Mimi, I want to welcome you to A Romance Review. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview.

The pleasure is all mine, Pam. Thanks for asking me.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Well, I live way out in the ranch country of west Texas right now, but I was raised in New Jersey, and I've also spent a number of years living in both center-city Philadelphia and Florida--so I'm sort of a blend of both Yankee and Southerner, city-chick and country-gal. I share my home with a wonderful husband named Rob and enough pets to prove that we're major animal lovers. Growing up, there were two main things I wanted to be: an actress and a writer. But, by the time I'd finished college, writing had taken the lead. My first three novels were all written and published in 1978, when I was 23. (They were two science-fiction adventures and a contemporary romance.) I've also been a professional model, a belly-dancer, an editor and publisher, and I ran my own jewelry making company for several years. And one summer, when I was in college, I worked as a clown at Ringling Bros. Circus World in Florida. It wasn't nearly as much fun as you'd think--except for when I got to ride the elephant.

Since your first book was published until I DO, there is a big break in between the books, about 25 years. Can you tell us a little about the long break? Do you see yourself with another long period between your books now?

To answer the last part first: No. I think I'd shoot myself before I'd ever wait that long again . The fact is, I never intended there to be such a long gap between books the first time around. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how it happened. I could blame it on a lot of different factors, but the biggest problem was possibly just my own insecurity back then. I wasn't insecure about my writing, you understand. I was insecure about demanding the TIME I needed to do the writing. I let family and financial concerns steer me in other directions and it was a long hard haul to find my way back to a spot where I could sit down and actually finish another novel. I'm older, wiser, and stronger today, and I've streamlined my priorities, so I'll never have that problem again.

I DO in my opinion was filled with a little of every subgenre of romance there is. The story was well plotted and mixed very well. Can you tell us how I DO came about?

Several years ago, my husband and I were driving to Abilene when, low and behold, I saw a castle looming up out of the prairie. Just the facade of a castle, actually, but the sight really shocked me. Like my heroine in the opening of I DO, I sat there thinking: A castle? Who would put a castle in west Texas? And WHY? I heard later that it was the abandoned project of some millionaire, but what he'd been planning to do with it, I don't know. I just filed it away in the back of my brain as one of life's little curiosities. A few years after that, I read a book about John Keely. He was an inventor who lived in Philadelphia in the late 1800's and one of the things he had been working on was a disintigration device that could be used in mining. There are some accounts that claim he actually suceeded, but when his lab was searched after his death, no such device was ever found. I filed that tidbit away, too. Then, there's Caliban--gone now, but impossible to forget. He was one of the most intelligent, courageous, gorgeous cats I've ever had--ebony black fur, golden eyes, and BIG. He looked like a small panther and he carried himself like a king.

I mention those three things--the castle in the prairie, the cat, and the Philadelphia inventor--because they're probably the only three elements of I DO that survived from my initial concept of the story to the final product. Everything else went wacky on me. When I started, I thought I was doing a classic gothic romance--the only twist being that it was set in Texas. But the minute Dorcas appeared, I realized I had a comic heroine on my hands--and she flat out refused to be anything else. None of the other characters would co-operate, either, and I gave up trying to make them. Early on, I just threw away most of the ideas I'd started with and let the plot develop on its own, layer by layer, one page at a time. Honest and truly, I wrote most of this book blind. It was nerve wracking. I couldn't see where the story was going, so I concentrated on where it had been. In other words, everything that happened in this book was built directly on what had come before it. It's like making a brick wall--you can't lay the top bricks until you have the bottom ones in place.

The first part went slowly for me, the middle went fast, and then I hit a real snag at the end--partly, I think, because I was exhasted by that time. I'd been working at the book non-stop and had written myself into the ground. I hit the last few chapters and could not for the life of me figure out what the solutions to the mysteries were. I had all these clues, but I couldn't fit them together. I actually had to lay the manuscript aside for a few months. Then I went back to it, expecting that I was in for a massive rewrite. Only, when I read over what I had, a miraculous thing happened: All those pieces that hadn't seemed to fit before, suddenly made sense. Simply by following what was already there, I was able to conclude things with hardly any revision. The only real change came later from Dorchester--and that was the book's title. I had called it "Eyes of the Cat" because I was trying to play up the gothic angle. But my editor said it was too funny for a gothic and retitled it I DO.

