Please help me welcome Rebecca to my blog.  Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered into a prize drawing for a free book.

What inspired your latest book?

DELIVER THE MOON is about a couple whose marriage disintegrated after the tragic death of their young son, and how—several years later—they are able to forgive the past and rekindle their love. I came up with the idea for the story after reading a statistic that 80% of marriages in which a child dies end in divorce. That’s very sad, if you ask me. One tragedy is compounded by another. That statistic stuck in my head until Gabe and Louisa’s story was born.

What is your favorite part of writing?

This will sound very strange, but it’s the plotting. That’s not the strange part. I love to plot, love buying and reading plotting books like some people buy and wear new shoes. However—here’s the strange part—I hate to write the books I’ve plotted. I don’t know if it’s because some of the magic is gone from having planned the story, or if it feels like I’ve already written it, or what. But there you go.

What is your least favorite part of writing?

Writing the first draft is the hardest part for me. You’d think after writing several books, the process would get easier, that I’d get smarter about it. But each book is harder, and I swear I’m getting dumber. My least favorite part of writing is the promo and marketing. I’ve never been one to talk about myself. I hate being center of attention. And I always remember my grandma’s words: “Nice girls don’t talk about themselves.”

What is your next project and when will it be released?

DELIVER THE MOON just released from The Wild Rose Press (official release date was June 22). It’s a contemporary romance, very emotional, and a far cry from my two previously published books which are romantic comedies.

What is your typical day like?

My day job is personal fitness trainer and group exercise instructor, so every day is different. I usually work a split or triple shift—at the gym for a couple of hours, home for a couple of hours. Rinse and repeat. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t have one or two cancellations, so it’s hard to plan my days in advance. That said, I usually have the afternoons free, so I try to get in 1-2 hours of writing then.

What is most difficult for you to write?  Characters, conflict or emotions?  Why?

Internal conflict of my characters is hardest for me to write, because I’ll think I’ll know my characters going into my stories, I’ll think I have a handle on their issues. But it never fails—I’ll get halfway into the story and realize I have no flippin’ idea what really makes them tick, because they’ve morphed into something they weren’t before. Then I need to go back to the drawing board. Maybe this is why I hate writing the books I’ve plotted.

What did you want to be when you were a child?  Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be Nancy Drew. I had all her books, and always wondered why she and Ned Nickerson never kissed. It really bugged me. So when I’d recreate her stories with my Barbie dolls, Nancy and Ned always kissed. A lot. Then when I was 11 years old, I read my first Harlequin Romance. I knew right then that I wanted to write books like that.

Do you or have you belonged to a writing organization?  Which one?  Have they helped you with your writing?  How?

I joined RWA a few years after I started writing. I wish I’d joined them earlier, because I might have made fewer dumb mistakes. Might have. LOL. But then again, we learn from our mistakes, right? I’ve belonged to local RWA chapters in every city I’ve lived in, and have made some great friends along the way. Probably the most helpful to me, though, has been my plotting group—The Cherry Plotters (10 of us meet regularly at Cherry Adair’s house to plot, eat, and laugh). As I’ve mentioned above, I’m not really much of a plotter (not a successful one anyway), but I’ve learned a lot from my fellow Plotters, especially Cherry. That woman is a plotting genius. If just a smidge of her genius would rub off on me, I’d be happy, happy, happy.