The Story of IDENTITY ISSUES
Hi! My name is Claudia Whitsitt! I’d like to tell you about my latest mystery, Identity Issues. Thanks for reading!
It wasn’t until the threatening letter arrived (from Botswana) that I became a bit concerned about the theft of my husband’s passport some years previous. The letter, clearly meant for someone else, was disturbing. But in all his business travels, Don had never been to Botswana, nor did he have associates there. We blew it off. Then came the late night wrong numbers (also from Botswana) demanding my husband’s contact information. My interest peaked, but there weren’t enough dots to connect. The caller sought a man by the same name, a man not my husband. I never succeeded in convincing the persistent caller of his mistake and merely tolerated in his bi-annual calls. They became nothing more than an irritating interruption of my much-needed sleep.
After the calls faded, a parent who shared my surname visited me at Parent-Teacher conferences. Who’s named Whitsitt? C’mon, really! She claimed her husband shared the same first and middle name as my husband, along with a matching birth date and countless other similarities. This identity theft had come back to haunt us. FOR REAL. Right in our own backyard. That short twenty minute conference with the other Mrs. Whitsitt, who wound up making startling accusations, marked the conception of Identity Issues.
That disquieting meeting would have been enough to spark my writing of the book, but more puzzle pieces fell into my lap. Too many questions with too few answers and a simple schoolteacher from Michigan re-invents herself as an author of suspense.
I’ve always loved writing and even attempted to write an entire book when at the age of ten. But I found myself compelled to write this story in a way I’d never experienced before. It wouldn’t leave me alone. So, in September of 2006, I fired up my laptop and put fingers to the keyboard. To my surprise, the book poured out of me. Since the initial parts of the story were true, it seemed easy to recount the details. And I LOVED WRITING! In the process, I researched. Both the true elements of the story, to verify the facts, and the fiction portion, to add credibility. I wonder how many readers will be able to tell when the true story drifts into fiction. Can you?
Identity Issues is available exclusively at Amazon.com. Click here!
