Jill: I live primarily on the West Coast in a lovely place on the water that I bought in 1996, but during my daughter's school year I'm at a place on the East Coast for a week or more every month. The West Coast will always be my home. I was born and raised in Southern California - the beach areas the Beach Boys made popular back in the 60s. I have a wonderfully talented and gorgeous daughter with whom I will be shopping for colleges over the next 6 months. That should be a test in my ability to keep my mouth shut. I laughingly told her I'm going to carry duct tape in the car and she can tape my mouth shut when we drive onto campuses. I guess as a strong woman raised in the 60s, I always have an opinion. I'm trying to keep this choice all hers.

April: How did you get started writing? And more specifically, what drew you to the romance genre?

Jill: How did I discover writing romance? Well, I went back to college in my 30s intending to get an accounting degree,, and just like the first time (I was in a private art college), I headed straight for the humanities. Eventually I was working toward a master's degree in history, when we had some changes in our lives: a move and the gift of my daughter.

While in school I read romance because I was reading such heavy things I wanted to be entertained, and I think at that time the number one TV show was The Dukes of Hazzard, so I wasn't going to be entertained by TV. I read a lot. My first romance novel was MOONSTRUCK MADNESS by Laurie McBain, my second was one of Jude Deveraux's first novels.

Anyway, I thought I wanted to teach and write history books. Eventually I changed that to novels, and since I read romance, that was what I wanted to write. I'm very proud of my romance roots. With the exception of Jude and Fern Michaels and Catherine Coulter, no one was writing humor. I wanted to write books with the flavor of romantic comedies and I started writing in 1986. I wrote those romantic comedies for 13 years.

April: Your books have a wonderful blend of sensuality and humor, both of which fit well and have a purpose in the stories. Do you set out to include a certain amount of these scenes, or do they just happen naturally? Are the "sex" scenes easier or harder to write than the humor?

Jill: On humor and sensuality: The love scenes come naturally for the characters and their love story. I remember a writer friend once said that her characters always made love at about the same page in a book. I was completely baffled by that statement. Nothing in my books is a formula. I never know where that is going to happen until it does. Love scenes are difficult to write fresh.

The humor is extremely difficult. I have something to say about this. So many people are trying to write humor and forcing it. I think it's taking the genre into the toilet because they aren't writing to their natural strengths, but trying to copy another writer's voice. The reader is very in tune to the writer, and it doesn't take a sophisticated reader to feel when the writer is trying too hard to pull emotion - laughter or tears. The books come off as melodramatic sappiness or silliness. It's rather sad, what I've been reading lately. I was really excited when I read Candice Proctor's latest book, WHISPERS OF HEAVEN, because it was something different and yet something very true. You read that book and you know it comes from her unique experience and vision. It's a great classic historical romance novel in the finest sense.

Regarding my humor, I never set out to write funny books and funny scenes. They come from my vision and my voice. I tend to have that kind of perspective. But my humor is very visual, as are my scenes and characters. I'm visual writer. I often tell a story about the humor coming naturally - or after three pots of coffee and 15 hours of writing. :o) I was working on DREAMING, and I discovered that these two secondary characters who were highway robbers were becoming important and needed names. It was 2 am. I got out my name book and searched for British names. I found Simon and thought, "Oh! That's a great British name." So I typed it in. Then I had to find the other one's name, and I stared at the screen and starting giggling and typed Schuster. So my characters were named Simon and Schuster. That's how the humor comes to me.

As far as one kind of scene being easier than others, nothing is easy in this career. You need a sharp mind, a spine of steel, and knowledge and control of the craft of writing. You must learn technique before you can twist it and play with it.

April: Muddy, the genie in IMAGINE, was one of the funniest characters I've ever come across. How did you ever think him up - where did he come from?

Jill: Well, I have a Disney kind of mind. I actually was writing that book before Aladdin. My first job was at Disneyland, so I guess that about says it all.

I expect I was influenced by the shows of the 60s. I know when I created Joy, the witch in BEWITCHING, I was thinking of Aunt Clara from the TV series. On some level, I suppose Muddy was influenced by I Dream of Jeannie. I actually had a book I wanted to do, back in 1994, about an ogre who lived under a bridge (I adored Shrek), and one about an alien who accidentally crash landed on Earth. I had the WWII idea for a long time before the craze hit, before Saving Private Ryan, and now I'm doing a book set in the 60s and here are all these things on the 60s coming in ... even the clothes! It's very weird so I try not to analyze it, but just accept my imagination for the gift it is.

April: One of my favorite all-time books is SURRENDER A DREAM. The hero and heroine are as unlikely a pair of lovers as I've ever seen, and yet the relationship works wonderfully. Can you give us a little background on this story?

Jill: SURRENDER A DREAM - I loved that book. I remember sobbing like crazy when I finished it. My husband come into my office and wanted to know if I was all right. I was crying so hard I couldn't even talk. I'm pretty happy because I just found out Pocket is repackaging that book and three more, and reissuing them next March.

The actual idea for that book came when we were driving down from Northern California to Southern California on Highway 101. We were driving and my mind was drifting - trouble already - and I noticed that there was a fence that went on for miles and miles over these rolling hills with huge oaks. I could see someone handsome riding a horse across those hills. I kept thinking whoever owns this land owns a lot of land, because that fence went on forever. Well, suddenly, without a break in the fence, it went from raw natural wood to painted white. My mind clicked and I thought, "What if two people inherited the same piece of property and one wanted to paint the fence and the other didn't?" The next moment I had the idea: two people who inherit the same piece of property and try to drive each other off the land so they can have it. Instead they fall in love.

