Do you write a single genre or do your fingers flow over the keys
creating tales in many forms?
I’m currently writing three romance series
and each one is in a different sub-genre. My Paranormal series is the Dolphin
Shore Shifters: a pod of dolphin shifters from the Santa Barbara Channel posing
as regular humans and doing whatever it takes to protect their oceans. My
Suspense series, the Paladin Group, is set in Georgia: a team of wounded Air
Force pararescue veterans turned lawyers and PIs now rescuing civilians in
serious trouble. And my Contemporary romance quintet, the Colonel’s Daughters:
each book features one of five sisters born in different countries and raised
in an Air Force family.
Does your reading choice reflect your writing choices?
Absolutely. I love reading contemporary
romances, either stand-alones or in a series. I gobble up all different forms
of paranormal romance: shifters, vampires, ghosts, magic, and so on. I love reading
romantic suspense with any form of law enforcement heroines and heroines, and especially
stories with current or ex-military heroes and heroines.
Are there genres you wouldn’t attempt?
I don’t feel qualified to write historical,
inspirational, thrillers, erotica, or mysteries.
Heroes, Heroines, Villains.
Which are your favorite to write?
As I said earlier, military
heroes and heroines are my favorites. In general, I love writing villains and
like to portray them as multi-layered, with solid goals and motivations for the
bad things they do. Not all evil, but
bad enough to be a real challenge for my good guys.
Heroes and Heroines: How do you find them? Do pictures, real life
or plain imagination create the man and woman you want every reader to love? Do
they come before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?
I am a steadfast plotter.
Before I started writing the
Dolphin Shore Shifters, I first created their world, including a detailed
history for my pod of dolphins, all the details of their non-profit
corporation, and all the rules. I developed a shifting schedule, and then focused
on the field ops team. Beginning with a core of 8 to 10 alpha males, I created
a hero-group to draw from. After
naming everybody, I searched Dreamstime and Shutterstock for photos to match
their faces in my head.
I avoid using real-life movie
stars or TV actors. Instead, for each book, I create a story board and use
photo models. Especially for the dolphin books, many of the characters came
before the plots.
Also I love introducing a future
heroes and heroines in earlier books, then later, they can star in their own
book. I have to plan ahead to make that work for me!
For the Colonel’s Daughters I
created the family, the history of the five sisters, where and when they were
born, made brief outlines and plotted each of the five books. Then I went back
and filled in the heroes’ and heroines’ appearances and character traits for
book 1, A Major Seduction.
For the Paladin Group, I
developed and outlined the plots the just the first three Reboot books, then I created my characters to fit. Finally, I
searched for photos and started three boards.
What is your latest release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the
villain?
Toxic Tide, Dolphin Shore Shifters book 5
released July 20, 2016. The hero, Grus is a shifter working with the SBW field
ops team and struggling with the idea of females joining the group. The first
woman in field ops was murdered on assignment and Grus keeps returning to New
Jersey to investigate. He has appeared in several previous books and after
bugging me, he finally got his story. Grus meets Heather, a human and
world-class competitive swimmer, when they both stake-out a mob-connected waste
management company in New Jersey.
Heather is one of my strongest,
most self-assured heroines and isn’t about to take any crap from Grus. Her
sister was killed while working at the waste company, and after the police fail
to turn up any suspects, Heather moves to New Jersey to try to collect clues on
her own.
The villains: Nick, the mobster
who owns the waste dumping company and Pete Sorenson, his hit man, are also
returnees from previous books.
What are you working on now?
I recently finished editing A
Major Seduction, book 1 of the Colonel’s Daughters and it is scheduled
to release later this month, on October 14, 2016.
I’m back to writing Survival
Reboot, the Paladin Group book 2.
How can people find you?
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