Why I Write

I write because the world is messy, painful, feels out of control, and often is unfair. Stories are one of the few places where I can make sense of it all and where I have some control.

I’ve lived a life stitched together from very different worlds. I learned early that people can believe in the same God and still see Him completely differently. I learned, also, that life doesn’t hand you clean, simple emotions. It gives you contradictions and you have to learn how to navigate through the minefield of contradictions and sometimes, carry those contradictions.

So I write men like Harrison Taylor, Klint St. John, Clay Denton, AJ Adams, Marcus Stone, and Hunter Mowberry—broken, angry, disillusioned, and even morally gray. I write women like Rachel Leonard, Varina Carroll, Josephine Meyers, Allison Webster, Faith Mills, and Prudence Moore who are strong because they had no other choice. I write about honor that gets bent, loyalty that gets tested, and love that shows up in the middle of the worst kind of chaos.

I write because I need to believe that even after the worst has happened; after wars, after betrayal, after the inhumanity of one man to another, after losing the person you thought you’d grow old with, people can still choose to protect one another. They can still build something good out of the wreckage.

I write Western historical romance because the frontier feels honest to me. It’s wide open, beautiful in a desolate manner, and full of second chances for people who probably don’t deserve them. Just like real life.

If you find yourself rooting for my flawed, stubborn, sometimes ruthless characters, thank you. You’re keeping company with pieces of my heart.

And if you ever wonder why I keep writing stories about honor, redemption, and found family, it’s because even when it’s hard, even when it hurts—especially when it hurts—I still believe in those things.