Smiles!

William Blake wrote, “There’s a smile of love. And there’s a smile of deceit. And there’s the smile of smiles, where these two smiles meet.”

I think we’ve all seen that smile.

I’ve seen it on the faces of dope pushers who are more than willing to sell you what is really poison in the name of a good time.

I’ve seen it on the faces of girls who, in exchange for cash, offer you a little intimacy for the evening. At least they’re more honest about it than the pushers. They know they’re selling an illusion.

And I’ve seen it on the face of someone who supposedly loved me but was already in a relationship with someone else.

A smile can hide a lot.

It can also hide a secret and it can also hide pain.

And that’s what the smile on the face of James Brightman, one of the characters in my next novel.

I don’t want to give too much away (after all; I want you to buy my next book), but James has learned that as long as you keep smiling, the world thinks you’re doing okay.

The trouble is that his smile is slow poison. It’s creeping into his soul like a virus into the human body. It’s a secret no one should ever have to endure.

Perhaps the words on one of my other characters will sum it all up.

“Pain? Grief?” Pam asked. “Trust me. No one on this planet knows more about what they’ll do to you that I do.”

She’s the expert. In Broken People, she’s on a bridge, a gun to her head. And now she’s saving someone else.

Or trying to.