A Character Adds Herself

I was leery about adding a major character to the Richard Carter novels, especially such a strong one as Kit Kittredge. After all, Jill is already a stronger figure than Richard, the title character. I know. I know. Her strength is composed of the "traditional" traits of our culture. She is the rock of the family and the exemplar of wifely and motherly virtues, something that tends to offend "girl kicks butt" aficionados. (I'm told by someone very close to me that if I don't think being a wife and mother while being a co-equal breadwinner takes real strength, I don't know which end is up.)

Jill has undergone and weathered harrowing violence and has found the courage and will to overcome both emotional and physical attacks that could (and do) destroy all but the strongest of us. In a sense, such a strong character takes up a lot of the oxygen in the room. I wasn't ready to put Richard through that. He's had a lot of trauma in his life.

I'm not your average fool, however, and I realize that the majority of readers these days are women (bless them). That is not the reason I have written stories with strong female characters, some victims, some villains, some rivals and/or cohorts of Richards. I include them because they are the most interesting people that I know or can conceive of.

Kit, like visiting deputy Woodie Koeltz (ROAD SHRINES) and PI Sarah Rafferty (COLD TEARS) was meant to be a one-story major character in Journey Man. However, at the end of the story, she refused to leave my mind and go back to her native Miller County. She had become to involved with Guidry and Jill, and too important as a role model for Mirabelle to leave as I commanded. In Devil's Run, she established herself as a permanent member of the Hawthorn force.

What can I say? She intimidated me. It's not the first time that has happened to me.

The truth is, she is just too interesting for me to do without.