Facing Revenge follows a group of high school friends who are dealing with normal teen life till two boys decide to take revenge on classmates, leading to a kidnapping. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Cali and Sky made Clair Ransom’s acquaintance back in seventh grade when Cali saw some boys harassing Clair but she was not sure why they were doing the bullying. When she confronted Clair, she discovered that Clair had Tourette’s and was being mocked by other students who were clueless about the malady. She involved Sky with helping Clair deal with his Tourette symptoms and with his lack of confidence because of his malady. As they got to know Clair better, Sky and Cali found that he was intelligent, creative, and had a dry sense of humor that made developing a meaningful friendship with Clair worth their time. Sky and his wrestling and football buddies also developed a brotherly relationship with Clair. Sky, Cali, and their friends have been protective of Clair ever since those early days in junior high. 

Now when Cali, Sky, and their ninth-grade friends enter senior high school, students who are not familiar with Clair’s Tourette symptoms, his strange tics, again initiate bullying behavior.  Sky and his football friends are prepared to be protective of Clair and when an incident occurs during an early-in-the-school-year lunchroom, Clair’s friends quickly come to his aid.  The incident of clueless bullying is typical of modern high school drama. In this instance, when Sky and friends intervene on Clair’s behalf, their protective act humiliates the bullies and a sequence of events then occurs where the bullies want revenge but their choice of revenge escalates to a high level.

While Skyler and Cali keep finding themselves in situations involving trouble and crime, that is not all that shapes who they are as teens. What were some of the trials that you felt were important to highlight the character’s development?

Cali and Sky continue to deal with their difficulty, their confusion about their sexual desires. Part of their psyche knows that sexual desires are normal, but part of their decision making in this area continues to be influenced by several factors: of the influence of cultural expectations; and of their knowledge that becoming sexually involved could make their future relationship difficult and taxing.  What if they break up? What if they fall in love with someone else? How will they feel when they must go separate ways after high school but have had an intense sexual relationship? These concerns will continue to influence their relationship as they approach their 12^th grade-year and their eventual graduation from high school.

What is your background and experience, and how did it help you write this story?

I spent twenty years as a high school counselor in a public high school. Teen sexual dilemmas and bullying far outweighed academic concerns that kids would present to me during personal counseling sessions. Also paramount in teen life was the contrast in how parents would deal with their teen child especially in the areas of self esteem and dating complexities.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

Forced Apart is now available. A typical situation in the life of a teen occurs. Parents have the opportunity to further their careers but to seize the opportunity means moving to a new city.  Cali and Sky are forced to live apart and their separation presents new challenges with which the two teens must cope.  How will they handle the separation? And what about that teen’s parents? Will the relocation present challenges for the parents also? Will the teen who must relocate be able to develop new and meaningful friendships? Will the teen left behind find a new romance?  And what if a new danger develops to put one of them at risk?  Will friends, new and old, be once again instrumental in helping Sky and Cali cope with the challenges of not attending the same high school and not in daily contact with one another? Forced Apart will fit with the preceding novels as these two modern day teens cope with challenges that often do arise in adolescent life in America.

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