It's difficult to pin down one moment or instant that was the definitive inspiration for the Psy/Changeling series. I sat down one day with these two vivid characters in my head and three weeks later, I had a first draft.

But there was an important story question that continues to fascinate me: What if the flip side of great mental ability was insanity of the worst kind, the kind that led to murder? What would you do to survive?

It's a complex question full of possibility and every time I think of it, I see new avenues to explore.

I'm fascinated by the '20s, '30s, and WWII era. My husand is of German descent and his grandmother received Nazi government read letters from her relatives prior to the war. BLOOD MOON OVER BRITAIN highlighted the Allied side of this war but what about the other side? What was it like in Germany? Thus PERFIDIA was born.

I’ve always felt a spiritual and creative connection to crows and ravens, so when I became a writer, I wanted to honor them with a book that would show them in a positive light. I just had to find the right story.

Then one day I thought, hey, wouldn’t it be cool/horrifying to know when people would die? Tie these two ideas together with the shamanistic concept of the Power Animal, and voila! Aspect of Crow.

P.S.: As I write this, a dozen crows are surfing the 40-mph winds outside, just for the hell of it. What other wild animal takes time from its busy survival schedule to goof off? No wonder biologists think crows are so smart.

The question writers hear most often is, “Where do you get your ideas?”
With Tempting Danger, the answer seems obvious. A little over a year ago I wrote a novella called “Only Human” that drove me distracted . It did not want to be a novella—the characters and their world begged to be made into a longer, richer book. I was blessed with an editor who agreed and asked that I expand it into a series. Look for more about Lily and Rule in Mortal Danger, available [insert pub date.]
And yet, as those of you who’ve read both novel and novella have seen, the story told in Tempting Danger is very different from that in “Only Human.” Though they explore some of the same ideas, they share only a single scene—the opening—and even that isn’t identical.

What happened? Do I just like to make things hard on myself?
Well, yes, that’s probably part of it. There’s also the old adage about never stepping in the same stream twice. When I returned to the stream I’d forded in “Only Human,” the water had moved on. I was in a different stream. The current was stronger and carried me farther, through different—and wilder--territory.

Then there’s Dark Matter.

Scientists say that around 98% of our universe is composed of a mysterious substance they cannot see, measure, or identify. They’ve dubbed it Dark Matter, or Dark Energy--and that’s where my ideas really come from. Like the mystery mass that makes up so much of reality, creativity can’t be seen, measured, or identified. It’s everywhere . . . and it’s moving.
Happy traveling.

DRIVEN was inspired by a confluence of ideas. Joss Whedon’s amazing series, Firefly, with its vicious Reavers, do-what-needs-to-be-done captain, and cast of quirky and fascinating characters was part of my inspiration. Also, at the time, I was just getting into Manga and Anime (Trigun, Full Metal Panic, Hellsing, GTO, Ruruni Kenshin... to name a few). These stories drove home the point that a little bit of humor can go a long way in a dark tale. The element of the frigid environment came from my own personal dislike of the cold. I’m certain there are other ingredients that tipped into the brew boiling in the cauldron of my imagination, but I can’t think of them off-hand. I will say that DRIVEN was a blast to write.