In the age-old first date manner, tell me a bit about yourself.
Welllll let’s see: I love coffee, I’m a Harry Potter nerd, I love dogs, traveling (got a soft spot for Ireland!), and I hate mushrooms and rice. We do *not* get along! Other than that, I’m an older generation millennial, I can’t stand my phone and loathe having to spend hours on it for social media haha, and my idea of a perfect day is no phones, hiking, nature, and doggos around me! And husband, too… I guess.
Who influenced you most as a writer?
It’s hard to pin it down to just one thing. My English professors in Montreal and in Mississauga built on my love of words and encouraged it. They taught me the value of “show and don’t tell”, and that’s massive in my writing. My husband’s eagerness for unique stories has influenced me in that I constantly try to find new tropes or new areas to dig in, that haven’t been dug in before. And, surprisingly, my dogs have influenced my writing aha because I can’t seem to write a single book without an animal in it.
What are your favourite books and why?
I love the Goddess series by P.C. Cast, because it brings to life old, forgotten legends of Greek mythology but in a super fun and sexy way! Of course, I also love the Harry Potter series and have reread it many, many times, to be reminded of the lessons buried in the pages. And recently I’ve fallen in love with James Rollins’ stuff, more especially his Order of the Sanguines books. The way they mix vampires with almost a Da Vinci Code aspect left my jaw somewhere on the living room floor haha. I do love a nice action-packed novel J And, vampires? I mean, come on! I’m from Transylvania, it’s a given.
When did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve been writing since I was really young, but the moment it sank in that this is what I want to do with my life, is when I realized how happy writing makes me. No matter what goes on in my life (and at the time, it was a lot), writing is my solace, my quiet place of reflection. It’s also somewhere I get to dump all my emotions and choose when to deal with them haha! So yes, the moment I realized it made me truly, deeply happy, was around the end of my high school years, and that’s when I realized there is no other path for me.
Do you have any interesting writing quirks?
Like, I need a pint of fresh blood before diving into a story? …. I kid. Kinda. I do tend to write better at night time, and on a full moon haha but I blame that on my wolves. I love a glass of wine with my creations, but I think my biggest quirk is finding the perfect position to write in. Spoiler: there is none. Which leads to many frustrated hours of constantly rearranging myself until I end up in the weirdest positions…. It makes my dogs concerns for my health, me thinks.
How did you become interested in the genre you write?
Hmm… Well, I’ve always been drawn to fantasy. I’ve written some books set in the “real” world too, but fantasy has always been what I navigate towards, probably because of the many fantasy books I read as a child. There is a correlation between what I read, to what I write haha.
Tell me a bit about Last to Love.
Oh Lucas… I hesitate to dive into the many arguments I had with my main character while writing the book, if only because it’ll make me sound insane. …. Oops, I guess I just did. Ah, well. Anyway, those aside… Last to Love is the final book in my Moonlight Rogues series, a PNR/suspense series focused on four wolves with chaotic pasts, who run into one town hoping to escape it all. Spoiler: they don’t! But Last to Love specifically deals with the alpha of the pack, Lucas. He’s avoided love all through the series, and he’s always in control – until it starts slipping, little by little. Turns out he’s got something inside him, a different kind of monster that really won’t let him go until he gives in… And then there’s the parallel romance with him and Monica, a beautiful wolf who waltzes into town with a hidden agenda. It’s a wonderful conclusion to the series, and it drained me to write it. But it’s all worth it.
What was the inspiration behind the Moonlight Rogues series?
Well, for the longest time after I started publishing novels, I didn’t want to dig into PNR because everyone was doing it. And then I had a dream, and I couldn’t shake it off, and I kinda had to talk myself into writing the blasted story haha. But when I sat down to do it, I was determined to make it different, and to draw onto Romanian folklore and myths to do so. It was the beginning of a wonderful creative process, as I ended up with four wolves from different regions of the world, with totally different characters and backgrounds and powers and gifts… And the more I dug into it, the more I loved writing them! The folklore itself for each story was the inspiration, but the men, well, a lot of the inspiration for them came from my husband. I wanted to outline heroes that weren’t assholes, and who treat their women right while still being strong, and alpha-like. So it’s a bit of everything, basically.
Do you have another writing project in mind or in the making? If so, can you tell us a little about it?
Only one? Haha! 2020 is bound to be packed with writing, whether I like it or not! So far I have a duology spinoff from the Moonlight Rogues to complete, as it’ll be focused on two zmei (Romanian dragons) brothers. And that’s in parallel with two thrillers I’ve had on the backburner since last spring… Not to mention a brand new series on demons & angels, anddddddddddd a co-author bear shifter series with the lovely Siobhan Caughey, plus another thriller co-author with my longtime buddy and mentor, Eldon Farrell! That last one isn’t until 2021, but I’m still super stoked about it.
Any advice for aspiring authors?
Write and publish at your own pace, but make sure the end product is the best that it can be. Don’t rush for the sake of a deadline, and don’t cut corners either on covers, editing, etc. If you’re going to do it yourself, learn every bit of the craft, and make sure you’re a pro at it. Otherwise, trust the pros.
