Writing.
I absolutely love to write. That old saying when you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life is so true. I get up each day, so blessed to do something I love so much!

I love to bake, enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, and I putter around in the yard with my flowers during the warm months. I also enjoy photography and traveling.

Yes! It was in the third grade. My brother had a pet raccoon at the time, so I wrote a story about a raccoon.

I don't remember the first one I ever read, but I do remember the first one that had a major impact on me. It was Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. It was assigned reading when I was in the seventh grade. The story haunted me and inspired me. I often checked that book out of the library to read again and again, wanting to be brave and resolute like the girl in the story.

A little bit of everything! It just depends on my mood.
I might read a contemporary romantic comedy then a historical mail-order bride story and follow it up with a medieval tale or a story with a fairy queen.

My Kindle. I love how easy it is to take as many books as I want with me whenever I leave the house!

I like to keep things as neat and tidy as possible. I have a basket where incoming mail lands. A photo of my beloved Captain Cavedweller. A pretty container for my pens and pencils. A desk calendar. Speakers (because you have to have good tunes when you're writing!). My computer. And depending on what I'm writing at the time, a stack of research books.

I grew up on a farm in Eastern Oregon where my family raised hay, wheat, corn, and cattle (as well as me!). I was a "late-in-life" addition, my parents had three teenagers in the house when I was born (what were they thinking!). So I always had more supervision than any kid could ever want or need, but I had a lot of fun, too. My oldest brother is a cowboy. He'd be gone for weeks (sometimes months) at a time, working on remote ranches and would come home with incredible stories. I think that had a huge influence on my fascination with cowboys, and why I enjoy writing about them so much. Many of my stories include tidbits of things that happened while I was growing up on the farm and include a rural-life flavor you can only get from experiencing it first-hand.

Even as I child, I liked to make up my own stories. I wrote for the school newspaper in high school and the community newspaper. I got a degree in communications in college and went to work for newspapers and did that for ten years before I switched gears into marketing. I missed writing, and wrote magazine articles during that time. Then in 2010, on a cold February day, I decided to sit down and see if I could write a romance novel.
I did. And I loved everything about the writing process. So I kept doing it!

I tried going the traditional route when I wrote my first book. I received more than 60 rejection letters (many of them positive and very helpful) before I decided I had to try something different. A friend introduced me to Author Jane Kirkpatrick who said I should look into self-publishing. At the time, I didn't even know what it was. But after a week of researching it, I knew it was what I wanted to do. I'm so grateful Jane made that suggestion because it was life-changing for me. I love being an indie author!

When someone reads one of my books and sends me a note, letting me know it touched them in some way - whether it made them laugh or cry or uplifted them or gave them hope - that's joy beyond measure to know something I wrote had an impact on them.

Everything! I have the most awesome, wonderful sweet fans and I adore them!