Do you recall how your interest in writing began?

From the time I can remember, I'd always been interested in reading. Anything and everything. It didn't matter if it was the cereal box or milk carton in the morning, or the shampoo bottle in the bathroom. I had to read something, I craved it like some people crave chocolate. From my reading, I started writing my own little stories and writing in journals. I guess we called them diaries back then. I loved anything that had to do with writing and enjoyed my classes in school. I wanted to write so bad, that I choose technical writing as a career. It wasn't until I retired as a technical writer that I started writing fiction.

Each book starts differently, from separate sparks. The ideas come from something I read in the newspaper, a dream, a magazine article, or even a short story my daughter wrote. As I get ideas, I put them in a notebook. From time to time I'll peruse the notebook and see if another spark ignites. Writing is like breathing to me. I have to do it. My characters come to life with the words I breath into them as I write. My experiences, my observations, my thoughts are theirs as well.

I have so many stories inside of me and I can see these scenes vividly, but actually putting fingers to keyboard and writing it all down is overwhelming at times. I wish I could just hook a cable to my brain and download what I'm thinking into my computer.

What do you see as the influences on your writing?

I have a lot of favorite authors because I read a lot of different genres. Because I'm writing romantic suspense right now, I've been reading a lot of romantic suspense authors. My favorites are Lisa Gardner, Beverly Barton, Linda Howard and Sandra Brown. Lisa Gardner writes some absolutely suspenseful drama and can really draw the reader in. For horror, I enjoy reading anything by Stephen King because he has a way of using the reader's imagination as part of his story. For science fiction, Robert Heinlein can't be beat. His characters are well developed. For fantasy, there's no one better than Piers Anthony. He writes a good story, period.