Published Works

"Who I am is a writer. A writer who teaches, loves learning, and who finds time to write.”

— Dr. Dorothy Phaire, Ph.D.

My Story: From Dream to Reality

As far back in my childhood as I can remember, I always wanted to be a novelist.  My childhood and preteen years were spent as a hermit in my room, where I wrote make-believe stories, composed poems, painted and sketched pictures, and read 800-page works of fiction that allowed me to become lost in their imaginary world. Down to my basic core, I have always been a creative soul with a vivid imagination.

 When it was time to choose a major in college, there weren’t many practical role models that I knew of who were making a living as a full-time novelist.  Even past role models of authors from history didn’t provide me with practical examples. There are many writers throughout history whose working lives as a writer have demanded sacrifice with no guarantees. 

So I studied to become a college professor of English with the thought of teaching creative writing courses with summers off to write!  At least this is how I envisioned it back then.  But my plans did not take a linear path, and my early working career did not begin in the classroom.  I took many detours on my journey to become a fiction writer.  While studying for my Master’s degree, I accepted an entry-level position in the technical field as a systems analyst and later as a technical instructor where strong writing and communication skills were just as much sought after.  I continued to hone my technical skills in industry corporations like IBM, MCI and GEICO’s Information Systems Department as the years flew by.  A technical career choice met the criteria of providing security and a steady income. All the while, I missed my creative self as well as teaching creative writing.

 A ticking clock, a life full of demands attached to excuses, and financial obligations had become impediments to my fiction writing.  One of my historical role models is the author, Virginia Woolf.  In 1929, Virginia Woolf had said “a woman needs a room of her own and her own money to be free to write”.  This is still true for many aspiring writers today just as it was for Virginia Woolf back in the early 1900s. For many writers, a lack of time and money continue to impact their writing harvest.

 Once I had settled into a full-time technical career, added marriage and had a family of three daughters to raise, as well as a household to run, my carefree days, hours, and even minutes that I had enjoyed during my childhood inside an imaginary world, were all but gone.  There was no room for artistic or self-indulgent pursuits like writing fiction.  It’s not like I had “a room of my own”—an artist’s studio like Virginia Woolf had mused about as being the ideal setting for a serious writer. 

 That was around the time when my first wave of excuses took over. There’s no room in my life for self-indulgent pursuits like writing fiction.  I gave myself this excuse as well as many others for years as precious time flew by. The more I tried to climb the ladder of success in the technical world and achieve my validation through someone else’s assessment of me, the greater the demands on my time and energy and the greater the stress and self-doubts.  I offered myself excuses like I’m too tired or too busy right now.  I’m waiting for inspiration.  It’s too late or I’m too old to get started on a writing career now.  I continued to make these types of excuses until I realized nothing was actually getting written down on paper no matter how often I said I wanted to be a writer.  But there is another common obstacle other than lack of time and money that many writers face and that obstacle is fear of failure. 

 I think that just knowing who you are or what you want to be is only the first step.  Next you have to act on that revelation and strive to make your life fit that image or nothing will change. 

That’s when I realized it would have to be now or never.  I was never going to get back my carefree childhood days of being able to have time to pursue my dreams unless I grabbed it.  And, I would have to try harder to let go of my fear of failure.  So, instead of giving up, complaining, and being paralyzed by my fear, I took a different road. I began by stealing away 15 minutes, then 30 minutes and eventually a full hour in the early mornings or late evenings to work on my novel.  But, I first had to eliminate the excuses in order to even begin a writing commitment and move forward on my writer’s journey. 

 Eventually, I left the structured ‘9 to 5’ work schedule in industry and started my vitae as a college professor with a more flexible teaching schedule and finally summers off.  It wasn’t easy to produce a publishable 300-page manuscript after many failed attempts and rejections.  The one thing that helped me reach ‘The End’ for my first novel was to remove my fear and not give up.  If I’m being honest, the obstacle of fear continues to surface for me. I still have to ward off doubts, excuses, and negativity.  That’s when I must gather the courage to beat fear down and just move forward.  For me, as a writer, this is an ongoing battle.

 Looking back now, it’s easy to see what happens when someone with a strong creative spirit tries to fit into a mold that is not who they really are.  I don’t regret the choices that led me on so many different paths on this journey as a writer because I believe we learn and grow from all experiences—good and bad.  After all, I needed to take the time to grow, learn from my mistakes, and above all not give up.  As someone who embraces the identity of a writer, I will continue to go to my writing desk in my small, cluttered room at the top of the stairs, where the furniture doesn’t match and the bookshelves are made of bargain-brand wood painted white, and I will have the courage to write.

