Geletta Shavers Interview Published on: 04, Jul 2025
As both a licensed therapist and a fan of thrillers, how do you think your professional background influences the way you experience suspense and psychological tension in fiction?
I’m trained to recognize patterns of human behaviors, trauma responses, and mental health disorders. Some people might describe these books and movies as "crazy," but I view them from a clinical perspective.
As I write or read psychological thrillers, I’m in-tuned with the motivations of characters, their anger, vulnerabilities, or narcissistic traits that drive them to the brink of madness. This helps me with character development for a well-written thriller.
I’ve sat across from people who have shared traumatic experiences and disturbing life stories. “The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery” is loosely based on my traumatic childhood and my struggle with anxiety, but not to the extreme of Amaya’s anxiety and gullibility, she got on my nerves lol. Fiction can mirror real traumatic experiences.
What draws you most to authors like Alex Michaelides, Tanisha Stewart, J.R. Mason, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lucy Foley? Is it the twisty plots, the character depth, or something else?These brilliant authors are masters of unpredictable storylines, suspense, revealing crazy secrets, and ending with shocking twists that force the readers to rethink everything they had read. I enjoy the thrill and complexity of the characters and storylines. It’s so much fun trying to piece together the truth before the ending. Sometimes I figure it out, but most of the time my jaw hits the floor.
I enjoy books that dig beneath the surface of human behavior. J.R. Mason’s “Stolen Pieces” series had me engrossed in the storyline prompting me to learn more about the psyche of people who kill, lie, steal, or hide a devastating truth. These authors don’t just entertain me; they bring the darkness and insanity that connects deeply with my curiosity and expertise. My novel brings the same energy as my favorite authors.
What inspired you to explore the dark intersection of love, wealth, and betrayal in “The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery”?I wrote this novel as a form of therapy. It was born out of unresolved pain and grief that I couldn’t place anywhere else. My biological mother has dementia, and I know now she’ll never say the words I’ve needed to hear my entire life: “I’m sorry.” Sorry for the emotional abuse, for giving me away to her parents, for telling me she didn’t want me. The trauma of my childhood never really left me, and caring for the same person who caused so much pain only stirred the nightmares back to life.
Writing this book allowed me to give voice to the pain I couldn’t address as a child or to this day, to shape a story around betrayal and longing, around the toxic inheritance of silence and guilt. Though the book is exaggerated and fictional, it’s loosely based on my life. There’s no generational wealth in my real life; this novel was my way of reclaiming power. I also wrote my own masterpiece to help me recover from a relationship I had with a narcissist over twenty years ago, which created the themes of manipulation, false love, and the illusion of safety. “The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery” became my way to turn real-life wounds into something haunting, honest, and healing.
Has your love for thrillers ever inspired your therapeutic work—perhaps in how you help clients reframe the “narrative” of their lives?No, my love for thrillers does not have a part in my therapeutic practices. I help my client through years of experience, knowledge, and evidence-based practices. My love for thrillers is for entertainment only.
“The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery” is described as macabre and blood-curdling. How did you balance graphic intensity with emotional depth to keep readers engaged?When I craft the outline of my thriller books, one of my goals is to gauge their graphic intensity, whether it’s violence, horror, or psychological torment. This should never exist just for shock value. It becomes meaningful instead of gratuitous when grounded in some emotional truth. In The Inheritance of Amaya Montgomery, the macabre and blood-curdling moments are tied to the characters’ emotional scars. The horror isn't just in what happens to them; it’s in what they’ve survived and buried.
As a writer, I try to maintain balance by letting readers feel why the pain matters. I think I overdid it with Amaya's character. She can be a bit much sometimes. I use emotional depth to show the aftermath, the internal unraveling of my characters, and the human response to inhuman behaviors like Quentin's character. He is a horrible human being. This draws readers in deeper because they’re not just witnessing gore; they’re experiencing grief, fear, betrayal, and longing through characters who feel real. That contrast between the terrifying and the tender keeps readers turning pages. It’s not just about what happens… it’s about who it happens to and why it hurts.
How do you approach writing villains who are charming on the outside but deeply malicious underneath? What makes that duality so compelling?I start with one truth: the most dangerous villains are the ones who don’t look like villains. They wear charm-like armor, disarming everyone around them while hiding their true intentions. When I write these characters, I focus on the contrast, the mask they wear for the world versus the rot underneath. It’s not just about crafting someone who lies well; it’s about creating someone who believes their own lies and manipulates with ease because they understand people’s needs, fears, and weaknesses.
That duality is compelling because it mirrors real life. Many readers have encountered people who were charismatic, persuasive, and even magnetic, but who left destruction in their wake. We’re drawn to that tension between attraction and danger. It keeps us guessing: Is this person really who they seem? What’s hiding behind that smile? I use that push and pull to build suspense and emotional investment as a writer. The villain becomes more than just an obstacle. They mirror what we fear in others and, sometimes, in ourselves.
