What can you tell us about your new release, The King?
THE KING is my new book about a girl gambled away by her father to the man he owes. It’s sexy and emotional and hopefully compelling! It features a character from my USA Today bestselling Endgame trilogy, Damon Scott. He’s the one who “wins” the heroine. It’s not just random luck. They have a secret history and even more secret feelings. Delving deep into their story while writing has been an incredible journey.
What's on your top five list for best books you've ever read?
Oh my gosh, I need to stop and fangirl for a moment. The list might change a little very time I say it, but definitely To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney would be there. One of the best dark romances ever written. Other historicals would be His at Night by Sherry Thomas and Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer.
On the contemporary side, I love everything that Carolyn Crane/Annika Martin writes. My favorite of hers is probably Off the Edge. I think I only have one book left? Eek!
I’m going with Wait for It by M O’Keefe. Brilliant writing, stunning emotions.
Who are your literary heroes working today? Why do you admire them?
I love the authors who write on the darker edge of romance, like Kitty Thomas, Anna Zaires, and Pam Godwin. I can always rely on them to take me somewhere new and daring.
And I love finding new authors to adore. I’ve recently developed a complete author crush on Eve Dangerfield. I’ve read all her books, but I think the standout is Taunt. Completely original.
What's your favorite thing about writing?
My favorite thing is the way the story unfolds for me. When I start writing I don’t know all the twists and turns the book will take. Only by following the characters can I uncover it. Kind of like with reading, but more personal. It’s not just discovering a book, but my book.
What's a typical day like for you?
A great day for me is spent at a coffee shop, my headphones playing Lana Del Rey songs I’ve heard a million times while my fingers spin out a new scene. After that I go home and unwind by cuddling with my dogs, often outside on the patio. Wine might be involved in that part.
If you could invent anything what would it be?
An invisibility cloak. Not so that I can spy on people, but so that I can’t be found. It’s the introvert in me
What scene in The King was your favorite to write?
I fell in love while writing the scene where she’s actually gambled away… but going into details about it would be a spoiler. So instead I’ll talk about the scene at the very beginning, where the hero and heroine meet for the first time.
She’s only a child, precocious and uncertain at the same time. He’s a surly teenager. Both of them are so reluctant to trust—everything they’ve learned about grown ups is temporary and unstable and sometimes even violent. But they recognize in each other kids lost to the same system, short refuge in their family’s different storms.
A lot happens before they reconnect as adults, and then come together as a couple, but that moment was pivotal in both their lives even early on.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
I have this quote on my office wall: "It always seems impossible until it's done." – Nelson Mandela
Every single book feels like an act of faith, where I don’t see how it can possibly work, where I doubt that it will even be finished, and then somehow by the time it’s done it seems inevitable that it would have been. There’s some magic there, a little apart from the real world, that I invest in as an author.
Of course the quote applies to broader things than writing. When things seem impossible with my family, with the world, I remember that it always does seem that way, until it’s done.