April: Your books BEWITCHING/DREAMING and WONDERFUL/WILD/WICKED feature recurring characters. Were those appearances/spin-off books are planned ahead of time or based on reader response? Does reader response ever come into play when planning a new book?

Jill: I have never, ever planned a spin-off book before I wrote the first book. Sometimes characters just leap out at you and need their own story. I knew when I wrote the young Lady Sofia in WONDERFUL that she would have her own story. She just took over the scene. The same with Letty in BEWITCHING. Once she nailed Brummel, that was it. She was getting her own book.

Readers always want me to do this character and that, but I need to feel it in my heart or I won't do it. Creatively, I am the sole decision maker. Always.

April: Also, in sort of the same vein, you revised "Saving Grace," entitled "Falling from Grace," in the December anthology, A SEASON IN THE HIGHLANDS. The original lacks the closure and strength of the ending that the revision has. Did someone approach you with that or have you always wanted to revise it? Would you alter any other of your works?

Jill: On "Falling from Grace" - that was the original title, by the way - it was my first short story, and when I finished it I thought it needed more, but there was a page and time limit. I always wanted to write those back-at-the-castle scenes, so I did and sold it to Pocket with their knowledge that I was rewriting it. As for rewriting, I'd like to rewrite every book I've written. I'm a bit of an overachiever and a perfectionist. I can always make it better. :o)

April: Although all of your books have characters with a great deal of humanity, the newer ones have a different tone and a great deal of depth as well as your signature humor. How do you feel about the evolution of your novels? Do you have any favorite books or characters among those you have written?

Jill: The depth of the new novels is what I want to do. I want to write books that make you laugh and cry and experience time with the characters, more than merely two characters. Even before I was asked to write hardcover, I did that. But in hardcover, I believe you need to give the reader a story they want to read again and that is worth the 20 bucks. As a reader, I have been longing for some meat in the books I read and I can't find it anymore. Everything feels like it's sitcom writing or rapid-paced suspense. Are there really that many ordinary people in the world solving murders? So I'm writing the books I want to read, books like the novels of the 70s but for the new millineum - shorter, cleaner, but with more character and a focus that is about life experience, including things other than love. Not sagas - that's a dead term - but more epic stories where there are more time passing in the plotlione and more characters. But then, I think that element, on a smaller level, has always been in my books. I'm just exploring it more and on a broader canvas than before. It is my decision to change, based on how my life has changed in the last five years.

My favorite characters? I loved Hank and Sam from IMAGINE and JUST A KISS AWAY. I also loved "Daniel and the Angel." Something special happened when I was writing that story. And SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY is very personal, as is the book I'm working on.

April: A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY looks and sounds to be like no other book you have written. It has more main characters and tackles wartime, which makes it more epic than any of the others. Plus, it appears to be a labor of love. You have spent extra time writing and rewriting, and you appear to be thrilled with this book all around. What can you tell us about this new book?

Jill: SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY is special, both creatively and technically. It took me 22 months to write and rewrite. It is a book written for me. It comes from who I am and those I love, and it explores come of the questions I have about life. Writing it gave me some answers about things that profoundly affected my life on a deeply personal level. And it's a damn good book and something different. I'm proud of that. Men have been reading this one and showing up at my signings. Fighter pilots, veterans, and the husbands of my loyal readers. This book is being handed from wives to husbands. That's quite a compliment for me, to have my books read and enjoyed by men and women.

April: What are your future aspirations as far as writing is concerned? Where do you see yourself in five years ... what kind of novels do you want to be writing?

Jill: My future aspirations? Well, I'm writing what I want to write. I write the books to be read, so I guess the more my readership grows, the happier I will be. Not for financial reasons, but because more people are reading the stories I want to tell. I have a million books in my head. I'm very lucky.

In five years I would like to have more control over my craft - every book to me is a learning process - and to be able to better balance this career and a personal life. I'm a dismal failure at time management.

The book I'm writing now is set in California in the 60s, even though part of it takes place in the 90s. I played with this kind of book a little in a short story I did called "Old Things" in an anthology called THAT SUMMER PLACE. After the California book, the next one will either be a Christmas book or another multicharacter grand love story that takes place in the 20th century. I would like to do another WWII book at some point, and I have ideas for books in the 30s and the 50s as well as the more contemporary settings. I also need to someday write about Joy's and Alex's sons.

April: We have some writers on RBL who are still either just beginning, looking for their big break or slaving over their first stories. Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for unpublished writers, or want-to-be writers, who might be reading this interview?

Jill: For writers, I want to say how important it is to be true to your own vision, not someone else's vision. I want to stress that a writer who doesn't learn technique and craft constantly throughout this career, even a talented writer, is a fool. A writer who has talent but no technique is like a pretty face with no brain behind it. The books and the stories are constantly changing and evolving. You must keep up. You need to milk your imagination, understand theme and conflict and point of view. You will not grow as a writer and your books will not grow if you don't. There are many of us who break the rules, but you need to understand the rules before you can break them.

I know it's terribly frightening to trust something that you feel you have no control over. It is easier to write like So and So. But don't. There is a magical and wonderful thing that happens when you let go and find who the writer inside of you is, when you find your voice and vision. It is an incredible thing - joyous and fulfilling in a way that nothing else in this career is.

And remember, the hardest part of writing is sitting your butt in that chair day after day. But that is the only way. Good luck, and remember - there are people who will discourage you all along the way, so write because you have to and because you love it.