Jill Marie: We are blessed to get to split time between Hawaii and Long Beach, California. I've just celebrated my 32nd wedding anniversary with my husband, Steve, who's a teacher turned actor and model. He's been on "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Days of Our Lives," "General Hospital," and "Magnum P.I.," to name a few. Our families live here in Southern California and make our lives busy and full! Steve is off right now helping our niece pick out a wet suit for a trip to Catalina Island this weekend.

When I'm not writing I'm probably thinking I should be writing (like now), or watching television (okay, I'm a junkie), reading, gardening, walking, swimming, quilting, playing the ukulele, or trying to stay on my diet! Life is full.

Judy: Are you an avid reader like the RBLs of RBL Romantica? If so, what kinds of books do you read for fun? Who are some of your favorite authors?

Jill Marie: I think that all writers had to be avid readers or they wouldn't be writing. I love to read serial murder thrillers, romance (of course) of all kinds - historical, contemporary and category - and mainstream fiction. It just depends on the day, the mood, which new books are out, and how much time I have.

I'd never ever try to list my favorite authors. I have way too many favorites to pick just one, and besides, I have so many friends in the business now that I'd be afraid of leaving someone off the list!

Judy: Have you always wanted to be an author, or did you have another occupation before you began writing? And why did you decide to write romance?

Jill Marie: I've always written something or the other, ever since I penned my first romance in junior high. It was a surfer babe love story that got passed around and never came back to me. (Naturally I was dumb enough to only have one copy, but it was written in longhand, and we didn't have copiers back then. Well, aside from a few monks in the nearby monastary.)

Judy: Were you ever a "struggling" author? How long did it take you to get published? What was your reaction when you found out you were going to be published? And do you perhaps have a few "words of wisdom" for our up-and-coming authors at RBL?

Jill Marie: I never struggeled in the sense that we were starving and I had to sell to eat. It took me three years to sell my first historical romance. That's three years from the day I first committed to write full-length fiction and send it out. When I found out SUNFLOWER had sold, I think that more than anything, I was numb. When that initial shock wore off, I was full of joy and so very excited.

I have more than a few words for up-and-coming authors.

1. Read, read, read, and read more than just romance. Read the classics, read the bestsellers across the board. And read Donald Maass' book, "Writing the Breakout Novel."

2. Take a creative writing class. Not just a romance writing workshop, but classes in creative writing. And take grammer classes if you need them. Basic English if you must.

3. Most of all, learn to take criticism. Just read some of the hurtful online reviews on some of the sites and the comments on Amazon, and know that criticism on every level, from critique groups to publications, is part of the deal. If you can't take it, don't even start.

Judy: What is your "creative process" like? Where do you get your ideas? How do you approach writing? Do you work from an outline; do you start with the characters or the story? Has your writing changed over the years?

Jill Marie: My creative process is all over the board. I get ideas from the news, from magazine articles, from real life experiences, from television and movies, from photos. I start with the characters, always. The story grows from the research and the characters' needs and goals and conflicts.

My writing is getting tighter. I'm learning, hopefully, to say less and hit more emotion. I think all writers have to grow and change or they'd get terribly bored with their work.

Judy: Your books are often set in areas and times which are not typical in the romance genre. Where does the inspiration for the settings come from? Where do you draw your characters from - do you draw them from real life? Is there anything of yourself or people you know in your characters?

Jill Marie: I tend to write stories I'd love to see as movies or read in books myself. I grew up on the old classic black-and-white movies. I love big adventure and different settings. Unfortunately, romances that aren't set in Scotland, England, or the American West really don't sell as well as the standards, despite what some readers say they want. I'd love to get some comments on that. I'd love to read more books set in the Amazon jungle or in ancient Egypt or Cossack Russia, but I wouldn't dare write one in this market.

Although I don't draw my characters from anyone specific, they are probably a composite of people I know, people I've met and my own view of life. How can that NOT creep in?

Judy: The first book of yours that I ever read, and one that has remained a favorite of mine, is SUNFLOWER. Talk about a different setting - I loved the idea of a sod house on the prairie with a sunflower growing out of its roof! Where did the idea for that come from? And, as with many of your heroines, Analisa had a tragic background - and the hero, Caleb, had a secret in his background as well. Would you talk a little about this story and its sub-themes of overcoming tragedy and of mixed heritage?

Jill Marie: Actually, the idea for SUNFLOWER came from a friend of my mother's whose family had immigrated to Iowa in the 1800s and lived in a sod house. A woman on the wagon train had been attacked by an Indian, and the men exacted justice for the attack, not widescale revenge, as in the movies, but the natives did hand over the guilty party. When I started researching Iowa, I was taken by photographs of pioneers sitting in the dirt yards outside their soddies, the photos with the subjects all dressed in their Sunday best, little girls holding their dolls. Precious possessions were dragged outside to be photographed along side the sod dwellers. I always find myself wondering, what happened before the photo was taken? What happened after? What are they all thinking? That's how it starts.