 Despite the ups and downs, it’s a wonderful journey—this writer’s life.  I hope you will enjoy reading my novels.

 

Murder and the Masquerade

Book 1 of Mystery/Romance Series

Set under the backdrop of our nation’s capital, Murder and the Masquerade is a story of self-discovery for an attractive yet lonely psychologist who feels trapped in an unfulfilling life; she then goes through an emotional and sexual awakening to reclaim her inner strength and passion for life. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, she finds herself involved in a murder case, where initially she is a suspect. She then becomes conflicted about her ethical oath as a psychologist to protect her patient, who later becomes the prime suspect, and a growing passion for her young lover, who is investigating the murder case.

Purchase Murder and the Masquerade
 

Blind Delusion

Book 2 of Mystery/Romance Series

Things are not what they appear to be in Dorothy Phaire’s new novel, Blind Delusion, the sequel.  Mystery plus romance align in this psychological thriller where a lonely clinical psychologist realizes it can be more frightening to reveal her soul than to face death!

 This is the story of one woman’s odyssey in search of her own power and strength. By witnessing another woman’s triumph from tragedy, Dr. Renee Hayes learns how to not only survive but how to gain the courage to go after what she wants without shame or regret.

Purchase Blind Delusion

Reviews for Murder and the Masquerade

  • Murder and the Masquerade by Washington, DC author and professor Dorothy Phaire brings to life characters whose lives and careers are an entangled web of passion, intrigue, and unexpected tragedy. With Washington, DC and the surrounding metro area as a background, the novel may be pleasantly and sometimes achingly familiar to residents in its social, political, and economic landscape and nuances.. This fact is especially true in the characters’ dialogue and interactions as they painstakingly strive for personal and professional fulfillment.

    Dr. Renee Hayes, beautiful, successful psychologist, exemplifies many black women and women of all classes and cultures in urban America, but particularly in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. She and her husband, Bill, began their married lives with hopes and dreams of rising together in a dizzying labyrinth of professional and personal success. The roller coaster of life eventually bursts this bubble into a million fragmented pieces.

    Although Renee’s successful practice is obviously evident in the well-heeled trappings of her home and professional life, there is something desperately missing in her childless, loveless marriage. While half-heartedly resisting temptation, she ultimately rediscovers the lost passion in her life, while seeking to help her flawed clients realize their own emotional needs.

    For example, in one of several plot twists, Veda, a client whose early life was fraught with emotional neglect, becomes the victim of her lover LaMarr’s, greed and ambition. She seeks revenge and her decisions alter the course of both their lives, yet she ultimately takes the reigns of her life, for better or worse.

    Amidst this backdrop, Deek, the dreamy-eyed, well-built detective enters Renee’s life, and risks his own to unravel the murder mystery in which she unwittingly becomes entangled. While the role of detective is Deek’s profession, meeting Renee’s deep emotional desires becomes his ultimate calling. He embodies all that Renee has longed for even while she climbed the career ladder, eventually becoming immune to any emotional connection with her husband. A tragic turn of events involves the downward spiral of the health of baby Susanna whose adoption by Renee, against Bill’s wishes, also brings her to at least put a temporary ending to their complicated relationship.

    Readers will find themselves identifying and immediately intrigued by this modern-day novel of mystery, tragedy, love and high-stakes chain of events.

    —Review written by Gwendolyn Scotton Bethea, Ph.D., retired Howard University Professor. September 18, 2019.

  • Crafting an enigmatic yet absolutely spellbinding romantic-mystery novel must be one of the hardest jobs possible for a writer. Questions must arise about how a writer gives the reader just enough information to remain curious while simultaneously satisfying the reader’s curiosity just enough to keep the reader turning the pages of the book--fast. Dorothy Phaire in her novel, MURDER and THE MASQUERADE has discovered the formula, not only to structuring the perfect mystery plot but in structuring her fast paced story of a Black, female psychologist, the doctor’s patients, and her failing marriage while initiating the story with an unsolved murder. The setup creates a suspense that keeps the pages turning.

    Forget washing the dishes, doing the laundry, or paying the bills--all of these mundane chores will fall by the wayside until Dear Reader, you reach the last page of this unbelievably absorbing book!

