Although not precisely genre romances, most of my stories are about love -- primarily the romantic love between a man and a woman, but also family love, friendship, love of humanity, love for God.  They're too edgy to be Christian romances, a little too sensual, and they deal with subjects CBA publishers likely would not touch, but they're rooted in the Christian tradition that is the foundation of American and Southern culture. I love to write -- and read -- about real men. Give me heroes who are the flesh and blood sons of Adam struggling to live up to the nobility of human nature and harness their less noble components. The best heroes are tough, sweet, loving men who take their responsibilities seriously -- men of principle, men of courage, men of passion who do not let their passions master them. As Southern fiction, my stories encompass the uniqueness, color and contradictions of the South and its people. In many cases Southern locations/settings are so influential to a story, they take on the importance, and almost the role, of a character. I'm a former staff writer for The Florida Sun, (now the Pensacola Independent News), which was published, starting in 1999, in Pensacola, Florida by former Congressman Joe Scarborough (now the star of "Morning Joe" on MS- NBC). My articles were all nonfiction and ran the gamut from travel to current events and chemtrails to Bigfoot in Dixie. I'm a ninth-generation Southerner. Born in Georgia, I grew up a preacher's kid in Alabama, attended Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) and married a Louisiana boy. I currently reside with my husband of 30+ years in L.A. (Lower Alabama -- aka, the Florida panhandle). Pop-culture authors who inspired me to write Rex Stout -- author of the Nero Wolf detective series -- the voice of Archie Goodwin, my favorite first-person narrator. Frances Parkinson Keyes -- her sprawling Louisiana novels are a bit dated now and politically incorrect but her settings and characters are highly memorable.  (Clyde Batchelor of Steamboat Gothic is the quintessential romance hero!) Dixie Browning -- Back in the '80s, Dixie was the first to inspire me to try my hand at writing romance. Margaret Mitchell -- Need I say more?