Who Inspired Me to Write? Not Who You Might Think...

Normally we deal with the paranormal around here, especially during a book tour. However, every now and again, I'll venture off on something else.

Today is one of those days.

One of the questions I'm often asked during interviews is: What author or authors inspired you to write? My answer is always the same. The person who must take the credit, or the blame -- according to your perspective -- is not an author. He is my beloved husband. He encouraged--and gave me the courage--to write down my stories and submit them for publication. When I finally received my first contract, no one celebrated my success more than he did—and that's when it started!

What, you might ask, am I talking about? I'm talking about the thoughtful, special little gifts I received in commemoration of each book I wrote and published.  

Most often he finds a special necklace or a pair of earrings that symbolizes something significant from the book, such as a silver anchor for Shadow of the Witte Wieven, and Minute Man earrings for Spirit of the Revolution. He gave me a dragon necklace, a hawk necklace, and the Runic Calendar Stone you see in the picture above for Court of the Hawk. Yeah, he went a little overboard on that one. He did the same thing for the other books as well.

So, enter my seventh and latest novel published by The Wild Rose Press, Bound by Oath and Honour. In my stocking this past Christmas, I found a beautiful necklace depicting a Wolf surrounded by a silver crescent moon. Gorgeous! And more than enough. Really it was... (Do you hear that David?)

But then one fine day we were passing by the Feed Store a mile or two from our home. There outside on the lawn, with nothing more than a chainsaw, a wood carving artist was creating a beautiful bear out of this old piece of wood. His name is Clark or Clark the Carver, if you will. That man has an amazing talent that is simply incredible and you should really check him out! Okay, he does wonderful bears, but my husband wondered, does he do wolves?

Yes he does... Kind of makes you wonder who on earth could possibly get one of those, right?

So David, the love and light of my life, this post is for you and not just because of the gifts that are so precious for the meaning behind them. This post is to thank you for your continued encouragement. Thank you for not allowing me to give up. Thank you for all the love and support you've given me every single day of our thirty-nine years together. You're the absolute best, no finer man has ever walked this earth, and I love you more than you know!

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Okay...enough of the sappy stuff! Most of you are wondering about the tour anyway, so here we go with that:

Past Stops (Because it's never too late to write a word or two):

April 27: Sharing Links and Wisdom

May 4: Christine Young

May 4: Wendi Zwaduk ~ Romance to Make Your Heart Race
May 11:  Long and Short Reviews
May 18: The Reading Addict
May 25: Natural Bri
June 1: Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books! 
June 1: Two Ends of the Pen
June 8: T's Stuff
June 15: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
June 22: The Avid Reader
June 29: BooksChatter

July 13: Romance Novel Giveaways

This Week - Join us on our final stop! 

July 20: Straight from the Library