First and foremost, please tell us a little bit about
yourself. About myself....hmmm....I'm pretty boring. Most of the time
I'm busy doing mom stuff which these days includes a lot of driving. I feel
like a taxi driver. I have 4 kids. My oldest is 15 and my baby is 6. They keep
me busy. When I'm not doing mom stuff, I love to read, watch movies, and eat
chocolate. (Yes, sometimes I do all of those things simultaneously)
You tend to write various types of genres. What's your
favorite to write and why? What are you most comfortable to write and
why? I
write both paranormal and contemporary in the YA genre. I really like to write
both a lot. Although my paranormals feel very contemporary so maybe that's
where my heart lies. I love the characters and emotions of which tend to take
center stage in a contemporary.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? I'm
mostly a pantser. I say mostly because I do have the key points plotted when I
sit down to write. I generally know my characters when I sit down to write. And
most often I know the end. Everything else I discover as I write.
What is your writing routine? I
really don't have one. I write when I find time. With 4 kids, being a mom
always comes first. Although, this year, for the first time, all of my kids are
in school, so that has become my main time to write these days. I'm not going
to lie, it's pretty awesome.
Where do you find your inspiration? I
get inspiration when I get out from behind my computer and do something,
anything. My husband and I went on vacation recently and an idea for a story
came to me while grabbing my suitcase off the cart. This happens a lot when I
let my brain relax and just get out and live.
In THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, the story is essentially Pride
& Prejudice meets Pretty in Pink. Why did you mesh these two iconic
stories? I didn't set out to mesh these two stories. That description
actually came about after the story was written. :) But I love those two
stories so I'm perfectly fine that mine is a mash up between the two.
On that note, how do you make your story unique while
sticking with the general concept? I think that two writers given the same idea would write two
completely different stories. We each bring our own experience, our own voice,
and our own spin on every story. So I didn't consciously try to make it
different, I just wrote the story.
Where did you get the inspiration for PIVOT POINT? Pivot
Point was inspired by the movie Sliding Doors. I love the idea of alternate
realities and exploring how choice can change an outcome.
What can you tell us about SPLIT SECOND? Split
Second, the sequel to Pivot Point, is a continuation of Addie's story. She
learns a lot of things about the Compound where she lives. She also gets the
chance to see and get to know Trevor again. This story also has another POV
character--Laila.
What type of relationship is your favorite to explore and
develop? I love the best friends falling for each other relationship.
That's fun for me. But I also love getting to know the mysterious
stranger.....yeah....I guess my favorite is whatever one I'm working on at the
moment because they are all so fun.
What type of person is your ideal hero when
you're both reading and writing? Are they the same? Why or why
not? I
like humor when I both read and write. I think humor is such a good way to
offset tension. I think lighter moments make the darker ones feel darker and
vice versa. So I love a funny or sarcastic main character.
What type of person is your ideal heroine when you're
both reading and writing? Ah, I thought the last question was this question. Maybe
because I always think of the main character as the hero. Ha. Okay, so, my
answer to this one is pretty much the same. But I do like characters that
complement each other. I think that if a hero has a weakness, that should be
the heroine's strength and the opposite. It makes for a strong couple. This
doesn't always have to be the case, but some of my favorite stories are when
this is the case.
What has the publishing process been like? Long.
:) It's been a long, sometimes frustrating, but very rewarding journey. There
were times I wanted to give up, there were times I didn't. It took years of
writing, years of querying, and then months of submitting before I got my first
publishing contract.
Would you recommend advertisements or did you market your
books through a different venue? I am an awful marketer. This is one reason I really wanted
to go traditional--because I'm so uncomfortable with self promotion. I do what
I feel comfortable with, which is twitter, Instagram, and a blog, and I focus
most of my energy on writing.
Are you working on anything now? I'm
always writing something. :) And also, right now I'm critiquing for a friend.
Any upcoming releases?
I have two books coming out in 2014.
The first is SPLIT SECOND, sequel to Pivot Point. It is available for preorder
now:
And then I have another contemporary coming out in the
summer of 2014 called ON THE FENCE.
Contact info:
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