Last week I enjoyed a one-on-one interview with JAXTON CARTER, the hero from my upcoming release, DUPLICITY, a psychological romantic suspense. This week, I’m happy to meet with his leading lady, CASSANDRA HALL. A nurse with an exceptionally tender heart, Cass is not just a caregiver but a solid shoulder, a trustworthy confidant and a warm hand to hold.

Interviews with fictional characters are a bit odd, I admit it, but they’re also fun. Like an escape. A way to connect with ‘someone’ new, someone I, as an author, believe I can mold into the perfect hero or heroine. A strong character, however, has their own mind, as it were. Their own personality and, if they’re fleshed out enough, their own wants and needs…which, I have found, can be contrary to mine.

Bygone romance heroes were brooding, arrogant alphas, who were also--unfortunately--often abusive to everyone they considered an underling, heroine included.

Willful Vulnerability Trust is a strange thing. On the surface, it seems so simple, so cut and dried. It’s something we either give or withhold. It’s something so intensely powerful… yet, at the same ...

Et tu? It’s not the occasional silent treatments, lies, or shouting matches. It’s not the drunk confessions, passionate disagreements, or all-out brawls. It’s the calm silent plunge of the proverbial knife to your back. Betrayal. The pain shocks with the sudden and fierce brutality of a new reality. Breath is stolen. Recovery isn’t even a thought because how could one ever recover from such a deep insidious wound?

Is It Ever Okay to Lie? If your dearest friend is able to pull off a decent rendition of Happy Birthday, but will trigger nightmares in a child if they attempt a lullaby, would you tell them? Or would you lie and say they sound fine? My guess is you’d lie to them. My guess is I would, too. It’s a gentle white lie that may save them from embarrassment… and us from stating facts that can hurt them – and possibly hurt our friendship as well.