Randomize ME

It Started with a Whisper is a tale of revenge gone magically wrong.

My son had a teacher who couldn’t stand him and the story came from his desire to teach that teacher a lesson.

It didn’t happen in real life, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in fiction.

Puppy MacClarity is my favorite character because he’s a really good kid who finds himself doing some pretty bad things.

Writing is my day job these days, but before, I was a Sensor Technician in US Air Force. That experience had a huge influence on my writing. I worked almost exclusively with men. Once they got used to me, I got to be part of the club and hear things women aren’t usually privileged to hear. All the male characters in It Started with a Whisper came out the way they did because of those conversations.

I’m excited about Book two in the Away From Whipplethorn series, Fierce Creatures. It’s a fairy adventure like no other.

If you like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, you’ll like It Started with a Whisper.

Mature women, life-shattering events, friendship, and survival are explored in When Least Expected.

I write about what I know best: active, intelligent women in the sixties. Characters are fictional and affluent, but their emotional stories could happen to almost any woman.

This book was written sitting on the dock at our summer lake house. There, my imagination can flow with the water and be jolted by waves that crash into the sea wall as do the waves in the lives of my characters.

I, personally, relate most to the very private Suzanne. Her work is part of the glue that holds her together.

Yet, Jack Andrews is closest to my heart. While his life is totally different, his personality and caring generosity remind me so much of my husband of many years.

My previous careers were dance school owner and instructor, full-time mother and part-time volunteer, and residential real estate associate broker, in that order. I never pursued my life-long desire to be a doctor.

I suppose if I weren’t writing, I’d be in one of those careers, or maybe something else entirely. One thing is certain, I could never sit and do nothing.

I am currently working on two sequels to When Least Expected in The Women of Lakeshore Drive series. Each book is a complete stand-alone, but there is progression through each one. The first book covers over fifty years, the second less than a month. The third is still developing, but will probably evolve over a year’s time. A couple short story ideas are also bouncing around in my head and may emerge in the ebook world one of these days.

If you like the B.O.O.B. Girls, you’ll probably like my book, too. While that series is humorous, mine isn’t. In fact, mine is pretty heavy.

Nevertheless, the commonality is mature women who consider themselves quite young, and act that way!

Cozy Christmas love story set in the north Georgia mountains.

Bullying is such a big deal these days. I wondered what it would be like if bullying turned into a love story years later.

The character closest to my heart was Wyatt, actually. I could understand how he had changed and had no idea what his actions as a kid did to others.

No day job. I am a full-time ghostwriter and fiction writer.

I am excited to be releasing more romance novellas this year as well as some young adult/new adult stuff.

If you like Barbara Freethy, you’ll probably like my book too!

Bert discovers a salt shaker containing Mira’s memories after her death.

My partner gave me a challenge to write a story about an inanimate object that held some kind of power over the protagonist. However, what inspired the project was a piece on NPR about people who had survived a sudden, unexpected loss of a loved one. We often do not discuss death in our culture and I wanted to write a story that confronted the reader with that kind of loss. The story became an effort to reflect on the moments we have together in our brief existence. In order to write, I thought about how I would feel if I lost her and that thought fueled the story along.

It’s a tossup between Bert and Mira. The story is told from both their points of view. Bert tries to pull himself back to the land of the living by just doing — going back to work, meeting up with friends, making meals — but when faced with Mira’s memories that existence becomes a negative space devoid of meaning without her. Mira is happy in her life and with Bert. She lives to feel joy. When she is gone, we mourn the loss of that joy. Through Mira I remember why I love; through Bert I remember what it is to love.

This is an interesting question, because I can say that when I wrote “The Memory of a Salt Shaker” I was a banker. And my partner was constantly worried about my safety, as robberies were commonplace. However, there is a greater concern present when asking this question.

The issue of working after the death of a loved one is a central issue to “Memory….” I have always thought that those of us who live in the States have strange habits and rituals about work. For example, I once met this man who was proud that he never missed a day of work even when his wife was dying of cancer. Now, I understand that he may have had to work during that time, but his emphasis was not on the need, rather it was in his pride. We could say that he couldn’t deal with the issue of her loss, but it seems to me that the greater issue confronting many of us is wrapped-up in the question you ask here: one’s reason for existence is inseparable from work. Through your question of “Do you have a day job?” you imply that my day job is not what I do/am but rather the activity that supports my reason for existing: writing stories. This is not to say that I am unaffected by this conflation of work and purpose; I cannot deny its power. But it is strange nonetheless, because I am not only a writer I am an activist, community organizer, supporter of artists, financial advisor, reader, cultural constructor, and most importantly a lover, partner, friend and family member. This is what work does to all the stories I write.

The next e-book is “The Space Within These Lines Is Not Dedicated” (now available) which is a novelette about a woman who is visited by a cicada who tells her she has three days to live, but before her imminent death she has to choose whether or not to give up her potential and all that entails. It’s about life, the universe, and everything; and tango, talking insects, and love.

If you like Haruki Murakami, W.P. Kinsella, Ken Liu’s “Paper Menagerie,” and other slipstream, magical realism you may like my book, too.

Girl falls into coma but it’s really a witch’s spell.

I was walking my dogs on the mountain, and it came to me between one step and another. Out of the blue!

Gardag. She’s a fairly minor character, but still my favourite.

