A Time for Us is a heartfelt historical romance that follows two love stories across 1947 New York and 1987 North Carolina, asking whether a bond powerful enough to survive prejudice and loss can also survive death. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for A Time for Us began with a real moment in my life. In 1987, I was working the breakfast shift at a fast-food restaurant in Clayton, North Carolina; a married mother of two, living a very routine life where I saw the same faces every day.

Then one morning, a new face appeared. There was an instant, unexplainable familiarity between us. We found ourselves stealing glances, both trying to place where we might know each other from. When he came through my line, we realized we were strangers, but neither of us could shake the feeling that we weren’t.

He was in town temporarily, and for the next several weeks, he came in every day, always choosing my line. Our conversations were light and innocent, but there was an undeniable connection neither of us could explain.

On his last day, he brought me two dozen yellow roses to thank me for making his time in town special. I told him I couldn’t take them home, but I accepted them anyway. Before he left, he looked at me and said, almost in disbelief, “I still feel like I know you… maybe from another lifetime.” I laughed it off at the time, but that moment stayed with me.

I never saw him again. But I kept one of those roses, pressed inside a book of poetry that I still have. And over the years, I found myself wondering… what if that feeling meant something more?

That question became the seed for A Time for Us. The story itself is fiction, but that moment… that unexplainable connection was very real.

How did you approach writing the 1947 romance so that its tenderness and danger would feel equally present?

I’ve always been drawn to historical documentaries, especially those centered around organized crime. That’s where the element of danger in their story was born. The tenderness, though, came from a much more personal place. It was shaped by my imagination and reflects the kind of love I believe in and would want for myself (minus the “forbidden” complications, of course).

What I love most about Mario and Jeannette is that they choose each other again and again, under every circumstance. Even when tragedy should have driven them apart, they hold on tighter. There’s something incredibly powerful about that kind of unwavering devotion.

What drew you to write a love story that is so openly sincere and emotionally heightened rather than restrained?

I write the way I live my life now: from my heart. And I think that’s exactly why it took me over 30 years to finish and publish A Time for Us. For a long time, I lived with a quiet fear of what people might think of me, of my choices, of my voice.

If I had published this story decades ago, it would have been very different. More restrained. More concerned with being palatable… telling a neat, tidy story that didn’t push too far or risk offending anyone.

But the version I ultimately wrote is the one I was always meant to tell. It’s raw. It’s real. It leans fully into emotion without apology. And if that sincerity feels a little too much for some… well, I’m finally at a place where I’m okay with that.

What do you hope readers carry with them after finishing A Time for Us, the romance, the idea of fate, or something else entirely?

More than anything, I hope readers walk away believing in the power of love, not just the idea of it, but the kind of love that endures. The kind that isn’t conditional or convenient, but steady, selfless, and deeply rooted.

Life is going to bring obstacles; we all know that. But when you have real love in your life… not the transactional kind we sometimes settle for, but the kind that says, “I’m here, no matter what”, it gives you the strength to face anything.

If readers close this book feeling like that kind of love is possible… and worth holding onto… then I’ve done what I set out to do.

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