2. What’s your favorite comfort food?
Ice cream, especially Braum’s butter pecan or Friendly’s peppermint stick.

3. What would be your dream vacation?
Lying in the shade on a warm beach somewhere in Tahiti or Borneo with nothing to do but eat, sleep, and read good books.

4. Is there anyone who has influenced /encouraged you to write? Who and how/why?
The mother of one of my childhood best friends (like a second mother to me) encouraged me to write fiction way back in the mid 1960s. She put A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell into my hand and told me, “You can write this, too.”

I finally did, and dedicated the first book of my series to her. She’s delighted with it. I hope that I write a bit better than Ms. Caldwell, whose stories are riveting but whose prose can be a bit heavy with details.

5. Can you give a brief synopsis of your journey to publication with your first book?
My journey to publication is filled with dead ends and frustration, like most such journeys for most writers. I had to revise my books multiple times, and finally in 2003 the first four books were accepted (even with Book Four not completed and the second and third books unread) by a small publisher. When that publisher went belly up after bringing out Book One, I took all my rights back and have continued publishing the series.

6. What else have you written/are you currently writing (including unpublished works)?
Currently I am trying to wrap up Fallout, the fourth book of my series, and get on with writing Book Five. I am also a political columnist syndicated by North Star Writers Group. My political nonfiction does not fit readily into preconceived categories of liberal or conservative.

I authored non-fiction about emotional and spiritual healing resolution. The book was published in 1999 and is called Hope is in the Garden—Healing Resolution Through Unconditional Love. I have also written thousands of newspaper, magazine and wire service stories as a fulltime or freelance journalist between 1976 and 2000.

7. What first gave you the idea for the Green Stone of Healing(R) series and The Scorpions Strike in particular?
I first read (and loved) the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in early 1967, but was frustrated at how little role women played in the action or storyline. I wanted to write about female protagonists, and spent all that summer day-dreaming about a heroine in love with a prince whose father (the king) is trying to have him killed because their beliefs and politics are so very different. As the years passed, I gleaned more details of this story and realized it began at least with the heroine’s grandmother, my first-generation heroine.

Once I began putting the story down in earnest, I realized it would have to be serialized fiction, and The Scorpions Strike is the third book in the first-generation heroine’s story.

8. What else would you like to share with readers about yourself or The Scorpions Strike?
I believe that this series depicts two of my past lives along with the past lives of family, friends, and acquaintances. There’s no other way to explain its impact on me and some of those I most love.

9. Share with us one of the craziest things you’ve done or that’s happened to you.
How do we define crazy? Some people might think my journey of personal growth, outlined in my nonfiction book, sounds pretty crazy or at least bizarre. My life otherwise is pretty dull.

10. What five books would you take with you to a desert island?

Dune and its sequels/prequels

That’s probably more than five

11. Why did you start writing and when?
I attended an all-girls English high school in Hampshire, England, where students had to write essays instead of taking multiple question tests. I noticed I had a knack for writing that grew stronger over the years as I returned to the United States to attend college. I finally realized that writing was my one sellable skill, so I decided to pursue a career in journalism that began in 1976.

12. How do you choose names and get to know your characters?
It took me decades to get to know my characters. I learned about them in bits and piece of information that came in my day-dreams. Often my characters tell me their names or I simply know what to name them. Sometimes I have to choose their names because they won’t say. This reluctant silence comes mostly from the villains in my tale.

13. What’s your favorite character/scene from the Green Stone of Healing series (so far)?
Favorite character so far: Helen Andros, the first-generation heroine of my series. Helen is your basic Timex: she takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. As her mother’s best friend says of her, “She can keep her legs shut, but not her lips.” Helen cannot keep her mouth shut to save her life and it often gets her into real trouble. She simply cannot resist a wisecrack, even at the most inappropriate time or place. But she cares deeply about others’ suffering and has a kind heart and great courage. No one’s perfect.

Favorite scene so far: In Fallout, Book Two, when Helen returns to the military base to keep her promise to a dying soldier, and keeps watch over him during his final hours.

14. Do you have any teasers you can share for Outcast?
In Outcast, Book Four, Maguari the Mist-Weaver has the chance to teach Helen about energy, and imparts energy-manipulation knowledge and skills to her that will enable her to use the stone and chain with even greater effect for healing—and for protecting herself and others.

15. Are there any closing remarks you’d like to share?
No matter how impractical it may seem, pursue your passion. That is how you find joy in this lifetime.