hello

Sadly, no. I did, however, participate in an archaeological dig in Belize of a Mayan site. We uncovered lots of pottery and even human remains!

ROTLH is my publishing debut, but it’s not the first book I’ve ever written. I’ve been writing stories for decades and finished my first novel-length manuscript back in 2017, which shall never again see the light of day. Since then, I’ve drafted several other romance manuscripts and always have at least one idea swirling in my head at any given time. I actually wrote ROTLH while I was waiting to hear back from agents on another book I wrote.

TOS picks up where ROLTH left off, but a new couple on a new adventure, although Corrie and Ford make a brief appearance. As for the other characters, the main character, Dr. Miriam Jacobs, is Dr. Corrie Mejía’s mentee. She appears in the first and last chapters of ROTLH. Sadly, none of the other ROLTH secondary characters (Ethan, Sunny, Agnes, etc.) are in it, but there will be some other familiar names. Each book can be read as a standalone, but because of references to the events from ROTLH in TOS, reading ROTLH first is recommended.

After recently finishing a manuscript, I’d heard about a #PitMad happening that week (a Twitter event where you pitch your manuscript to agents/editors, and if they like your pitch, you can submit to them). I thought I'd give it a go and pursue publishing in earnest for a year and if I didn’t make headway, I’d reevaluate. While I waited to hear from agents who’d requested my manuscript during PitMad, I wrote another book—Raiders of the Lost Heart. In the meantime, there was another #Pitmad coming up so I pitched Raiders. I signed with an agent shortly thereafter and, ultimately, Raiders sold to Berkley in a 2-book deal on preempt on the one-year anniversary of my commitment to actively pursue publishing.

Yes! Though my mom did confirm parts of it were a tad too spicy for her. Fortunately, they are still very supportive of my writing, so that’s the best I could ask for.

Write. If you have an idea and you want to be an author, just write. Maybe you never do anything with it, or maybe it will be terrible (my first full manuscript will never be published, that’s for sure), but you have to start somewhere. Go to writing conferences. Pitch to agents/editors even if you’re nervous. Read writing craft books. Save the Cat Writes a Novel is a great resource on novel structure, but there are so many excellent craft books out there (for example, if you write romance, check out Romancing the Beat). Find a critique group and/or a group of other authors you can just talk about writing with, because I’ll tell you what—your non-writing family and friends do not want to talk about writing and books as much as you do. LOL!

No, but I'd like to think I'm just as funny as he is. 😜