I am a woman who bore two children with great joy, saw them grow to adulthood and now have their own families where I see my grandchildren likewise growing and learning about life. Life is such a mystery, isn't it? Glorious and sometimes tragic, life is what makes writing worthwhile for me because it is so rich and full with many stories to tell-- even as they all have been told, of course; but not with my experience set. Only I can tell those.
So back to defining myself and first words that come to mind are nature loving, rural living woman... Born into the hills of the Cascade Mountains, I grew up in the front yard of Sasquatch with wilderness out my backdoor and a gravel road out my front. Schooling began in a country school where there was one room for first through third grades with fourth, fifth and sixth in the building next door. No school bus which meant a mile and a half walk to school along one of those gravel roads where in the spring I could watch pollywogs turn into frogs.
I tell the story because when I think back on memories of my life, the most vibrant ones are relating to nature in some way or another. Walking a dirt road, looking into a stream, watching a bird, swimming in a river, and on go the memories. Those from inside buildings are less strong or not retained as fondly.
Today I live on a small ranch in the foothills of the Coast Range of Oregon where my husband and I raise cattle and sheep. The grandchildren come to visit when they can and they are also being reared to love nature and the outdoors. I don't see my life even now mapped out or where it might be next year. I have always liked living that way with changes possible.
This is all reflected in my stories which are of love, of men and women finding relationships and struggling with all the things that humans always have. Perhaps romantic love has not always been so available but maybe it's been in the heart of men and women from the time they first became recognizably human. We don't have a breeding cycle as so many animals do; so there has to be something to draw us together, make us even willing to sacrifice, and that something is not simply lust but a far deeper connection that goes into our souls and some call soul mates.
Whatever it's called, for me to write about romances is all I really know; but I like an edge to those romances and hence the books I write, I call Romance with an Edge. This is not only what I write but what I enjoy in someone else's book. I like stories of two people coming together with a complication that often proves dangerous. I don't like writing or reading borderline erotica but do like some sex as part of that edge.
The site I called Romance with an Edge was fun to write, still is fun to write, but it didn't answer the question of how readers would find me. That required them looking for my writing name and hence was born this site which will be more of a biography of me and then the books as they are introduced onto Kindle and Nook.
My books come out of my life, my experience, my loves, the stories I have heard of others, and finally my dreams as I definitely have dreamed many romance stories over the years that lay themselves out like a book for me to then retell later. I like character driven books to read and write. That is not to say plot doesn't matter but it's secondary to the development of these characters along with their motivations that drives so much of what will happen.
This site is not about romances in general but my actual books and me. It is here to help readers decide whether to read one of my stories-- or if someone has liked one, that they will find others they might equally enjoy. Here is where the links to finding them and synopses of them will be found. I hope it proves beneficial.
