Babs BookMark Issue 2 | Page 85

TB: What can we look forward to seeing from you in the future? On Nov. 20th I am releasing book two in my Heartbreakers & Heroes series, Mason James. I'm hoping everyone will enjoy this one. I really fell in love with Mason, but the Mason HAZ MOVES. The man can dance and oh my don't we love a man who can dance? In January the third book, Jasper Jacks will release and it's a darker tale. Jasper is a man suffering from PTSD and when he's assigned to a rehab that has opened in Cotton Creek, he has no choice but to go. All he wants is to get better and get back to his unit. What he doesn't count on is falling for the doctor, or finding out that he's not the only ones with demons. TB: What books have most influenced you as a writer?TB: What do you find to be the most challenging part of writing? And the most rewarding? Hmm, that's a hard question to answer. I suppose the books that influenced me the most are the ones that touched something inside me. Of Mice and Men. Oh god, I could "hear" George and Lennie, and the feelings between them were so pure and so strong. That book undid me. I cried for two hours and couldn't think about it for a long time without crying. It was a love story that I had never imagined and the tragedy of it was so powerful that I will never forget it. The Horse Whisperer did that to me as well. I cried for an hour over that damn book. The most challenging part of writing is finding that moment when you can turn everything off and allow yourself to live in the world you've created. Maybe it's because I am an artist that I "see" my stories in my head. I watch my characters, sit beside them, see what they see, feel the air they feel and smell what they smell. I live with them and in order to do that, I have to step away from my own world, which, as we all know, is sometimes a challenge because - you know -- life happens.