Cinnamon Girl

I wrote Collision: A Dark Romantic Suspense for anyone who would look at Lennon (the FMC) and consider her weak.

Because she's simply not.

She's incredibly strong, and her strength is rooted in survivorship, first an abusive home life and then a horrifically violent experience.

So often, survivors are viewed only through the lens of their end result, their forward-facing image, and through our own perception of what we imagine we would do in their shoes.

It's a human compulsion to view survivors as "others" and to distance ourselves from their experience and, at the same time, our own capacity for empathy.

I wrote Lennon because I know the world dismisses quiet strength, devalues warmth and compassion, and places a premium on how hard we can work to make others forget our trauma.

Lennon is a woman who lived her entire life without a safe space other than curling up in her bed with her headphones on, terrified of who or what would break down the door. 

I can picture her walking into her own apartment at the end of the day and simply collapsing under the weight of the grief she is not allowed ot name, and the effort she puts in to have some kind of family and connection in a world that has created a transactional relationship with her: We keep you safe if you share your trauma and let us feast on it.

I wrote a character who is easy to dismiss so that all the people out there who saw themselves in her would know that this universe is their home even if their home of origin was unsafe or unstable. 

You can ALWAYS open one of my books and find safe harbor. 

All of you is welcome here. You don't have to be perfect, have it all figured out, or be some flawless image of survivorship. You can simply be you, finding your truth in the pages of a book.

. . .

My debut novel, Collision: A Dark Romantic Suspense, is here!

Available on Amazon and IngramSpark. You can request a copy at your local library, your favorite indie bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Books, Books-A-Million (BAM!), Half Price Books, or wherever books are sold.