My novels usually center on rugged or exotic countryside, from the wilds of Alaska (Mail-Order Mate and Freedom's Fortune) to the sunny beaches and mountains of California's coast (Sentinel at Dawn) and the arid yet mesmerizing ranchland in California and Texas (Days of Fire). In Emerald Fortune I wanted to capture the urban intrigues and...
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My novels usually center on rugged or exotic countryside, from the wilds of Alaska (Mail-Order Mate and Freedom's Fortune) to the sunny beaches and mountains of California's coast (Sentinel at Dawn) and the arid yet mesmerizing ranchland in California and Texas (Days of Fire). In Emerald Fortune I wanted to capture the urban intrigues and dangers of London, inner-city Los Angeles, and the rainy mystery of New Orleans at night. In these exotic locales, love can be dangerous and exciting.
I've spent a good deal of my adult life writing, editing, and mentoring writers. After I'd published five novels and raised my daughter, who enjoys a successful real estate finance career, I paused to finish my under-graduate degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Chapman University. I went on, with all the typical struggles of a grad student who juggles work, survival, and studying, and attained my master's in English from Cal State University at Long Beach, California.
It was both enlightening and deeply rewarding to read the great literature of the ages. I learned to deconstruct the, to me, still somewhat obscure modernist works and finished a particularly challenging course in medieval literature and language; I loved the Arthurian legends and suffered through middle-English translations. Call me old or old-fashioned, but in contrast, I flat-out gave my heart to the Romantics, the Victorians, and the abolitionist writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dickens, and Frederick Douglass. My all-time favorite author is Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Eyre is my favorite novel.
As a romance reader and writer, it was natural that I was drawn to female coming-of-age novels in the English tradition exemplified by writers such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot. If I am able to imbue my more recent fiction with influences from these greats, I'm thrilled.
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