FAQ

What is your favorite color?

I don’t really have a favorite color.  I have a red room, a blue one, and a green one.  I have clothes in every color, including a bright orange jacket.  However, I am drawn to Easter egg colors, those pale blues and green and pinks.

What is your favorite food?

Ice cream. I love salted caramel. Unfortunately, I gain weight too easily to be able to eat much of it.

Where do you get your ideas?

I look for them. How can I use that in a book? is always in my mind. When something rotten happens to me, I can often settle my mind by figuring out how to put the incident into a novel.  Now that I’m writing murder mysteries, I have a list of people I want to kill.

Top five destinations you have visited? Why?

I travel a lot. I mean, really a LOT. I love Australia and New Zealand. The Aussie have a great sense of humor and the New Zealanders are the nicest people on the planet. I like Samoa on Sunday when they sing. The dancers of Tahiti are fabulous athletes. I like Japan very much. Africa is breathtakingly beautiful and the people are very polite. Every place has something about it that I like. Shopping in Hong Kong. Wow! Temples in Myanmar. The colors of India. It’s all interesting and exciting. Seeing and doing so much keeps my mind from getting stagnant.

Why are you an animal lover?

Beats me. I can’t understand why other people are so afraid of them. On my long cruises, we go to zoos where the animals are domesticated, but people are terrified of them. I’m the person in line to hold, hug, talk to them. Snakes, koalas, elephants, giant tortoises. I love them all!

Montgomery or Taggert?

Taggert. Montgomerys are too clean and tidy for my taste. And too tall and skinny. I like big men. Rugby players.

Historical or modern?

I love historical, but the last few I’ve written haven’t sold well so I’ve had to change to contemporary.

Favorite place/house you’ve ever lived in?

I loved living in Egypt. The people are very nice, and I fit in with them. The fact that I’m blonde never seemed to matter to anyone. I liked my house in England. It was 50 years old when George Washington was president.

I very much like where I am now. I have a house that is very open and the whole center of it is my office. I got tired of having a huge living room that I hardly ever used, but I would spend my days in a small bedroom that I use for an office. People who see my house are shocked because it isn’t conventional, but I love it. And Fort Lauderdale is easy to get around in, with wide streets and wonderful big stores. When I lived on Nantucket, I used to crave stores. Also, I am close to Port Everglades when the cruise ships dock.

Why ghosts and the paranormal?

I feel sad that a person’s knowledge is lost at death. I like the idea that spirits stay with us and they share.  I hate the idea that all spirits that don’t leave the earth are bad and scary.  I’ve had a lot of ghostly encounters and not one of them has been frightening.

I really like writing about people who just happen to not have an earthly body. In 2018 I’m planning to spend two weeks in Ireland at a big house that has been restored. I’m going to do my beloved macro photography while I plot and write a mystery that has a man who is not quite alive.

If you could go back in time, what period would you visit and why?

To when Thomas Jefferson was young and I’d make a play for him.

Are you doing any future appearances?

I don’t have any scheduled.

Will you ever do a sequel to the Forever series?

I wrote everything I had to say with that series and have no plans to write anymore about them.

Will you write another historical?

I don’t have any plans to write another one. But right now I’m writing murder mysteries that have flashbacks to the 1960s. That is almost old enough to be considered historical.

What about the Montgomery and Taggerts?

Yes. I have a book coming out in March 2018 about Kit Montgomery. He has three sons, and I plan to write about them. Also, his Taggert cousin has a book that I’ve almost finished.

Who has been your favorite character to write about? Least favorite?

I love all my men. Some of them stand out in my mind. Nicholas, Mike Taggert, Jamie. I’ve disliked my villains, and I laugh when they get their comeuppance.