Who is your favorite author and why?
That’s a tough one. I would say that dating back to my college days, my favorite author has been Raymond Carver. He was writing bleak, incredibly stirring short stories in the 1980s. I couldn’t get enough of him. I would pore over each sentence. These days, though, I don’t much have the time to ‘pore’. I like a quick happily ever after, still stirring, but not so bleak. In this category, I would say my favorite author is Shannon McKenna. She writes sexy, exciting romantic suspense.
2) When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Actually, I used to write stories as a kid and give them to people to read. When I was in fifth grade, I wrote a book about quintuplets. So I definitely considered myself a writer back then. When I grew up and started worrying about financial matters, I lost that part of myself and stopped writing (anything fun, that is). A few years ago, though, my husband bought me a cute pink computer for Christmas and the writing just happened again. When Siren agreed to publish my first book, Saving McCade, I was elated. I definitely felt like a writer again at that point!
3) Describe your writing space?
I write in our family room on the couch by the fireplace with the computer on my lap and a cat usually lurking around trying to get on my lap. It doesn’t sound very comfortable, does it? But it works for me!
4) What are you reading now?
I’m ashamed to say I’m not reading anything because I’ve been so obsessed with writing lately. I think the last book I read was Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Before that, I was reading all of Sabrina Jeffries’ books in order. I love her!
5) How many books have your written? Which is your favorite?
I have written five books for Siren, three of which are already out with two coming soon. Trite as it sounds, my books are like my kids...I just don’t have a favorite. (I love them all, kids and books!) I will say that I have a special fondness for 
To Catch a Pirate, though, because it really didn’t sell as well as the others. So it’s almost like I feel bad for the least popular one. At the time of writing it, I actually thought it was my best. I had such fun with writing about a dashing hero who kidnaps the heroine. (I think I’ve always been stuck on that ‘Calgon take me away’ idea!)
6) What comes first, plot or characters?
Definitely the characters. Then I create the plot around them.
7) Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Not yet! I’m too excited to be writing again.
8) What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Eat cookies. Really. Big soft sugar cookies. That’s my favorite thing to do when I’m not writing. Consequently, I have to exercise a lot to try to counteract it! I like to watch Netflix streaming too (sometimes while I’m exercising). It is such a great invention, allowing me an endless supply of cheesy movies and old t.v. shows.
9) Tell us about your latest book?
Actually, my latest out is To Catch a Pirate and the one that should be out shortly is called Jesse’s Girl.
To Catch a Pirate is, needless to say, about a pirate. Jamie Banion is a gentleman pirate, the son of a woman pirate. He falls in love with Evelyn, the woman who, unbeknownst to him, has deliberately lured him into taking her ransom in order to catch him.
Jesse’s Girl is a western that takes place after the Civil War. It’s a sequel to Heart of Stone and revolves around two of the characters in that book. Jesse is an easy-going ladies man of a cowboy who lusts after the town princess Regina in the earlier book. At the beginning of Jesse’s Girl, Regina’s father has just traumatically died and she turns to Jesse for comfort, asking him to make love to her. He thinks it would be a crime to take advantage of her vulnerability at that moment, so he turns her down and leaves town. When he comes back almost two years later, he wants what she begged him to take before and she’s having none of it.
10) What’s next for you?
My next one out from Siren is also a Western that takes place in the same Colorado town that Heart of Stone and Jesse’s Girl do. In this one, The Outlaw Takes a Madam, there are twin brothers, one a doctor and the other a gunman. There is a lot of masquerading one for the other and it’s compounded by the fact that the heroine is the secret madam of the local whorehouse who is pretending to be a respectable spinster. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but I have a lot of fun with it.
Thanks!
Angela Claire
Great to have you here, Angela - hope you enjoy your time with me and catch some fabulous new readers!
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