JULY 1, 2019

I can identify the time and place when most of my books were born. SECRETS NEVER DIE was born in my swimming pool one summer night two years ago. I was enjoying a night swim . . . a night float, really. My head was resting on a ladder rung. As I floated in the calm water, staring up at the stars, I imagined that if a person stumbled upon the scene and found me so still, skimming the surface, they'd likely think I had drowned.

I thought, "What an intriguing scenario!" It led to question after question.

Aside from crazy me, who else would lie in the dark water, so still, just staring up at the night sky? And why? What emotion or need would bring them out here alone? What would they be thinking about? Or whom? And who might find them? What would their reaction be to stumbling over such a scene?

By the time I left the pool that night, the pool scene was outlined, and I knew the lonely, reclusive, brilliant, misanthrope, Tallie Brown. The rest of the story grew from questions about who would be most upended by stumbling upon a seemingly dead woman floating in the dark water, and Jackson James was born.

Moments and places have inspired several of my books. I hope you'll check out SECRETS NEVER DIE. Now you have inside info on that pool scene. Laurie