A.   I wanted to write a story that centered on three women who were best friends but who also had three totally different personalities and issues they were dealing with. Additionally, I wanted to write about the Whitney character in particular, because I started paying a lot of attention to the fact that sixty-five percent of all Americans are overweight in this country.

A.   I actually had a friend who had the same symptoms as Taylor, and then I started hearing so many other women say they were going through the same thing. So, after that, I decided that Taylor's kind of illness is very, very common but one that isn't talked about nearly enough.

A.   I looked at the majority of women in this country who fall into the overweight category, including me. I've never known what it's like to be one hundred pounds overweight the way my character is, but I do know what it's like to be forty pounds heavier than I am today and not be happy with the way I felt or looked.

A.   Charisse was probably the most complex character in the book, and I have to say that I used lots of imagination and creativity to create her character. At the same time, I think we all have met people like Charisse, who aren't necessarily the nicest people in the world and who have also been raised in troubled home environments.

A.   I probably wouldn't compare them much at all because there's only one Reverend Curtis Black! It is true that Pastor Damon has problems with infidelity the same as Curtis but other than that, their personalities, levels of charisma, etc. are completely different.

A.   The one time I truly based a character on someone I know was when I wrote IT'S A THIN LINE. I based the Sydney and Delores characters almost completely on my mom and me, and because my mom really was terminally ill and eventually passed away, the writing of that novel proved to be very therapeutic for me.

A.   LOVE & LIES is the fourth installment in my Reverend Curtis Black series and finds Curtis and his third wife Charlotte dealing with more lies and more drama.

A.   SIN NO MORE is my tenth novel and the fifth installment in my Reverend Curtis Black series and this time readers will find more evil besetting the couple than ever before. They'll quickly see that Curtis and Charlotte are finally reaping all the terrible things they have sown.

A.   Yes, I'm working on my January 2009 novel, but I also have another book being released this year in June 2008 entitled ONE IN A MILLION.

A.   That we all reap what we sow and that one of the best things we can do in life is treat people the way we wanted to be treated. The other thing is that we should work very hard at trying to do the right thing.