This is a recent blog I posted on my author website.

Before I ever began writing, I loved sharing books with those I love as gifts. I think the gifting of a book is more than a package to open. It is an experience that can be given for the recipient to enjoy whenever he/she wants a little break. I love receiving books also because the joy of receiving one extends past the moment. When I am gifted a book, I immediately plan when I will sit down to savor the words and the experience. I plan what warm beverage I will sip. I plan what chair I will sit in. I plan what throw blanket I will use. And because of that, I have often given gifts along with a book I share like fuzzy socks or a specialty hot chocolate or a fancy pen for notetaking or highlighting. As I sip my peppermint tea and type this blog, it gets me excited about the holidays and shopping. I love gift giving. I love working on the ideas. I love tailoring the ideas to the person I am shopping for. I love adding personal touches like writing a note inside and sketching a meaningful drawing or adding watercolor to certain pages of a book. These are all things I loved doing before I ever typed the first word of any novel. So, this is why I write the way I do and why I add notes to readers in my books. It is why I aim for my books to have a cozy feeling with suggestions of sweet smells and yummy tastes and little joys as well as memories of times past. My hope is that my books help my readers to find a little peace and enjoy a bit of an escape from their hectic lives. In our world today, we are all bombarded with ideas and suggestions and shoulds and information with agendas and tactics in mind. It is nice to escape all of that and to spend time reading just to read--not to learn more, but to be able to dream and to feel and to experience joy and even to giggle out loud. I think books should also add beauty to a bookshelf or to a desk or to a bedside table. The feel of a book is more than the words on the pages, but the colors used on the cover, the color and feel of the paper for the pages and how the book feels when it is held in human hands. I have taken all of this into account when designing the books I have written, and it is why I have changed my first three books to have cream pages. It is why I am publishing two new editions of two of my books and it is why I have spent crazy amounts of time on all of these new changes as well as on designing the latest Through the Years trilogy book edition-to enhance the reading experience and to provide the best product to my readers because to me I am not just sharing stories. I am putting out a product and an experience out into a world already filled with a whole lot of stuff/things/products and a whole lot of books. And my hope and prayer is that each book will find its way to readers who want and need a little joyful reading experience.