About Barbara A. Luker:
A life-long resident of southern Minnesota, most of my works have a Minnesota connection and each book centers on a solid love story, family and what we do for those we love. In 1998, I survived an F4 tornado that destroyed three-quarters of my hometown and, maybe more impressively, I have survived over three decades working for the City of Saint Peter and the 12,000 people that “pay my salary”! I share my life, and a lot of times my computer keyboard, with my polydactyl rescue cat, Annie. Interesting fact? Discovering my grandmother was a closet writer was so influential in my passion for writing, led me to honor her by including her name (Lillian) in each of my books.

What inspires you to write?
It's a simple answer. I am inspired by the failings of people and the hope that love will find you even when you have given up. The two seem incongruous, but life is messy and doesn't always go the way we want. People have faults and can be bad, but finding someone who you love, someone who loves you back unconditionally, can provide the strength we need to get through anything and to overcome the influence that bad people often play in our lives. My stories are about love and romance, but always come with a twist that makes you wonder if simply being in love can overcome difficulties.

Tell us about your writing process.
I know many authors who diligently outline every paragraph and chapter of their books, but that's not me. I write where the words take me and often, that is to a completely different ending than I had first imagined. Writing the beginning and the general ending, as I work on the middle, that's when things take turns and the story goes a whole new direction.

Because my books often have many characters and those characters are sometimes intricately intertwined, I have learned to flush out my characters in the early part of a manuscript. This helps me remember to focus on the intricacies that bring a character to life for readers. By the end of a book, I often feel like I know the characters better than some friends!

When I am really into a story, you can find me sitting in front of my keyboard at all hours of the day and many times in the middle of the night. With a full-time job limiting my ability to write when thoughts occur to me, I have developed the habit of carrying a note paid and using my phone as a recorder so that random thoughts that occur to me aren't lost before I can work on the book again.

I have no set times to write and no word count to meet and not having those goals to meet removes any pressure I may feel to produce and allows whatever flows out of me to be natural, and hopefully, entertaining.

How do you develop your characters?
My characters talk to me, but not in the way you might expect. I can hear their voices in my head. As the story develops, it plays like a movie reel in my head and each word of dialogue, I write sounds to me like they are really talking with inflections and accents. When I first realized it was happening, I realized why movies portray writers as eccentrics!

But characters develop organically for me. I might know what my character does for a living and how many people are in their family, but as other characters with relationships to the main characters come into play, more of what makes each of us an individual develops about them.

What authors inspire you?
I love all genres of literature, but there aren't many authors who have inspired me to write. Other authors as diverse as James Herriot, Vince Flynn and Kristin Hannah, have inspired me to read and I believe reading opens us all up to the world.

How do you keep going in the midst of distractions?
Life gets in the way sometimes and I think accepting that the book and my writing will still be there tomorrow helps me get past those distractions. It's important to remember that when our lives are ending, the people around us and the memories we make with them will be what was important. The legacy we leave behind is that we lived our life and not that we have books on a shelf.

What are your hobbies when you need a break from writing?
My sister and I have developed this penchant for 1980s rock band concerts from groups like Foreigner, REO, Air Supply, Richard Marx, Rick Springfield, Rod Stewart, and the Little River Band. We love concerts where you can sing along to every song and you know every song. Going to the concerts are great little getaways and we make glorious memories together.

What romance genres do you write?: Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense

Do you write in genres that are not romance related?
Not currently, but there is one book that I have been working with that will be quite different. It's a work of fiction, but it will focus on the influence social pressure has on us and how, like the children following the Pied Piper, we can all be easily swayed into doing something that is wrong. It's something that I think could be a really outstanding book and, because of that, I'm taking my time to write.

What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print

Where to find out more about the author

Website(s)
Barbara A. Luker Home Page Link
Link To Barbara A. Luker Page On Amazon

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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.