Hello, and welcome to the Getting to Know You Blog Hop. We have an eclectic choice of bloggers for this hop and it will run from January 29, 2013 to February 1,2013. I’d like to thank all of the participants for joining and committing this time to their blog.
Let’s get started on getting to know me.
Where are you from?
I was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a very small town and grew up on Lake Michigan. I stayed in Michigan until I graduated high school and left for warmer parts of the country via the United States Marine Corps.
When and why did you begin writing?
I’ve always been a writer at heart and started reading and writing at age four. I love the written word. I chose a career as a Technical Writer creating computer user manuals and segued into writing novels after I had a life changing experience. A near-death experience that brought into focus what was most important in my life, and that was my goal to become and author.
What books have most influenced your life?
Stephen King’s books resonate with me because I feel like he’s my “unofficial” mentor. I use his books and his style to guide how I write. He can use a few words to trigger an entire world inside a reader’s mind. That’s my goal as well.
What is your favorite book from childhood?
The book “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S.Lewis comes to mind, as well as “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I also like the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner.
Are the names of the characters in your novels important?
I try to find character names that fit the character description and attitude of the character I develop. I try to make sure all the character names in my books are unique and I don’t overlap or use similar names to confuse my readers.
What’s your favorite fruit?
No question about it. Blueberries. I LOVE them. As a child, I worked the summers as a picker for a Blueberry farm. We would get a dollar a bucket. Best times of my life.
Do you ever wish you had an entirely uncreative job?
Never. Writing is whom I am, how I live, what I breathe. I could not exist if I were not a writer. I tried the corporate route before. It didn’t agree with me.
What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer?
My husband. He helps me stay grounded. He’s as close to me as anyone could be and he know all my moods. I also lay all my troubles on God. He’s my rock.
What was the greatest thing you learned at school?
I learned how to survive by going into the fantasy realm of my mind and make up stories. I was bullied a lot in school and I learned how to switch it off and just go into my mind and be one with my stories.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Stephen King. I’ve even written a blog titled, “EverythingI know about writing I learned by reading Stephen King”. It’s true. And, I believe that every writer worth his salt should have a copy of ON WRITING by Stephen King on their desk or bookshelf.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
OUT FOR JUSTICE: Rookie homicide Detective Karen Sykes is out to prove she is good at her job, finding justice for a darkness in her past through law enforcement. She gets her first chance to shine with a case that hits a little too close to home. Like her younger sister, a four-year-old boy, has been brutally murdered. The case pairs her with Mike Connelly, an attractive crime scene technician, and sparks fly between the two of them. Mike resists the attraction and only adds more emotional conflict to the case.
When her partner becomes the latest victim and ends up in the hospital near death, Karen sets out to find the murderer before he hurts anyone else. Only the case gets trickier when the murder suspect ends up dead, leaving new clues to the real killer. Finding comfort in Mike's support, their relationship heats up, but so does the investigation. The killer has a plan. One that involves a Cat and Mouse game of hide and seek inside the hospital, where her partner struggles for his life. Karen discovers it takes more than catching a killer to make the pain of her past go away. It also takes opening her heart and learning to trust in others.
GOOD INTENTIONS: The tragic story of one woman’s efforts to help a teenage mother. Megan, fourteen and pregnant, needed a mom. Tracy, thirty-nine and already raising a large family, gave her a home. Neither was ready for what happened next.
Tracy Reynolds’ life is not her own. She works the nightshift at the hospital and has three boys, two girls and a husband who works the opposite shift along with a menagerie of rescued pets. Somehow, she and her husband, Tim, have made it work with love, faith, and impeccable ethics.
Adding fourteen-year-old Megan and her newborn son to the mix was supposed to be uncomplicated. The adoption agency made it sound so easy. They painted Megan as a good child who had a rough life. She needed love and understanding and the stability of a respectable home and family. Tracy and Tim fit the bill and were fast tracked through the system and before they knew it trouble landed on their doorstep. Megan.
Megan rejected their family values and resisted from every direction when it came to learning how to live within their family dynamics and taking care of her son. She missed her friends and the people she knew when she worked as a prostitute. Despite court orders and her probation officer’s warnings, Megan secretly reconnected with her old friends and lover.
The Reynolds’ family spun out of control. Not one would be untouched by Hurricane Megan’s path of destruction.
One link in a strong chain of family dynamics can crumble the entire household.
Deceptions. Infidelity. Drugs. Child abuse. Cancer. Sexual abuse. Home invasion. The Reynolds’ went through it all. Would their family ever be the same?
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Write. Write something every day. And, Read. Read every day.Always be willing to learn and grow as a writer. If you’re serious about becoming an author, be serious. Look like an author in the virtual world. Have a website, a blog, a Facebook author page. Join LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social network community that can benefit you. I recommend Triberr. There you can specialize which communities,“tribes”, you want to join that will be beneficial to you and them.
Thanks,
Thank you for reading a bit about me and I’d like to introduce you to other authors along this hop. Their links are below:
