Humor is critical to Denise's mental health. Add a dash of snark, a little suspense and an occasional murder and you’ve found her literary voice. Her theory is that a hero can say as much with a well-written look as he can with a long-winded paragraph, and heroines are meant to hold their own. She’s no Cinderella and Shakespeare wrote the only Romeo and Juliet, so she sticks to women who can save themselves and tortured heroes loathe to let them. www.denise-tompkins.com