What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Naming the characters. It’s worse than naming my kids. There are only 3 of them. But a book requires a lot of names. And with the number of books I’ve written, it gets to be hard to come up with good names that fit the characters.
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
It didn’t change that much for me. I love writing. I wrote nearly 20 books in the 7 years before I got an agent and sold my first book. I write most days, whether it’s a little or a lot. Most days I write about four to five hours straight. I think the longest day I ever put in was 12 hours. I was so lost in the story, I just had to keep going. Granted, that was the rough draft. It wasn’t all good writing, but getting the story on the page is what counts.
What comes first for you — the plot or the characters — and why?
The characters and the opening scene. That’s always my starting point. Because I write romance, there’s the built-in happy-ever-after, which I love, because my books usually start at some pivotal point in the character’s lives where everything changes.
And then things get intense and messy and life happens to them and they have to find their way through it and earn that great, enduring love.
What’s your favorite writing snack or drink?
Coffee or tea. Brownies or cookies.
How do you come up with character names for your stories?
Sometimes it’s a name of one of my kids’ friends, a colleague of my husband, a name in a book I’m reading, a name on a TV show or movie.
I do use a random name generator.
But one of the most helpful places for finding lots of different kinds of names is the credits at the end of a movie.
What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date?
I just finished writing my next women’s fiction novel, which will be out July 2022. It’s called The One You Want. One week, two friends, secrets revealed, and a wedding gone wrong.
But up first I have a brand new romance series – Wyoming Wilde. The first of three books comes out on 3/29/22 – Chase Wilde Come Home.
Happy reading everyone!
