[Forward ]
It seems incongruous to most people. That I was once a demure, conservative CPA and business executive and now I’m a thriller writer who kills people for a living—at least on paper. Of course, if I go back over my life, I can see the clues, the hints pointing toward the inevitability of my ultimate career choice.

I suppose it began with my parents. They loved to tell stories. Actually, they seemed to take a ghoulish pleasure in trying to scare the daylights out of me. My dad would tell me bedtime tales of a vicious ogre who terrorized his childhood village of Kazimierz, in Krakow, Poland. My mother leaned toward daytime dramas about gorillas. Particularly those that could scale six-story red brick buildings in our not particularly remote neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, and then climb in through our kitchen window to drink my glass of milk if I happened to be recalcitrant about finishing it. And then there were the gypsies—a source of seemingly endless stories involving abductions and a life away from my safe, secure bedroom and the comfort of my Raggedy Ann doll.

And what impact did these stories have on my young psyche? Did I become a nervous child who bit her nails and sucked her thumb? Well yeah, sure. That was pretty inevitable. But I also loved letting my mind enter that scary, uncertain world. I can remember lying awake in bed and using my fingers as hand puppets to enact little stories. Sometimes one hand became a frightening ogre. Sometimes a gorilla, or a gypsy. But my other hand was always a young brave girl, ready to do battle with the evil, threatening hand. Sometimes, I’d make up stories that would make me sad and I’d bring myself to tears. Sometimes my stories would frighten me and I’d slip out of bed to open the bedroom door to let a little light in. But then my brave girl hand would outsmart and prevail, and I recall feeling a comforting satisfaction as I drifted off to sleep.

Tomorrow: Sharon Potts Day 2: My Nightmares Find a Home

Bio
Sharon Potts is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of three thriller novels.

A native of New York, Potts graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Before migrating to Miami, Potts worked in public accounting. In Miami, Potts served as a managing director of an international staffing company and president of an executive search/accounting recruitment firm.

Pott’s is member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers.

Her career as a mystery/thriller writer began with In Their Blood, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award and recipient of a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, followed by Someone’s Watching and now, The Devil’s Madonna.

Potts lives in Miami Beach with her husband, Joe, and Australian shepherd, Gidget.