Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up mostly in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My sister and I spent a ton of time at our grandparents' house, which was out in the country (Hudsonville, Michigan). We grew up barefoot and running free. We played in the creek, rolled down steep grassy hills, played with our cousins who all lived close by, ran through corn fields, and knew all sorts of stuff a kid shouldn't know about livestock.
I tend to write fictional romance novels with a lot of history, or past, in them. My grandfather loved old music, read a lot, talked to us about the past, watched old black & white movies with me, etc. His love of all of those things helped peak my interest in them as well. Combined with my childhood/upbringing and his love for everything in the past, I am the writer I am today. I am forever grateful to my mother, my grandfather, sister, and cousins for giving me the greatest memories.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
Romeo and Juliet. I was five years old. I fell in love instantly.
The idea that someone could capture so much emotion and depth with words, create such vivid imagery and scenes with a few lines...I was smitten by ol' Willy Shakespeare. While I didn't grow up wanting to write like him or be like him, I did grow up with a heightened sense of who I was going to be and where I wanted my life and my writing to go. After Romeo and Juliet, I couldn't keep my hands off from a book and with age, my addiction to read and write just seems to get worse. And that's ok by me.
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