FAQ

How did you get started in writing?

It started with a dare.  I was basically complaining to my mother that I could not find a good book to read.  This book had too much of this or that. My mother, who had written as a girl and knew how difficult it was, told me she hadn’t seen anything I’d written.  Until I tried it myself, I had no business complaining.   I took that to mean that she didn’t think I could do it.  My parents have always encouraged me. I was shocked. I had to prove to her that I could write my own story,  After all, how hard could it be?

To make a long story short I spent my entire summer proving to my mother that she was wrong. There was nothing easy about it. And I was quickly hooked on telling my own stories.  It took me years to get it right.

 

What gets in the way of writing?

Reading.  I’m a reader first and foremost.  I fell in love with reading romance novels a long time ago.  In junior high school I had to do a book report for an English class and it turned out to be a teenage romance novel I found in the school library. I can’t remember the title or the author.  Back then those things weren’t important.  The book was about two young students meeting and falling in love at Fisk University.  I was thirteen years old. Suddenly I realized that reading can affect your entire life.  It did mine.

That book made me want to go to college and gave me an appreciation for the written word.  From then on I became a voracious reader, having no idea I had even a grain of talent in telling my own stories some day.

To this day, I often lose myself in a good book.  As a teenager the library was my home away from home.  I checked out an average of ten novels at one time.  This was before Harlequin.  I started with reading romance novels by Alice Walker that took place in the Australian Outback.  I moved on to historical romances, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Georgette Heyer’s books.

During my college days, I learned to stockpile the books I wanted to read until semester breaks or summer vacation. I would never have graduated if I allowed myself that freedom.

 

Who are your favorite authors?

I don’t have one.  There are so many I enjoy reading.  I’d hate to name only a few for fear of leaving someone out, but I suppose I must.  I read Beverly Jenkins, Francis Ray, Carla Fredd, Margie Walker, Angela Benson and Brenda Jackson.  I can’t leave out Melanie Schuster, a gifted writer also from Saginaw, MI.  They have all becoeme good friends on this journey of life and discovery.

I have also read Jayne Ann Krentz, Lynne Graham, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele, Kathleen Woodwiss, Linda Lael Miller, Julia Garwood’s historicals, Linda Howard, Beverly Barton’s Protector Series, Catherine Anderson, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Connie Briscoe, Victor McGlothin and Terry McMillian.

 

How long did it take you to get published?

Years!  So many years that I stopped counting when I reached thirteen.  Since my background and schooling are in education, it took time to learn to write. Even more time to learn about the business of writing.

After years of rejection letters, I joined Romance Writers of America, read The Writer’s Market and The Writer’s Digest every month.  I was really discouraged when I took a writers workshop at a local college, How to Get Published.  I took that course four or five times. It was where I got to know many other writers, working on all kinds of projects.  I learned the value of workig with others and getting their feedback.

I eventually joined a critique group, there were three men and three women, and began working with people who were serious about their craft. I ws the only romance writer in the group, but I didn’t let that stop me.  When it was my turn, if I was working on a love scene in the story, then that was what I read out loud to the group. I was in that group for nearly twenty years.  I only left when I moved from Detroit.

I considered myself blessed when Zebra started the Arabesque line. I was ready.  I saw the article in RWR, Feb. ’94 issue, The Year of the Ethnic Romance.   So I decided to send them a proposal and the first three chapters of my current book.  I was so excited, I couldn’t stand it when the editor Monica Harris called me, leaving a message on my answering machine on a Friday afternoon.  It was after five when I got home.  I nearly drove myself, my family and all my friends crazy that weekend, trying to figure out why she called.  By Monday all I wanted was out of my misery.  But I had to go to work.  I went but I was not a happy teacher that day.  When I finally was able to call Monica it was good news.  They loved the book and wanted to buy it.  I was over the moon.  That first book for Arabesque, FOR ALWAYS came out in Jan. of  ’95.

 

What advice would you give new writers?

DO THE WORK.  In order to grow in writing I had to write every day.  I used to get up at five in the morning to write before I went to my real job.  I did a little writing in the evenings but most of my writing was done in the mornings and the week-ends.

Journaling is a good habit to get into.  It forces you to put pen to paper every day.  It takes you from talking stage into doing it.

Writing is hard work.  Getting published, for me was harder than taking all those classes to get my degree in education.  I knew going in that if I did the work, I would hopefully pass the course and eventually finish.  That is not true about writing.

There are no guarantees when it comes to getting your work published.  It can be tough.  Which is why, I believe, you should write because you love it.  Tell the story that you want to tell, not what is popular at the moment.  For me, that was romance novels.  I loved them.  It never occurred to me to write anything else.

NEVER GIVE UP.  No matter how many rejection letters you receive keep moving forward…keep writing.  You won’t see your name on the cover, if you get your feelings hurt and stop trying.  Have a good cry, then dry your tears and keep at it.  It can happen.

 

When you are ready to start a new story, do you start with the characters or the situation?

I start with the conflict, the reason why these two people should not be together.  The twists and turns it takes for the characters to find their happy ending makes the story in my opinion.  I learned the hard way that if I don’t have a conflict, I don’t have a story.  How did I learn this?  By writing ‘bad’ books, where the story went nowhere.  I had interesting characters and I had what I thought was intriguing situations, but I didn’t have the reason behind the story.  Those stories are locked away in the bottom of the file cabinet and will never see the light of day.  I consider them to be my learning books.

In my current novel, CAN’T SAY NO, there was a long list of reasons why my heroine should not become involved with the hero.  He is a well known womanizer, not interested in making a commitment of any kind.  When it comes to a woman’s heart, he couldn’t be trusted.   Unfortunately, Ralph was Vanessa’s dream lover.  She longed to turn her night fantasies into reality.  All she needed was one night in his arms.  It would be enough.  Then she could walk away, without regrets and never look back.

 

What takes so long between books?

Two things slow me down.  I’m a Leo and a perfectionist.  I can’t seem to help it.  I want to get it right.  And for me it takes time to get a story right.  It doesn’t leave my house until it’s the best I can do at the time.

Plus, we all have things that we have to deal with in life, and for me there are health issues that slow me down and that also keeps me from getting out and meeting fans.  Like everyone, I have good days and bad days.  With the Lord’s blessings, I eventually get the work done.