I was once sitting in my high school junior-year English course, writing a detailed characterization about main character, Edna, from the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, when I felt that I stumbled upon one fascinating but seemingly inescapable truth about life:

Everyone (every.single.person) has a secret…even the hero.

I honestly couldn’t tell if this “discovery” provided me with a sense of relief or despair.

As a person who has held the virtue of honesty in high regard, I’ve always been a bit fascinated by secrets.

• Why people have them?
• How long can people keep them?
• What are they hiding?
• How far would they go to keep a secret?

What’s even more fascinating to me are the secrets maintained between two people in a romantic relationship.

• Can a romantic relationship with secrets survive?
• Are some secrets “necessary”?
• If you could honestly read the thoughts of your significant other…would you end up staying?

Things that make you go “Hmmm…”, right…?

I am fairly certain that many of my upcoming books will be romantic thrillers, not just because I love the genre so much, but also because secrets lie at the very heart of this genre…and I never met a secret that wasn’t worth exploring.