Jae grew up amidst the vineyards of southern Germany. She spent her childhood with her nose buried in a book, earning her the nickname, “professor”. The writing bug bit her at the age of eleven. She works as a psychologist and likes to spend her time reading, cooking, and watching too many crime shows.

Muse: Jae, first of all, Whispers of the Muse welcomes you to the site. Tell us a little about yourself. What part of the world do you live in? Tell us about your background?
Jae: I was born and still live in southern Germany, very close to the borders to France and the Switzerland. I’m a psychologist specializing in traffic psychology. I started out writing fanfiction and other stories in German when I was eleven and have been writing in English since 2006.

Muse: Who are your favorite authors?
Jae: It’s hard to name just a few, so to make sure that it’s not an endless list, I’ll just mention some of the authors of lesbian fiction whose books I have enjoyed: Gerri Hill, Susan Meagher, LJ Maas, Sarah Dreher, KG MacGregor, Lynn Galli, Meghan O’Brien, Melissa Good, K.E. Lane, Linda Crist, and Fletcher Delancey.

Muse: Why do you write Paranormal Romance?
Jae: I actually write all kinds of romance novels, but Second Nature offered an opportunity to write about two characters who, at first glance, have nothing in common, don’t even belong to the same species, and even start out as enemies. Also, it was fun to figure out all the details of the Wrasa’s culture and mythology and to come up with a shape-shifting concept that isn’t based on legend and magic but on science and hormones.

Muse: What is your writing regimen? How often do you work on a novel? Do you set daily time or word goals? What keeps you meeting your deadlines?
Jae: I try to write every day, no matter what else is going on in my life. I don’t really set daily word goals, but writing 1,000 words a day would be good. I can write at any time and at any place but found that I’m really productive typing away on my laptop on the train. So far, I never had to work on anything but self-imposed deadlines.

Muse: Does the way you personally look at life reflect in your writing style?
Jae: I’m sure it does. Usually, you’ll find the things that are most important to me as themes and values in my novels too: friendships, love, trust, family. Also, working as a psychologist might make me more aware of people, their flaws, strengths, motivations, and interactions, so it’s easier to recreate that in my writing.

Muse: What are the creative jumping off points for you? Are you inspired by dreams? Music? Nature? The occasional black nightmare? What triggers your imagination?
Jae: It can be everything: something that happened to me or to someone I know, something I read about, and most often, I really have no clue where my ideas come from.

Muse: Tell us about your book. What was your inspiration?
Jae: One of the main characters, Jorie, is a writer. She’s working on a shape-shifter novel, and when the creatures she describes are a bit too accurate, the shape-shifters wonder if she has somehow learned about their secret existence. So they send out Griffin, one of their investigators and if need be assassins, to gain Jorie’s trust.

To me, it’s a story about family, forgiveness, trust, and acceptance.

The idea for the story came to me when I was making fun of the monkey-like werewolf in Buffy. I told a friend of mine that I could do better than that, and she challenged me to prove it. So I came up with a story idea, and since I’m more familiar with cats than with dogs, my main character ended up a liger shifter.

Muse: What is your favorite scene from the book and why?
Jae: In Second Nature, I have two favorite scenes. One is when Griffin uses catnip on the lion shifters who are chasing her, which turns the growling lion shifter into an amorous cat-in-heat. I simply like the action and the humor of the scene.

The second scene is when Jorie, the human character, convinces Griffin to take her with her to the forest and let her see her shift into her cat form. It’s a beautiful moment and shows the growing trust between the characters.

Muse: Have you written other books?
Jae: I have been writing novels for most of my life. Including Second Nature, I have four novels published so far, and I’m working on the fifth. I have also written a couple of short stories, which you can read and download for free on my publisher’s Web site, L-Book.com.

Muse: Tell us about your other books?
Jae: The first book I published, Backwards to Oregon, is a historical romance taking place on the Oregon Trail in 1851. It’s a story about a woman who lives her life as a man and ends up being married to a woman who doesn’t know about her secret.

Conflict of Interest and its sequel Next of Kin are basically romances with a crime/mystery subplot. In Conflict of Interest, a female detective who has been conceived of rape finds herself falling in love with a rape victim in one of her cases. Next of Kin focuses on a lawyer who struggles to be accepted by her family and at the same time becomes the victim of a stalker.

Muse: How do you feel about the current publishing marketplace?