About seven years ago, I encountered the Rivers. They are the fictional family in my humorous adventure series. They are a rowdy, loyal, sometimes annoying pack of brothers that simply will not turn me loose. Writing their story, along with that of the Caswell Crossing community, has become my passion. I cannot wait to see what sort of calamity my boys get into. I never know, you see, until I start to write. And then, there they are, gabbling away at me whilst I scribble madly to keep up. Maybe it's true: if you love what you do, you will never work a day.

INTERVIEW

Q: Tell us some of the 'nuts and bolts'.
A: Ah, so you'd be wanting to know about 'Volume 1: The Early Years' then? Sorry, no. I try not to make the eyes of innocent bystanders glaze over before we're properly introduced. Here's a few resume type facts though for the curious.

-M.A. Education
-Tech Cert American Sign Language Interpreting
-B.A. Studio Art
-A.A Art

- moved roughly 40 times in roughly 40 years (and I'm not in the military)
-Work: Well, there have been a few but the most unusual were hand-loading commercial aircraft and training to be a wildland firefighter.

Q: Where do you like the best?
A: Anywhere that's wide open, far off, and kind of lonely. Lonely to others I mean. All that space and room to breath is shear comfort to me.

Q: What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
A: The cacophony in my head. Really. It's a very noisy place in there. Ever tried thinking coherently with 6 rowdy brothers, a father, and an uncle by adoption all clamoring for your attention? It's like a family reunion around a campfire with the s'mores going for a fifth round.

Q: What is your writing process?
A: Process? Wow, that sounds so organized. What I do more closely resembles picking daisies in the middle of a stampede during a thunderstorm. Images, words, lines of dialogue, flashes of scenes come to me as they please and laugh hysterically as I grasp at pencils and tippy-tap at keyboards trying, frantically, to keep up.

Q: Describe your desk:
A: Ummm.....desk? Lately, I have a tree. Sometimes a floor. Occasionally a table shows up for a visit. Mostly I have a wall-- an ever growing wall of clips, cuts, sketches, maps, character sheets, scene ideas, plot points and various other writing sundry. Painter's tape and index cards are my greatest allies (or possibly accomplices). If I did u...