The premise of 'Deadline' forced me to go against my own grain with a character determined to find all that is valuable in that time. I believe this is a story about redemption; how, even with the best intentions, it's sometimes found and sometimes not.

...racist thought and action says far more about the person they come from than the person they are directed at.

You put yourself out there in the truest way you can and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't, but you did what you could.

You have to be careful not to use anything too colloquial or you date the book.

...we can say we love each other if my life is better because you're in it and your life is better because I'm in it.

...You don't always get what you expect. I wish someone, sometime when I was growing up, would have told me what expectations would get me. ... Our parents, schools, everyone tells us things will be a certain way when we're adults and if they're not that way, we should make them be; or at least pretend. But after a certain point that just doesn't work.

You can't judge Islam by those people any more than you can judge Christians by abortion clinic bombers or white separatists. Love turn to hate at the fringes of any belief system.