Aftermath: Into the Unknown follows a woman in a post-apocalyptic world whose home is in danger from a biker gang that has invaded the city and must now make an 800-mile trip with a man she just met to get to safety. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The story’s inspiration came from the first book of the series, The Edge of Life: Love and Survival During the Apocalypse, and my book, The Wish.
When I was writing The Edge of Life (Two acquaintances’ road trip from Seattle to South Dakota in the wake of an asteroid impact with Earth) I didn’t want to kill the characters of The Wish. Instead, they meet my Edge characters on the way to the bunker city in South Dakota. To make the timing work, since one group traveled by car and the other by bike and on foot, I created a delay for the car group mentioned in a line or two of conversation. They stopped in Idaho for a few days to convince someone’s father to join them. He refused because he was waiting for his granddaughters to cross the mountains from the coast.

Aftermath picks up three years later with the grandfather and one of the granddaughters. The biker who accompanies her on the journey seems to be Robin’s opposite, but in the post-apocalyptic world they inhabit, as survivors, they are more similar than different. I liked the idea of opposites being so much the same.

Your characters are interesting and unique, drawing readers into their lives. What things do you find interesting about the human condition that makes for great fiction?

Honestly, I borrow bits and pieces from people I know, add aspects of myself, and include something new to make characters. For example, my husband and I both love music (he’s the inspiration for an audiophile) even if our range of tastes are not the same, they overlap. My daughters are Swifties, as are millions of others and someone Robin’s age could have been one too. Reading is also something people could have in common, even if their tastes are very different. Having hobbies and interests makes characters relatable for readers because they feel more real.

Most people just want to be understood and not be alone.

You flawlessly blend Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian and Romance in this book. It takes exceptional talent to do this and make the story stand out. How did you go about blending the two genres without disrupting the story?

Thank you. I appreciate that you thought I did this well. I didn’t think about blending the genres so much as, that WAS the story. From the beginning, I envisioned Aftermath as a love story in a post-apocalyptic setting. Each book in this series will be a stand-alone, apocalypse, or post-apocalypse romance. They will connect because I love to have my books linked, but each will feature a new couple who will fall in love while trying to survive in their harsh new world.

All of my books are mixed-genre stories, perhaps because I’ve been an avid reader of so many genres for my whole life.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?

The series will most definitely continue. There is a conflict coming between the Slains and those in Vita Xterra. I’ve written a short story called “Rat Girl,” a prequel for the third book in the series that will be posted on my website later this fall. The third book is in the planning stage and will include the Rat Girl, a man from the bunker complex, and the secondary characters include several from Edge and Aftermath. There will also be a Nick and Jake story (minor but important characters from Edge). Dozens of readers have reached out asking what happened to them when the asteroid hit, which got things swirling in my mind. They need their own book.

I may also write a book about some of the missing family members mentioned in both published books in the series. There could also be other stories, including one set in Canada.

I’m hoping to release one book in this series and one other book every year, though I have two different books written and being published in 2025. I’d love to see Love and Survival 3 published in 2026.

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Robin dreamed of attending Yale and using her brain. Kory lived on the streets of Seattle and relied on his brawn. Without the asteroid, they never would have met.

For three years, Robin and her grandfather have been hiding, trusting no one. When a biker gang moves into town, Robin can no longer scrounge or tend her garden. Because her grandfather is dying, he urges her to join her extended family—800 miles away in a bunker city in South Dakota, but she doesn’t want to leave.

Desperate, her grandfather disappears to force Robin into action and meets Kory, who’s with the bikers but disillusioned. Seeing a man who likes to read and could protect his granddaughter, he convinces Kory he can start over and accompany Robin on the long journey.

Unaware of her grandfather’s plan, Robin exposes her hiding place searching for him, and Kory saves her. On the run, they battle the elements and survivalists, learning to trust each other. If they can’t reach the safety of Vita xTerra, they won’t survive long enough to have a future together.

Prepare for another non-stop, post-apocalyptic road trip in Aftermath: Into the Unknown as they fight for love and survival.