The Waiting Room is a story about a woman seeing her mother for the first time as a person and not simply the person who raised her. It starts with Charlotte returning home to bury her mother, Dr. Sylvie Day, who was an icon in a small, rural community for decades. Following her funeral she encounters her mother’s so-called nemesis, an elderly man who seems too meek to even hurt an ant if he were to step on it. The man, Harold Klein, delivers a letter to Charlotte that contains a confusing note from her mother and unleashes a flurry of secrets that changes the entire structure of Charlotte’s and Harold’s lives.

We’ve got Charlotte, Harold Klein – who’s the central character?
This is hard because the main character, the character that the book is based around, is a deceased character.

Charlotte’s mother? Tell us more.
Readers only get to learn about her through the experiences that Charlotte and Harold ( as well as two other characters) had with Dr. Sylvie Day while she was alive.  Sylvie is a strong character that is a beloved member of her community, but the reader will quickly learn that she is nearly irreparably flawed. Her greatest flaw is her inability to let people in. She keeps them at arm’s length for good reason, but it leads her to makes choices that have life altering consequences not only for her but other people in her life. 

What genre is it?
The Waiting Room is contemporary literary fiction. If you like strong, family dramas, you’ll love my book.

Obviously, I want every reader to fall in love with the story of Charlotte, Sylvie, and Harold, but I honestly think that the story will appeal the most to women. The book is told from several different viewpoints that add to the richness of the story. So, if you are a reader that likes books from authors like Jodi Picoult and Gillian Flynn, authors that use various points of views to enrich the strength of the story then you will love this book.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
The Waiting Room is my debut novel, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have other novels in the works. I have a short novella coming out in January (date TBA on my website soon) entitled, Missing Girl. It is a tie-in to my full-length novel, 60 Days, which will release in April. These two books are a little darker as they explore Mexico’s human and sex trafficking trades, but like The Waiting Room, they are ultimately about the relationships between people and the innate humanness that connects people even when they seem so far apart.

They do sound very different. You must come back and talk to us about them when they’re done. You mentioned something about a website. Where is it?
You can find me over at www.piperpunches.com. Please stop by and say, “Hi!”

How else can we say hi to you?
I would love for you to follow me on social media. I am better at Facebook than Twitter, but I am trying to get better at the whole tweeting thing. My page links are:
http://www.facebook.com/piperpunches
@piperpunches
http://www.goodreads.com/piperpunches
http://www.pinterest.com/piperpunches

Tell us a little about yourself.
I like to tell people I am a Midwest girl with a love for SoCal, but a New York attitude. I guess the truth is I am still searching for myself. Writing helps me explore the many different sides to my personality. It’s like acting on paper and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I live about 45 minutes outside of St. Louis with my husband and two daughters.

What’s next?
Promoting The Waiting Room and my next two books, all while trying to balance work and family. I’m not very good at walking on tightropes, so it’s always a struggle but things tend to work out just fine in the end.

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words  – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline?
Storylines come to me in a multitude of ways. Sometimes it is random words, but mostly I develop my storylines by interacting with other people and asking myself “What if things had gone differently?” I am constantly questioning life. It kind of drives my husband crazy.

And our four words?
Upon returning home from visiting her mother for the last time on the East Coast, a woman finds herself sitting alone in a dark airport waiting for her flight to be rescheduled. She is beside herself thinking about the final words her mother said to her and the way that she died. She is contemplating the easiest and least painful way to commit suicide when a young man sits down next to her. He looks at her once then twice before finding the courage to speak. The words that come out of his mouth next change the woman’s life more than a bullet to the temple ever could. . .