I’ve always used books to travel the world, have adventures, and meet interesting people. And I love to write.

In college, I worked at the library. They should have fired me. I prepared the books for check out ─ stamped them and wrapped the covers. All the new books came past me. Like a kid in a candy shop, I took time to read the blurb on every book I processed. When I got caught up, I shelved them, or put them in a pile to check out. I brought home stacks of juicy library books to consume when I should have been reading my textbooks ─ enough said about that.

Have you ever seen a dolphin up close? How about a large flock of pink roseate spoonbills? What about having a school of tarpon or a manatee go right under your boat? Nature is an important part of my stories. The animals, the ocean, the land. I hope bringing people into the natural environment of the places I write about enhances their connection to nature and serves as a reminder to take a moment to appreciate the world around them.  Just stop and study the butterfly on a flower, a hawk on the wire, or a heron at the water’s edge.

I write romance because love is at the core of life. Romance, first love, is exciting and can be a wonderful wild ride. Old love, new love, rekindled love, unrequited love, lost love, the different forms of love are the many flavors in the buffet of life. The story of how you and your loved one met, the story of how your parents or grandparents met, often become cherished, or at least interesting parts of our history.

For most of my life, it’s been my pattern to power down at the end of the evening and get lost in a good book before going to bed. I hope I can offer the same to my readers. I write to pay it forward. To add value to the world by giving people a few minutes of escape into the pleasure of a good story set in a place they would like to visit.  Juliet Brilee