt I was getting closer to publication (although in hindsight, I was being stupid because publication isn’t something you can schedule on your calendar).

My husband let me quit my current job to write full time for six months, to see if I could get a publishing contract. Well, I heard I was going to pub board at Zondervan right as the six months were up, so he let me bite my nails in unemployment for a few months longer.

When I got contracted, I had promised him I’d get him something with my advance money as thanks for believing in me and letting me quit my job. Since he loves coffee, he chose a uni-tasking, highly expensive coffee grinder and an all-stainless-steel Italian espresso machine. I posted a picture here:
http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/2006/05/im-done.html

I didn’t used to have an answer for this question, but I can now say that the one thing I am truly most proud of is the fact I ran my first marathon in December 2010. I had only run a maximum of 3 miles and I had only been running off and on for about 18 months before I started training. I trained for 6 months and ran the Honolulu Marathon in December, with my family there to cheer me on. However, I was so tired that I pretty much collapsed at the finish line and then went home to eat!

I don’t know if this will shock readers, but I love paranormal romance! Yes, give me a vampire or werewolf any day! I am unashamedly a fan of Twilight, and recently I started getting into the TV show, Bitten. I guess paranormal romance is fun for me because I know that none of it is true, whereas sometimes contemporary fiction makes me sad because I know some of the sad things that happen are true.

This isn’t a personal situation that happened to me, but it happened to my roommate. All of the “house troubles” that Trish runs into in ONLY UNI are totally true. My roommate ran into each of them when she was house hunting, and when she told me about them, I had to put them in the book.

Yes! I traveled to England in 2012 to do research for my first Regency romance, Prelude for a Lord. It was an amazing trip! My favorite places were Bath and Newstead Abbey, so half the book is in Bath, and the hero’s estate is modeled after Newstead Abbey, the home of Lord Byron.

I didn’t used to cry as much, but lately since I’ve started early peri-menopause, I’ve been crying even at commercials! I recently wrote a scene in “Necessary Proof,” a romantic suspense novella in the First Kisses collection, and I started bawling as I was typing. I think I scared my husband because he rushed into my office with this panicked look on his face and said, “What? What’s wrong?”

Me: “It’s just the scene I’m writing.” (sniffle sniffle sob sob)

him: “Maybe you should write happy books.”

Me: “This is a happy book. I’m crying because the scene is happy.”

him: (puzzled look)

Sometimes. The Sushi series is set in San Jose, where I’ve lived, but Protection for Hire is set in San Francisco, which I’ve only visited. I’ve only visited Sonoma, I’ve never actually lived there, yet I set my Sonoma romantic suspense series there because I love the city and surrounding areas.

Potato chips! and taro chips! and Cheetohs! and veggie chips! and Pringles! and shortbread cookies! and gingerbread cookies! and that’s only what’s in my snack closet right now! (yes I actually have a snack closet)