How do you recharge your creative juices?
Sleep has been touted as a good way to do this, and I intend to try it someday. In the meantime, a warm bath usually does the trick, especially if scented candles and a good book come along for the ride. Listening to music helps, and time spent with my husband definitely shakes off creative ennui. Writing letters to friends always gets the process started.

The biggest enemy of creativity is...
Procrastination. Putting something off won't make it go away, and there is a difference between giving an idea time to mull, and trying to avoid it. Avoidance doesn't work. Too much space between writer and idea, and it's that much harder to get the two together again. In the words of the Nike commercial, just do it. Sit down and create, and the process will work itself.

For inspiration, some people listen to music, or keep important items/photographs on their desks. What works for you?
It varies. Music is an important factor in the creative process, so I have been known to play an especially pertinent song on a loop during a writing session, if it captures the spirit of the piece.

For visual stimuli, I like to have things that remind me of friends and family around me; pictures, handmade cards, crosstitch, etc. I have several stuffed animal mascots around my puter, and fashion dolls in historical garb. If I need a break, I will sneak a peek at the romance novel cover art wallpaper on the puter.

I try to always have a scented candle burning while I write, as that helps wrap me into the mood of what I am writing that day.

Most importantly, I have my feline assistant, Olivia, contorting herself in my lap. If I'm really into what I'm writing, she will try to lie across the keys.

What are your major influences?
Ten years spent in fanfiction introduced me to some fantastic author friends, who have each influenced me in their own way. My love for historical fiction melded with romance comes from early Bertrice Small, by way of Valerie Sherwood. Angela Elwell Hunt, Francine Rivers and Lynn Austin's books have helped shape my inspirational content, and Frank Peretti gave me a taste for the grittier side of the human psyche. The music of Jim Stienman, Stephen Sondheim, and Mandy Patinkin has had a lot to do with the emotional intensity that I love. The Bible, for why stories are important in the first place.

Pregnant women often crave strange foods; when you're carrying a creative project to term, is there any food/drink you simply must have?
Tea, tea, tea, and lots of tea. In the summer, Crystal Light raspberry or iced tea.

Ideas come to me at unexpected moments, like when I'm...
Just about anywhere, but the tub is such a common idea-attractor, I have dubbed it The Idea Generator. Ideas like to ambush me at church, too, and they seem to like the smell of rubber, because story ideas always seem to come out of the woodwork when I start rubber stamping.

What accomplishments are you most proud of?
Sticking with my current project past the halfway point. Getting my poetry and fiction published for pay for the first time was a great thrill, but getting past the point of no return for a novel is a rush like no other.

No one is better than I am when it comes to...
Procrastination and self-sabotage. *g* I can find a million and one ways to not write. Seriously, I've been told I have a "cinematic" style of writing. I love finding the little things that a particular character would notice and insert those in between dialog, for colour. I'm great at dialog and beginnings.

But I still can't quite get the hang of...
Propping up that sagging middle, but I'm working on it.

What are you working on now, and where can readers find your published work?
I'm currently over the halfway point of a colonial historical romance with a hermit for a hero and a heroine who is bound and determined to find out his secrets. Also working on the script for our church's theatre ministry, doing a takeoff on The Weakest Link show.

I have a contemporary short romantic story, "Kicking the Habit," coming out in the March, 2002 issue of Romancing the Skyze magazine, and an Edwardian romantic story, "Tommy," in their September, 2002 issue.

For ordering information, set your browser to: http://hometown.aol.com/seaswept68/myhomepage/index.html. Or follow the links from my website: http://www.geocities.com/unzadi/