What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve written over a hundred books, and I keep circling back to the same question—what does power look like when it’s not just brute force? Giovanni came from that obsession. He’s a man who controls rooms with silence, not violence. And Emmaleen is the opposite of a damsel—she’s a woman in survival mode who refuses to be pitied, even when she probably should accept some help.
The real spark was the dynamic: what happens when two people who are both performing control for different reasons collide? He’s performing it because it’s all he knows. She’s performing it because she’s terrified of what happens if she stops. The mafia setting is the pressure cooker, but the story is really about two people who use different armor and what happens when someone finally sees through it.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
Giovanni—”Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak.
That slow burn, the obsession he can’t logic his way out of, the way desire makes him stupid when he’s supposed to be the smartest person in every room.
Emmaleen—”Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + the Machine.
She’s running from something, running toward something, and she doesn’t know which is which yet. But the survival energy, the desperate joy underneath the fear—that’s her.
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
My actual favorite thing to read is ancient history nonfiction. I’m not saying the Roman Empire lives rent-free in my head, but I’m also not denying it. I have a master’s in forensic toxicology, so my version of relaxation is reading about how civilizations collapsed, who poisoned whom, and what the power structures actually looked like before anyone cleaned up the narrative. All of that feeds the fiction. The more real-world ugly I consume, the more authentic the fictional ugly feels on the page.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I’m going to be honest—my TBR is more of a concept than a reality at this point. I write so much that my reading time gets cannibalized by my own deadlines. But I always have something going. Right now I’ve got Thinking and Destiny by Harold W. Percival on the pile—it’s this massive, obscure book from the 1940s about consciousness and the nature of the self. It’s basically the idea that you’re only one-twelfth of your actual conscious being, and the rest of you is too large to fit in a human body. This is my mind in a nutshell.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
The Lamborghini scene. Emmaleen has never driven anything like this car, and Giovanni is watching the whole thing on surveillance cameras from his apartment. She’s panicking, talking to the car, accidentally opening the frunk, and he’s supposed to be studying her weaknesses—but instead he’s slowing down the footage to watch her laugh. That’s the moment he loses. He just doesn’t know it yet. Writing her wrestling with that car while he falls for her through a screen was the most fun I had with the entire book.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
I’m a total cliché writer. I wake up at 3 a.m., make an absurd amount of coffee, and disappear into sixteen-hour days. No lucky mugs, no candles, no mood lighting. Just caffeine and chaos from before sunrise until I can’t see straight. I wish I had something more interesting to report, but honestly, the quirkiest thing about my process is that I never really stop.
Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?
Build your own infrastructure and don’t ask permission. That applies to publishing, to life, to everything. I’ve been indie since 2012, and I’ve never once wished I had a gatekeeper.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
Submission isn’t a weakness, and control isn’t a strength. Giovanni thinks he’s running every interaction, but Emmaleen is the one who keeps choosing to stay. She walks into his world with nothing (no money, no power, no safety net), and she still feels negotiation is her right. She pushes back and demands to be seen as a person, not a chess piece. That’s the thing I want readers to feel at the end. The person with nothing can still have all the power if they refuse to disappear.
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