That's a hard question because there are so many. At the top of the list is of course is Sherrilyn Kenyon and Christine Feehan. Let me break the rest down into categories. Bianca D'arc would be my favorite for short paranormal stories and Donna Grant for historical romances. For self published I'd have to pick T.A. Grey in fiction and Rachel Thompson for non-fiction. I also want to mention an author I found recently through a blog entry, Valerie Twombly she writes amazing paranormal romance stories. She will easily be making an entrance into my favorite author section.

That's an easy question. My kids are my life. They're what keeps me going everyday and my number one inspiration.

My days are spent home schooling my remaining teenage children. Together we discuss and debate a large range of topics including history, politics and science. I have 3 obsessions other than my children. Reading is my first obsession and hands down my favorite. I love the idea of traveling to new places and experiencing new fantasies created in an author's mind. I'd say I read an average of 3 books a week, but sometimes that number can increase to 5, it really depends on the books and if they're part of a series. My second obsession is cooking. I have spent over 20yrs perfecting that particular hobby. My specialty is tweaking recipes to fit the tastes of my family which with 7 of us tends to have a wide range, but I find a compromise everyone seems to be happy with. My 3rd obsession is video games, my favorite being of course the final fantasy series. I played FFXI, an online game, for over a decade before finally calling it quits at the end of last year.

I have several ways that I find books, but the most prominent is twitter. I like to support the author community because of that I tend to have a lot of followers that are either authors or promotional sites, with a bit of reviewers thrown in there. The result is a vast selection of authors and genre to choose from. I started a new blog that posts weekly in which I pick a book to review based on a book trailer I watched. My research has given me a unique opportunity to increase my reading material. The third place I find new books to read is blogs. I've found many authors that are new to me based on a blog interview. One of my favorite parts of participating in social media is the discovery of new authors.

I wrote many short stories when I was younger, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I wrote my first full length story. My first short story I wrote when I was in 3rd grade. It was based on a true life event, all my short stories when I was younger were based around my true life experiences. This one was a mystery about a van that swerved from the main road late one night in an attempt to run over 3 children walking home. It got me an A on my writing assignment. My first full length story was written when I was much older, only a few years ago as a matter of fact. I created a fantasy about an alien world where dragon steeds, half dragon half horse creatures and their knights protected the realm. The main character was a young half human girl with two magical gifts. The gift of sight and the ability to heal wounds with a touch. When i'm finished with my other writing projects I plan to release a rewrite of this story.

Most of my stories come to me as a scene first or a group of scenes. I don't do outlines, but I do write my scenes out in a program adding to each story as the scenes come to me. Once I have enough of a build in the story I begin the full writing process. I let the story take me where it wants often times in a different direction than I intended. Sometimes the ending comes to me long before I'm finished with the book and I will write that out. In my recent novel that comes out in February I changed the beginning 5 times adding content that eventually changed the intent of the book. I have a total of 21 WIPs in different stages of completion because of my disjointed thought process but I've learned how to focus better thanks to guidance from other authors and bloggers who shared their own thoughts, techniques and ideas.

Cover design is a marketing tool for authors and I approach it as such. I have complete control over my book covers because I've used the same person from the beginning. We work well together and bounce ideas off of each other finding unique ways to compromise so that in the end we can pick the best visual portrayal of the book for each cover.

I will read any genre if I'm drawn to the story line. I enjoy a good mystery, but my true love is romance. It doesn't have to be a HEA for me to enjoy it. I've experienced tragedies in my own life and sometimes it's nice to commiserate with a character, one who has just experienced something that I have been through. Historical and paranormal romance have become my favorite over the years though, each satisfying a need inside me to experience a new world and adventure. I also read articles about both science and history as a hobby. Science is more of a way to keep up with my very nerdy husband who tries to discuss dark matter and other nonsense with me daily. The history is for my own pleasure. I enjoy learning about the past. I believe a big part of navigating the future comes from understanding and learning from our past. I also believe it's important for our children to be taught their cultural history.

I've been fascinated with the paranormal world since I was about 3yrs old. I obsessively watched every vampire and werewolf show my parents allowed me to. As I grew older that translated into books as well. After reading hundreds of paranormal books I decided to try my hand at one myself. My latest book is a paranormal romance originally created for a fast paced short novelette. Over time I grew to like the characters and world I'd built to the point that I wanted more for them than a quick sexcapade with a touch of mystery. I wanted the characters to get to know each other and grow while the readers watched. This book will be my first full length novel and has opened up a whole world of stories that I've created.

Several reasons influenced this choice, but I'll cover the basics. Story after story of great authors rejected by the traditional industry because they were more interested in what might sell easily than a good story they could stand behind. What angered me the most about this was the way they were rejected, the cruelty behind the words. Another reason has to do with what they've been releasing under the guise of good writing. My experience with traditional publishers as a reader guided my decisions to self publish. My last main reason is the freedom I have with my work. No time constraints or word count requirements. I have full creative license for what I write, my book covers and my webpage. The only draw back is the extra time and money spent, but I believe it's worth the benefits.

I have plans for a total of 5 releases this year. At the moment I'm working on Books Two and Three in my werewolf series, Volkoff Pack. There will also be a Prequel that will be released as a free short story.. I'm also working on Books Three and Four of my MacKay's Series, which are historical romances with a supernatural twist. Book Three tells the youngest brother, Conn MacKay's story. The story begins a few months before Natasha and Tavish's tale, catches you up to the epilogue from Mists Through Time and takes you further into Conn and Fenella's own story of love, loss and betrayal. You will see glimpses of the clan chieftain and his beautiful Texan, but their tale sits in the background. Book Four, the series finally is Ramsey's story. This tale contains a bit of mysticism and time travel, except in this case the woman fate chose for him travels from a past when Druids roamed the land. I also have plans of combining Book One and Two under one cover as requested by many readers.