Question: Why did you write this book?

Answer: The simple answer is because I had to. Writing a story is about feeling events unfold, and if you are successful in transferring the feelings, then the process is complete. I felt the kernel of this story the year I lost my best friend and my uncle only months apart. I’d heard stories all my life about the death of my mother’s eldest sister who died mysteriously at age 18 and no one ever knew why. How does a family cope with a death that is as mysterious as it is untimely? What if it doesn’t? This was how I began. In writing this story, I thought of issues that would keep a death a “family secret” and how an intelligent, curious woman would react once she felt the need to know the answer.

Question: What exactly is your book about?

Answer: A young woman, Bernadette Windsor, receives a letter telling her that her sister was murdered and she may be next if she doesn’t find out what happened. Bernadette’s specialty is computer systems, and her mind thrives on solving puzzles. As she starts to dig up answers, the surprises she finds threaten the family — particularly her two sisters with whom she shares close bonds. She has to decide just how important blood is when it comes to right and wrong.

Question: So, there are three sisters involved in the story, and possibly the murder?

Answer: That’s for Bernadette to discover. Each of her sisters has a personal investment in keeping the past quiet, and so does her mother. The harder Bernadette pushes to find the truth, the harder they make it for her to succeed. If not for the vague memory Bernadette has of leaving the funeral and going home with her sisters to write vows of secrecy that they hid in a jewelry box – the promise box – she may not have believed the mysterious letter. But she knows her sisters, and seeing their reactions to the letter, she knows something is not right…

Question: What types of issues would keep the family from wanting to know the truth of a sister’s death? What could be more important?

Answer: Well, each sister has a burden from the past. All three sisters are madly in love but they all have struggling relationships. Bernadette is an officer in love with an enlisted soldier; Beatrice is struggling with a man who loves her, but doesn’t seem to love her daughter; and Marietta is in love with a man of another race. Each is deeply involved with a man they wish to marry and the sisters feel Bernadette’s interference would jeopardize their happiness. There is no lack of passion and sex, and no reason they can fathom that they should relive their harrowing past to appease Bernadette’s curiosity.

Question: Do their choices to love these men reveal anything in particular about them?

Answer: Not as much as it reveals that love comes wrapped in all sorts of packages, and we do not know in which package we’ll find love. Your package may be nothing like you expect — not the expected age, color, financial status or sex – but still it may be the love connection of your life. Do you just let it go?

Question: Obviously, this family had some serious problems and Bernadette’s quest is to find out if and how murder was involved. What are the basic family issues the book deals with?

Answer: The major issue was keeping secrets, and how secrets tend to divide and weaken a family. A second issue is family betrayal, and what happens when a family destroys your trust. There is also a touchy issue that many women handle all the time, but never really discuss, and that is figuring out how to blend a man in with their children. It may be easy to have him fall for you, but what if he does not like your child? In The Promise Box one of the sisters, Beatrice, feels terribly guilty about the love she has for her boyfriend and accepting his love for her when he cannot show any to her daughter. She thinks because he “takes care of them” it’s acceptable that he doesn’t love her daughter, but is it? When and how do you decide whether the situation is more harmful than good?

The family on which this story is centered, the Windsors, was plagued with other common divisions that affect many African American families, like segregating themselves based on income, profession, color, and success. And let’s not forget religion, lifestyle, sexuality.

Question: Does the book show men in a bad light?

Answer: Not anymore than it does the women. Many people make bad decisions in this story and suffer for it, the women as well as the men.

Question: What is the overall message of The Promise Box?

Answer: To take the risk of showing love, not just to your husband or your lover, but to love as a family. Families make mistakes because as humans, we all err, but keeping secrets will hurt in the long run and destroy the people you love.