I’m very much a plantser (a plotter and a pantser!). I need some kind of structure before I start a book. Usually, I begin with an idea or a hook for a book, often for a sports romance this is actually a real life idea I’ll take and tailor to characters I’ve got in my own head, and do a meld of the two. Then I usually plot out the two arcs – the romance and the sports plot – with the idea they kind of peak together, or if they don’t, if one peaks first and then the other, so that the last third of the book isn’t boring!

But I have found that if I plot too much ahead of time, I have less inspiration while I’m writing and less “discovery” of cool new ideas and details. So my outlines are very generic and I often abandon them partway through and redo them.

Ethan is the first book in the three book Hockey Bros series—about three brothers who find themselves unexpectedly playing for the same NHL team.

I love complicated relationships and my three brothers love each other a lot, but it’s also a lot all being on the same team. Ethan is the youngest Barnes brother, and he’s excited to have been drafted, and

is just starting, at the beginning of the book, his NHL journey. When unexpectedly he meets another up-and-coming young player, a defenseman, who totally changes everything about who he thought he was. Ethan and Hank have a lot of time to both adjust to this new reality of liking guys—but when they get on the same team finally? Watch out! They’re on FIRE!

Honestly, I’ve always loved writing brothers. I’ve written several sets now, but I had never written about three brothers—or any brothers!—that were on the same team, and it was time. There’s something really beautiful and complicated even about good familial relationships and add in competitive sports and it’s just *chefs kiss* (but yes, there are those hockey bros, and I can’t say this isn’t inspired by them

necessarily, but I definitely gave them my own spin!)

Obviously, I do love sports! But I also really love the found family aspect that I can use when it comes to these books. Teams become almost a separate family of sorts—that can support you and push you and also be there when you’re not at your best. And of course, to give you crap when you’re trying to figure your love life out LOL.

I’m most excited that Coastal Magic is not just a single signing day, which is basically all the signings I’ve been to recently, but a whole slate of events and get-togethers. So many awesome opportunities to chat with readers. At a signing I often feel like my time with people is cut short—either with existing readers or with new readers who are just discovering me for the first time and want to know more—so I feel like this is a great event that I just can’t wait to attend.