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Hidden Family Secrets Start Unfolding
Nothing’s As It Seems follows a woman who has never found “the one” but discovers that other forces are at play in her life and that nothing is as it seems. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration has been my own life. Chastity is based on my experiences. That said, I am a hopeless romantic to the core, dreaming of forever with a man when I can look him in the eyes and say, “I do” again and again. I learned long ago that it’s worth waiting and fighting for all good things. I wanted readers to see a character who has everything thrown at her—lack of success, inability to have children, loss of the things most cherished—but then decides to fight, sticking to her truth and values. She may come out bruised in the process, but she has toughened up because of her experiences, a true survivor.
Dr. Chastity Ann Morgan is an interesting and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
One driving ideal is Chastity’s sense of humor since she can roll with the punches and laugh about all these crazy men who come into her life. The other driving ideal is her tenacity to fight hard enough to overcome any obstacle thrown her way and never let anyone tell her that her ideas and beliefs are crazy and ridiculous because those concepts make people so unique and special.
What were significant themes for you to explore in this book?
Fate and destiny. As a single woman, I talk a great deal to my friends about a new man as destined or fated for me. Can you fall in love and be destined for someone else? Do soul mates exist? It’s a major driving theme in Nothing’s As It Seems when hidden family secrets start unfolding.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I am working on the third and final novel to close this series and hope to release it before the end of the year. Readers can look forward to much revealing but should expect many twists along the way.
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To top it off, a secret journal surfaces, which reveals things from the past. How it’s supposed to fit into Chase’s life only adds to her growing confusion as a cryptic past seeps into her future. Can Daphne, her ten-year-old psychic neighbor, provide direction when the little girl comes up with her convoluted myriad of clues? Only time will tell if the current events will assist or hinder Chastity’s destiny, especially when she has to decide if blind trust in love will lead to a day of reckoning. Find out as you read along in Nothing’s As It Seems, the second novel in the Chastity Series.
Trusting One’s Creative Voice
The Glimpse follow a rising artist who becomes pregnant and is determined to be a good mother and a good artist while facing the harsh realities of a male dominated world. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
This book hit a number of curiosities. I’ve always been drawn to the Abstract Expressionist movement and wanted to delve into what this era was like for a woman artist. It was considered taboo to have a child if one wanted to be successful. Also, I was interested in exploring what happens to someone who is successful early in a movement, then disappears. What happened and why?
Liza Baker is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I modeled Liza loosely on Joan Mitchell, my favorite painter from the Abstract Expressionist times. Like Joan, Liza is a very talented artist, fiercely devoted to her work. She also has a troubled relationship with her father whom she never could please. Mitchell’s biggest regret was that she never had a child. Liza did and she longed to be a good mother, even as she was desperate to re-establish her early success. Problems in pursuing both were inevitable.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Difficult mother/daughter relationships (as most are) and how hard it is for women artists working in a male dominated arena, especially if they choose to be mothers. Also the value of persistence and trusting one’s creative voice.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
This next is quite different. It’s about a boy who survives a punitive childhood (adopted by Christian fundamentalists) by becoming one of the first Christian ventriloquists. I’m titling it Raised in Captivity. Won’t be out for a bit as I write around a full time job.
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She takes a job teaching at a college and comes up against the harsh realities of the male-dominated art world. Unable to build a successful career, she watches as her former lover, whose work resembles hers, skyrocket to fame. Liza develops a drinking problem and often brings home artist lovers she’s met in the city. When Rouge meets Ben Fuller, one of Liza’s discarded lovers who subsequently fosters Rouge talent in photography, the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship takes on the added charge of a competition between the two, one that Liza tries to sabotage.
THE GLIMPSE is a moving, unsentimental tale of the charged New York art world of the 1950s and the relationship between a mother and daughter as they grapple with their relationship that becomes pivotal to their artwork.
LITERARY TITAN 