What inspired you to write JORDAN'S DELIVERANCE?

It is the third and final book in the Jordan of Algoran Christian Science-Fantasy series. I started work on the series in 2015 with a basic premise: God is not limited to Earth. He reigns over the whole universe. So, He is able to reach Jordan, even when she and her mother are abducted and taken to another world. I decided to carry this idea throughout the series and to its conclusion.

If you could sum the book up in one sentence, what would you say?

Jordan’s faith faces its greatest test, both on Algoran and Earth, with many lives hanging in the balance.

What challenged you about writing this story?

Writing a conclusion that would satisfy both me and the readers. I considered a spin-off, which would have affected the writing, but decided against it. I didn’t know which characters would live and which would die, until well into writing this novel. I had to lean heavily on the Lord for my inspiration, and He delivered what I think is a very satisfying conclusion.

Which character do you most relate to and why?

I related most to Jordan and Bopol, who are married. I won’t say that I patterned them specifically after me and my wife, but it was an influence. By this book, Jordan and Bopol have been married a long time, so they understand each other in special ways that don’t always need words. They trust each other and have a very deep love. They’re proud of their family. My wife and I have been married 25 years and have three kids, so this was pretty easy to convey. What’s challenging is to make the characters’ love specific to who they are, which means quirks and special ways of expressing their affections or disapprovals.

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it?

That faith and prayer are powerful. God says in His Word that He will honor both faith and fervent prayer. And if you’re going through hard times, He will deliver you!

What is something about you that is unique or we may not know?

In high school and college, I was a Journalism major. I was taught the fundamentals of Journalism and seriously considered it as a career. However, when I learned about the internal politics driving much of the profession, even back in the early 1990s, I changed my mind. I still use the skills, though. I ran two different podcasts during the early 2000s and even interviewed Leonard Nimoy (the original Mr. Spock from Star Trek) in 2009.

What inspired you to write THIS CHRISTMAS? 

My pastor, an avid snowboarder, shared how much he enjoyed visiting Park City, Utah. His stories inspired me to dream up a suspense series set in a fictional ski village called Polaris. For THIS CHRISTMAS, I wanted to feature a ‘seasoned’ second chance couple with older kids, and the good and bad that come with an empty nest. 

If you could sum the book up in one sentence, what would you say? 

When her adult son goes missing, Celia must rely on the handsome police captain who lives across the street to keep her family from falling apart. 

What challenged you about writing this story? 

Getting the atmospherics correct with the setting. Polaris, a ski village set in the mountains at Christmas time, is a strong secondary character. 

Which character do you most relate to and why? 

Celia and her drive to keep her family emotionally close even though her kids have grown and moved out of the house. I have two children who’ve moved out and one remaining under the roof. 

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it? 

Accept love and live fully. Life is full of surprises and sometimes fate can’t be outmaneuvered. 

What is something you like to do when you’re not writing? 

I enjoy being active outdoors, when the weather cooperates–running, walking, hiking in the woods, or simply sitting in a chair in my backyard, reading. 

What inspired you to write AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT?

The simple answer is my wife and daughter. During a long drive to Washington, D.C. for our son’s graduation, my wife and I started talking about some of the antics and funny stories our daughter’s miniature dachshund, Mauzzy, would get himself and her into. At some point, my wife says something like, “You need to write a book about an inquisitive college girl and her mischievous dog.” During the week we in D.C. with our daughter, who flew in for the graduation, the conversation invariably went back to this crazy idea of me writing a book. As my wife and daughter talked, they threw ideas all over the place, their excitement growing with each pitch. I mainly just sat and listened. It was quite entertaining. The rest of our stay in D.C. was filled with conversations on plot ideas, Mauzzyisms, and possible characters.

After driving back home, and as more and more ideas and stories from my wife and daughter POURED in, it dawned on me: I was really going to be writing a book for them. And I was okay with that thought because I was about to retire, so why not. It would keep me out of my wife’s hair. For all I know, with my retirement pending, she was planning ahead and suggested the idea of a book—to keep me out of her hair!

So, the short answer, my wife and daughter inspired me to write the book, and I wanted to write it—for them. And I couldn’t be happier for them. And Mauzzy. 😉

If you could sum the book up in one sentence, what would you say?

I think the closing sentence from MidWest Book Review’s own review sums it up best: “Readers who enjoy laugh-out-loud moments and the winning combination of a clumsy but effective amateur investigator who stumbles into unfamiliar territory will find Against My Better Judgment wonderfully entertaining, refreshingly different, and just the ticket for a lively read.”

What challenged you about writing this story?

