CJ: Have you any personal experience with infidelity?

TW: Fortunately I've never personally experienced either side, but I know people who have.  Years ago a woman had a passionate affair with a man that lasted several months.  They eventually and reluctantly broke it off with due respect to both of their long term marriages.  Years after the affair, she felt guilt and yet was still emotionally drawn to that man.  

When my husband saw the books on infidelity sitting on the kitchen counter, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Is there something we should be talking about?"  Coyly, I said, "Book research.  Be glad I have to actually research this stuff."  

CJ: What did you learn from your research?

TW: Most women do not take the decision to cheat lightly.  They angst and weigh and once they've taken the step, they angst some more.  The reasons they cheat are many: dissatisfaction, curiosity, boredom, even anger and revenge.

Infidelity seems to be a two-edged sword.  It gives a woman something, but it also takes something away.  I think in the end, I've made Jonna a woman that all women and even men can relate to. She's like so many people who are trying to fill a void in their lives and souls.

CJ:  What Lies in Shadow features a lonely housewife who reaches out in her anonymous blog and finds someone else reaching back, in a deadly way.  Isn't this everyone's greatest fear about the internet?  Have you ever experienced any cyber--or real life--stalking yourself?

TW: I'm fortunate to have no personal stories about stalking.  [Knocking wood!]  The thing is, like Jonna, so many people now put their lives out there for anyone to see.  Especially with MySpace and Facebook, blogs, pictures.  More than ever total strangers can get to know you.  You can get support and make friends, but you don't know who you're inviting into your life.  

Authors, particularly female authors, have always been a bit vulnerable in this regard, because our books bring attention to us.  Most of the time it's good attention (all that adoration, don't ya know).  Occasionally it's not, and heck, when you get fan mail from prisoners, you do keep the dark side in mind (especially when you write about deranged psychopaths!).

CJ: Have you received strange fan mail or fan mail from prisoners?

TW:  I've gotten letters from bank robbers, the first woman on death row in one state, and a man who killed his girlfriend with a baseball bat.  All respectful, most well-written, all the scarier because if you met this person, he would seem perfectly normal.

It's terrifying because that charming person you think is a friend or potential mate could be the villain in your own life.  That, my friends, is the joy of fiction.  Scaring people by letting them vicariously experience what could actually happen.

CJ: You delve into some pretty dark places in the human psyche.  What drives you to explore these moral ambiguities through your characters?

TW: My characters are, to me, real people.  They have strengths and they have flaws.  We can never judge anyone until we know what is going on in their hearts and lives.  In reality, we often don't.  Heck, sometimes we don't even know what's going on in our own souls.  We do get that thrill in fiction, though, and the evil pleasure of watching someone get pushed into a corner and make decisions we hope to never have to make.

It's my evil pleasure to tell someone, upon our first meeting, that I kill people for a living.  Then, after a heartbeat and a Mona Lisa smile, adding, "On paper."  There is much joy in lying, cheating, killing, and creating havoc on a literary basis.  And I hope readers get just as much of a thrill living those experiences through the art of the book.

"Tina has unforgettable female protagonists and action-packed, almost haunting plot lines." -- #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author, Janet Evanovich

Tina Wainscott is the award-winning, bestselling author of eighteen novels.  Her next adventure will be writing a paranormal romantic suspense series that mixes a bit of X-Files, Friends and Heroes.  What Lies in Shadow will be released in February, 2008.

CJ Lyons is a physician trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.  Publisher's Weekly proclaimed her medical suspense novel, Lifelines (Berkley, March 2008), "a spot-on debut….a breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller."