An
interviewer once asked me to describe my "style" when it came to
writing. And I'm often asked about the
"messages" I try to convey to readers. This
might sound strange, but I think it's my job to make you, the reader,
uncomfortable. Whether it's the issue of
domestic violence, rape, child molestation, drug addiction, I've been driven as
a writer to depict those images, as uncomfortable as they are to write, in ways
that forces the reader to pay attention, not because I get off on the shock
factor, or the drama, but because these things are a part of life, real life.
So,iIt's
one thing to write these types of books, but it's another to create situations
in which readers also have to look at a scene from a different perspective, one
that they might never have considered before.
In my first novel, "And On The Eighth Day She Rested", not
only were readers privy to Ruth's plight as an abused woman, but they also got
to see inside her abuser's head, as well.
You probably didn't empathize with Eric, but you were at least given
insight into what drove him to do the things he did.
In
"Don't Want No Sugar" readers were introduced to the irrational
thought processes of the crazy mid-wife, Roberta, and were given insight to the
situations in that woman's life that helped form the foundation of the woman
she ultimately became.
In "That
Devil's No Friend of Mine", I gave you a chance to experience the
temptation and heartache of a recovering heroine addict in Rayne, and even
shared her experience with you of what it was like for her to "fall off
the wagon" and lose herself again in those old habits.