The initial challenge was the genre. All the ideas I collected for writing my first book were for thrillers and murder mysteries, but I was writing this book for my daughter and wife and their circle of friends. They’re fun-loving with a hint of crazy. Okay—more than a hint. It had to be fun and lighthearted, but still have a mystery. And Mauzzy had to be integral in a subtle sort of way. I recognized if this was going to work, I needed to write in a style that was outside my comfort zone. But once I got started and channeled Sara, the main character, the story poured out of me, to the tune of a 105K first draft. That’s right, Sara can be rather verbose. In fact, her father likes to say, “Speechless is not in Sara’s well-used vocabulary.” And so, enter stage right, the second challenge. Editing the manuscript down to an eventual 68K words, without diluting the characters, plot and all the fun stuff in it.

Which character do you most relate to and why?

It might seem cliché to say it, but Sara, the main character. Although I must clarify, I relate to her independence and dogged determination. I most certainly do not relate to her clumsy physical awkwardness and penchant for talking. Incessantly. Sara is all about perseverance and believing in herself despite the odds, even when the easier course of action might be to “go along with the crowd.” Throughout my life I have always been very independent, always preferring to do everything for myself. I believe in setting goals and working hard to achieve those goals, even if it takes years or decades. Like getting published. Although Sara is not at the point in her development where she is into goal setting, but as she matures she will be and her fierce determination will drive her to achieving those goals.

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it?

A smile on their faces, laughter in their hearts, and the knowledge that being true to yourself and believing in your convictions will carry you a long way. Ultimately the story is about perseverance and self-belief.

What is something about you that is unique or we may not know?

I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for seven years, and my professional career spans over 35 countries, many of which are not the “garden spots” of the world. As a bonus factoid, I have bowled nine sanctioned 300 games and my high 3-game set is 826.

What inspired you to write DRAGONFLIES AT NIGHT?

Well, I have to say that I didn’t set out to write this particular book! In 2014, I was just beginning to play around with the idea of writing fiction again, and I thought it would be fun to write a romance. The characters of Ben and Savannah sprouted up in my imagination and I gave them a meet-cute at a yoga retreat center. But the more I got to know each of them, the more I realized that their story was much bigger than a love story. When Savannah’s mother, Deirdre Rose, began sharing her own story with me (in my imagination, of course), things shifted a bit. Deirdre died from breast cancer when Savannah was just fifteen, but the more I wrote, the more Deirdre had to say. I could see that the mother-daughter relationship was hugely important.

The novel went through a couple of title changes. At first I was just calling it: Ben and Savannah: A Love Story. Then I changed it to Her Splendid Life based on Deirdre’s last words to Savannah. When the dragonfly appeared to Deirdre in the darkness as she lay dying, I fell in love with title Dragonflies at Night. Dragonflies appear several times throughout the love story as a symbol of how those we love and lose are never really gone.

If you could sum the book up in one sentence, what would you say?

I can’t do it in one, but here are three short sentences instead! Dragonflies at Night is a gentle, contemporary love story. Woven through it is the belief that those who love us and leave this world are never really gone. It is full of celebrities, celebrations, and one very important cemetery.

What challenged you about writing this story?

The scenes that were the most challenging were the ones with Savannah’s Auntie Zan who, when the story opens, is semi-conscious in a nursing home, having suffered a series of strokes. My mom had a stroke when she was 81, so I was remembering the three days that my brothers and I attended to her at her bedside before she quietly passed. It was a difficult time, and I always wondered how much she understood of what we said to her, and how much she was able to hear of her favorite music that we played for her.

Which character do you most relate to and why?

Even though I didn’t lose my parents until my adult years, I relate the most to Savannah because I totally understand her fear of receiving a cancer diagnosis. I went through surgeries and treatments for breast cancer in 2002 and again in 2011, so I can tell you that her fear is very real.

Savannah is also an introvert who loves solitude, the theatre, and her two cats (among other things!). Needless to say, those are also parts of me! Also, I just love her attitude about celebrating life, and all of her party ideas for her Life Celebrations business. She is creative, and I can definitely identify with that part of her as well. It’s funny… at one point, Ben points out to her that she is an introvert who loves giving parties. And that he is an extrovert who is a terrible host. Just one more way that these two are a perfect match!

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it?

I really hope that readers will be touched by the fact that there is a greater Love at work in our earthly romances, and that relationships aren’t separated by death, as proven in my novel by the relationship between Savannah and Deirdre Rose.

There’s a lovely quote from St. John of Chrysostom: Those whom we love and lose are no longer where they were before. They are now wherever we are. I will feel satisfied if even one reader is comforted by this after reading this novel.

What is something about you that is unique or we may not know?

