How It Started

Everyone's writing process is different. Some spend years honing their craft while others come by it naturally. All of my book ideas started as a dream, one that I woke from and still attached to even though I was laying in my bed, trying to pull myself back into my body. My dreams are incredibly vivid and I feel as if I literally travel to other places. The first few lines and scenes of Dinner Date came to be when Ana was tossed out of the car, and I experienced everything from her point of view.

Writing

I write chronologically, typing. There are no handwritten journals, no piles of index cards that need to be shuffled into a story line. As each book starts with a vivid dream, when it's one I just can't shake and I start my morning still trapped in that space, unable to process why I am still so connected to it, I open my phone and do a quick voice to notes summary before I forget anything. This is my starting point, and I continue to think about the people and places for days as I imagine what might have happened after I woke up. As I write, the story unfolds so naturally it's as if someone is whispering the words into my ear as I type.

I didn't begin as a writer. Drawing and painting were what led me through life. My father is a writer and when I was making decisions about what I wanted to do with my life I consciously chose a different path. I had received a scholarship for a poem I wrote- about a painting- and questioned my path. I wanted to be my own person so I pursued art education and developed skills in watercolor. I am a passionate teacher and I am good at it. Half of my success in the classroom is the art of teaching and teaching well, and half is being an incredibly empathic person. This ability to read people's faces and body language while also literally feeling what they are feeling is also what makes my characters feel so real.

So for me, the story unfolds as if I was in the book myself, watching what might happen next and getting caught up in the feelings of the people I write about. When I finished my first draft and turned it over to my editor, I instantly missed the main characters. I had been spending all of this time with them and because I had no more to write about it was like I was missing two friends. I knew they were happy, but it felt like when I finish a really good television series or finish a great book, and I think about the story and details for days afterwards. My hope is that readers will feel as if they are real people, as well.