1. What genre do you write in? Why?

Im currently writing romantic adventure, both paranormal and non, with an occasional YA of the same genres thrown in. Romance permeates everything I do, and always has. Falling in love is one of the most exciting parts of life. But adventure is exciting, too. I love heart-pounding, save-the-world (or one small part of it) stories. Paranormal means I can make it all up!

2. Please tell us about your latest book.

Fight or Flight is a romantic adventure about a woman who has immersed herself in paranoia for 18 years, determined to keep her daughter safe from the unknown enemy who killed the childs father and came after her. Just as she decides its safe to drop her guard, theyre back, and shes forced to trust a man who may be working for her enemy. This book is available from Carina Press at the link above, or via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a dozen other online e-book retailers.

3. What can we expect from you in the future?

I don’t have a release date yet, but Carina Press has contracted to publish my next romantic adventure, Behind the Scenes. That one features a woman driven to protect vulnerable people in intensely dangerous circumstances. When she takes a job doing security on a movie set, a movie star takes on the challenge of making her see life with a bit broader perspective.

4. How do we find out about you and your books (URLs, blog, etc.)?

I’m all over the place! 🙂

My Website
Facebook
Twitter
My Main Blog
My eHarlequin Profile
My Goodreads Page
The Gab Wagon, a group author blog
Supernatural Sisters, a group author blog about the TV show Supernatural!

5. What motivated you to start writing?

I’ve been a voracious reader since I was four years old. When I was in high school and college, writing seemed to be my strength. My mother made her living as a writer, though she was never successful in fiction. I started a book in college, but it got lost when I left my floppy disk in the computer lab and the lab tech accidentally erased 3+ years of documents. After graduation, when we bought our first computer, the ideas that had been percolating in the back of my head finally had an outlet. (I never considered being a writer while I had to do it longhand. LOL)

Always, the motivation was to give someone else the pleasure I’d had in reading thousands of novels. It was never a sense that I could do better than what was out there, only a belief that fiction was where I belonged.

6. What kind of research do you do?

I do “gotta” research. As in, I “gotta” figure out how long it will take to get from DC to Boston on I-95. Or, I “gotta” know some real-life ways of going into hiding. I hate research overall, so I do what I have to in order to make my books real and accurate. But that’s why I like paranormal stories so much! There’s no need to research stuff that’s not real.

7. Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

I’ve never managed to create a real schedule. It always depends on my job, my family needs, my freelance workload, and whatever else desperately needs to be done. So I fit in all my writing needs around those, in whatever cracks of time become available.

8. Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?

My mother was my biggest influence. She was a stickler for accurate grammar, but she also showed me how to make a freelance career work, and she shared her fiction and her near-successes with me, so I had an idea of what I was in for when I decided to try it. She also somehow convinced me that I could do anything I set my mind to.

I’ve had so many writer influences, too. I’ve known Lisa Mondello almost since the beginning. She’s been a critiquer and my biggest cheerleader for…well, she remembers exactly how many years. I don’t. 🙂 The same is true of Cathy McDavid, for almost as many years. In the last few years,
Tracy Madison has helped me improve my work in leaps and bounds. And most of all, I have my Boot Squad: Megan Hart, Victoria Smith, Misty Simon, and, of course, YOU. The Boot Squad keeps me going in a million different ways.

9. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

No, until I was in college, I hated writing. Even in college, when I won a writing award and had two papers published in The Student Scholar, I hated it. I didn’t start to love it until I realized I could write what I like, i.e. fiction.

10. What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?

Man, there’s so much. The most obvious is when readers let me know how much they loved a book I wrote. Hitting the Kindle Coming Soon bestseller list was pretty darned cool, too. 🙂 Then there’s when the writing is flowing, or I read something I wrote years ago and still think it’s good, or I get an idea for the work in progress and go back to seed in that idea in what’s already written, to find that it was already seeded. And, of course, every contract is a huge reward. I could go on and on!

11. Among your own books, have you a favorite book? Favorite hero or heroine?

My all-time favorite (so far) is Under the Moon, an urban fantasy that hasn’t been contracted yet. That has two potential heroes who tie for my favorite, and also my favorite heroine. But of my published books, I think Kira’s Best Friend is my favorite, though if I start to analyze the answer, I’ll change my mind 8 times, so I’ll stop there. 🙂

12. Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?

Learn as much as you can about the craft and business of writing. Join a writer’s group, take some classes, and read magazines, books, articles, and blogs, so you can prepare yourself for anything. While you do all that, WRITE. Love writing, and what you produce. And never stop reading, a piece of advice that becomes harder and harder as the years go on.

13. Where can we buy your books?

My current and upcoming releases are on this page on my website. My backlist can be found here. Both pages have complete buy links for the books that are still available.

14. Now for something fun (Please pick a few of the questions below to answer do not feel that you have to answer all.):

I’m so bad. I HAD to answer all! LOL

Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate, preferably dark, and preferably with toffee or nuts in it.

Favorite color? White and navy blue.

Favorite TV show? SUPERNATURAL! 🙂

All-time favorite actor? It changes, so there’s no one all-time favorite. I’ve had obsessions for Brendan Fraser, Orlando Bloom, and Jensen Ackles.

Actress? Sandra Bullock. I love her style, and her more serious choices always display a lot more depth than her most popular ones allow for.

All time favorite book? The Harry Potter series. I listen to them every year, as soon as the New England Patriots get knocked out of the playoffs (or win it all).

Favorite Movie? Lord of the Rings

What makes you laugh out loud? Usually Misty Simon.

If you could go anywhere in the universe where would that be? Wherever the TARDIS is going next.

What do you like to do in your down time? Read or watch TV or movies. I know, boring, right?

Thanks so much, Vicky, for this fun interview!