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The idea for my second thriller came from much farther back in my life. You know how when you’re young, you believe you’re invulnerable? That you can do anything and there won’t be any repercussions. Then years later, when you look back you think how could I have been so stupid and reckless? I could have been killed…or worse.

Many years ago, shortly after I’d moved from New York to Miami, a girlfriend and I decided to take a road trip down to the Florida Keys. It was going to be great. We took the T-tops off her brand new Firebird and drove down the Turnpike, south on US 1, past this ramshackle bar called The Last Chance Saloon. As we left the outskirts of Miami, the air changed. It smelled salty and fresh and exhilarating. And I remember having this sense of freedom and adventure. As though anything was possible.

We got to Islamorada around sunset. There’s an outdoor bar right on the ocean with a reggae band and tiki huts. My friend and I stopped there. We had a drink, danced. My friend went off and returned with a couple of pink, fruity drinks and two guys who said they were med students. We danced some more. Drank some more. Things started getting blurry. Very blurry. I recall getting into a car and driving to a monstrous house with an indoor pool. It was right around then that I realized the “med students” had drugged our drinks.

I’ll stop the real life story there. I will tell you, nothing terrible happened to me or my friend. But it COULD HAVE. And the nightmare of what could have happened became the trigger for my next thriller. SOMEONE’S WATCHING became the story of a young woman, Robbie Ivy, who tries to find her missing eighteen-year-old sister. Kate and her friend have disappeared on South Beach during spring break, after meeting a couple of young men claiming to be “med students.”

This book, and my own youthful adventures, so terrified me, that I was relieved when my daughter moved to the Northeast. When she comes down to South Florida for a visit, I’m always tempted to lock her in her room!
Tomorrow: Sharon Potts Day 5: Where the Devil Lurks

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.