I’m a goody two shoes. I’ll admit it. As a kid, I followed the rules, colored inside the lines. I put all 64 Crayola crayons back in the box when I finished drawing my five-legged ponies and rainbows instead of scattering them all over the play rug like a philistine. I knew the difference between…
Nemesis finds Evan in conflict with one of his best friends, Tommy. What was the path of their relationship that brought them to this point? They have a gruff reliance on each other. After all, Tommy supplies Evan with all his weaponry and ordnance, even his Ford F-150. It takes a lot for Evan to…
My first four novels were all set in New York City, where I lived for 20 years. I wrote about the city, in part, because it was easy. It was home. With eight million people, there was literally a story on every corner, and since I’d been a local news reporter for several years, I…
School. The best days of your life, the worst days of your life, or the just-fine days of your life? Whichever it is, most people have potent memories and numerous anecdotes about their time in education, and schools are—unsurprisingly—fertile ground for writers to explore the human condition. I set my debut novel, The Four, in…
I trained as a social worker when I was in my twenties and occasionally worked with troubled young people who’d grown up in chaotic families. Perhaps, that was why a radio documentary about teens living in residential care moved me so much. The programme explored a few of the unscrupulous private companies that run residential…
When I was younger, I loved all of the urban legends that were told on the playground. In fact, I specifically remember being the ringleader of these macabre story times, often scaring the other children with tales of babysitters getting creepy phone calls, being licked from beneath the bed (still the real reason why I,…
The road to hell will be paved by killer robots. That’s the conclusion I reached when researching Book #2 in the Porter Beck Mystery Series, Shades of Mercy. Living where I do, in close proximity to perhaps the most secretive piece of desert in the world, there is never a lack of material for a…
People often ask me which aspects of my varied careers in journalism, diplomacy, and academia have served me best in my current foray into crime fiction writing. All contributed plenty, of course. But looking back, I’d say that during eleven years as a diplomat in the United States Foreign Service, I learned quite a few…
I love books that have either children or older adults as protagonists or main characters. They speak honestly and I feel, for the most part, are able to see the world through lenses that are not clouded with their own judgment, or fear of judgment from others. Children, because they aren’t yet jaded, and older…
The biggest problem with conspiracy theories? They’re so much fun. In childhood, I cut my teeth on cryptid stories like Bigfoot, then moved on to more expansive mysteries like the Bermuda Triangle and UFOs. By high school, I was deep into reading Michael Crichton and John Grisham, and I’ve since realized that the majority of…
