Someone recently asked me who or what has been the biggest influence in my writing career. It's an important question. It forced me to take an in-depth look at the people and events that shape my writing.

Nearly all writers were, or still are, avid readers. Books have been shaping how we think and how we see the world since our parents first read us a bedtime story. When I was young, I loved to read stories by Louis L'Amore. Cowboys, Indians, gunfights, the heroine in distress saved by the gunslinger turned hero, what more does an teenage heart need?

When I was a little older, I discovered Andre Norton and worlds beyond our own where human explorers battled or befriended alien creatures in the far reaches of space. I learned to look at the stars in the night sky in a whole new light and I was filled with wonder at what might actually exist out there. As I will forever remain a diehard fan of the orginal Star Trek and Stargate SG 1, that sense of wonder and curiosity has never left me.

It was in the 1974 that I first read a historical romance that blew my mind. The book was The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodwiss. What a hero! What a HEROINE! What GREAT LOVE SCENES!!! I was hooked on romances from that day forward. I read Regencies, I read about knights in shining armor and stories about desert Sheiks. I read and read and read until one day, I put down the book I had been reading and realized that I wanted to do that.

I wanted to tell stories about cowboys, knights, space travelers, cops, soldiers and whoever else. But most of all, I wanted to tell about the women who made a gunslinger, a disinhereted knight or a desert Sheik into a hero to die for. In the end, it is all about LOVE.

It wasn't until I heard the wonderful Deborah Raney speak that I saw my real path was going to be in inspirational romance. Thanks Deb. I wouldn't be here without you.

So there you have it. Books and the love of books have been the biggest influence on my writing career. From the pages penned by others evolved a dream that I would one day join their very special fellowship. To writers everywhere, I say ladies and gentlemen, take a bow. You have no idea how far your words will travel or how many dreams they may inspire.