One of the children's books I remember reading is "Where the Wild Things Are". Books have always been a fun escape from reality for me. And even as a child when my Mother exposed me to picture books...I started to doodle my own little picture books. My very first book was about a small green turtle and its adventures. After that I wrote a few fantasy stories and in high school I wrote a lot of fanfiction. Then, came my obsession with anime and I wrote several novels that have an "anime" feel. Recently, I've gotten into reading paranormal romance and have started writing books in this genre as well.

I enjoy drawing...but my skills just aren't where I want them to be to do my own cover arts. I usually have this "vision" in my head for the cover, sketch it out and then search deviantart for the artist that I think will be able to bring my vision to life. I have used several different artists from deviantart and have been very pleased with the results. It's always fun to see your original characters brought to life.

I have so many books that I love I hate narrowing it down to five, so I will talk about five books that have left the biggest impression on me. I remember reading "The Borrowers" in 5th grade. I've always had an appreciation for little things. The smallest of flowers...the tiniest bead for a necklace, and so I could really relate to Arrietty. The Cronicles of Narnia, for one sticks in my mind. I loved the idea of getting to travel to another world where magic existed and talking animals is just cool. Any book with a huge element of fantasy in it, I would gobble up in a few days. In high school I became a huge Harry Potter fan and while I was into Japanese culture discovered Memoirs of a Geisha . Memoirs of a Geisha really resonated with me, and I've considered that I was perhaps Japanese in a past life. Hence, my choice for a Japanese pen name. KuroKoneko Kamen means Black Kitten Mask in Japanese. I also love black cats. And I suppose as I matured into a young woman I got into paranormal romance - like Kushiel's Dart.

Right now, I'm very into paranormal romance - so romances between immortals, shapeshifters, vampires, demons and human girls are a fun read!

I love my Kindle Touch. I decided not to get the more expensive version of the Kindle with internet access because for me the entire point of my ebook reader is to read, and I do not want to get distracted by other things.

I've been playing around with a lot of different strategies but the most useful one I've tried is putting up one of my books for free to get more readers. This works especially well if you have a series. Just put the first book of the series available for free and you'll grab a lot of new readers who then go on to buy the rest of the books in your series. As an author I was reluctant to do this at first, because I spend so many hours on a book to just give it away for free, but getting all those new readers has made it worth it to me in the end.

I think a better question would be: describe your room. My desk and extra table and floor are covered in piles of paper. I usually hand write whatever I'm writing first, type it in, and then as I'm writing I get more ideas for future books and have to write those ideas down as well. I should probably get around to throwing away those papers eventually but I keep getting busy on my next book and so this is why the piles are almost four feet tall now! If that weren't crazy enough one of my dogs has a habit of eating paper. Simba ate one of my romance scenes the other day for my new book Wicked Bartender and I had to rewrite the entire scene! He's so cute though it's impossible to get mad at him.

I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. I've always pretty much lived in urban areas and that's probably why I was drawn to fantasy stories that had more exposure to nature in them.

Apparently, I was four years old when I wrote this little picture story book about a green turtle and its adventures. I've been writing stories ever since.

My latest book is "Wicked Bartender". I wanted to come up with an interesting new paranormal romance with a handsome demon falling in love with a human girl. I kind of added the advice I'd gotten in the past of "write what you know" with that concept. I used to have a jewelry store in a plaza that was right next to an Irish Beach Pub, so I learned a lot about the restaurant business and Irish pubs in general. I mused about how it would be interesting if the demon had to blend in with humans and I wondered what his job might be, and finally decided he should become a bartender. Then, I had to decide just who this demon was going to fall in love with. I've always had an interest in Joan of Arc and always felt irked by the way she died. It suddenly came to me 'Oh, I bet God forsook Joan of Arc because she fell in love with a handsome demon who she was supposed to kill'. After that, I decided to have my bartender Dante Cromwell fall in love with the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, Joan Simone, and the book just sort of wrote itself.

Basically, I contacted a few publishing houses...and it would take six months just to get a 'yes' or 'no' from them. During that time, I can write a whole new book...it just didn't make sense for me to keep waiting around. I'm a very impatient person. My plan is to just keep putting my books out there, in all different genres and writing styles, and letting my readers decide which one is "the one".

Writing is very therapeutic. It calms me, and I have a lot of fun playing around with the characters that I've created and throwing them in different situations to see how they are going to react. When your characters begin to stray from your original outline and start to do their own thing - that is the most joyful time in writing.

My fans and readers are very important to me. Really, like the authors whose books I've read - they have given me an escape from reality, and their books have risen my spirits when I was down. I hope that my books will do the same for my readers - give them an escape from the harsh reality of their lives, entertain them, and give them hope.

Right now I'm working on the sequel to Wicked Bartender -- Wicked Bartender Redemption. It will be released in the next few months. (2014)

JK Rowling, Mercedes Lackey, Marie Hall, Gena Showalter...and many others!

Reading, cooking, horseback riding, swimming, playing with my many pets, watching anime.

Usually, I get into a particular genre and start searching for popular books in that particular genre. Right now anything that's in paranormal romance is a fun read for me.