Author Interview: Lost Gems

Recently, I was honored to be interviewed by Naomi Bolton from the website ManyBooks. Naomi gave me a lot to think about, including where my inspiration comes from, what secret ninja skills I have, and, most importantly, how I’ve brought life to the little island of Shark Key.

Here’s a little excerpt:

Do any of your characters ever take off on their own tangent, refusing to do what you had planned for them?

All. The. Time. While I am an outliner, I am often surprised by what happens as I’m writing a chapter, and I usually end up revising my outline a couple times during the course of writing a book. In fact, characters have shown up and weaseled their way into the Shark Key family without ever being a part of my original outline, yet I can’t imagine the island without them. William and Michelle did that early in the first book. And Tony Bowden turned up three-quarters of the way through Lost Fleet, just sitting on a barstool doing a little eavesdropping. Now he’s a permanent resident of the Key and a pretty important member of the team.

Which character was the most challenging to create?

….you’ll just have to check out the interview to find out!