One thing that I learned early in my writing process is that I have to find an idea I can fall in love with for two years. Yep, you read that right. Two years. It takes roughly two years to go from building the proposal to writing and editing the book then through marketing the book as it releases. I knew I had to find an idea with Beyond Justice that could carry me through that space of time. It started with a headline. The United States was experiencing a flood of unaccompanied minor illegal aliens. Then I saw the photo of the Syrian refuge toddler who drowned while fleeing with his family. Both really made me think. What would it take to make a mother believe that her child was better off taking the horrific risks both journeys involved to reach the freedom offered by another country. And what if a child died while in custody of the United States at a detention facility. That became the genesis of Beyond Justice. I added in a feisty heroine, a strong hero, and layers of problems. But the germ of the book came from those headlines. As an author, I expect that when I hit those magic “the end”, that book will settle into the back of my consciousness and I’ll move on to the next topic. I certainly expected that to be the case when I wrote Beyond Justice. I was excited to launch the Hidden Justice series with the book, but I was also eager to dive into the next book. When I wrote Beyond Justice, I thought the issue was one that would go away. At least that was my hope. I wrote it after seeing articles about unaccompanied minors at the border. Now it is back in the headlines. My heart breaks as I look at photos, like those here or here. In fact, as I was typing this post, I saw a headline from the Wall Street Journal calling this the largest crisis in 20 years. It can be easy to see the headline and ignore the individual stories behind it. This is why fiction matters. It’s through fiction that these headlines become a story that our emotions engage with. We start asking ourselves questions. What would it take for me to send my child unaccompanied on a journey to another country that may not welcome them? Is it really so bad here, that this is the best option? Right now, the ebook for the Hidden Justice collection is on sale for $3.99. It’s a great time to pick up Beyond Justice, Imperfect Justice, and Delayed Justice. I realized as I participated in a bookclub last month that protecting children from various threats is at the heart of my legal thrillers. There’s something about these stories that demands that kids be protected. In Beyond Justice, the kids are new immigrants. In Imperfect Justice, it’s a story about protecting a child caught in a domestic abuse situation. For Delayed Justice it shifted to protecting kids from sexual abuse. And in Flight Risk it’s a little lighter, but still about protecting a child from bullying at school. Then in Lethal Intent, it’s about finding cures for those who are terminally ill and what lengths we’ll go to do that. Yesterday, I was putting books on my bookshelf and realized I have two copies of Beyond Justice that are slightly battered on the spine because they weren’t shipped well. I’d like to give those away. Just use the form below to enter. a Rafflecopter giveaway