Almost all of my story ideas start at the “meet cute” set up. I love to fantasize about how characters first encounter each other and those thrilling immediate impressions. The push and pull tensions right from that initial moment get me really excited about a story. Another thing that helps me when developing characters in a romance is thinking about their intimate moments. Like, what is the sex these two particular people would have? What would be the vulnerabilities for each of them in intimacy? So, I start with how they meet and how they hook up; then I have the difficult task of figuring out all the rest of the book!

Usually when I’m not writing I’m plotting how I can get back to writing. I also daydream a lot about future stories or just imagine scenes from my work in progress. I see scenes play out in my mind like a movie, and then I go try to capture that with words.

It’s more like dragging a manuscript over the finish line than winning a race. I’m so sick of looking at it by that point, I just want it off my desk, so I rarely feel like celebrating.

My husband will buy me flowers or my friends will take me out for dinner or drinks.

I’m a massive romance fan and, like a lot of readers, I read widely across the entire genre. A few years ago, I discovered omegaverse and immediately read as much as I could get my hands on. But, while I loved the concept and the power dynamics inherent in it, I quickly got bored with the inexperienced, virginal, ingenue type female characters typical in the genre. I craved an omegaverse with richness in character and diversity in age and life experience. At the time, that didn’t exist, so I set about to write it and that’s how my series came into being.  So my first book (The Alpha’s Salvation) features a female main character (an Omega) who is 40+years old. She’s had a pretty rough life, but she is a survivor and has a lot of quiet, inner strength that I really respect.

No, not really, but I’ll tell you a funny story.  The hero in The Alpha’s Salvation goes by the name of Hunter in the post-apocalyptic setting of the book. But, Hunter was his last name before the end of the world and, before then, he had a normal name like everyone else. So when I went to name him, I thought, “what’s just a normal guy name that isn’t going to seem too weird or distracting?” and I came up with Paul. Okay, fine. My husband’s name is Jason so, in honor of him, I named the character Paul Jason Hunter and moved along.  Fast forward to months later when the book comes out and my therapist tells me that he’s going to pick it up and read it and — holy shit — his name is Paul, which had NEVER ONCE occurred me in the entire process of writing, editing, and publishing the book. The unconscious is a powerful thing!  So there you go. My first hero is named after two important men in my life: my husband and my therapist.

This particular book is a departure for me because my first two books featured heroines who were above the age of 40. Those women possessed a lot of life experiences and traumas that contributed to their character and made they interesting. In this book, my heroine Zorah is much younger (mid-20s).  To write Zorah, I had to be careful to stay away from the silly, naive, ingenue stereotype while respecting that she isn’t someone with a whole ton of life experience. I also had to think hard about what a 20-something would be like if they’d grown up sheltered in a dystopian society. And then I had to make her relationship with the much older hero (a man who survived through the apocalypse) make sense and think about how they would relate to each other and believably fall in love.

Interestingly, I set out a goal for myself to inject some fun into this book. I love gritty, emotional, character-driven journeys, so my books tend to be chockfull of angst. My characters work hard for their HEAs! But, I also realize that readers sometimes appreciate a break from the angst. So, for this book I intentionally included a few scenes that were more light-hearted where the characters actually play together. In one scene, they have a splash fight and in another scene they play “marco polo” in the water and it’s great because you can really see the connection between them in those scenes.

I have so many author influences, it’s hard to say who inspired this particular book. But, I am a huge fan of some big-name contemporary romance writers like Tiffany Reisz, Sierra Simone, Charlotte Stein, Kate Clayborn, and Cara McKenna, so when I write I’m always aspiring to their levels. I don’t think I come close but I keep trying!

Jake nearly choked in disbelief. As if there was any possibility in any universe that he would find her silly. As if every syllable that danced off her lips didn’t entice him to an insane, and frankly probably unhealthy, degree. That this conversation, this furtive, intimate, simple but profound exchange, meant more to him than any other interaction he’d had in years. That he wanted to drown in the way her eyes took him in, like he wasn’t a washed-up, broken-down disgrace of an Alpha but a wholly different type of creature altogether, one that — despite all sense and reason — interested her.  He didn’t say any of that. Could barely let himself think it, let alone feel the truth of it or say it out loud.

I would love to meet ALL my characters! But I’d especially like to meet Cal, who is the hero of my second book, The Alpha’s Seduction. I’d probably apologize for what I did to his foot!