Writing about Dena Sinclair began with a surprise. Around the time that I published Immunity Flight, my third Modified Humans novel, I asked readers which secondary character from the novels deserved a story of their own. I expected several different answers. Instead, every one of them chose Dena Sinclair. How did they know she was one of my favourite characters?
I’ve often wondered why Dena resonates so strongly with readers. Perhaps it’s because, beneath her professional exterior, she’s trying to do what most of us hope we’d do ourselves: make the right choice when duty, compassion, and personal cost collide. When readers meet her in Immunity Cage, Modified Humans Book One, she already seems completely formed: the ultimate professional bodyguard, supremely competent in her job, sometimes remote and sometimes snarky, often going to extreme lengths to make sure her charges are both physically and psychologically safe—a powerful woman with a nurturing side who’s a master of self-effacement.
Writing Dena Sinclair’s Story
Writing the Dena Sinclair stories gave me the chance to discover how she became that person.
Night Traffic is about survival and making hard choices.
Roadblock is about dealing with forces from your past that want to restrict your future.
Crossroads asks what integrity is worth.
Although the first collection—titled Stepping Through—explores how Dena became a protector, the second will ask a different question: how does someone like Dena learn that she doesn’t have to carry every burden alone? The stories in this collection won’t be romance in the traditional sense. They’ll be about the joys and challenges of intimacy; about mature adults facing obstacles and supporting each other.
My goal in writing my stories is to have the plot flow naturally from the choices a character makes when faced with a particular problem within the constraints imposed by the setting. When I started writing about Dena Sinclair, I thought I was writing about a bodyguard. Instead, I discovered I was writing about a young woman who had learned far too early that someone always had to carry the responsibility. As her opportunities grew, so did the weight of the choices she had to make. Opportunity didn’t make life simpler; it merely raised the stakes.
Curious to meet Dena?
Her story begins in Night Traffic, where readers first meet the young woman who will eventually become the protector introduced in Immunity Cage. The story is available free here.