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Sonali Dev | Kimi, A Heroine with Unique Challenges and an Even More Unique Spirit
Author Guest / December 29, 2017

Characters always come to me before plots. Plots in fact are something I have to wrestle down, often earning me a few hundred gray hairs before a book is done. But the characters, they are what make sacrificing my jet black locks worth every lost strand. When I started writing A CHANGE OF HEART, I meant to write a story about Nikhil, a doctor with Doctors-Without-Borders, finding healing after his wife’s death when he meets the woman who got his wife’s heart in a transplant. The woman was Kimi, a wealthy politician’s daughter who has been sick her entire life, and then her father acquires the heart that saves her but it’s by nefarious means. Despite all her physical challenges, Kimi was such a bright and optimistic character that she really was more a healer than someone in need of healing, so she just didn’t work as someone who fit with Nikhil, who really needed to resurrect the dead healer inside him. Jess — initially a secondary character whom the villain employs to entrap Nikhil — was that force for him. Nikhil and Jess just worked, leaving me with Kimi whom I loved, and I had to discover her story….