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I grew up in a home where books and magazines were just as much a part of a room as the furniture. I read anything and everything, but a few special writers did stand out. Of course there was Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott, and L.M.Montgomery. Then, I fell in love with Pearl S. Buck and just marveled at her style. I knew I could never capture such wonderful sensory information the way she did, without a single, unnecessary word. She also took me to exotic places like India and China, in exquisite detail, so I could almost taste the food she described. I was sure that authors like her had to be much more than mere humans like the rest of us. Anyone who could transport me swiftly to new places and far-away destinations with the stroke of a pen had to be a higher being!
Later, after college, and deep ventures into poetry (fueled by British Poetry classes, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes, among others), I fell back on easier reading with Georgette Heyer. I never did become a great fan of most contemporary Regency fiction, but Jane Austen and I got acquainted (and I am chummy with her to this day). Her influence began an abiding interest in 19th century Britain that I still enjoy. I will read any book by Georgette Heyer, and I credit her most for spurring me to write my first published work, a Christian (Inspirational) Regency. I wanted to see how a young woman of faith would have behaved during that special period in time, and, not finding it anywhere else, I researched extensively to write the book myself. That became, "Before the Season Ends." It's really just the first in what I expect to be a series, (The Lights of London Chronicles) and I have additional manuscripts I'm nursing in that direction. I also have a deep desire to reach the contemporary young woman though, in today's world. Thus, I am nearly done with my first Chick-Lit book, "The Swimsuit Club."
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