What was your inspiration for Chameleon?

Like Paloma, I was partly educated in a convent school run by Catholic nuns. The convent was also an orphanage for girls, and actually some of the girls—Ramona and Sylvy—were based on real people. Adelita and Rubia were pure creations of my imagination. I did attempt to do a séance in one of the classrooms once, an act that made me end up in Madre Superiora’s office…but I didn’t get kicked out…nor experienced a ghost. ☺

Some of the scenes in the book depict the nuns in a very negative way. Can you comment on that?

Some of the nuns are nice, others…not so nice. That’s just the way it was. Except for Madre Superiora, all of the nuns in my book are based on real nuns. Madre Estela, Madre Julia, Madre Margarita were all real. Yes, Madre Julia with her giant wooden spoon, real. It may seem hard to believe, and certainly it would be tough to believe nuns can behave like that nowadays. But remember the story takes place in 1970s Puerto Rico. Catholic nuns were very strict back then, their disciplining methods cruel, but this was considered normal.

How long did it take you to complete the book?

On and off, about two years. But the story and characters simmered in my mind for years before then.

Did you have to do a lot of research?

I did a tremendous amount of research on psychopaths and psychopathy, and a fair amount on natural drugs found in tropical forests, though I ended up using only a tiny fraction of the material. I also consulted a police officer for the parts about police procedural and interrogation.

You like to use mimic writing, don’t you?

Yes, I do! I used it in Daughter of the Sun when the protagonist was drugged, and also in this book in the climax with Paloma. The writing becomes erratic and stream of consciousness because it reflects and mimics the altered mind of the character. No commas, no punctuation, one run-on sentence after another. I love using this literary technique but sometimes it can be confusing for the reader, so trying to find a balance can be very challenging.

Did you listen to any particular kind of music while working on the book?

I sure did! I can get quite obsessed about that, listening to the same compositions again and again. This was my music list for Chameleon… all of them haunting, mysterious and dark!

Beethoven’s Figlio Perduto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuo6PUeyHmA (Performed by Sarah Brightman)

Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiMcXzfm9Mg

Agnes Obel’s Riverside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjncyiuwwXQ

Revenge Series soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOgHd_iM5ok

Interview with the Vampire soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6aPxaCpP78