A:  The same way everyone else does -- by reading.  At a very early age, I developed a profound love for books and stories. My sister and I made frequent trips to the local library, where we'd take out the maximum number allowed, read each other's books as well as our own, and go back for more as soon as someone would drive us there. The habit stayed with me; these days I read about 200 books a year.   

       I started writing young, too, but at the time my primary literary ambition was to illustrate books, not write them. My interest in art gave way to a focus on music, but it seemed that I was always writing something: poetry, song lyrics, journals, voluminous letters to friends and family. The notion of writing professionally didn't occur to me until I was in my twenties, after the birth of my first son. I was making a career switch at the time and I was in an MBA program, but I couldn't stand the idea of being away from this wonderful little person all day long. So my husband suggested that I try writing, pointing out that with my interest in reading, it might be a good fit.  (Apparently it was -- my "baby" is now six foot three, and I'm still writing.)

        At first I tried traditional romance, with the mistaken idea that it would be an easy place to start.  I wrote and submitted several manuscripts -- all of them with quirky, non-traditional characters -- but I was never really happy with the result. Neither, apparently, was anyone else. A friend of mine, a true fan of the genre, read my latest attempt and said, "Girl, you don't have a romantic bone in your body.  Face it:  you're weird.  Maybe you should try science fiction or fantasy."  

        For some reason, this comment seemed to hold enormous resonance. The very next day, I picked up a copy of Writer's Digest Magazine.  In the back, in teeny little mouse print, TSR (the corporate forerunner of Wizards of the Coast) ran an ad concerning open auditions for a new series. Each submission would be given a blind reading by three editors. Since I knew from my research and experience that this was a rare opportunity, I called the number given and spoke with managing editor Mary Kirchoff.  She gave me a reading list: the old gray Forgotten Realms boxed set and all the novels that were currently in print.  I read everything, fell in love with the world, and wrote the proposal that became Elfshadow.  

         Just a quick note about my early misadventures with romance (writing.)  Keep in mind that this took place  more than fifteen years ago.  At the time, the type of characters I enjoy writing about were not a good fit.  But since then, women's fiction has expanded into a gazillion different styles, sub-genres, and cross-genres.  Fantasy and mainstream publishers now have romance lines, and romance publishers are venturing into the paranormal.  Even venerable publishers such as Harlequin have launched a fantasy line (Luna) and a mainstream imprint (Mira.)  These days, quirky non-traditional characters fit right in.  You can still find the tall, dark and sardonic hero (the alpha male hero is not going away any time soon), but the female leads are now allowed to kick ass, carry weapons, and make smartass remarks. 

         Today's women's fiction covers a lot of territory, from the LOL-funny  Betsy Taylor books by Mary Janice Davidson (Undead and Unwed, Undead and Unemployed, Undead and Unappreciated), to J.D. Robb's "XX in Death" series about futuristic bad-ass cop Eve Dallas, to Laurel K. Hamilton's steamy dark fantasy series featuring Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry, to Kelley Armstrong's excellent "Women of the Underworld" books.  It's hard to put a label on a lot of the books out there; for example, I consider Ms. Armstrong's books to be fantasy, but you'll frequently find them in the romance section even though the relationship elements are not central to the plot.  With all the genre-bending that's going on, it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell what book belongs in what section of the bookstore. (My suggestion is to print four times as many copies and shelve them everywhere.)  These days you'll see a lot of writers moving across these nebulous lines.  Fantasy writer Holly Lisle recently published her first "mainstream romance with paranormal elements." (Very good book, btw.) Fantasy heavy-hitter Mercedes Lackey launched Harlequin's LUNA imprint, which includes established sf/fantasy writers Catherine Assaro and Christy Golden.  Laurel K. Hamilton used to write for Ravenloft.  J.D. Robb is a pen name for Nora Roberts, the queen of romance novels. Lines between genres have never been black, straight, and solid, but these days they've pretty much dissolved into a hazy mist. 

         Several of my fantasy books have been mysteries in fantasy settings. It's not unusual to find a strong male-female relationship, romantic or otherwise, in my fantasy books.  This two-person focus developed not from any desire to write a "relationship novel," but from a certain practical approach to fantasy. People seem to expect female writers to write about female characters, yet the demographics of sword-and-sorcery books is predominantly young male, an audience that prefers to read about male characters.  So the two-person focus in my fantasy books was my way of addressing both sets of expectations. Yet when contemplating a cross-over book, I realized the evolving story wouldn't be all that different in tone and writing style from my Forgotten Realms books. I'd need to crank up the sexual tension, and the intimate scenes would need a bit more detail. Of course, it would take place in an original setting--a fantasy take on the modern world.  Other than that?  Same writer, same style.   

       So, considering all that's transpired in the past 15+ years, I'm ready to try again.  One of the projects currently in the pipeline is a novella (30,000 words) for an anthology that's being classified as "paranormal romance." 

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