a character from my latest novel named Alma Lee Potter may be my favorite because she is not what she appears to be in such a drastic difference. what appears to be a sweet but stern older woman is really a complex and deviously evil leader that manipulates the minds and wills of all the people she is in contact with.

taking an imaginative idea and turning it into something that a reader will enjoy and lose themself in.

95 percent of my characters are all imaginative but every once in a while a person that i know has made such a deep and profound impact on me that i have to share those qualities with the world in some small way. it could be their attitude or their genuine character or their physical beauty or in the case of a character that is in the project i am currently working on it happened to be a combination of all of these things plus so much more. only very very rarely have i ever told that person that they were a model for one of my characters.

taking an impossible situation and making the reader believe that what they are reading is something that not only could occur but actually is occurring while they are reading it.

most of it comes from institutional memory or from tidbits of facts and notes that i have stored away in a mental filing cabinet for future use. i do very little research. i prefer to write rather than study.

Fields of Ghosts is a story about a married couple who find themselves stranded in a small rural community in Virginia after experiencing car trouble. at first the kindness of a stranger and later by others of this community are welcomed and of great relief to this couple who are there because of an effort to save their marriage, but as time progresses the charity they have experienced becomes something considerably more evil and devious. the practices of this town while unimaginable to us are second nature to them and it is something that has been refined and developed for more than 150 years. what our couple, the main characters, have to decide is if they can put aside their differences and bond once again to work together to escape this terrible situation they find themselves in or if they are alone in this struggle to either fend for themseves or fail and have to submit to the horrors this town has in mind for them.

developing the characters with the attention that they deserve while maintaining the level of suspense i was trying for. the feelings and thoughts of the main characters in this book were extremely important for me to try and stress and impart to the reader.

i was asked about that by a person close to me the other day and the best way i could describe tis was that i think each person probably has that dark side in them i have been fortunate in that i have found a means to let mine out occasionally. i find it very easy to write about a bad person or situation, much easier than things that are very sweet and rosy. perhaps because we try and spend large portions of our lives trying to keep that which is bad in us inside and locked away it is with ease that we can give it a voice now and then. besides i like scaring and shocking people when they read my books.

initially that is on me and i work very hard to create something that is genuine and believable but after a point the characters begin to tell me who they are and i just write what i was led to see and relate to the reader. i think that so far every character i have ever created is someone that you could easily see yourself bumping into and striking up a conversation with. it's important to me that the reader relate and become on terms with my characters. if the characters in my books are so outlandish that it becomes difficult to buy into them then the reader is not going to enjoy their time with the book and that is the only thing that i am trying to offer. a good time with an interesting book.

i prefer likes and instant messaging via facebook because it is the easiest for me to remember to check and to respond to but however a reader gets in touch it is always appreciated.