Life is made up of comedy and tragedy, and so should a good story be. I tend to mix humor and pathos (make 'em laugh, make 'em cry). And when I sit down, I don't consciously think about sub-themes or whatever. I just write and try to hit emotion in every scene. Sometimes that's not so easy.

My books tend to have a lot about mixed heritage in them. Why? I have no idea. I do know that I've always been deeply hurt when I read or witness hatred in any form in regard to race or religion or any other orientation that might make people appear "different." It's just something I was born with. You might say I'm intolerant of intolerance, but that's just me.

Judy: Another unforgettable book that you wrote is GLASS BEACH! I'll never forget the opening scene, with the abused wife throwing her dead husband's china over the cliff - talk about imagery! Again, the heroine overcame a tragic background. And in this book, you dealt again with mixed ethnicities - the hero and heroine "lived happily ever after," but not within the bounds of matrimony. What can you tell us about the inspiration for this book? What was the reaction of your fans (not to mention your editor!) to the atypical ending of GLASS BEACH?

Jill Marie: Kauai definitely inspired the book. It's probably my favorite book to date because I love the islands so. I tried to convey the beauty and mysticism of the place to the readers.

Actually there wasn't much reaction at all from fans regarding the ending. I think I left it in a way that wasn't really clear as to whether or not they were married (which they weren't). My editor wondered if she'd missed something when she read it, and I told her no, that the hero and heroine wouldn't have been able to marry back then (although if it were the other way around, the hero could have married a Hawaiian woman). We left it sort of shady and up to each reader to decide for herself. Sort of like writing your own ending in your head.

Judy: To me, of all your books, probably the most memorable is MAGNOLIA CREEK. The themes - a husband returning from the dead, an unfaithful wife and her child, mental illness, the hateful feelings among Americans after the Civil War - all combined to make for a truly heart-grabbing story! Please share your thoughts about this extraordinary book.

Jill Marie: I really enjoy writing in the post-Civil War setting. There is so much there that lends itself to tragedy and grit. As far as I'm concerned, nothing good happened for either side after the war. The slaves were free, but given nothing with which to build new lives. The South was in shambles; the North had suffered as much loss and the cost of war. People do what they do best; they dig in and survive, despite the odds. There's always a risk in writing a book that goes against the usual "will they get together and be happy ever after?" There's a lot more that should go between the pages. Again, emotion, emotion, emotion - people who suffer and triumph through the same things we all suffer and triumph over - betrayal, illness, death, forgiveness, love, joy, and family.

Judy: What are some of your favorite books of all that you have written so far? What makes them stand out in your preferences?

Jill Marie: Again, GLASS BEACH, because of the setting and characters. COME SPRING, because it practically wrote itself, and I fell in love with the hero, a rough-around-the-edges buffalo hunter named Buck Scott. SUNFLOWER because it was the first, like a first-born child. I enjoyed writing ORCHID HUNTER because it was set in Victorian England and Africa, and there was a lot of humor in it. It was a change of pace and a lot of fun to write. And probably LOVER'S LANE, my first full-length contemporary, because it was a joy to write without doing all that historical research!

Judy: I really look forward to your new books. When is your next one due? Can you tell us a little about it? And what is in line after that?

Jill Marie: This June was an exciting month, in that MAGNOLIA CREEK came out in paperback and LOVER'S LANE went on sale June 10th in hardcover. LOVER'S LANE is what I call suspenseful romance, contemporary, set in California. In it, a P.I. is searching for a woman who's on the run with her little boy, hiding from her son's grandparents, who want custody of him. The P.I. is sort of obsessed with finding her, and he's torn between loyalty to the grandparents and the woman he's falling in love with.

After that comes a second contemporary set in the same town. The title is HEAT WAVE, and it's hot and sexy, and, of course, has all the touches the other books have - people who are finding themselves and family. It's sort of fast and furious, with L.A. street racing scenes mixed in with the quiet tranquility of the California Coast.

Judy: Is there anything you'd like to add - anything that you want the RBLs to know?

Jill Marie: Know that writers really appreciate each and every one of you. Your favorite authors really appreciate hearing from you, too. Visit their websites, leave them notes, write to them. Let them know you're out there. You may not hear back, but believe me, we read all your letters and take them to heart. Readers keep us writing. This is a lonely business, so it's nice to know someone is out there.

Also, if you visit my website you can register to win a really wonderful California theme basket (there's a photo on the website) - and read excerpts from LOVER'S LANE and MAGNOLIA CREEK.

Thanks so much!