The Black Moment

“What’s gone and what’s past help should be past grief.” The Winter’s Tale

The Black Moment is the decisive time in every story when your character’s world is crashing down around her, and there’s nothing she can do about it. When all is lost and they think they will never come out of the hole they dug for themselves.

They question their hold on sanity.

In my second novel, Wheeler: In Darkness, There is Still Light, Loren has two black moments, and what’s telling is her reaction to each.

When her pain is broadcast to the world due to the paparazzi, she collapses inward, devastated. She wants to run away and hide, but she has the love of friends and family to pull her through.

Loren had just started to recover when the second event happens, but she doesn’t roll over. This time, she erupts like Mt. Vesuvius.  Her hatred and anger consume her and only Graham can withstand the storm.

I haven’t had many black moments, but I have had them and I am grateful that I have family and friends to pull me out.

This is the time of year when I begin to feel the sadness creep into my soul. The lack of sunlight, the cold making my joints ache, I’m prone to feel things a little more. I move through these days in a bit of a fog, but I do move through them.

If you feel like you can’t, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline