This might be a strange confession coming from a woman who just finished the third book in a series featuring emergency responders, but I am useless in an emergency, (unless you need someone to freak out, pass out, or possibly both—then I’m your girl). I’m even useless in fake emergencies. A while back some friends booked an escape room adventure called “Cold War Bunker” where we got locked in a room and had to solve a bunch of puzzles in order to stop the countdown clock on a nuclear bomb, and free ourselves. Oh, my God, you guys…I couldn’t even figure out how to turn on the stupid lights. Granted, I’d had four margaritas, but still. That countdown clock worked my nerves. By the halfway point, I was pounding on the door and begging to be sprung. (Fun fact that might have been good to know before I imbibed four margos—no potty in the Cold War Bunker). I think this personal failing on my part accounts for why I love a hero who can keep his head together under pressure. The kind of guy that hears, “Houston, we have a problem,” and calmly replies, “Let’s work the problem.” That’s Shane…

Pets have always been a popular feature in romance and women’s fiction—dogs in particular—but it’s much less common to have wild animals be a part of these books. In BAY SONG, my heroine, Holly, is a recluse who lives completely alone on the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She has a big wooded property, and her only companions are the wild animals who live on her land, so the animals end up being a big part of the book. A couple of years ago, I moved to a small town in the country. It’s in the mountains, surrounded by woods, so wild animals are really part of this town. Deer come by at night and eat the apples that fall off my tree. Rabbits, birds, squirrels, and chipmunks hang out on my patio. And I go by the pond a few time a week to feed the ducks and geese that live there. There are mallards, Canadian geese, and the occasional wood duck—plus the domesticated geese and ducks who call the pond home, including one adorably ugly Muscovy duck who begs for food just like a dog. I wrote BAY SONG shortly after I moved to this…

When I told people I wanted to be an author, it wasn’t as though I had told them I wanted to be the next big movie star and they’d say, “Good luck with that.” No, they’d smile and say, “I want a copy of your first book,” even if they’d never read anything I’d written. That’s the thing about writing…people see it as an attainable goal, because you can do it anywhere. You don’t have to move to Hollywood or New York City, you can do it from the comfort of your own home no matter what city you live in. However, just like with any calling or dream, you have to work at it. When I got to the age where I could really dive into my writing, I didn’t know where to start. So the following are things to do if you’re just beginning your writing journey. Read I’ll admit that sometimes when I read books by my favorite authors, I feel pangs of jealousy because I think I’ll never be as good of a writer as they are. However, by reading their books, I get great ideas and it pushes me to become a better writer. Practice…