Night and Day

This past few weeks have flown by. At night, I’m deep into working on Teagen’s story and having fun. He’s played the big brother for two books and now it’s time for him to have his share of trouble. It comes in the form of a widow and her three daughters.

During the day I’m working at my office on the campus. For me the year always starts in September. I guess after years of teaching the beginning will always be when school starts and never January. I’m writing several articles and lining up talks. Plus, of course, talking to lots of students.

Question: 1. The question I get asked all the time is, Where do your ideas come from?

I always want to say, Where did yours go? because stories have played in my head since I can remember. It’s a hard question to answer. I usually say, “I was blessed with a loose grip on reality.

In truth, anything can bring on a story. One line from a song, something I see, something I hear someone say. Once a story starts to simmer in my mind I’ll go back to it again and again as if putting the pieces together. Often I think the story is there, I just have to find it.

2.What do you see after Whispering Mountain?

I have an idea of what I want to write but it needs a great deal of thought before I say anything. But, there are many more historical romances in my head, so don’t think I’m leaving that period.

3. Do you ever put real people in books?

No. But people think I do. Once I wrote a story about a prostitute who went straight and married a rancher in a small town. I happened to be autographing in a small town months later and about five people came up to me and told me they knew who I was writing about and that she still lived in the town.

Sometimes I use the names of people. The first one was Don Lawson, a programer friend of my husband. Don was in a wheelchair and an all around nice guy. When I asked him if we wanted to be in a book, he said sure but make me a hell-raiser. And I did. He loved it.