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As I reread these posts, I consider how much of myself and my own experiences are part of my writing. My parents’ bedtime stories heightened my taste for suspense and intrigue, while also teaching me the satisfaction of innocence prevailing over evil. Brushes with danger have scarred my subconscious and worked their way into my stories. And my imagination is continually reworking actual events into terrifying “what if” scenarios. But how much of my characters come from me and the people I know?

There’s no question that the family in IN THEIR BLOOD was patterned after my own family, though my son and daughter will deny any resemblance to Jeremy and Elise. And as I was writing the character of ninety-three-year-old Lillian Campbell in THE DEVIL’S MADONNA, I was observing my own ninety-three-year-old mother, who lived with me during her broken hip recovery. My mother had none of Lillian’s darkness, but much of her tenacity and resolve. Some of my mom’s determination to walk and be independent, and even an echo of her girlish laughter, made its way into Lillian. But what of the villains in my stories? Are they some darker side of me? Or are they simply a projection of my fears? And I recall myself as a little girl, lying in bed, enacting fantastical stories with my two hands—one good, one evil. And I realize my books are me. All of me—my experiences, my family, my nightmares and my dreams.
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.