Readers often ask if fictional characters are based on various aspects of the author’s own personality disorders. As most authors will tell you, our characters are born of overactive imaginations, bizarre personal experiences, close and not so close observations, humor, and magical thinking.
When I tell people that I spend 10 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year writing or thinking about some aspect of writing, most of them either don’t believe me, or they think I’ve gone off my rocker. However, I swear it’s true—just ask my neglected husband, relatives and friends. I know writers, myself included, who send formal notices to their loved ones when they are about to begin work on a book, apologizing in advance for their sudden disappearance.
In his book, Music for Chameleons, Truman Capote wrote what I think is the truest description of a writer’s life:
‘Then one day I started writing, not knowing that I had chained myself for life to a noble but merciless master. When God hands you a gift he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended solely for self-flagellation.’
MERCY was originally published in 1992 by Simon & Schuster. It was taken out of print some years later and the rights reverted back to me in 2001. With the whip at my back, I have edited and revised a fair portion of this book in order to correct mistakes, streamline the writing, update political correctness and generally enhance the reading experience. I have not, however, changed the original storyline or any of the characters.
Echo Heron
San Francisco, 2014