The next novel in the Pistils series, the working (and hopefully permanent title) is "Nightshade." Since I'm the sole author, the tone will be much more like "Sub Rosa" than "Pistils."

"Thistles"
"Pistils"
"Sub Rosa"
"Nightshade" (not yet released)

Technically you could read "Sub Rosa" just about anywhere since it's a flashback to Vivian's story and time in the CIA, but it's meant to be read after "Pistils." A lot of people like to go back and read "Pistils" after they read "Sub Rosa," to see how the little hints that were dropped now make sense, etc. I love writing little Easter eggs into the books!

The first book that was actually written was "Pistils," and that was co-written with one of my best friends, Britt Goodwin. We alternated chapters with her writing Parker's point of view, and I wrote Vivian's. All of the other books have been written with me as the sole author, so it's 100% Vivian's point of view, and they're a bit darker in tone than "Pistils" was. It's been interesting, some people really prefer one tone over the other, and I completely understand that.

Watching movies and reading. And working, I still have a full time job! I also love to knit, and photography has been a passion of mine for a long time.

Definitely recommendations, both from people I trust not to steer me wrong, and also from interesting teasers or blurbs on social media. I'm subscribed to Bookbub, but I don't use that as much as I used to. Oh, and NetGalley! It's not easy or cheap to get your book onto NetGalley, so there's a bit of a quality filter already in place there.

It was about my cat, Fudd, and I'm pretty sure my mom still has it somewhere. It was in 3rd grade and we had to write a story, then create a cover and everything for it. I remember being very proud of seeing my book "in print" on the display bookshelf our teacher had set up!

Even though I don't like the term very much, I'm a "pantser." I don't like planning out my stories, because I do my best writing when I just let my subconscious and the muse take over. I do some general planning, of course, like what I want the book to be about, but I don't do outlines or anything like that.

I also have to have total silence, I don't even like music playing in the background. I'm very much a proper desk and chair type of writer, it puts me in my "okay, let's get down to business" mindset.

Biographies, non-fiction history, some thrillers and good quality romance, where there's a story that happens to have romance.

Kindle, with my iPad as a backup.

Honestly, word-of-mouth has been really successful, because even for people who aren't fans of the genre, they've recommended it on Facebook, to reading groups, and so on. I can't say enough how lucky I am to have be on the radar of such a generous group of people.

Social-media wise, Instagram is really my go-to, and that's been incredibly helpful too. Potential readers are able to get snippets of the books (the Twintype Books Instagram is very much a photo-quotes account) with a relevant photo, and people seem to really enjoy that.

Well, I became an indie author because my desire to write and publish was stronger than my ability to wait until an agent and then a publishing house was willing to take me on! Now though, I'm an indie author by choice. I love the flexibility and the control over my work, my message, my timelines, and my decisions when it comes to marketing and advertising. I read an article the other day that compared how certain things are done by indie authors vs. traditionally published authors, and was like Nope! Indie is the life for me, and I love it! I hope in the future to be able to hire more help with some things, but I don't ever see myself signing with a publishing house.

It has unequivocally contributed to my success by acknowledging that there are people who genuinely prefer not to buy from Amazon, and making my books available to them. I actually wrote a blog post about why people should get out of their Amazon bubble and publish on Smashwords as well. I remember the first time I logged in and checked my dashboard, I almost fell out of my seat when I saw the stats with absolutely zero additional marketing from me about non-Amazon availability. I sell so much through iBooks and Smashwords itself, I urge every author I talk to about publishing to make sure they're selling through Smashwords too.

Everything, when it comes to writing. I like to say that I write for myself but I publish for the people who've found pleasure in reading my books. The feedback is amazing too, genuine helpful feedback is priceless. I've actually made changes to some things based on reader feedback, not because I'm "caving in" to what they want, but because their observations were spot-on!