Wow… the last book in my series, Texas Heritage, has now launched and the baby is off and running. It is a bittersweet feeling when the last page is done in the manuscript and you send the words and characters off into the unknown. Do all authors feel the same? In my estimation, it is never easy.
People ask me how I come up with my ideas for stories time after time. There is no set equation to follow. Some have looked at me as if I might have lost my mind along the way. But a snippet of conversation can pop into my head…a title of a book yet to be written can grab my brain’s attention… a couple I see walking into a restaurant together… so many ways the stories have had their beginnings in my mind and then find their way onto my laptop. And once they do, I hang on for a wild ride. I begin a chapter thinking I know where I am going. But I have often been surprised by the detours and back roads that emerge to engage my attention. The journey is always a wonderful mystery.
This last series began with me sitting on a bench at a small roadside pullout as the sun was just clearing a ridge to the east and the morning mist was swirling along the ground and whispering upwards and over the sleek backs of the dozen or so mares and their young colts beside them as they visited the morning watering tank with the slow grinding of a windmill above their heads. They were gorgeous creatures with bloodlines back to the days of the Conquistadores who roamed over this part of Texas centuries before. I would make the drive from the city to that spot to take photos and just sit and admire the beauty before me. Dreaming of what life must be like on such a vast ranch as the one before me. Then one day a story came to me. And before I knew it, words went onto pages and the Burkitt family and the mega ranch, Aces High, came into the world.
I already miss those characters. But those books led me to meeting some of those really great people who lived alongside those magnificent creatures and they invited me to learn more and actually opened doors to me that just might lead to more books along that series’ future. One never knows where the writer’s pen will take an author. But it is an amazing journey and turning the next page will always be exciting to me. Happy writing…and reading…to one and all!
Debra
About the Author.
Born and raised in the Lone Star state of Texas, Debra grew up among horses, cowboys, wide open spaces, and real Texas Rangers. Pride in her state and ancestry knows no bounds and it is these heroes and heroines she loves to write about the most. She also draws upon a variety of life experiences including working with abused children, caring for baby animals at a major zoo, and planning high-end weddings (ah, romance!).
Debra’s real pride and joys, however, are her son, an aspiring film actor, and a daughter with aspirations to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (more story ideas!) When she isn’t busy writing about tall Texans and feisty heroines, she can be found cheering on her Texas Tech Red Raiders, or heading off on another cruise adventure. She read her first romance…Janet Dailey’s Fiesta San Antonio, over thirty years ago and became hooked on the genre. Writing contemporary western romances, is both her passion and dream come true, and she hopes her books will bring smiles…and sighs…to all who believe in happily-ever-after’s.
Congratulations on your new book! I have it on my list to read soon.