Award-winning author, Diane Burke, writes for Love Inspired Books. She loves to read all of the lines and writes for the romantic suspense division. She lives in Florida and when she's not writing, she's reading, walking the beach, visiting with her grandchildren or playing with her dogs.Welcome, Diane!
Thanks, for having me, Lynette.
So, tell us how you came up with the idea for Double Identity.
The original idea began as the wispy remnants of a dream. I woke up and remembered dreaming about a woman who picked up a letter from her kitchen table. The letter began, “By the time you read this letter I’ll be dead.” Of course, that caught my interest. That’s probably why the dream stuck with me. I don’t usually remember my dreams.
I started asking myself questions. Who was this woman? Who was the person who left the note? When she goes in search of answers and discovers that her name, her identity, is all false, what would she do? And soon a plot was born.
However, plotting is only half the battle. I had to try and put myself in my characters shoes and answer the all important question---what is going on emotionally within this woman and how is she going to cope?
That made me think about teenagers. So many teens get angry at their parents and have moments that they wish they belonged to some other family. Or they sometimes don’t feel like they belong in the one they have and wonder if they’ve been adopted.
So how would it feel if you found out the family and life you felt belonged to you wasn’t real?
We all wear masks. We’re wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, employees, friends. But who are we really? If every title, if every mask was stripped away, what would be left behind? Who really is the person in the mirror?
I’d love to hear from your readers and see how they’d answer that question. I’m still trying to answer it for myself.
All right readers. I hope you'll give Diane an answer to her question. I know I'm going to have to think about this one a bit.