You often encourage journaling and reading with clients. What types of books or journaling prompts do you typically recommend for emotional healing?I recommend books that offer both validation and insight for emotional healing. Stories and guided journals that reflect the reader’s pain, growth, and resilience. Titles like The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk and my newly released self-care journal titled "Loving Myself First: My Self-care Journal" under my pen name Ms. G, LCSW can help clients understand their trauma in a deeper context.
Sometimes fiction can be therapeutic, especially stories with complex, emotionally rich characters who survive hardship and transformation. Sometimes, healing begins when clients see themselves in someone else’s journey.
For journaling, I focus on prompts that invite reflection, truth, and self-compassion. Some of my go-to prompts include:
“What would I say to my younger self if I could hold her right now?”
“What emotion am I avoiding today, and why?”
“Who hurt me, and what do I wish they had said or done instead?”
“What parts of myself am I ready to reclaim?”
The goal is to help clients release the weight of unspoken thoughts and give words to their pain, because once something is written down, it loses so much power in a person.
As someone who teaches grounding techniques, are there any fictional characters you feel could’ve benefited from therapy or mindfulness?Roderick in “The Fall of Usher”
William Wilson in a story titled “William Wilson”
All the character in Lucy Foley’s “The Guest List.”
If you were to write a psychological thriller, what themes or issues would you want to explore?My second thriller will be released July 30th, 2025. Title “Dragged into Darkness. The themes I will explore are character’s compulsive desire to maintain appearances leading to horrifying consequences, ideal for exploring internalized trauma, societal problems, and unresolved grief.
There will be prestigious schools, high society, and religious institutions where behind-the-scenes darkness festers. The contrast adds chilling intrigue.
What’s one therapeutic insight you wish more thriller writers understood when developing characters with trauma?When thriller writers reduce trauma to surface-level symptoms or clichés, they miss the opportunity to create deeply human, layered characters. A character’s trauma shouldn’t just be backstory, it should shape how they love, trust, react to danger, and see themselves. Real trauma is messy and unpredictable, but it’s also deeply personal. The most compelling thrillers don’t just show us what happened to someone, they let us feel how it still echoes in their day-to-day life.
In your opinion, what makes a great plot twist—and how do you think the brain responds to it emotionally?A great plot twist doesn’t just surprise, it reframes. It forces the reader to look back and realize the clues were always there, hiding in plain sight. The best twists don’t feel random; they feel inevitable, like the truth finally snapping into place. The emotional whiplash makes them so powerful, they force the brain to quickly recalibrate what it thought was safe, accurate, or trustworthy.
Neurologically, plot twists activate the brain’s reward center. That “aha!” moment delivers a dopamine rush, especially when the twist is cleverly foreshadowed and earned. But emotionally, they also trigger a mini grief: the reader must let go of what they believe about a character or situation and replace it with something darker, more complex, or unsettling. That emotional dissonance makes great psychological thrillers linger long after the last page the brain is still trying to make sense of the betrayal.
How do you personally unwind after reading an intense thriller?I don’t unwind. I have an adrenal rush and I’m ready to start another book.
If you could have a therapy session with any character from a Stephen King novel, who would it be—and what would you focus on?I’d choose Carrie White from the novel "Carrie." Not because of the telekinesis but because she is the embodiment of what happens when emotional abuse, isolation, and humiliation go untreated. She’s a traumatized girl, not a monster. If I had her in session, I’d focus on helping her unlearn shame and reconnect with her body and voice, two things that were stolen from her by her mother and peers. Carrie didn’t need to be feared, she needed to be heard.
I’d also explore her repressed rage. People often teach trauma survivors to bury their anger; however, when it finally erupts, it can become destructive. I’d want to help her name her pain, set boundaries, and learn that she is worthy of love that isn’t conditional, controlling, or cruel. With safety and compassion, I believe even Carrie could have had a different ending.
How does reading help you stay grounded in your own life, especially after intense therapy sessions?I'm definitely not going to read a thriller after seeing clients all day. Reading is my reset after holding a space from heavy workdays, helping clients through unresolved grief, trauma, and anger. Books give me a quiet place to return to myself.
Stories remind me that healing isn’t linear, and that struggle doesn’t define a person’s worth. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, reading helps me process the emotional weight I absorb as a therapist without becoming numb to it.
I turn to reflective or poetic books that slow me down and soften the noise in my head. Reading reminds me I’m not alone in carrying hard things; it reconnects me to empathy, perspective, and hope. It’s my form of self-care that doesn’t ask me to fix anything, to feel, reflect, and rest.
How were you introduced to All Author, and would you say that this website has been helpful?Author Latoya Geter introduced me to the All Author’s program. The promotional prompts are well designed. This program is helping me to find my audience as an up and coming writer.
