What was your main inspiration when writing Dark Karma?
Joyce Veranda Gray: Dark Karma came about while I was recovering from a broken leg. After six weeks I was walking slowly and sometimes with a cane. I went to the grocery store to purchase food and when I was leaving the store I noticed that there were metal bars along the sidewalk in front of the store that stopped patrons from taking the shopping carts from the store front. In order for me to get the food into the car I would have to leave my groceries on the side walk, limp to my car and bring the car back. I thought, if I leave this food, by the time I get back, it could all be gone. Someone may take it without any regard for the impact it could have on me. As far as the thief knows, I could be an elderly person living on a fixed income with no more money coming in for the month, but the thief won’t care that I could starve to death because of their selfish act. I thought that it could be a good thing if the criminal could live the horror that they cause; that beyond going to jail, if they could experience the pain, anguish and helplessness that’s endured by their victims, they may not be so willing to perform the selfish act.

Do you feel/would you say this book is about punishment, or about rehabilitation/redemption?
Joyce Veranda Gray: When I started writing the story it was about punishment. I wanted the criminal to be devastated by their own actions, but as the story progressed, I realized that most of us, not just criminals have something in our character that can become harsh and bitter when the world around us seems unfair, maybe it’s a survival mechanism. This piece of our character is not dominant in most people, but when success doesn’t come and our dreams die, for some of us, we can become our own worst enemy. We hate ourselves for who we are and when we can’t rise above it, whether you’re rich or poor, we sometimes act with selfish motives. The young people in Dark Karma had to learn that they were better than who they had become and the journey gave them understanding of what the Creator wanted from each of them. They discovered that finding redemption was not an external thing but and internal insight that reconnects you to you.

Did any of the events in the book have personal significance to you?
Joyce Veranda Gray: Yes, they all did. I recognized the drug dealer, the drug addict and the gang member because they were part of my life as a child and an adult. People in my surroundings that thought they could rise above it, but couldn’t and for many the harsh life destroyed them. I recognized the thief because they have stolen from me more than once. My car, my apartment was broken into and items stolen. There’s a feeling of helplessness that comes with being violated that takes a long time to get over, if ever.

Why did you decide that Josh should have the experience of inhabiting a female body? Was this important to his development as a character?
Joyce Veranda Gray: Josh had no regard for women. He was such a handsome man that women would belittle themselves to have him. He used that to his advantage and destroyed many young lives. He completely separated himself from their drug problem as if he had no culpability. "It’s not my fault they’re drug addicts they should have been stronger. If they wasn’t getting it from me, they would get it from some place else." The worst part about Josh is that he was a rich kid that had every opportunity open to him, but he was lazy, selfish and unappreciative of his parent’s values and they discarded him. His action did not come from poverty or hopelessness, but from a lack of character and moral fiber. He needed to see what kind of life he helped to create for these women not just by giving them the drug, but by damaging their self worth and value so much that they loss themselves in his heartless world.

How was your second book, The Wishing Well, born? Was it thought before Dark Karma or after?
Joyce Veranda Gray: The Wishing Well came about after Dark Karma. It came from the idea of "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." It is a story about wishing for things that are not meant for you to have. The story came about after listening to people talk about all the things they wish for. Love, money, success, health and someone would always say if you pray on it, God will give it to you. I always thought that the Creator knows what’s on my heart. The question is does his plan for me include my wish?

Did you get the inspiration from anything happening in real life or is it just a fictional account?
Joyce Veranda Gray: The book is inspired by the wants and needs of people who work tirelessly to get something or someone that they want without realizing that it may not be for them. When people would say, pray on it and God will give it to you, I wondered if sometimes Gods answer is no. That this wish is not meant for you and by fighting for it, you may be stealing the life of someone else that is meant to have what you believe should be yours. We will fight to hold onto a man or a woman who does not love us and by doing so; we steal the fulfillment of a wish by someone else. We hold onto dying love ones that may be ready to go or is being called to the next existence because we can’t bare the thought of living without them. We perform unscrupulous acts to gain wealth when the life lesson to learn could be enduring poverty. We destroy others to climb the corporate ladder only to get to the top and find misery.

"I will do anything to have it." Really...anything?

When did you start getting interested in science fiction? And how?
Joyce Veranda Gray: I did not always write science fiction. My first book, Final Passage is a drama, but I find science fiction to be limitless as to what the imagination can create. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and I love Star Trek. I love wondering about what if and tying it to what is. I like the combination of drama and science fiction so that the story is not so far fetched that the mind can not comprehend, but offers the mind something that will stretch the imagination beyond what we believe to be real and force us to ask "what if".