    Phaire is writing about a psychologist and yet, it seems like the author herself is the psychologist, not because her writing is technical or dry--by no means. Instead, it is because Dorothy Phaire so craftily creates a protagonist so complex, one who leaves us asking so many, many questions after closing the book about this character. In fact, because MURDER and THE MASQUERADE is the first book in a new mystery- romance series, I suspect this is just the affect the author wants. Phaire teases us as readers into analyzing the analyzer. Why does the main character continually let the opportunities to repair her failing marriage slip? Why can’t she break out of her own shell to obtain the happiness she envisions? Why does she keep stumbling over her own self? What need to be some perfect image for others does this character possess that drives her into being who she is not?

    That analysis does not stop at the main character but carries over into all the characters that complement the protagonist--those supporting characters who work with her or as obstructions to her purposes. We constantly re-evaluate their motives, their behaviors and the whole book becomes a real guessing game until finally the murder is solved, a murder which while it surprises in the end, still weaves together all the book’s missing links. Dear Reader, you will not be disappointed with this book. MURDER and THE MASQUERADE will keep you enthralled from beginning to end.

    — Review written by Priscilla R. Ramsey, Ph.D. April 2008
    Howard University, Department of African American Studies, Washington, D. C. (Retired)

  • Two African-American women in the Washington, D.C., metro area face their middle-age struggles with love, family and murder charges in this empowering roman- tic thriller. Dr. Renee Hayes seems to have everything—a lavishly decorated French Colonial house, a successful psychology practice and a popular series of self-help books. On the inside, however, she is just as troubled as any of her patients. One of these is Veda Simms, a suicidal paralegal who has estranged herself from her ex-husband and daughter as a result of her dangerous obsession with LaMarr Coleman, a crooked attorney at her law firm. At first, the patient and doctor seem to be the antithesis of each other (with the exception of a shared hairdresser). Veda is petty and self- absorbed, concerned only with what LaMarr thinks of her, while selfless Renee tends to an in- fant with AIDS in her off-hours. A series of seemingly unrelated crimes befall the two women, and Renee finds herself in the throes of a torrid affair with Deek, a young detective investigating the crimes, as a relief from her tepid marriage. At the end of her patience with LaMarr’s shady activities, Veda goes from a weepy mess of nerves to a wrathful ex. When both women are wrongfully charged with LaMarr’s gruesome murder, they begin to question their chosen paths. In this rewrite of her 2001 book Almost Out of Love, Phaire devotes a sizable chunk of the story solely to her characters’ biographies, giving the reader a detailed psychological portrait of the two women but occasionally hindering plot pro- gression. Mystery and suspense take a back seat as chapter-long childhood flashbacks play out, draw- ing the reader deeper into the psyches of Veda and Renee.

    Displays a knack for shaping round characters with rich and troubled pasts—sure to be a treat for armchair psychoanalysts and book clubs alike.

    — Nielsen

  • The two main female characters in Dorothy Phaire’s Murder and the Masquerade learn that unconditional love first develops from within.

    Psychologist Reneé Hayes is not only caught in a loveless relationship with her husband, she’s in a loveless relationship with herself. Striving not only to find love, she struggles to find someone to whom she can bestow her love and energy. As a result, she throws herself into helping others while secretly doubting her ability to do so. A break-in at her home brings her in contact with the depths of her problems and a new object of her affection, a younger Detective Degas Hamilton.

    The other main female character, Veda Sims, an office manager for a law firm has lost her dignity and self-respect in her attempts to hold onto the affections of her lover, LaMarr Coleman, a lawyer at her firm and the man whose love she valued more than her marriage, her daughter or even herself. Her obsession with LaMarr brings Veda to the brink of self-destruction and to Dr. Hayes’ couch. The women’s professional connection turns dangerous as Veda fails to see who LaMarr really is and what he’s capable of.

    Reneé and Veda’s desire to love and be loved lead them to re-examine their choices and the influences in their lives. While the women’s transformation is nowhere near complete the reader gets the sense that things are now moving in the right direction. For this journey, I give Murder and the Masquerade four out of five Sable Seals.

    — Sable Lit Reviews Posted by LMReviews, May 24, 2009

Reviews for Blind Delusion

  • Blind Delusion is the second book by Phaire and continues her story of Renee Hayes, a middle-aged psychotherapist. Hayes is in a failing marriage, having recently ended her affair with a younger police detective and is still trying to find the love she knows she wants, but hasn't yet had, in her life. Several story lines converge around Hayes and her accidental re-meeting with Deek Hamilton, her former lover. Hayes' husband, Bill, takes her to a birthday dinner hosted by Clifton Shaw, a local attorney and DC power player. Bill is actively being courted by Shaw for a new company he's starting up, and she has misgivings about both his association with Shaw and this sudden shift in his career. A cross-story about Brenda Johnson and her husband Jerome, who is caught up in a local drug ring, collide with Hayes', as Deek is investigating the dealer Jerome works for. Deek needs Hayes to assist him because the drug dealer has started dating one of her best friends. Through everything, Hayes keeps looking for that spark that is missing in her life.