Will any of the secondary characters from I DO have their own book in the future?

I hope so. I think it would be a lot of fun to do Kathy and Simon's story--I think they deserve their own book--but whether or not that will happen anytime soon is up to Dorchester, because they sort of have dibs on those characters. I could go ahead and write the sequel on spec, but if Dorchester decided not to publish it, I'd have to get special permission from them to shop it elsewhere, and things like that can get a little tricky. So, we'll just have to wait and see.

Why such a mixture of subgenres? I'm not complaining as I highly enjoyed the book. Will we see the mixture again in a future book?

Quite possibly. I seem to have an uncontrollable urge to "push the envelope," as they say . I don't necessarily do it deliberately, it just happens. I'm a bit of a rebel, I guess--and an explorer. I'm always looking for new territory. And I rarely take anything at face value. I'm always questioning things, peeking around corners to see what's there. But, with writing, I'm not entirely sure that what I'm doing is "mixing" genres. Sometimes I wonder if I'm simply trying to create new ones..

On your website it lists a few of the jobs you have had over the years. Did you enjoy one of them more than the other? If so, will you tell us which one and why?

I don't know if I can really pick a favorite. From my perspective, it's sort of like being asked: "Which do you like better, being racked or flogged?" Just joking! It wasn't really that bad. All my jobs have been interesting in their own way, and I've learned useful skills from each one. But they've all had the same aggravation, too--which was the old "I'd rather be writing novels" thing. I couldn't help resenting the time and energy they took from me. On the bright side, however, most of my past jobs provided plenty of opportunity for people-watching, and they were all rather unconventional professions. In other words, they gave me the chance to experience unusual situations--so I have a lot more to write about now than I did before. They were great "grist for the mill."

How do you feel after being away from writing in general to get back into it? Did it take a while to get back into the writing mode after so long? Or was it like coming home again, something like you never left?

Some of both. On the one hand, I'd been aching to get back for so long, that it did feel like coming home--or, rather, like reaching port after a long, treacherous sea voyage. But the romance industry is a whole different ballgame today, from what it was 25 years ago. It's expanded tremendously. There's more publishers, more subgenres, new sets of writing-rules (which I often ignore, by the way, because I think the old ones worked fine). And, of course, the technology has really changed. I wrote my first books on an ancient Underwood manual typewriter. I wrote I DO on a Brother word-processor. And I'm working now on a PC. So, in a lot of ways, it's been like starting over from scratch.

When you are not writing what do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies? What keeps your interest?

I'm afraid that I'm something of a workaholic. Sleeping is probably the closest thing I have to a hobby these days (not that I get much chance to practice it). But when I'm not working, I'm usually reading--anything and everything, fiction and non-fiction. And I enjoy research--I'm one of those people who reads encyclopedias for fun. I used to love travelling and socializing, but writing has turned me into a bit of a hermit and I don't mind that at all. I do most of my travelling via the Internet now. I'm pretty new to computers, you see, so I find the World Wide Web really interesting. I haven't learned to take it for granted yet--to me it's still like magic. And computers, themselves, are absolutely fascinating. I think if I wasn't a writer, I'd want to be a hacker .

Is writing for you now a full-time job? If it is, do you have set hours that you write?

I generally write 7 days a week, but the hours vary. I'm also a professional editor, so I have to balance that with the writing. I work both jobs full-time. Between the two, I've been putting in over 100 hours a week. But that's not as bad as it may sound, because I work out of my house. I can take mini-breaks whenever I need them.

Will you give us any hints as to what you are currently working on? Is it another historical or a different genre? If you are working on a current project, do you know when we will be seeing it in the stores?

Right now, I'm putting the finishing touches on a contemporary romance--a very upbeat, off-beat screwball comedy. It's the "pilot episode" for a series, and I have a publisher interested in the project. Things aren't totally set yet, so I can't give you a definite date, but it'll hopefully be available before the year's out.

Is there anything you would like the readers to know that I haven't asked?

Just that I enjoy hearing from readers, and that anyone who wants is welcome to e-mail me through my website. For those who haven't read I DO yet, I have an excerpt posted on the site. And I'll be sponsoring several contests this year, too. All a person has to do to enter is sign up for my mailing list. Thanks for everything, Pam. I've had fun chatting with you!

It has been a pleasure. I'm looking forward to your next release. Thank you again.