Writing Masquerade ...

Masquerade began as a much darker novel called Evil Twin. 

I started conceptualizing the story in the late 1990s and began outlining it in mid-2003. I spent much of that fall creating the twins; I have a ten-page bio of each. I developed the first full outline sometime towards the end of that year and then set out to develop all of my supporting characters, namely, Parker, his sister Erin, and Dorie’s pal Melinda. After some proofreads by friends, I softened the story considerably to something much closer to the current plot. It was later, though, perhaps around 2005, that I renamed it Masquerade.

Some of my alternative titles included, "Sister, Sister," "My Sister's Keeper," and "A Twin's Secret."

I met my cover model Jodi in the spring of 2004. Having a collection of photos from her modeling shoots proved to be a Godsend for me when trying to visualize Dorie and Beth in different scenarios or moods. 

I finished the novel at some point in late 2005 or early 2006, and it underwent an extensive edit by my editor. Frankly, the suggested changes were intimidating. For a number of reasons that I won’t get into here, the book got shelved for about a decade or so—I had revisited it several times, wanting to move forward, but realizing that it would require a lot of work and time. Then I found my banker’s box with all of the book materials during our basement renovation project in 2023. Rereading the manuscript motivated me to give it the final push and to finally make it a reality. I spent the remainder of 2023 and early 2024 doing a substantial re-write—about 40 percent of the book was redone or changed. 

Maggie, Petra, and Mary were the last characters created and added during my 2023-24 major re-write. They arose because (1) Beth needed a friend and (2) Dorie needed something intriguing to look forward to—the reuniting of her old college band. I also included more history on her old band. 

The cover was always going to feature Jodi—I considered a number of themes and images but was impressed with what we ended up using as the final cover.
 

NOTE:

All model photographs are by Jerry Hinkle

and under his copyright.