I know everyone asks this but why did you decide to write romance?


I’ve always LOVED reading romance. But they were sort of forbidden.  My mother wasn’t really strict she just felt there were ‘better’ things I could be reading while I was young (we’re talking high school age).  But, my friend used to get the books out of her older sisters room and we would read them and then talk about them.


I continued to read them as I get older.  I got married, did a couple of careers, had my first son and stopped working to be home with him.  Then I got pregnant with my second child.  (There are three now.)  Some time during that pregnancy, I suddenly decided to write one.  I just felt that I could and I really really wanted to.  I guess that’s how I decided.

 

Should we blame the pregnancy hormones?


What was the hardest thing you had to do when you started?

 

I had to get over my anxiety about writing love scenes. Now I love doing it but in the beginning it was tough for me. I’d blush through the whole thing.


What was the easiest thing?

Coming up with ideas.  They just flowed…


How long did it take you to finish your first manuscript and where did the idea come from?

Back then, I used to write manically.  I wrote a ton. I think I wrote my first book in under a month. 


Tell me about your first contract?

My first contract was Her Wolf and it was with Liquid Silver Books.  We were in Disney Word.  I screamed in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge.


Do you base any of your stories on real people or places or events?

Not really.  I tend to be really out there. But, some things creep in.  When my oldest had his tonsils out I learned all about keeping fevers down, keeping him hydrated. That made it into a book.  I guess that kind of thing but overall, no.


What gets you in the mood to write?

Everything.  Standing at the deli.  Watching my son’s swim lesson.  Basically doing anything other than writing. Reading great writing (Like you, Desiree!) makes me want to write


Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? 10 years?

I hope more and more people read my books. I hope I’m with my family. 


What do you enjoy most about being an author?

Getting e-mails from people who read my work.


Okay, quick fun questions:


Favorite ice cream Vanilla

Favorite music Billy Joel

Favorite movie  The Usual Suspects

Favorite time to write In the morning

If you could be stranded with a movie or television star who would you pick? Jensen Ackles.  I think that must be self-explanatory…

If someone played you in a movie who would it be and why?  Ah…Jessica Chastain. We’re both red-heads.


And now the book:
BLURB: 


Devin Owen has come back from the Dragon Wars a changed Werewolf. For one thing, he’s lost his wolf side as well as most of his desire to live. He spends most of his life doped up to handle the pain from his injured leg.

Lena Knox knew the moment she met Devin that he was her mate. But, she’d been a child at the time and he hadn’t noticed her at all. Now, all grown up she wants Devin to be the wolf she’s waited for. Not that she has a lot of time for longing with life crumbling around her.

A couple of heated encounters draw them together but is it enough to overcome the war wounds they both carry? Or will an outside enemy destroy them before they get the chance to know?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


EXCERPT:

 “You’re my mate, Devin. I’ve known it since the first time I was in your company when I was seven years old.”

Devin gripped the side of the table he stood next to like she’d struck him. “No.”


“No?” She hadn’t expected the pain of his rejection. She’d known he might not believe her at first. Tears she refused to shed clogged her throat. “It’s not ‘no.’ I’m your mate, such that I am.”


Lena knew she wasn’t an ideal Female specimen. Her skin frequently broke out in horrible bouts of acne, although she looked pretty clear at the moment, her chin jutted out too far, her hands were not dainty, and when she shifted, her Wolf form frequently had trouble coming to a stop at high speeds. More than once she’d collided into trees, bushes, and other Wolves.


But she knew she was a nice person. She could work hard, and she never asked anyone for anything but common decency. She’d be a good mate to him, and he shouldn’t be rejecting her outright.


Unless he found her absolutely repulsive to look at…


“You’ve made a mistake. Whatever you thought you smelled when you were a child was the wild fantasy of a young girl. You should be over it by now.”


She sighed. “Devin, I can still smell it. I promise when you get to know me you’ll find out I’m not wildly fanciful. I live in the real world.”


“I can’t smell it on you. Not at all. I’m sorry, Lena. You seem like a nice kid, but if you can really smell mating from me, then it’s one of those rare occasions where one Wolf feels something the other doesn’t.”


Lena had heard about those situations. It was every young Wolf’s deepest fear. Something went askew with the chemistry. One Wolf felt mated and the other one didn’t. They could even mate with someone else.


“I think you should go home and work on getting over whatever this is because, at least for my part, it is not a mating.”


Lena’s heart might explode from her chest. She turned on her heel. What else was there to say, really? He’d said no. He didn’t feel it. She’d waited fifteen years for him to come home, and it had been for nothing.