by Gavin O’Malley DiMasi, character in the DiMasi Family Trilogy
(Leslie was asked by Women Writers to be interviewed for their online publication. But Gavin insisted on conducting the interview himself, resulting in this dialogue, which appeared here on her birthday, March 1.)
GOD: Leslie, what inspired you to write your first book, ‘Secrets In The Mirror’?
LK: I know someone whose two daughters were very close during childhood, then became estranged when the older one began manipulating and gaslighting the younger one in their early adulthood, asserting her superiority and the younger one’s inferiority. At the same time, there was/is a prominent political figure (uh-hum) who behaves similarly. As a former psychologist, I became fascinated with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, particularly as it may affect families.
GOD: So you gave me a narcissistic identical mirror twin who was the complete reverse of me? One who gaslighted and demeaned me?
LK: Well, as Dr Pedersen your counselor explained, NPD isn’t genetic; it’s developed via parenting behavior. Your Mob-associated bully father declared Devon, your twin, to be the “winner” and you the wimp, who was supposed to save Devon from his own worst instincts. Sorry, Gavin…
GOD: So what’s the point of the story?
LK: You know very well, Gavin. It veered far off from my plan. You took it there, just like all my characters tend to do. Devon couldn’t be saved! And you realized that the multigenerational pattern of abuse had to be stopped, and that you had to do it.
GOD: Yeah. Stop the abuse that replicates like down a hall of mirrors. Just like the patterns in your family, right?
LK: Ouch. Yes. The point in the story when you realized this was very emotional for me…
GOD: Huh. Back atcha. So did you plan on a sequel after that? A trilogy?
LK: You’re setting me up, Gav. You planned it, of course. I thought the first book was it. No sequel necessary. But you woke me early one morning. “Wait!” you yelled. “You think I’m okay after what you put me through? All that constant abuse and trauma while I was growing up?”
GOD: Uh-huh. Then what?
LK: I did my research. Complex PTSD hadn’t been widely defined when I was in practice years ago. Of course C-PTSD is the result of how all your traumas impacted you, the “last man standing” in your family. With very serious and debilitating reactions to triggers.
GOD: Which put the well-being of my wonderful wife Katie and sweet toddler Maggie at risk. Exactly what I didn’t want – I was supposed to break the hall of mirrors! But then you had to write another book, to rub it all in, right?
LK: So sorry, Gavin. Yes. Injury and damage from the past may be buried, but ‘What Lies Buried’ doesn’t stay buried. It may heal but leaves scars, invariably resurfacing, and must be dealt with. But you shared the lead in that second book with Katie, who discovers the good things she’d left behind in her own childhood, and wants to reclaim it all, claim her passions and power, instead of only being a caretaker to broken people all her life since childhood.
GOD: So that threatened our marriage, too. Thanks a bundle, Leslie.
LK: I hadn’t planned it that way! You and Katie diverted my plot in that direction. Then when you said you “could deal with scars, the ghostly relics of healed-over past injuries, but those assaults throughout [your] childhood are deeply embedded in the fiber of [your] being, self-perpetuating, self-replicating,” that was very emotional for me.
GOD: Well deserved. Sounds familiar, huh? So what did you learn from that?
LK: Well, to be careful of giving my characters free rein, right? Seriously, I realized that most of my life had been warped by the abuse and trauma in my childhood, that I was literally a “poster child” for Complex PTSD.
GOD: Welcome to the club. So how are you going to redeem yourself – how are you going to save me in the last book of the trilogy?
LK: Katie and Maggie are gonna kick your ass, Gavin. In ‘Power Play’, coming out late next winter, Katie takes the lead, to reclaim her artistic talents, passion, and power – which other people try to take from her.
GOD: Like me?
LK: You and others. Passion and strength attract weak people who try to co-opt or steal other people’s power. Especially men taking the power of women.
GOD: What about me? Do I recover, or stay a basket case?
LK: You may remember Dr Pedersen explaining that C-PTSD is very resistant to therapies and treatments; some methods work for some people but not all, and it takes a long time. Years. Pedersen tries some special ‘magic’ for you, and it ends “Happy For Now.”
GOD: Wow. Thanks. Maybe I’ll forgive you. Are you working on anything else? Other people’s lives you’re messing up?
LK: Yes. I’m hoping ‘Finding Harmony’ will be published in 2026. I planned it as a simple mystery, but―
GOD: Your character took over and―
LK: Revealed that she was really damaged, hiding her secrets behind her persona as a top psychotherapist in L.A., then discovers she’d been adopted, then―
GOD: Stop! More revelations about you, huh?
LK: My characters keep trying to tell me stuff about myself, but they’re really talking about universal human issues.
GOD: Right. I guess that’s why your books have received so many awards. Thanks for this chat, Leslie. I think…
LK: It’s been a ball…
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