From Technical Reports to Love Stories: My journey to romance writing.

I was invited to write a guest blog for HEA Canada: A CanLit Romance Hub about my journey to becoming an author of romantic fiction. It made me think about how I got here so I decided to repost that blog here because I think it synthesizes some of the themes I’ve been musing about in previous blogs.

"How did a hydrogeologist end up writing romance?" is a question asked by my long-time friends who've known me since we were undergraduates in Earth Science at the University of Waterloo. The truth is, I sometimes wonder that myself.

My journey from environmental consultant to medical marketing specialist to romance author probably looks like a series of random career leaps. But in retrospect, I can see how each step led naturally to the next. Just like the quantum entanglement that fascinates me, all these different parts of my life have remained mysteriously connected.

Where it all started

During a long road trip, my husband, Mike, suggested I write a novel. I laughed it off, insisting I wasn't qualified despite having recently published a guidebook that was selling well. When he pressed me on what I'd write about if I did, I started thinking aloud to pass the time.

I figured I should write something I know about; something inspired by our own experience - how Mike and I unknowingly crossed paths many times over two decades before finally meeting as colleagues in Arizona. I suggested I could write a love story where two older people discover their lives have intersected and perhaps write different realities where they meet at different points in their lives.

Mike looked across the car at me and with all sincerity said, "That's a really great idea. You should write that."

What began as a hypothetical conversation to kill time on that drive eventually became the framework for my Maddie and Nate series and my debut novel, "Out of Time," which I dedicated to Mike for encouraging me to do something I never imagined doing.

Fearless action despite inexperience

As you might suspect from that anecdote, I wrote my first novel without having a clue what I was doing. No formal knowledge of story beats, plot points, or story structure, but I dove in headfirst anyway. I relied on my innate sense of storytelling from a lifetime of reading and my scientist instincts kicked in to help me out. When faced with the daunting task of creating multiple timelines and interconnected stories, I did what came naturally; I made spreadsheets. Lots of them.

Those meticulously structured spreadsheets I once used to track environmental data or market research found a new purpose. Before I wrote a single scene, I created a detailed matrix of my characters' lives across parallel timelines. My spreadsheets keep track of dates and places so I can ensure historical accuracy and consistency for the events and places my characters experience or remember. My research habits haven't changed either; they've just shifted focus from scientific journals to newspaper archives, historical records of women in STEM and quantum physics theories.

Breaking the Romance Formula

As a reader, I've been oblivious to genre. My favourite ways to find a new author are to peruse the "staff picks" shelves in my local bookstore or have a book suggested by a friend. I want a good story; one that grips me, makes me think, or moves me emotionally. For me, the genre classification of the book, whether it's thriller, fantasy, science fiction, or literary fiction, is not as important as the experience it offers. So, I naively wrote my debut novel with the mindset of a genre-hopping-pleasure-reader who never paid attention to tropes or the literary conventions that are central to defining genre classifications.

I'll admit it; my genre-blindness resulted in me not knowing the "rules" of romance. Why couldn't a romance trilogy be based on a quantum physics concept? Why couldn't my protagonists be in their seventies and eighties? Why couldn't I tackle themes often considered taboo in romance: infidelity, regret, and the messy reality of long-term relationships?

At this point, you're probably still wondering why I write romances. Simply, because the first story idea that came to me was a love-story and got me thinking about how scientific theories are allegories for romance. My fascination with quantum mechanics provides a unique lens through which to view love and destiny - themes characteristic of the romance genre. When I think about quantum entanglement, it becomes a way to explore how some human connections transcend ordinary boundaries. When I write parallel timelines, I draw on superposition and multiple-worlds concepts to explore that very human question I've asked myself many times: "what if?"

The Maddie and Nate Series Takes Shape

In my debut series I explore a single destined connection across multiple timelines and choices. The Maddie and Nate series follows brilliant engineer Maddie Cole and principled lawyer Nate Jacobs as they navigate the complexities of love, duty, and timing across parallel realities.

In "Out of Time," my debut novel, I broke conventional romance rules by featuring protagonists in their seventies and eighties. The story follows 78-year-old Maddie Cole, a fiercely independent woman who chose her engineering career over romantic fulfillment, and Nate Jacobs, a widower retired from a successful legal career and now the proprietor of the Hope Point Lighthouse B&B. Through flashbacks, we see how their unexpected connection forces both to confront the paths not taken and raises questions about destiny and second chances.

"Next Time" takes us back to 1970s Toronto, when women in science and engineering professions were exceedingly rare and nearly non-existent in the senior and management ranks. A chance encounter between Maddie and Nate in a bar sparks an immediate connection. But timing isn't on their side, as both have existing marriages and families. As Maddie fights to establish herself in a male-dominated engineering field, Nate's quiet strength and unwavering support stir something deep in her heart. Their story explores that age-old question: is true love worth upending everything you've built?

Now, as I write "Our Time," I'm diving deeper into how ambition and destiny collide. The year is 1966 when Maddie and Nate meet, and career advancement competes with the undeniable gravity of a soul's perfect match. Each book presents a different iteration of their love story, examining how timing and circumstances shape not just relationships, but the very essence of who we become.

While writing about Maddie and Nate's connection across multiple timelines, I'm really exploring questions that I love to ponder: Are some connections truly inevitable? How do our choices shape our destiny? Can love transcend time itself? Through their stories, whether it's finding love later in life at Hope Point Lighthouse, grappling with impossible choices in 1970s Toronto, or navigating the delicate balance between ambition and connection, I'm examining how timing, circumstance, and courage shape our paths to love.

What's fascinated me is how the series attracts diverse readers; true romance loyalists, mystery and thriller enthusiasts and genre-hoppers like me. Even my male colleagues from my consulting days who read the book out of curiosity or loyalty to me tell me they're glad that they gave romance a chance. What I have gleaned from reviews from both strangers and "friendlies" is that my stories resonate with them on multiple levels: the emotional depth of the characters' arcs, the accuracy of the historical and scientific details, the complexity of the relationships, and the vivid realism of the scenes.

If all this talk about my novels is tempting you to read them for yourself - as a special gift to the HEA Canada readers - I'm giving away ebook copies of Out of Time for a limited time. It can be downloaded here.

The Art of Technical Translation: Finding the Human Element

I've realized my superpower throughout my career has been translating complex technical concepts for people who don't speak "tech." I've learned that to be effective it isn't just about simplifying; it's about uncovering the human story that makes people care.

This approach has translated surprisingly well to fiction writing. Whether I'm bringing a new medical product to market or writing about love across multiple timelines, it all comes down to human connection. In my technical career, I saw how innovations and solutions could change lives. In my fiction writing, I explore how love and connection can do the same. Both require that delicate balance between precision and intuition, between systematic thinking and emotional intelligence.

My unconventional path from technical reports to love stories has taught me something important: sometimes the most interesting discoveries happen when we dare to cross boundaries, bringing together seemingly unrelated elements to create something new. Whether we're solving complex problems or writing about first kisses, we're all just trying to make sense of this beautiful, complex universe and our place in it.