It’s funny what you remember. On Sunday evening, February 9th, 1964, I rested on my stomach on the floor in front of the television in my mother’s small apartment. She stretched out on the couch, a cigarette in her hand, no doubt. It was time for the Ed Sullivan Show, and we never missed it, especially not that night. On that evening an act would take the stage that would change music history. John, Paul, George, and Ringo made their American television debut. The four shaggy-haired English youths whose music became legendary make up one of my first memories. I was only four years old, but I remember.

Thus began a life-long passion for music. Music is my daily go-to on good days and bad. One of my regrets is that I never learned to play an instrument. I think about taking guitar lessons sometimes, but I’m afraid they’ll go the same way my grandmother’s knitting lesson went. She gave up in frustration after trying to work out how to teach me to knit essentially backwards. I’m left-handed, and that has caused any number of problems throughout my life, but that’s a topic for another day. I know that Paul is left-handed (and so was Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain) so it’s not an obstacle that can’t be overcome, at least not by those geniuses. But hey, maybe I’ll get around to those lessons sometime after all.

Anyway, music is one of my passions–like writing. And I often infuse my stories with references to the music I love. The sounds, and of course, the lyrics express so much about the human experience. And that’s what writing is about too. Writing fiction gives us an outlet for our emotions–love, humor, pain, and sorrow. Most writers I know write because they are compelled to. They need to express what lies in their hearts and know no other way to release those feelings. Just as musicians write songs for the same reason.

And I think if you are to write, to be a writer, you must first confront the reality that you must write, that it is your passion. To stick with your keyboard and pound out 90,000 words requires not only dedication and a willingness to put in the work, but passion. A feeling that if I don’t get this down on paper (or in the computer) I will burst.

I’m often asked what inspired me to write each of my published novels. I’m not sure I can come up with a good answer, not an all-encompassing one anyway. But inspiration and passion spring from the same well. We are inspired by what touches our passion. My inspiration comes in bits and pieces. A little of this and a little of that pulled from decades of living. And although my books are thrillers, murder mysteries, I pour my feelings, and passion, into the development of my characters and their lives. I draw on my own sense of fear, outrage, despair, longing, and more, the human emotions we all encounter on the journey. I pour those emotions onto the page, which helps me work through my own baggage. We all have our ways of coping.

But getting back to my published novels. When people ask, I try to pin down what actually inspired each story, but I’m not sure I can exactly. With All the Dark Places, I remember watching an article on TV about a woman who had been the victim of a hideous crime as a young girl. She survived and went on to write two books to help other survivors of trauma. That kernel ignited a passion for telling the story of a fictional survivor. Molly’s story became one of triumph over the villain in her past so that she was able to deal with the villain in her present.

In What Waits in the Woods, I told the story of a young woman whose family had fallen apart and her desperate search for closeness and meaning with the people in her life. She confronts the realization that those close to her weren’t exactly the people she thought they were. Esme’s journey through family angst is one many of us can relate to, and thus she finds the courage to tackle the villain who comes for her.

In Watch Your Back, to be released in December 2024, I tell the story of Eve Thayer, a psychiatrist, whose life has overwhelmed her. I was inspired in part by the young adults in my life who work so hard, who scrape and struggle to advance in their careers and still have a home life. It seems to me that work, home, and family are a much more difficult road than they used to be. Look at the huge numbers of young people nowadays choosing to stay single, to not have children–not that there’s anything wrong with that–but it seems that those who do choose to marry and have children in addition to a career are desperately burning the candle at both ends, as the saying goes. So that is one of the pieces of inspiration that I felt passionate about and wanted to bring to life in Watch Your Back. And, of course, a villain emerges to fill Eve’s already fraught life with danger. It’s a thriller after all.

In all three of my books, my detective, Rita Myers, indulges in her love of music, thus I was able to add my passion for music to those stories. In Watch Your Back, Rita confronts her suppressed grief over the loss of her big brother with their shared love of music as the catalyst.

Life is difficult. There’s much sadness along the way, and it’s easy to be swallowed up by it. So, whether or not you’re a writer, I think finding your passions and the things that inspire you are vital to your journey in this world. So, find some time every day to do what you love–write, or listen to music, or walk n the garden, or have lunch with old friends, or pet a dog or cat, or take that guitar lesson. Passion. Inspiration. That’s what makes us human.

And I’ve found that passion once discovered tends to be life-long, should be cultivated to be life-long. My passion for music has led me and my husband to attend as many concerts as we can fit into our schedules these days. A couple of years ago, we saw Ringo and his All-Starr Band. It was surreal and emotional to see a musician I have followed since I was four years old. I’m still here and so is he. He was 82 years old when I saw him, and he’s still singing and playing drums to this day, still touring and delighting fans and himself. We should all find that kind of passion.