I'm not beautiful. Never have been. I've got a long face (a “horse face”, some would call it) and I'm so myopic I've worn coke-bottle glasses since I was seven years old. For most of my life I've been plumper than what is currently fashionable. Throughout childhood and my teen years I was awkward and socially inept, the shy, smart girl whom most guys avoided, either out of disinterest or feelings of inadequacy.
Then, when I reached my mid-twenties, I suddenly became a sex goddess.
The Ingredients of Bliss is a follow-up to your short story Her Secret Ingredient. Why did you choose to develop these characters further?
Honestly? A major reason was that Totally Bound asked me to! However, I also felt that the earlier story left many issues to be explored. The word limit for short stories means that things sometimes feel unfinished.
Unconscious Craft
No one ever taught me how to write a novel... I didn’t think about any of this while I was writing. However, I’ve been reading novels for as long as I can remember – lots and lots of novels. I assume that I’ve unconsciously absorbed quite a lot of knowledge about the typical structure of long fiction.
Three of my favorite vacation destinations:
• Provence, France. The Provence region offers everything I could desire in a vacation spot: dramatic and varied scenery, luscious food, incredible wine, world-famous museums, two millennia of history and the friendliest people imaginable (willing to ignore my execrable French grammar, LOL). From the medieval dwellings clinging to the hills of Les Baux to the gracious Art Deco buildings in Nice, the ancient cathedral in Avignon to the lavender fields in St. Rémy, each corner of this compact area offers something new and exciting.