She’s a cyber dog who has been abandoned by her owner. Very fierce but likes a good scratch if you can slip a hand in between the armour plates.

I’m a teacher. I teach people how to use computers to do creative things like make animations and do web-design.

I get to meet all kinds of people, young and old, which is great for character research 🙂

The sequel to The Story Trap – The Broken Path (The Sisters 2) – is also out!

If you like: Charles de Lint, you’ll probably like my book too!

YA urban fantasy romance about two friends with superpowers

I had a dream, actually! I dreamt about two friends who sat together on a math test because when they sat together they knew more.

I worked off of it to make a connection between my two main characters, Aaron and Anna, that resembled an empathic connection but also allowed them to gain knowledge from one another that they wouldn’t have by themselves.

Then I threw some romance and superpowers in there and bam! Out came Connection.

One of my favorite parts to write was the ending.

The book is less action-driven than other fantasy books – we’ll see lots of action in the next book, but this one was definitely driven by Aaron and Anna’s relationship, and the ending resolves a lot of the struggles they deal with in the book.

I was grinning the whole time. I don’t want to give away any details but I hope readers find Chandler’s party as satisfying as I did!

I’m a full time student studying Linguistics and Social Sciences. I love learning about interesting things that can factor into my stories, especially when studying language and writing dialogue! And learning about social behavior whether in Psychology or Sociology sometimes helps me shape more realistic characters.

I also work part time at the library at my university with Serials and Electronic Resource Management. I can’t say the work itself has influenced my writing too much, but any human interaction can inspire a character or a conversation or a situation in a story of mine.

I’m currently writing a YA/New Adult Urban Fantasy set in Paris. Madison is training to be a Guardian, her magical world’s version of a law enforcement officer. When an orb with her father’s magic appears, nearly two years after he disappeared, she goes on a quest to find out who is responsible. Each clue brings her closer to the Head of the entire Department…and further from the boy she’s falling in love with, the Head’s son.

It has been so fun to write and I’m almost finished!

If you like: The Talent Chronicles by Susan Bischoff or Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel, you’ll probably like my book too!

THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY is a novel about power, corruption, and survival in Mexico.

I lived in Mexico, where I met people who inspired the story and characters.

It started out as a book about the country’s social system–which is more of a caste system than most Americans realize. The plot was helped along by today’s headlines about drug cartel violence. I’m a news junkie so finding inspiration for my books isn’t hard.

The main female character, Luz de Maria Alba Mora, is close to my heart. I met a lot of women like her in Mexico, women who were stuck at the bottom of Mexican society although they had the potential to run a major corporation. But they were maids or worked at a laundry and didn’t expect to ever be more than that. Luz had to be brave enough to get herself out of that mindset when the opportunity arose.

But more often that not, female readers want to talk to me about Eddo Cortez Castillo, the government attorney who goes after the drug cartel in the book. Okay, he’s hot. And so is the sex.

I hope readers will want to see the movie! (There is this dreamcast in my head with Eva Mendes and Antonio Banderas and Andy Garcia!)

More seriously, I hope that the reader will have learned something new about Mexico. Writing Luz’s transformation made me feel hopeful about Mexico’s future. If I can imagine changes for Mexican women, then it can happen.

CLIFF DIVER, the first full-length novel in the Emilia Cruz series. The series kicked off last August with the novella MADE IN ACAPULCO. Emilia is the first and only female detective on the Acapulco police force. She can take the heat . . .

If you liked Ken Follett’s early suspense books–EYE OF THE NEEDLE, KEY TO REBECCA, you’ll probably like THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY.

If you like international detective fiction such as the Rebus books by Ian Rankin, the Wallander series by Henning Mankell, or the Arkady Renko books by Martin Cruz Smith, you’ll like the Emilia Cruz series.

Gangs run the prison – B.J.’s struggle to find redemption.

I served prison time on drug charges. I turned my life around by going from addicted to drugs, to addicted to writing my experiences.

In Prison Riot, I was one of the only white inmates on the yard. I quickly found the biggest white inmate I could to work out with. We became friends with a handful of Mexican inmates from southern California who were heavily outnumbered by the northern Mexican inmates. When the riot kicked off, we helped out the southern Mexicans and were falsely labeled southern Mexican’s.

I’m inspired to show that incarcerating petty drug criminals in prison, is breeding an addiction into an affliction much harder to escape, for the inmates and the communities.

I’m biased, B.J. is my favorite character. He represents the discarded drug addicts and orphans of poverty who strive with all their heart to find a redemptive way out.

My favorite part to write wasn’t the actual riot, I got busted up a little. We went to solitary confinement with over one hundred Mexicans and the prison administration put a blue stamp on our cell. We soon found out that stamp signified we were southern Mexicans! It was fun to write about how hard it was to prove we were white inmates just helping out our new friends.

I also help inspire other prisoners to make a change through writing and art. I give a voice to the voiceless as much as I can and am starting a clothing line that uses inmate art. When I get it all the way up and running I want to give a percentage to victim restitution so the inmates are giving back, and finding some level of redemption.

If you like James Patterson or Elmore Leonard, you’ll love my books. I write fast paced crime thrillers from the inside of the criminal justice system out. Kirkus Discoveries Nielson Media related my first drug war novel Roll Call to the blockbuster movie Traffic.