It all started when…

My grandma, a Methodist minister’s wife, had bookshelves full of Harlequin novels. And thank goodness, because after a soul-crushing run-in with Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Teribithia (back to back), I decided I was never reading stories with sad endings again. You can keep Of Mice and Men. I’ll take A Brand New Ending or Do You Want to Start a Scandal.

I’ve always been a voracious reader, and I liked to write. The only reason I passed high school chemistry was because I wrote a poem called “Ode to My Dead Chemistry Teacher,” and he found it amusing. And then he begged me to be an English major in college. I didn’t. I got a degree in Public Relations, or, as I like to say, I got a BS in BS. It led me to a career in marketing. But I started dabbling in writing my own stories. I’d get these characters or circumstances in my head, and I wanted to see what happened next. That led to a couple of short stories. Now I’m working on a full-length novel.