With Sweet Inspiration, two scenes popped into my head. I usually get a couple of “scenes” in my head as a starting point, and I go from there. I have no idea what is going to happen in my story until I sit down and start writing it.

I’m a pantser (writing by the seat of my pants). How did you come up with the idea for Sweet Inspiration? You must have a love for baking – I don’t know how many cookies I ate while I read this! Pitched my story, queried my story, figured out that most publishers were not interested in a 55,000-word light paranormal Christmas-themed romance.ĥ) Discovered that some e-pubs actually had a niche for this sort of story. (I was aghast to find out some women do not find beards smexy! Shocking!) (What? I’m shocked as well)Ĥ) Won first place in a contest. Some judges really liked it, some judges crushed me like a small bug.

People laughed when I told them my idea.ģ) Wrote the book. About the North Pole, Santa Claus, and his five sexy sons. Mission aborted.Ģ) After joining the NECRWA and finally figuring out a few things about writing romance, decided to pen the story that had been kicking around in my head for a couple of years. Had no clue about central conflict, POV, voice, tone, over-use of adverbs, passive tense. Tell us a bit about the journey you went on to be published.ġ) Attempted a romance novel about a family of werewolves who live in Maine. Sweet Inspiration is your first published book. Wife of a fly-fishing anesthesia cowboy, mom to two awesome adopted Filipino kids (and one obsessive-compulsive wiener dog), member of the totally rocking romance critique group known as The Quirky Ladies, author of assorted scientific papers and romantic fiction, and enthusiastic fan of gardening, Vermont, beards and Top Chef. Who is Penny Watson – give us the lowdown.

Sweet Inspiration by Penny Watson