Thank You Ladies ~ Deborah Camp

 Every writer has other writers tot hank for inspiration, encouragement, and lessons learned. Although I have a Bachelor’s degree in journalism, I learned how to be a novelist from other working writers and from books I feel in love with and wanted to emulate. I’ve studied- and still so, occasionally -novels as my textbooks. Authors such as Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart, and Victoria Holt sparked my interest in romantic suspense. I examined their sentence structure, their dialogue, and their expertise with mood setting and describing characters and action sequences.

Janet Dailey and Sandra Brown fired my imagination with contemporary and historical stories of people who were more familiar to me – more realistic and sexier. I can’t begin to count how many hours I’ve spent going over and over certain paragraphs and snippets of dialogue penned by these women. They were my able tutors.

LaVyrle Spencer’s books challenged me to write straight from the heart, elevate my prose, and take risks. She made me fall in love again with historicals -- especially those set in the 1800s. To me, her novels are works of art. 

Lately, I’ve taken lessons from Roni Loren, Katrina Halle, and Mia Sheridan, and Deanna Raybourn, but there are so many wonderful writers whose stories and characters cling to my mind long after I finish their books. When I write, I aspire to join them in their stratosphere. Sometimes I make it up there with them, and let me tell you, the view from there is addictive. Visiting that place makes me work harder and learn more as a writer so that I can breathe that rarefied air.

I owe a huge debt to all the westerns on TV that my dad insisted on watching. As for me, well, Saturday would be Saturday back when I was a kid if I didn't watch Roy Rogers and Gene Autry! I also had a thing for Hop-a-long Cassidy. All those years of watching westerns came back to me when I started writing them. Nowadays I'm totally into the TV series 1883, so the love affair continues.

We never know what will influence us until it does. When I picked up my first western romance novel, I had no idea that I would later be compelled to write one! I was totally a contemporary romance novelist back then. But the beauty of the writing and the memories of all those TV westerns overwhelmed me and I found myself plotting my first western romance.

So, a big thanks to all the wonderful writers who continue to inspire me, challenge me, and entertain me!