Inspiration to write

So many books today, while having great story lines, have too much erotica for a conservative person like me.  I grew up reading mysteries and who done its.  When I started on romances, I preferred the historical romance genre, like Barbara Cartland.  Since I have grown up, I do like to read Stephanie Laurens, JoAnn Beverly, Christina Dodd and many others.  I just did not feel comfortable even writing erotic passages.  I have always liked stories where the good guy wins out over the evil one.   I really did not want to write a lot of violence, but an uplifting story that would keep the adult interested, yet a younger person could read without a parent being concerned.  Raven’s Choice is my first attempt.  My nieces, who are my first line editors, have commented that the writing has gotten better with each book.

Ideas come to me where ever I am.  I have learned to keep a notebook handy where I can jot down ideas.  It doesn’t hurt to have someone you can bounce things off from either.  When writing a historical, it does pay to know reliable sites to go to for research and I love reading history books.  Certain periods of history interest me more than others, such as the Victorian and Regency era’s as well as our own Civil War era.

I would love to travel to all of the places I have ever read about, but then I would never be home.  I have traveled through out Europe and the former Soviet Union.  I hope to make additional sojourns to various countries in the future.

Once I started writing, it helped to have someone to proof my first attempt.  That person also continued to prompt me to continue so that the book was finished.  I think many people don’t think they can string words together, but you won’t know until you try.  Once the first work was finished, I had to decide on whether to self-publish or to send it to a publisher.  Many of the big publishing companies are not accepting new works.  I am still in the learning stage and my first book was published through Page Publishing.  They were great to work with, but now I need to find the time to promote book signings and sales.

I would like to see my titles on the shelves of all book stores, and hopefully some day I will.