What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
I don’t have a Top #10 , I read so much. But here are ten authors whose books I love:
(1) L.M. Montgomery … the Anne of Green Gables books
(2) Jan Karon … the Mitford Series
(3) Anne Perry … the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries set in England
(4) Margaret Maron …the Deborah Knott mystery series set in NC
(5) Nora Roberts … all her earlier books, especially, like the Irish ones
(6) Deborah Smith … all her novels set in the GA and NC mountains
(7) Susan Wittig Albert … especially the China Bayles mystery series set in Texas
(8) Debbie Macomber … her sweet romances set in the northwest
(9) Julia Quinn and Mary Balogh …historic romance authors
(10) Agatha Christis … all her wonderful mysteries about Poirot, Miss Marple and more
What book do you think everyone should read?
I think an incredible book that would be a benefit for all to read is Og Mandino’s book THE UNIVERSITY OF SUCCESS. I’ve recommended it to friends, at literary festivals, and to my college students for years. An old classic still available in paperback, it offers writings by multiple famous individuals on how to live a successful life.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve always written for business, for college as a professor, and a little for fun … but I didn’t start writing seriously for publication until the early 2000s. My husband and I began working then on a hiking guidebook and the idea for novels set in the Smokies came to me while we were out exploring the trails. While out hiking we’d stop in small bookshops and stores, and as an avid reader, I started looking for contemporary novels set around the Smokies we were exploring. But I couldn’t find any. One day I asked one of the store managers, “Don’t you have any contemporary novels set here in the mountains—you know with a little romance and mystery?” He shook his head. “I don’t but I wish I did. People ask for that kind of book all the time. You’d think with the Smoky Mountains the most visited national park in America that someone would write some.” … So I did, setting each stand alone novel in a different place around the mountains. … I had about three stand-alone books completed in what I called the Smoky Mountain Series when I signed contract with my first publisher. My novel THE FOSTER GIRLS published in 2009, followed by TELL ME ABOUT ORCHARD HOLLW in 2010 and FOR SIX GOOD REASONS in 2011. More novels followed to complete the 12-book Smoky Mountain series, and then—due to reader-demand for more and the suggestion of my editor at Kensington Publishing—I started a second stand alone series called The Mountain Home Books, with more wonderful stories set around the mountains. As of April 2021, with two new novels and another guidebook publishing … I have over twenty books published. … With more coming!
Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
I plan all my main and secondary characters before starting to write a book. I know them all very well before I ever begin to write … who they are, where they came from, their looks, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, problems, goals. The characters develop and come to life more as I write, but I know them as well as a loved friend or family member before I begin each book.
What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
I spend about three months researching and planning a book and then about three months writing a book … and I complete about two books a year. My research process involves extensively researching the location and setting for my books, all the main and secondary characters who will people the book, and the multitude of details needed for the storyline that will thread through each novel. I usually end up with a big pile of manila folders stuffed with research notes, maps, drawings, character sketches, visual pictures of people and places, and more before I begin to write. I visit any major setting sites that will be in my novels … and I bring in as many real places as I can into all my books, making my readers feel they’ve really visited in my story settings. Many of my readers use my books as a guide for places to see, restaurants to eat at, shops to visit, and trails to hike when they travel to the mountains or the coast where my Southern novels are set.
Do you see writing as a career?
Writing is definitely a full-time career for me now. When my first book published in 2009 I was a faculty member teaching about eight to nine classes a year in a variety of psychology and research classes at Tusculum College. I also worked in a part-time capacity as the educational coordinator for a tutoring company, calling on schools in four counties. As the popularity of my books grew and as the demands of marketing, book signings, speaking events, and other aspects of being an author increased, I gradually cut back on my other career demands. …Now I write full-time.
What do you think about the current publishing market?
Covid and all the national unrest has given a big hit to publishing like many other business arenas around the United States and abroad. But serious writers have kept writing and working. It’s what we do, good times or bad. … I’ve also watched the publishing industry change dramatically since my first book published. That book THE FOSTER GIRLS published only in print at first … as eBooks were only starting to emerge in 2009 … but by the time the next book TELL ME ABOUT ORCHARD HOLLOW published in 2010, it came out in both print and eBook simultaneously. Also when my early books published there were many, many more bookstores than today. I’ve watched favorite chain stores like Borders, Davis Kidd, Cokesbury, Lifeway, and many wonderful indie stores go under with the changing times and the increased purchasing of books through online retailers like Amazon. … It is hard to say where things will be in another ten or twenty years.
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