I grew up in Middletown, RI, and graduated from Middletown High School in 1984. URI was one of several schools I considered, and I chose it for the journalism program. I was a staff member on the Good 5 Cent Cigar for most of the time I was at URI. I graduated in 1988 and went on to work as a staff reporter at the Narragansett Times for a couple of years before moving into corporate communications. 

I was a journalism-political science double major, and I enjoyed both majors. In addition to my work at the Cigar, I was involved with student senate and was a Resident Assistant at Aldrich Hall my junior year. I loved being at URI and made a lot of friends I’m still close to today. One of the things that really stands out was the way my class came together to help save the journalism program from possible elimination in 1988. Our favorite journalism professor, Linda Levin, credited our class for helping to keep the program alive at URI, and we were proud of that accomplishment. 

I have longtime ties to Block Island, beginning with family trips there on my parents’ boat each summer, when we stayed at Payne’s Dock, the inspiration for the McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina. My second phase on the island was with my college boyfriend, who worked there in the summers, and for the last ten years, my family and another family from our town have gone to the island with our kids. Our trips there started when our older kids, who are now college age, were in elementary school, and it’s something we look forward to every summer. It’s nice to hear that you feel the series captures island life. I’ve loved writing that series, and I look forward to releasing book 15 in 2016. An interesting aside about the Gansett Island Series is that the first book, Maid for Love, was rejected by every publisher in the romance business before self-publishing became a viable option in 2010. I self-published the first three Gansett books in 2011, and I’ve since sold close to 2.5 million ebook copies of the 14-book series. I credit Gansett with making it possible for me to leave my 16-year day job as the communications director for a national nonprofit to become self-employed as of Jan. 1, 2012. I now have four full-time employees working with me, also thanks in large part to the series no one wanted—except my readers! In addition to Gansett, I self-publish the Treading Water and Quantum Series. My Fatal and Green Mountain Series are both with traditional publishers, which makes me what we call a “hybrid” author—one who does self- and traditional publishing at the same time.  

I write what I love to read. I’ve always been a fan of romance, going back to my teenage years when I devoured Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts books. I wanted to do what they do, and it never occurred to me to write anything other than what I love to read. I guess I realized I was sort of “good” at it when I had friends tell me my early books kept them up all night to find out what happened. I credit those friends with keeping me going long enough to finally sell the seventh book I wrote in 2007. That was a small sale to a small publisher, but it was a start. My best advice to writers is always the same thing—writers write. They don’t talk about writing a book someday, they actually do it. Writing compelling fiction requires that you do two things fairly well at the same time—write AND tell a story that keeps people turning the pages. It takes a while to figure out how to do that in a way that appeals to readers. This year I’ll write my 50th book, and I’m still learning new things that hopefully help to make my books better. 

Romance is the runaway leader in the genre fiction market. To give you some perspective about the genre, the Romance Writers of America, of which I’m a member, reports that romance fiction generated more than $1.4 billion in sales in 2012. The next closest genre was mystery at just over $728 million, which is roughly half the revenue that romance produced. Third place goes to religion/inspiration at $718 million. So you can see there’s nothing even close to romance when it comes to genre fiction in the U.S. In addition, romance was the top-performing category on the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists in 2012. Despite the fact that romance novels are blockbuster business, romance authors are constantly defending the genre against all sorts of disrespect from people who have preconceived notions about what a romance novel really is. These days, most of us are too busy laughing all the way to the bank to be concerned about what people think of what we write.

I have extremely loyal readers who LOVE my books, and that’s all that matters. I feel very blessed that they turn out the way they do to buy each new book. Their support has put me on the New York Times bestseller list 21 times in the last three years, which is amazing to me. (You can find other advice for authors on my website.)

I plan to keep doing what I’m doing now for as long as the readers continue to love my books. My readers frequently tell me that my books helped them through a difficult time—an illness, the death of a loved one, a divorce, etc. Knowing that my books brought them comfort during difficult times is very rewarding, to say the least. Being an author is the best “job” I’ve ever had, and I can’t imagine doing anything other than writing romances for as long as I’m able to!

I have more than 100K followers on both FB (page + profile + groups, including 10,000-member Gansett Island Group) and Twitter. I talk to my readers daily. In addition, they write to me often via email. I know what their favorites are. They LOVE the way Jenny pelts Alex with tomatoes to get his attention—and how that leads to love! Later in the series, they have bowls of tomatoes on the tables at their wedding. The readers LOVED that. Their all-time favorite is [a scene from Book 1 of the Gansett series, Maid For Love] when Mac talks his younger sister into buying condoms for him because he can’t do it on that small island unless he wants everyone to know who he’s sleeping with. She’s got a long-time fiancé, so he figures she’s a safer bet. But since this is a family show, I went with the tomatoes. 🙂