Well, this is a tough-y. First off, thank you for the lovely compliment. It warms my heart to hear that HEA is loved! Now, onto the hard stuff. The main reason why I think readers are responding to HEA is because Lucy is very loveable. She's also flawed, and she makes mistakes. But that makes her real. I think everyone can see a little bit of themselves in Lucy. Another reason why readers might be drawn to HEA is because it's funny (at least I hope it is!). I was doing a scho

1. The first step to creating believable characters is to forget that you're writing a book. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true! At least it works for me. If you forget that you're writing a story, then your characters aren't there to make the story exciting or dramatic--they aren't working for your story. You're probably thinking . . . what does that mean?! Well, without a story to tell, they can't do things that are good for the "story" but aren't necessarily realistic