Behind the Book with Dawn Chartier – Entangled In Romance

August 29th marks the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

You’re probably wondering what that has to do with writing. For me, it has everything to do with it. I began writing (seriously writing) because of Katrina. I’d never experienced anything so tragic like that in my life. It truly felt like I was in the middle of war zone—and we lost.

Katrina made me take a good hard look at my life, and once things started returning back to semi-normal I began soul searching. Something was missing, but it didn’t take long to find it once I knew what it was.

Working daily in the construction industry where all I saw was mildew and decay forced me to see things in a whole new light. The atmosphere was depressing for most, yet walking through those ghostly buildings and hospitals sent tiny sparks flickering inside of my brain. Characters and plots began spreading in my mind like the mold on the walls of those abandoned buildings and consumed me at night.

Writing. I knew I had to give it a chance. That’s when my first novel ‘Bewitching the Enemy’ was drafted. Four sisters would run a construction company together, (of course) but along the way they would discover secrets about who and what they were.

Publishing didn’t happen overnight, (lots of rewrites) but when it did finally happen there was no stopping me. I remember after my first novel came out and a reviewer said that I should do my research because New Orleans is one hundred percent back to normal I was astonished that she truly saw it this way. Maybe she wasn’t alone. Touring the French Quarter you can’t really see much, but visit New Orleans East. Visit Chalmette and other areas hit the hardest. Maybe my characters will open some eyes, but hopefully that will be a good thing. People should know. People should also know that out of destruction sometimes good things can rise from it.

NOLA and other cities have come a long way, but make no mistake, 10 years later there is still a long way to go.

Writing the Vieux Carré Witch Sisters series helps me to remember. (Not that I need help remembering.) But the novels were sort of my way of saying to those touched by destruction to never give up. You can rebuild—one brick at a time- or- as my Witch sisters say, “Rebuilding New Orleans…one Witch at a time.”

His Wicked Desire (Book 2) August 24th.
Bewitching the Enemy (Book 1) Out now.
Masquerading With the CEO, Lovestruck, Out now.

Dawn Chartier