    Phaire has a strong sense of character, and all of them come across full and three-dimensional. Hayes is particularly well written, and her internal thoughts and conflicts give pathos to a woman of a certain age trying to make the best of what they have and yet not settle for less than they feel they deserve. Blind Delusion is a strong romantic thriller that successfully blends both genres.

    —Reviewed by Ross Rojek
    H ei d i K om l of s k e Owner / Co-Publisher
    1776 PRODUCTIONS
    Sacramento Book Review | San Francisco Book Review

  • In her latest book Blind Delusions , Professor Dorothy Phaire again uses the District of Columbia and its surrounding suburbs as the setting for this wonderfully crafted story of intrigue, murder, betrayal, love, and friendship.

    Readers of Professor Phaire’s last book Murder and the Masquerade would immediately recognize some of the characters in this latest installment from the Dorothy Phaire Mystery/Romantic Series. Readers would also realize that the two books are not dependent upon each other and the second book, Blind Delusion, expands the lives of the characters. Dr. Renee Hayes, the successful, but dissatisfied, and unfulfilled psychologist who in her attempt to help others must deal with her own personal inner turmoil in order to find satisfaction. Renee, the main character, searches for fulfillment through her friendship with her secretary, Brenda, and the younger Detective Degas “Deek” Hamilton. As the friendship between Renee and Brenda develops, so too does the turmoil in their lives. Both women are led down paths of loss, pain, renewal, and rebirth. Both women e xplore religion and faith as a source of strength. For Renee, the need to help is one that propels her to always examine her life, particularly, her life with husband Bill who in his own search has become even more distant. Bill, like Detectives Hamilton and Melvin Bradford, Jerome Johnson and the other men who populate the novel, explores friendship and relationship from the male perspective. These men through their relationships are held up to the light of examination as the psychological motivations that drive them are explored. They demonstrated the best in male bonding and the worst in male rivalry as they engage in corruption, murder, love, and law enforcement.

    Blind Delusion is a non-stop, action packed novel which captivates from beginning to end. The relationships which develop among the women of the book are easily counter balanced by those developed by the men. This tale of DC intrigue is a wonderful read for faculty and students alike and would make a wonderful fireside companion providing entertainment and unseen twists from start to finish.

    — Reviewed by Charles C. Ferguson

  • Dr. Renee Hayes, a middle-aged Washington, D.C., psychotherapist, struggles with a sputtering 14-year marriage, a recent bout of infidelity with a younger man and her dismissive husband’s worrisome change in careers. It’s nothing she, along with her therapist and anti-anxiety medication, can’t handle. But battling childhood demons, an inattentive spouse, a false pregnancy and an imprisoned father threatens to derail her. Meanwhile, Brenda Johnson, a new mother at 28, also struggles with her man Jerome, a former drug abuser and womanizer who works for a delivery service but inexplicably fails to pass a random drug test and is fired. For her 45th birthday, Renee’s husband Bill whisks her away to a lavish dinner party thrown by Clifton Corbin Shaw, a distinguished attorney with political aspirations. There, she is reunited with handsome, young Degas “Deek” Hamilton, the homicide police detective she’d had an affair with only months earlier. Although the indiscretion nearly ended her marriage, Renee agrees to see Deek again while Bill is out of town and learns that the swarthy detective is hot on the trail of James Mathias, a drug-dealing kingpin whom her unsuspecting best girlfriend Charis has begun dating. Jerome is seduced by the big money promised by those in the drug-trafficking business but gets caught up in the action and a hit is put out on him, risking the lives of both Brenda and their newborn, with whom the humanitarian hitman absconds. Several plot points effectively intersect as Renee’s marriage dissolves, Clifton is discovered to be in cahoots with James, and Brenda must carry on after Jerome’s murder. Phaire knows well the nuances of temptation and commitment, and she carefully paces her characters’ complicated lives and separate passions. Luckily, she steers clear of mawkishness and excessive melodrama.

    An inspired, satisfying indulgence for both mystery and romance novel fans.

    — Nielsen