I started writing during math class in the 5th grade where I wrote my first novel, an 18 page handwritten story about getting lost in the woods.  I got an A in English but didn’t do so well in math. I am sure there was a lesson to be learned there but I didn’t heed it, and I continued to write whenever my muse would not stop whispering in my ear, sometimes just to shut her up! Writing became second nature through my career, including copywriting, newsletters, radio and TV commercials, blurbs, product descriptions, proposals, etc.

I live in California with Kaylee The Killer Kitten, Kween of Kuddletown, Captain Tightpants, a sweet ginger cat who is sometimes referred to as Captain Cuddlepuss or Captain Bratticuss, depending on his mood, 4,578 birds in our Mulberry trees, Henry the squirrel who lives under the shed, and a visiting bat who likes to swoop down and scare the heck out of my husband, Jim. I call him Flutter. The bat, not my husband. Just so we’re clear.

Some people ask, as they do of all writers, where I get my ideas. Sometimes they come from snippets of thought, memories of dreams, and bits of  overheard conversations, all tumbled about in my sub-conscious like a blender, coming out completely different, exaggerated, and oftimes weird story smoothie.

WHY DO YOU USE A PSEUDONYM?

Pseudonyms, also called pennames, are often used by authors to 1. Hide their Identity (can’t have mama knowing you write “that” kind of stuff), or 2. to branch into a radically different genre,

I had been writing dark, supernatural, thriller/horror for so long that when It came time to publish my first novel, I didn’t think twice about using my real name.

Then Mom complained I didn’t write anything she could read since she loved romances and was weirded out by my dark stories. So I had to come up with a new name to separate my mostly clean romance books from the rather dark, horror and thriller-y novels and stories.

Moms. What are you gonna do?

But what to write that would satisfy my romance-loving mom and satisfy my urge to write supernatural?

The issue with supernatural romance is that I was a little tired of the same old tropes, with Vampires and Lycanthropes, especially. Either they super clean or they were super erotic… and not much in between.

Not very realistic.

Brainstorming with a writer friend, we came up with this new world of the Insuri, sketched out a set of scenarios, stories and a series arc. My friend went back to writing her particular brand of SF Romance and I ran with Whispering Mountain.

So here you have it: a new breed of Elemental supernaturals living in a perfect little self-contained town surrounded by mountains, forests, lakes and rivers, where the people control the weather and can grow anything, a world full of surprises and quirky people, curses, talking cats (who are not cats), gossips, romance, a Welcome sign that counts residents but ignores tourists, and an ancient Stone of Creation that is just starting to wake up

See? Much more realistic.

Now Mom wants a Fale. And so do I.