M. E. Tudor

Yes, I spent all of my childhood in a very small village (less than 300 people) in west central Indiana. My father was a welder at a cement company and my mother was a housewife.

I've lived in south central Kentucky since 1998. I moved here with my ex-husband, whose family is from this area. This was the third time we had lived here and I decided to stay when he decided to move again. I met my partner, Rosa, shortly after I moved here. I got divorced from my husband in 1999 and she and I have been together ever since.

I've asked both of my daughters to read my books but they have not. My oldest daughter is not much of a reader in the first place and my younger daughter hasn't had time.

My family has always been very supportive of my writing career. Rosa and my older sister were both my biggest cheerleaders at the beginning. Now, I have several close friends who've read my books and are constantly encouraging me to write more.

I didn't get to meet my father's mother, but my mom and my sister have both told me that she like to tell stories about family and nature that she said had been passed down to her from her family elders. I like to write stories about the intricacies of families and how to effect each generation.

I started at Western pursuing an accounting degree in hopes of making better money than what I had been making in the factories. After a year of working as a bookkeeper while going to school I realized that wasn't the right career for me and decided to take a break. I had enough credits to get my Associate's Degree so I did that just in case I didn't get to go back. I was already 39 at the time and a new grandmother, so I wasn't sure what life was going to hold for me. I went back to work in a factory and hated it, so I enrolled back in Western, this time with plans to get an English degree and pursue a writing career, or something in that area. So, I followed that path until I ran out of money, but I had enough credits to get a Bachelor's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in English and a minor in Library Media Science. So that's how I ended up with the two degrees.

I started as a student worker at the library when I first started college in the Work-Study program. Initially, I'd been in a program that would allow me to work at the library, but when I officially changed to Accounting, I didn't qualify to work at the library, that's when I got the bookkeeping job. When I went back for my Bachelor's Degree, I was in the library one day and one of the ladies I'd originally worked with told me she wished I could come back because I'd been such a good worker. As an English major, I could work at the library through the Work-Study so I went back to work as a student. My first jobs were mostly shelving books and helping patrons find things. Then I was trained to check items in and out, as well as shelving and helping patrons. I fell in love with the reference work when I helped out in that department because I love to do research. A few years ago one of our reference librarians retired and I was offered her full-time position and that's what I do now. I love helping people find information. It's one of the best parts of my job.

When I first start writing lesbian fiction I was not out to anyone but my closest family and friends. That's why I started writing under my pen name. And I think my real name is boring. M. E. Tudor has a better ring to it than Tina Brewster.

My dog's name is Ruby. She's part Chihuahua and part Shih tzu.

We now have five cats. One of the original three we lost and then someone dropped three kittens off near our house last fall and we kept them. They do get a long for the most part, unless they try to get near Ruby when she has a treat or bone. She usually runs them off then.

I love being outside. I love the feel of the wind and sunshine. I love listening to birds talking to each other. It's so relaxing. When I'm hiking in the woods I feel the closest to God. I can feel the energy from all the living things around me. That's why I love camping. Even if you are camping at a full campground, there's an energy of other nature lovers that surrounds you. I love traveling to see new places. Most of our traveling is to places of nature and visiting family. My older sister lived in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida so we went down there to see her before she passed away in 2016. My older brother lives near New Smyrna Beach, Florida and we go down there to see him. Three of my grandchildren live in Montrose, Colorado and we often go get them to spend the summer in Kentucky. But, I really love exploring new natural places.

My partner and I used to talk about owning a bed and breakfast. We saw a place in Paducah, Kentucky that looked like it would make a great renovated bed and breakfast, so I started thinking about a story involved the renovation. I'd been working on some YA lesbian romance ideas and when I started thinking about the bed and breakfast renovation story, that's when the idea came to make that into a YA lesbian romance. I've know so many young woman like my character, Patty, who've had something traumatic happen to them and they made bad choices they later regretted. And, I don't think there are enough stories about young lesbians who have families, or who want families, but in real life there are a lot of young women like Patty who have a child and then meet and fall in love with a woman. So I wanted to tell that kind of story.

I've known a few girls like Jericho, mostly as an adult. When I was in high school being out wasn't an option and even butchy girls tried to maintain a certain amount of femininity to avoid being outed. Today, it's much easier for someone like Jericho to be herself, and there are a lot of girls like DiAndrea who will take advantage of a shy, butch girl. We have a friend that I could totally see being Jericho if she had been in high school today. What's really funny is that right after I wrote this story, I met a young woman who was totally Jericho, except I couldn't picture this girl scratching someone's car.

Honestly, for me there wasn't a challenge writing the gentle romance in that story. I see gentle touches that lead to erotic moments being the best. I actually got the idea for that book after I read a semi-erotic scene from Gerri Hill's book Hunter's Way. She has the sex bar scene in that story that I let my imagination develop into a love story.

Originally that story was titled "The Outfitter" because Robin was an outfitter, but I'd published an earlier version of that story on the Royal Academy of Bards, so I needed to change many things including the title in order to be able to have it on Amazon Unlimited. I decided to rename it Avalanche of Love because Robin and Marianne's love story is kind of like an avalanche that just takes them over.

I've enjoyed getting to spend more time with my partner, Rosa and getting some things done around the house. I've spend a lot of time writing on my work in progress and cleaning up old files. But, I'm back to work full-time now.

I'm working on a YA novel that's told from a 17 year old girl's point of view while going through this crisis. I've started it on the first day that kids here in Kentucky were out of school and following along with things that are happening as they are happening. I have an idea of how I want it to go, but so much is going to depend on the way things happen with this virus.

I usually start promoting on Facebook, Twitter, my blog and my website when I'm getting close to releasing a new book. I try to continue promoting a book if its selling well. I've had a few that have turned out to be duds and no matter how much promoting I do, they still don't get sales.

I've had a great experience with AllAuthor. AllAuthor's promotions of my books have brought in a lot of sales and I am very grateful for your service and plan to continue my partnership with this company.