Marie Higgins

I don’t remember a lot about my childhood, but I was very shy as a child until I turned 16. So, my favorite memories when I was a junior in high school and boy-crazy. lol

I honestly didn’t think it was possible. I work full time, but I was able to find time to make it work, and now I have my day job and my nightly fun time while writing!

In school, I used to hate history class. Maybe it was because my teachers are always so boring. But it wasn’t until I read a book by Kathleen E Woodiwiss that I fell in love with historical romances. Then I got hooked on Judith McNaught, LaVryle Spencer, and Jude Deveraux. Those are the authors who made me fall in love with historical romances.

“A Rose in Winter” by Kathleen E Woodiwiss. It’s about a woman who meets a man and starts to have feelings for him, but her desolate father auctions her off for marriage to the highest bidder, which happens to be a tragic figure who wears a mask and stays in the shadows.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” ~Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austin. Yes, I’m a Regency romance fan, too.

I didn’t plan it at all. During the few years of reading romance stories, I started to have dreams that I thought would make good books, so I started writing them down. I love typing out my stories, which made the process of writing a book even faster. Then one day I thought I’d give publishing a try. It still took a few years, but finally, I found publishers who liked my writing style.

Never give up hope. I think that’s the overall lesson in most of my books.

I can usually write a novel in six weeks. I had the first book written, and realized that the hero’s brothers and his friend all needed stories, too. I think it took about a year to write the series, only because life got in the way.

I’m a punster because I enjoy not knowing how things are going to end for the hero and heroine. I can only think of a few books where I actually had to plot, but even then, my characters took over and gave me a different ending from what I had plotted. I love when that happens!

A dream. I don’t write my stories after anyone I know. Most of my ideas come from dreams, or they are a character in another book.

I hope I never do. After all, there’s always a different way to write a Cinderella story. lol

Winning a few awards makes me want to write another award-winning story. Augh, the pressure!

Make sure you keep a chart of all of your characters and what they look like and their likes and dislikes… and who they married and if they had kids. Because by book #4, you’re going to forget most of this. Keeping a spreadsheet has helped me greatly!

I’m currently working on a mail-order groom story that with a multi-author group series. But I also have my own series, and so that will be the next book I write.

I must admit, I don’t use AllAuthor as much as I need to, only because I haven’t taken the time to see all the things the site offers. However, I have other author friends who LOVE AllAuthor and recommend it highly.