The books that inspired me to be a writer.

Once upon a time.....

 

That is how it all begins. We first fall in love with fairy tales and happily ever after. Our love for story telling grows into "it was a dark and stormy night". 

From fairy tales we branch out to our favorite genre. Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, and more. I fell in love with romance. Western romance specifically.

   The very first romance book I read was Apachee Caress when I was about 12. Took it from my mom's shelf (she said I was too young to read romance books) and snuck to my room to read it. Loved it. And I read the rest of Georgina Genty's Panorama of the West Series. This was where my love for romance books began. Each story was great on its own but I loved the way the author wove the characters from other books into new stories. I liked reading about the familiar characters and getting a glimpse of their continued story in a small way.

Then came Betty Brooks. I loved her books as well and read them all. (Exept one that I am searching for) Again I loved that her books connected together by the characters.

Then I discovered Victotia Thompson and Jodi Thomas. And my own desire to write took over. I was passionate about telling stories of strong people in the Wild West.

 

   What I loved most about these authors and the way they wrote their books is that they all tie together in some way. Characters from other books appear throughout the series. Each title is a stand alone but reading them in order gives the sense of knowing the characters on a deeper level. Several authors added Paranormal elements to their books and I loved it. My books all tie together and many have paranormal elements.

    These amazing authors were my inspiration to start my own writing.

    I've read many, many books since those teenage years, but those books published over 30 years ago are still my favorite ones. I have every book of every series (except that one elusive Betty Brooks book) on my shelves in my office. A constant reminder of my original inspiration. 

      Outlaw’s Redemption is the first book in the Wild Love Series. The second generation of my Rimrock characters. The families of the Rimrock Series span three generations so far. I love the familiarity of the characters I’ve spent the last 25ish years writing about.

Award Winner!!

 So happy to announce that Outlaw's Redemption has won another award. First in Category for Western Romance and a finalist for Paranormal Romance! A big thanks to Chanticleer International Book Awards for this honor.

  Writing a book is a long process that takes so much time and effort. Hours of slaving away over the computers. Never ending editing. Cover art. Uploading and distributing your work. Getting an award for that hard work is very rewarding. It's nice to get recognition for what you've done.

   The best recognition is from the readers. It makes me happy to have people enjoy my work and want more. I'm not sure what is next in the town of Rimrock. A third Rimrock Series book or a fourth Wild Love Series book.

   The next Rimrock book will be about Clu and Aleena. You were introduced to them in Promise of Spring. Clu is the Mayor and owner of the freighting company in Rimrock. A tragedy in his past left scars on his heart. Aleena is an orphan looking to make her way in life. After witnessing the murder of her family, she is taken in by a mountain man until his death. Clu hires her to cook and clean, as well as help in the freight office. Aleena helps heal Clu's heart and he gives her a sense of family.  When an accident kills his father and wounds his brother, Clu and Aleena head for St. Louis to help with the family business of freighting up and down the Mississippi River on a steam ship. They arrive to discover it was no accident that had killed Clu's father. No only is his brother's life still in danger, but now he has become a target.

  The next Wild Love book will be about Kade and Brenna. You briefly met Kade (Aleena and Clu's son) in Threads of Passion. Doing a favor for a friend, Kade has to get to St. Louis and back to Rimrock without getting killed. With hired killers chasing him the entire way, Kade needs to change his identity. Brenna longs for a better life than working in the laundry. When she catches a scrubby mountain man stealing clothes she finds herself with two choices. Go with him and pose as his wife and receive enough money to start her new life, or stay stuck in her current life. Brenna agrees and finds herself in more danger than she had bargained for. But Brenna learns that Kade isn't the mountain man she had him pegged for. And she isn't the lowly laundry maid he took her to be.