Inspiration is everywhere. My parents inspired me to write romance. New Zealand inspired me to write about it’s people. And the property I owned while there inspired my setting.
And the setting inspired the title of my first book.
Black Sand Forest is a place. Not of that name, but of that caliber.
My story begins with the heroine, Shelby, staring down a long driveway, cutting through a pine forest.
The picture above was my driveway. It was so long from our house to the main road that I used it as my morning run. On this morning run is where I first got my story spark. And, in the days that followed, I plotted my book and fleshed out my setting.
Have you ever been deep in the forest where all you can hear is the wind whistling through the pine needles? There is a calm about it. A tranquility that seeps into your bones.
Curled up on the front porch of my little cabin, I wrote through sunshine and rain and everything in between.
One of my first memories of New Zealand is driving through the countryside (we did tons of exploring in those first months) and noticing the stands of trees. Hillsides partitioned into geometric shapes and filled with row after row of trees. No ordinary forest. Tree farms. A few internet searches gave me a handful of ways to invest in one of these many stands of pine without lifting a finger…well, okay lifting the button finger to transfer a sum of money.
Little did I know, a few years later, I would actually invest in one of those tree farms, but not in the button-finger way. In a property with a tiny cabin where we could play with the trees and plant a new generation of growing things.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and, if you are inspired, head on over to the “Books” page and read the first chapter!
