I’ve had several people ask me this and the simple answer might be, “Because I could”, but I think it goes deeper than that. I have been writing something or other all my life. I’ve been writing poetry since I was in the fourth grade and as the years went by I became a more and more voracious reader. I found myself thinking with each new book I read, I could do that. Dean Koontz’s work especially did that for me. I never really thought I could write with the same technical expertise that Mr Koontz exhibits, but I did believe I could write something that would engage people. Make them SEE what I was describing and make them FEEL what the characters felt. For years I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to write a novel, but I never had anything grab my imagination sufficiently enough to actually do it until I came upon the general concept for DARK CANVAS. As I mention in my forward, I met a girl in California by chance who was actually doing these paintings with the ashes of the deceased, but it wasn’t until I was describing the event to another wonderful lady in Arkansas, Debra, that it hit home. Her comment was something like, “That sounds like an unusual profession but what a great idea for a novel”. Well, that comment grabbed me like a thousand pound wrestler, and I started writing the very next day. Six months later I had 155 thousand words and a first draft of DARK CANVAS finished.
Now the most gratifying experience I can have is when readers tell me they couldn’t put it down, or “When is the next one coming out?” THAT’S what I hope to accomplish in my writing . An escape and an experience that completely engages readers like so many wonderful authors have done for me….