It's hard to believe that ten years has passed since I first sat down and began my first story. I was thirty years old at the time and if you'd told me back then that ten years later I would have published eleven novels and three short stories, I wouldn't have believed you.
Believe it or not, English was my least favorite subject in high school. I dreaded it - mainly because I couldn't spell.
I'm not exaggerating. I was really bad at spelling. So much so that my second grade teacher called my parents in for a conference to tell them that I would most likely fail the second grade because of it.
Yeah, not exactly what a kid or their parents want to hear.
And since spelling was part of English in school, it made that subject rather difficult for me. I struggled with it all through school and even into college. It made writing papers difficult because no matter how good the content was, I always got dinged due to spelling or grammar. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I'd now be writing for a living.
So what changed? What make me give writing a shot?
Two words...Prison Break.
No. Not A prison break. I'm talking about the television show Prison Break.
If you've never seen it, the show followed a man, Michael, who's brother had been wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to prison. He'd tried all legal methods of freeing his bother but nothing worked, so he decided to take a rather drastic step. He got himself thrown in prison with him so he could break his brother out.
You might be wondering how this could possible tie to me writing romance. Well, I'm getting there.
The prison where he and his brother were had a prison doctor named Sara. During his stay, Michael ended up falling in love with the prison doctor, Sara. It was anything but a conventional romance, but that was one of the things I loved about it.
Unfortunately, this couple's love story got cut short when there was a writer's strike in Hollywood. Not only was production delayed, but by the time the strike ended there was something new they had to deal with. The actress who played Sara was pregnant.
This was an action packed show. Not to mention the fact that the two characters, Micheal and Sara, had never had sex (hard to do that when people are constantly trying to kill you). The writer's solution to this was to kill Sara off.
Yeah. That didn't go over well with the fans, me included. Petitions and emails were sent letting those in charge know exactly how we all felt.
But in the meantime, Michael and Sara fan fiction began popping up on fan sites, giving these two their HEA. I read a few and decided to try my hand at it. The very first story I ever wrote, Moving Forward, is still live on fanfiction.net and can be read
HERE.
By the time I finished writing Moving Forward, I had readers asking me what I was going to write next. From there I went on to write Perspective (Twilight fanfiction) and Goodbye (Twilight fanfiction). I also began writing a Twilight fanfiction called Finding Bella, which I ended up pulling before it was completed and published it as a four book serial series titled Finding Anna (Slave, Need, Truth, and Trust).
I've always been fascinated by relationships and human interaction. It doesn't matter if it's between a romantic couple, a family unit, or a group of friends. I love diving into what makes people tick.
That's why I love romance so much. The people. For me, it isn't about the sex or the sexy guys. It's about the forming of new bonds and people mingling their lives.
So what inspires you? Did you have a favorite subject in school? One you dreaded like I did English?
