When people think about dark paranormal romance, imaginary conflicts tend to come to mind. Secret vampire cults bent on world domination. Rabid werewolf conflicts. A holy war between angels and demons. But for me, some of the darkest crimes I can imagine have been committed by ordinary mortal men. Because of this, all the fantasy I write–even the romance–tends to be socially aware, and two of the books I’ve written for Silhouette Nocturne have addressed the subject of genocide.

I take it as a good sign that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has decided to hand over a suspected war criminal, though I hold out less hope that Rwanda will return the gesture by extraditing rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, who is currently being held under house arrest. The weird part is, I’m not sure they should. The politics of that region are literally murderous, some of it stemming from greed, some of it stemming from tribalism and some of it finding its source in simple survival instinct. Laurent Nkunda claimed to be defending an ethnic minority from persecution, and he may have even been doing so. Or he may have simply been a war criminal. Without a trial it is hard to know, but is the Democratic Republic of the Congo really the best place to have that trial?

In the romances I write for Silhouette Nocturne, I try to be globally aware. My first full-length romance novel is set–in part–in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the villain I created was inspired by General Laurent Nkunda, who is mentioned in the article below.

I was encouraged by his arrest last year, but it seems things aren’t improving and some people are blaming the UN.

It’s hard to know what the right solution is, but it’s important to at least know what’s going on.