Whose Hearts Align follows a woman who becomes engaged to the man of her dreams, though not everyone is happy for her, and things get complicated with their families. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

In this book, and in my entire series, I wanted to honor a woman’s own sense of fulfillment. It used to be common for society to assume that the right marriage would solve most of life’s problems for women. But no one can know a woman’s heart but herself. My protagonist Miranda Jones is an artist who has worked hard to find her professional voice, despite her family’s feeling that pursuing a career in the arts can never succeed financially. Since they already tend to believe she makes poor choices, they wrongly assume she’s done it again in choosing an astronomer to marry. After all, are the income prospects for a scientist any better than for an artist? Yet Miranda and her fiance are listening to their own sense of guidance. Both their personal and their professional lives are unfolding with far more joy and success than expected because they stood for their own identities.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

What fascinates me are the choices people make. All of us have emotional or psychological knots to untie. Do we tackle these issues head-on? Do we try to skirt them, skip over them, and pretend they aren’t there? In my novel, we see a range of choices made by my characters. Miranda is morally courageous and tends to face things as soon as they’re recognized. Her friend Samantha, who’s twenty years old, put some major choices on hold years earlier and has to face them now when it’s harder with more at stake. Miranda’s sister Meredith feels some choices are unfairly out of her hands and Zack Calvin has been in denial about his own behavior, and now these two characters are drawn together, partly because of how the issues they have in common are helping to illuminate new possibilities. I often have very lively discussions about these issues with members of various book clubs.

Were you able to relate to your characters while writing them?

To most of them, yes, though there are some who are too far outside or beyond my own experience. This is where research and imagination help flesh out characters. Many of my readers describe moments, choices, and experiences they can relate to, and this is so important to me. As an author, I observe and listen closely to how people navigate their lives. I feel I owe it to my readers to bring authenticity to my stories. My characters won’t let me write them any other way!

What is the next book that you’re working on, and when can your fans expect it out?

Two new books are upcoming. Next spring a new adventure novella titled “When Birds Sing” will chronicle one of Miranda’s painting adventures. As a wildlife artist, she visits locations and studies creatures in their native habitats. And these stand-alone novellas also include a couple of humorous characters who manage to show up every time. Next autumn, the fifth novel will debut, When Hearts Heal. This will be the last in the pentalogy so a lot of excitement is building up. Now that Miranda is happily married, what’s next? And what’s to become of her sister and Samantha and several other characters? It’ll be fun to find out!

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