Today the spotlight shines on Tru Clark & Lillian Diamon

Tina Ann Forkner’s sophomore novel, Rose House, is beautifully descriptive and laced with heartache and hope. Tina has provided great insight into her soulful artist and fragile chef in the spotlight below. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks Tina:~

Truman Clark

Brief physical description

Truman is really a mix of rough meets clean-cut. He is an artist, so he dresses pretty laid back even though his shirts are pressed. He is tall, tanned, shaves his head, and is well built because when he is not painting he is helping his friends in the local area doing odd work around the vineyards. He doesn’t need the work, but enjoys it. As a result his hands are calloused from the work and stained with paint from his art.

Actor/famous person

Jason Statham

Strengths and weaknesses

One of Truman Clark’s strengths is that he is perceptive about other people. He can see sides of people they may not even know they are showing. When he first sees Lillian, he already knows she is grieving for a great loss that has broken her and he can’t stop thinking about and feeling her pain.

Truman’s other strength is that he is patient. When he really cares about someone, he will wait for them emotionally, even if he can’t always stick around physically.

Quirk (if any)

No hero is perfect. Truman is a dependable and loyal person, but when he feels misunderstood by someone, he is known to avoid that person by skipping town. He has this in common with his friend, Lillian.

Your inspiration for the character.

Honestly, some of Truman Clark is inspired by my own husband. They have the same look to a degree and the same heart. Other qualities I shaped around what I thought my characters would be attracted to and how he fit into the story.

Background to the story

Truman is known as the Painter of Roses and is La Rosaleda’s small town claim to fame. His favorite scene to paint is the Rose House. He almost always paints just the Rose House and prefers not to have people or animals apparent in his paintings.

Lillian Diamon

Brief physical description

Lillian Diamon has the girl next door look with a little bit of California. With her wavy blonde hair and natural golden highlights, she is prettier than most women without really trying, even though she wouldn’t believe it if you told her. She is slender and medium height and has an elegant, but relaxed look about her.

Actor/famous person

Kate Hudson

Strengths and weaknesses

Lillian is an amazingly talented chef and in her younger years loved to host dinner parties where she developed a reputation for being an amazing hostess. In recent years she works part-time as a chef and while she is not trying very hard to meet her potential in her job, she secretly dreams of having her own restaurant someday.

Lillian also has a very soft heart filled with love for those she opens her heart too, but this is also her weakness. Lillian has been hurt so much by loss and by those she gave her heart to that she has a hard time letting go. She cannot seem to lay her cheating

husband’s memory to rest after his death and the question of her sister’s betrayal and abandonment clouds her every move, preventing her from opening her heart to new relationships.

Lillian also is known to avoid people when things aren’t going so well, sometimes even skipping town.

Quirk (if any)

Lillian hangs a photo of the Rose House on the break room bulletin board where she works. All the other employees hang pictures of their families. Lillian doesn’t have any family because she lost them in a horrific accident, but the photo of the Rose House represents something to her that she can’t explain to others.

Your inspiration for the character.

Lillian just came alive as I wrote. I guess she has some parts of me and some parts of my sister. We both grew up in Oklahoma and left home when we were young. I lived in California for five years after that, but Lillian has lived in Sacramento much longer. Real life is pretty boring and Lillian has more problems than we ever had. She also has a much darker outlook on life. She literally became her own fictional entity as I wrote the story.

Background to the story

Amid a tangle of rose blooms and thorns, widow Lillian Diamon’s private moment of grief is captured in a spectacular painting on display in a Sonoma Valley, California art gallery. Her quest to find the artist unravels a greater mystery changing everything about her loss-and her future. Filled with romance and intrigue, Rose House is a story of one woman’s journey for hope, faith and truth.

Thanks Tina for your detailed insight into Tru and Lillian ~ I really appreciate the effort you have gone to 🙂


On Monday, I will be spotlighting Trish Perry’s Sonny & Grig from her newest release, Sunset Beach.

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Rose House

Visit Tina’s website and blog

Buy Tina’s books at Amazon or Koorong