Here are two things… please use what you like:

Since the time I could hold a pencil, one of my greatest passions has been Writing (note the capital W). My childhood found me scribbling pages and pages of stories and novels on lined notebook paper that I kept piling into bulky three-ring binders. In sixth grade, our English teacher asked us to write a short story, and I produced a 40-page handwritten novel about a beautiful fantasy world where cats could talk! He was so impressed that he sent it off to a publisher, and even though we never heard any more from that publisher, I tucked that whole experience away in my heart like a tender secret- I had written a book, a whole book, and my teacher had thought it worthy of publishing! That is when I first felt a longing to be a “real” Writer, and when it first became an actual possibility.

and

The main characters of Dragonflies at Night, Ben and Savannah, fall fast and hard for each other. While some people think that falling love at first sight (or almost first sight) isn’t a “thing,” I experienced it firsthand in 1991 when I met a handsome guy named Jeff on a blind date. We didn’t say “I love you” for a few weeks, but both of us said later that we felt an instant familiarity and sense of “home” with each other on that first meeting. It was four years until we married, but this relationship that began almost thirty years ago is still thriving and going strong, through rough seas as well as smooth. I wish the same for Ben and Savannah, as well as each of you who are reading this right now.

What inspired you to write A RANGER FOR THE TWINS?

When I started plotting the prequel, The Sheriff’s Second Chance, Georgie Bennett was an independent heroine who needed friends. Immediately, Lucie Appleby Decker leapt into mind as Georgie’s opposite: a woman who embraces happiness and loves frills but who has experienced the betrayal of her ex-husband who stole money from people Lucie loves. I knew then I wanted Lucie to have a happy ending of her own.

A Ranger for the Twins then started out with Lucie and her road to redemption as she feels she has to win back the respect of the residents in Hollydale, a town set in the Great Smoky Mountains area of North Carolina, a place I love visiting. After her ex-husband embezzled money from some of the town residents, Lucie wants to rebuild relationships and is thrilled at the chance of reconnecting with an old friend, one of the few who looked past her image to the person underneath. Caleb comes to Hollydale in search of the truth about what happened to his parents’ money and finds the truth isn’t what he expected, just like Lucie’s life isn’t anything like he expected. They come together for her new business but find they have more in common than they ever expected. They find unexpected treasures can emerge where you least expect to find them.

If you could sum the book up in one sentence, what would you say?

The road to redemption might be rocky, but love will always help you find your way home in the end.

What is your favorite part of this story?

One of my favorite scenes occurs near the end, but I don’t want to spoil any parts of the book. I love, though, how Lucie creates a support system with her close friends, family, and pets. Her menagerie of pets is one of my favorite parts of the story as I think pets become part of our family, and so too did Lucie’s pets become part of her family when many people disassociated themselves from her because of her ex-husband’s Ponzi scheme. Her pets include two dogs, a cat, three bunnies, and a pair of miniature pigs, all of whom were strays that found their way into her household. There’s a scene where Lucie introduces Caleb to Fred and Ethel, the miniature pigs. Ethel immediately takes to Caleb and jumps on the dilapidated couch next to him, much to Caleb’s surprise. He discovers Lucie has poured out the love and trust in her heart to those around her, and this helps him realize everything he’s heard about her part in the scheme might not be true after all.

Which character do you most relate to and why?

Lucie Decker and I are both moms of twins! But the reason I relate to Lucie goes deeper than that. She’s been through some difficult situations yet still wants to believe in the magic of love. With her strong ties to her friends and her pets and her family, Lucie looks a little messy on the outside but inside she’s aware of what’s important and what counts in life. I hope I have some of those same qualities.

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it?

I hope readers will take away that love and relationships provide the biggest treasure of our lives. Rather than locking love away to keep it hidden, sharing it is one of the hardest, but most worthwhile, aspects of life. Sometimes we have to look within and accept ourselves in those relationships, but acceptance can come where we least expect it, even from those we least expect it. In Caleb’s case, he finds love and acceptance for the real Caleb at Lucie’s house, from Ethel the pig to Lucie herself. For Lucie, redemption started with accepting herself and not letting her inner self stay hidden forever.

What is something about you that is unique or we may not know?

I am deaf in my left ear. I try to walk on other people’s left side and sit at booths so my right ear will be turned toward the waiter or waitress. My daughter didn’t realize she always walks on people’s right side until someone asked her why she always moves to someone’s right side. I have a hard time knowing what direction sounds come from, but most people are helpful once they find out and do little things to help me, like nudge me politely if I don’t know someone’s talking to me or let me try to read their lips if we’re in a crowded area.