If you're a parent, you probably are well aware of times when your patience has been tested. Some of these tests are passed and some serve to remind us that we are far from perfect. Patience, it seems, is both extremely important and extraordinarily difficult to claim as being owned. Even those that I would consider to be very patient have told me that they wish they were more patient.

Is anyone patient? Can anyone say, with certainty that they possess an adequate level of patience?

The main character in my Derek Cole Suspense Thriller Series, Derek Cole, is a character that I intentionally gave characteristics that I find lacking in myself or wish that were more prevalent in my life. He is extremely focused, confident in his abilities, lives independent of the good opinion of others and is patient.

Derek doesn't rush to judgements or reach hasty conclusions. He let's people finish what they're saying before offering his opinion. Though he would admit to rushing into dangerous situations from time to time, he does so only when being patient is an ill-advised approach to an event or circumstance.

When I started developing Derek Cole, the character notes in my Scrivener writing application listed his main characteristic as being patient. As I wrote "patient," on his character sheet, I immediately became jealous. I wished all it would take is being labeled as patient to actually possess the trait. I wrote that Derek Cole is patient and instantly, magically, he became patient.

I'm sure, if he was real, that Derek Cole would thank me for making him so patient. He would probably say that patience made his a good private investigator, a good husband to his wife, Lucy, and a good friend to those that I allowed him the honor of knowing.

In the first novel in the Derek Cole series, Heartless, Derek is faced with several challenges. Some of these challenges will test his patience, others will place demands on his skills that are greater than anything he's ever faced. And most importantly, Derek will be forced to deal with his most tragic event in his life: his wife's murder.

Somehow, I believe as I re-read Heartless again, I have come to know that Derek Cole would never be the character he has become if it were not for the main characteristic I gave him. It is, at the end of the day, Derek's patience that helps him overcome all of the challenges I throw at him in the story. And knowing what's in store for him in the next book in the Derek Cole Series, "Those of the Margin," he may need more patience than what I already awarded him.