Smith s romantic adventures have taken her as far away as the South Pacific and Great Britain and as nearby as the deep South and the great Mississippi steamboats. And yet the native St. Louisan s heart and home stays planted in St. Charles, where she continues to conjure up passionate plots from her home just off Highway 94. Shop and Save is just five minutes away, and Wal-Mart is just three. True, what else do you need when your imagination can transport you to experience other times, places, and people that are almost as real as the office supply aisle at Wal-Mart. Unashamedly, Smith admits the oddities of an author s brain.
Writers are simply weird.
Our brains just work differently. Once I develop the characters, they become their own person in a way, and they can begin telling me what to do with them. Smith has written more than 30 romance novels, with her first four set on the mighty Mississippi. I love the rivers and the steamboats, Smith said. Smith would have continued writing romances centered in river towns but the publishing houses called for a change in location.