Dudes (1987) Two punks from the big city, traveling across the country in a Volkswagen bug, embrace the western ethos.

Starring: Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith, Joan Blondell

Stay Away, Joe (1967) Dir: Peter Tewksbury.

Starring: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto

Midnight Run (1988) An accountant is chased by bounty hunters, the FBI, and the Mafia after jumping bail.

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker

Universal Soldier (1992) Luc and Scott were killed in Vietnam, but the army has a secret project for reanimating dead people as near-perfect soldiers.

Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson

Easy Rider (1969) Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America.

My sister still loves to bring that up at every family gathering. They locked the gates on me, and I destroyed the bushes and flower beds escaping in my little VW. I don't know if I actively hide anything from public knowledge, but a fun fact is I got locked in a cemetery one night when I was about 18 or 19. Having adventures-haunted houses, car chases, mudding, cutting someone's electricity lol-things that I probably won't ever do.

Creating worlds where I got to fight back when I didn't have the courage as a teen. If something exists in your head but not in your life, your goal is to make it a reality, so I started writing. I remembered how much I loved to daydream as a kid, but I'd stopped doing that as an adult. Kind of like seeing a place in the movies, but when you finally visit, it doesn't feel as good as you thought it would or hold the same mystique lol. When you're growing up, you think life will feel a certain way when you get to a certain point. After a while, though, I just wasn't happy in my career. I went into massive debt going to college, moved to New Orleans for graduate school, met my husband, and we eventually moved to Las Vegas where I became a teacher. Someday I could go back home maybe, but I needed to leave first. Nothing against my home town, but it's the type of place I didn't feel I could grow. When I was about 21, I finally realized what kind of life I didn't want to have, and I knew I needed to leave. HI! Well, I'm the oldest of five from Iowa.

Motel by Penelope Douglas