No, not the famous Supreme Court case. The reference is to my two different series of scuba-themed mysteries. I may have mentioned before I hadn’t intended to do a sequel to Shades of Murder, but one thing led to another. Nor did I intend for the character of Chris Green to be anything more than a great character I created for Shades of Truth. I can’t honestly recall when I started thinking about a spin-off series with her. I suppose it was because I had crafted the persona of Detective Bev Henderson in such a way that I wanted a character who was, shall we say – a bit “looser” in her views of life in general. Bev can be a bit judgmental and she won’t be traveling away from Verde Key.

When I wrote Deadly Doubloons, I wasn’t planning to do False Front and Georgina’s Grief back-to-back. It so happens the plot lines developed in my head and were more compatible with Chris than Bev. Then I certainly didn’t intend to get involved in the Small Town quilting series or the other non-fiction projects I did which ultimately caused Bev to languish for 11 years. In fact, I was startled when I looked one day and realized how long she’d been neglected. No, I don’t exactly think of them as real people; on the other hand, there is an element of that. I’ve been getting a fair amount of feedback about the murderer I developed for Shades of Deception, and yes, she is disturbing. It was an intriguing concept and I wasn’t sure how well it would work until I really got going with the story. The sequencing of events was rather tricky since four chapters in the first part of the book might not seem to be related until the reader approached a certain point. Not that those chapters were clues, per se, but instead wove a theme that came into focus later.