No matter the genre or age of the character, my novels are about women in crisis. I highlight a problem and offer possible solutions while celebrating the inner strength women sometimes forget they possess. My second novel, Beyond the Quiet, tells about a repressed woman in her forties, who, after her husband dies, finally learns to live. And my first, Ten Times Guilty, is a suspense about a single young mother searching for value after a brutal attack. In my latest, With Full Malice, a traumatized food critic gains strength after a secret society targets someone she loves. I love books and the people who create them. I met several aspiring writers as well as published ones in the bookstore I owned in Denver in the 1980s and that fueled my desire to write my own. After years of lessons, an editing business, and teaching novel writing, I still found it difficult to write a successful novel. The time and effort involved was astronomical. But I, as well as other writers I know, work and work because we're a determined people. We have to write. And we should, because when one has the burning desire to create, it's for a reason. Who knows? Maybe something we have to say will touch someone else. Even in our bizarre stories - suspense, ghost, or even the serial killer stories - perhaps something we write will touch someone in a positive way. And that's a good thing.