Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My daughter introduced me to MySpace blogs in 2008. I began to blog on the site which then gradually turned into story lines. Each time I wrote on my blog, my writing began to evolve. Now if I take the time to go back over the past two years and reread any of my posting, I can see how much my writing has changed and my voice for writing has grown stronger.

I wanted to be a writer ever since graduating from high school, but I put it off all those years. All because I thought you needed to go to college to be able to write a book.

I was born March 21, 1965 in Groton Massachusetts and spent my early years growing up in Pepperell, Massachusetts. I graduated from North Middlesex High school in Townsend, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school my family moved to New Ipswich. Then I married and we moved all over the state of New Hampshire.

I have two young adult children, Chris and Megan.

In 2006 I moved back to New Ipswich with my future husband to live with my elderly mom. We have been here ever since. I keep a full time job as a weaver at a local textile mill.

Describe your book ‘Friends of Choice’ in 30 words or less.

Karla's parents have sold the house and now she has to move. She hates the thought of moving to a new town. This will mean leaving her best friends behind. Her parents told her it was because of her Dad's job and Karla thinks they have not been fair to her. She wonders why she can't have a say in moving or where they are moving to. This whole ordeal has left her feeling angst and rebellious toward her folks.
The school she is to attend is about three times the size of her old school. It can hold many new opportunities for her. 
At Brantwood High, she meets Carol Bower, who helps her find her first class. She invites Karla to eat lunch with her and is introduced to her clique of friends.
In her history class, Karla meets her first crush. He is one of Carol's friends. He is also the football captain of the varsity team.
They invite Karla to her first teen party. But first, she must convince her parents into letting her sleep over Carol's.
She begins to feel she is about to be a victim of hazing. Karla starts to have second thoughts about going to this party and hanging out with Carol and her friends.
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?

The challenges of writing for a teen audience is being able to keep up with their trends and issues of their day. Some of their issues today were never heard of back when we were growing up. When I was in high school, I would never have dreamed of even owning a cell phone. Today all teens have cell phones and I pods.

I can give my characters a cell phone to use in the story, but I find it hard to remember to make them use the item. Small things in their day to day life can make the biggest impact on the character in the story.

Other issues I faced was using a free word processor to write my book. My advice to all new authors, do your self a big favor and spend the money to buy a copy of Microsoft Office. Open Office software does not cut it when it comes to editing. It only creates more headaches with its inferior quality. The spell check and the grammar check does not function the way it should.

After I bought my Microsoft Office, that was when I discovered the errors scattered throughout my file. It was kind of embarrassing and caused me to give the book a major revision, which was done recently.

What books have had the greatest influence on you?

There are many books I have been fond of. I think the works of Anne McCaffrey with her Dragon Riders of Pern sticks out the most, but there are many other authors as well. Piers Anthony and his Magic of Xanth series, Roger Zelanzy with his Chronicles of Amber, Terry Brooks with his Swords of Shannara and a most recent favorite of mine, Neil Gaiman with the Graveyard Book.

Briefly share with us what you do to market your book?

I use a lot of social marketing. Mostly twitter and facebook with some My Space. I keep a blog and take part in blog hops.

Then there are the giveaways. I have given away many books in the past year. Some are paperbacks and some are ebooks. Most of my paperback giveaways have taken part on Goodreads.com. and Freado.com.

I like Smashwords for the ebooks because they are easy to use for the free ebook giveaways. They allow us to make coupon codes and the smashwords files are in several different formats for readers to choose from.

How do you spend your time when you are not writing?

I like to read, garden, quilt, knit, crochet, and play World of Warcraft. But writing takes up most of my time these days. At one time I was playing World of Warcraft as much as I was writing. It had started to become an addiction for me. But my love of writing is stronger and I don't play the game as much as I use to.

What are you working on next?

I just finished my first draft of a fantasy called Aaron & Keja: Time Dragon. I am hoping to release this story into publication October 2011.

Lord Ky'debaul an elven sorcessor is losing his magic powers. He believes that if he can kill the Time Dragon, he will be able to restore his lost powers. But to kill a Time Dragon in Orgarlan is like signing a death sentence. So he opens a rift to another world and chases the young dragon to this other world where he feels he will be free of the laws governing his world.

A party of Orcs travel to this world also in search of the Time Dragon. They seek to save it from Lord Ky'debaul, but they need the help of Aaron to find it before the elves do.

Aaron with her ability to mind speak with animals is captured by Lord Ky'debaul along with her friends Marshall and Jurgith. Her trusty side kick, Keja who is a golden retriever, seeks out the help of the woodland creatures to save Aaron and her friends from the elves.

Will the Orcs find Aaron in time to save the dragon or will the elves succeed in killing the Time Dragon?

I also have several other first drafts I am working on. Wish Away was my NaNoWri Mo work for 2010, The Board Game of Death, and Stitched Snitch (sequel to Friends of Choice).