Please welcome, friend and author, Johannah Spero...

...to the blog this week.  Hello Johannah and thanks for being here today.  Tell me about your new thriller, The Secret Cure.  I believe it's a departure from your most recent mystery/thriller Boy series...

JS  My Boy series, while definitely including mystery elements, is a gut-wrenching emotional read, which is unusual for traditional thrillers.  The Secret Cure has that gritty, dark undercurrent with a definite twist, which fits the thriller trope.  Both are definitely character-driven as opposed to plot-driven, which is the only way I know how to build a story.
AW  When plotting a thriller, do you complete a full outline beforehand or do you let your characters take you on a surprise journey?
JS  I know plotting an outline is a safer way to go, but I’ve never been a plotter.  Once I grab a hold of a high concept for a novel, I brainstorm characters and scenes in my journal…and then I go for it.  Unfortunately, this usually leads to some heavy revisions.  I changed the ending of The Secret Cure maybe 3 or 4 times and killed some darlings (literally!) in the process.  But I’m psyched at how it turned out.
AW  You mention high-concept ideas.  What was the inspiration for the book?

JS  When my husband and I were at a resort in Sicily five years ago, we witnessed a man toggle between his foxy mistress on the beach and his handicapped wife at the pool.  The story idea came to me in a lightning bolt moment: The wife secretly gets better in order to get revenge on her two-timing husband.
AW  What other genres do you write besides thriller?
JS   I aim to write the type of book I like to read.  Thrillers are appealing because, if done well, are addictive page-turners.  Who doesn’t like to read those?  But I also like sinking my teeth into thought-provoking issues, which I try to sneak into my stories.  I have written in other genres (urban fantasy, for instance), but I’d like to think they all have a compelling element that keeps you turning the pages, dying to see what happens next.
AW  What was your first job and what other jobs have you held?
JS  My first job, believe it or not, was as a professional actress at a local Equity theatre.  At 13, I was cast as Laurie in Brighton Beach Memoirs.  The show ran for 4 months, 6 days a week.  It was a life-shaping experience, for sure.  After college, I put my English degree to work (ha,ha) at a website design company through the 90s, riding the dot-com wave.  At the turn of the century, I went back for my Masters and then taught high school English for about a decade.  After my third son was born, I began writing full time.  I love it.

about the author… Johannah’s writing career took off when her

first release, Catcher’sKeeper, was a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013.  Her small town mystery series has won similar acclaim.  Boy on Hold won 2020 IPPY Gold for Best Mystery/Thriller ebook and Boy Released was a 2021 Indies Today Finalist.  Her YA fantasy series, Forte, is also a multiple award winner, and is the topic of classroom visits in schools across the country. Having lived in various cities from St. Petersburg (Russia) to Boston, she now lives with her family in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, where she was born and raised.

about the book…She’s getting better. He has no clue. That’s exactly the way she wants it.  To pull off the perfect revenge, her cure has to remain a secret…
In her mid-30s, Rosalie Giordano is in the prime of her life.  Long saved from the manipulative hands of her mother, she’s been married to her fairy tale hero for ten blissful years.  Vincent is sweet and strong, and stunning as hell—and completely enamored of her.
Just as they begin to plan for a family, Rosalie is diagnosed with a mysterious virus that renders her temporarily paralyzed.  As days stretch to weeks, then months, she learns not only is her condition chronic, but the love of her life is having an affair.
As her health improves, a slow burn of vengeance simmers in her heart.  With the help of her homecare nurse, she regains full mobility.  While hiding the truth from her husband, she uncovers the extent of his betrayal…and learns he is not at all who he seems.  Their planned anniversary trip overseas gives her the perfect occasion for revenge.
But at the fancy Sicilian resort, Rosalie is not the only one with a score to settle with Vincent.  And in the end, she’s not the only one with blood on her hands…
 
The book is available NOW for pre-order on Amazon
 
You can follow Johannah on her Amazon page and on her Website Facebook Twitter and Instagram