Discovery (and more notes on my reading and writing evolution)...

Once I started reading, my appetite for the written word was voracious. I could not get enough of reading. Library days at school gave me butterflies. The bookmobile that traveled to our rural area in the summer was a source of joy. At home, I picked up everything, including things that belonged to other people. It annoyed my mother to no end. “You gon’ read something you ain’t got no business!” she would snap. I wasn’t trying to be nosy. It was just that reading revealed whole new worlds to me.

One day, undoubtedly while I was supposed to be doing chores, I opened a large, wooden, rectangular box in my parents’ room. You know those movie scenes in which actors open doors or closets or something and sunshine pours in while angels sing? That’s what happened! I found my daddy’s book stash. It was a hodgepodge of westerns, action novels, true crime books, and romances! I read books by authors like Louis L’Amour, Janet Dailey, and Don Pendleton. I stayed awake several nights in a row, terrified after I read Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. I read something I didn’t have “no business,” just like Mama warned.

But I learned about new places that I envisioned in my boundless imagination. I absorbed new words, many of them in languages other than English given Harlequin authors’ love of Italian, Greek, and Spanish heroes. I inhaled those books and my love of romance and happily-ever-afters was sparked by the contents of that box. Harlequin definitely shaped how I still think about romance novels, but I knew something was missing.

And then, I found a book by Sandra Kitt (Adam & Eva) and realized the characters were black. My mind exploded.* There were so many possibilities. So many stories I could tell. I picked up a pen, some loose-leaf paper, and my Trapper Keeper (yes, I’m dating myself).

I never looked back.

The prototype for elle kayson, romance author, was born in the mind of a painfully shy, eternally curious country girl.

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*You have to keep in mind that I am from a tiny town that had no library or bookstore. I wasn’t exposed to a lot of romance literature.