My Inspiration for The Rashade'

I wanted to give you a little more insight into the inspiration for the first two books in this series. My father died due to medical malpractice when I was sixteen. He was in the hospital a few years before, so when he went this time, after being sick for three weeks, I didn't think anything of it. To a sixteen year old girl your dad seems indestructible. He was there about eight hours when the doctors called and told us to rush to the hospital. By the time we go there he was gone. His cardiologist told my mother what was really wrong with him and it was not what our family doctor had been treating him for. Had he been diagnosed and treated correctly he would have lived.

I'm not telling you this to make you sad. I just want you to understand the loss. I grew depressed, and unable to understand why this happened. I wouldn't admit it anyone, especially not my mother. She would have taken me to a psychiatrist. It would have made me even more of an outcast than I already was. So I cried myself to sleep and acted normal during the day. I met a boy (who is now my husband) and even he didn't know.

Then one night there was an idea. What if a girl could get revenge? I ran scenario after scenario through my head until one felt right. I put pen to paper and began to write. Soon I found my hurt was less as Mara's character developed. My anger waned as the binder grew thicker. It took two years of self prescribed writing therapy to finish the manuscript, but we both came out whole.