Hi everyone,

Thank you for finding me here! Seven years ago, I wrote copy for this page before my debut novel had even come out. Then my debut won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for best suspense novel of the year, was nominated for a bunch more, and my family and I spent seven a total of fifteen months on the road on what Shelf Awarenss called the world's longest book tour. A second novel came out a year after the first (and we hit the road again, then a third (and yup, we did it again). Indie Next Picks, recognition by Suspense Magazine, another award (the Silver Falchion for best novel). My debut has become a USA Today bestseller, and was even included in a Book of the Day calendar and on a list of 100 Mysteries to Read in a Lifetime. You’d think things were going pretty well, right? And then...

I went careening into a giant concrete wall.

It took me eleven years to sell my "first" novel, which was really the eighth one I’d written. Eleven years of rejection and toil and hard work and disappointment and getting slammed down before raising a hand--sometimes just a finger--to indicate that, while beaten and bloody, I wanted to try again. You'd think after all of that, I'd be done with the hard parts. Time to buy the yacht and go live in the Islands.

Ah, but publishing isn't that simple, and writing isn't either, and neither is life. The publishing biz is a beast that often makes no sense. It's a camel with many humps, and you have to keep climbing them, shuffling around and trying to find a comfortable seat. To mix metaphors as no writer should.

After my third novel came out, my editor was let go, and I suddenly had no home for my work.

Luckily, I had a new book all ready to go, which my agent was eager to submit. And at least it would be easy this time, right? After all, one of my books was a bestseller. Two had won major awards. I had starred reviews. Readers I loved. A slew of successful events I’d done on tour.

Not right. It seems the rejections don't stop just because you've had some success. It took my agent and me over a year of perfecting that book, seeking support in the form of blurbs, and tolerating no's before offers began to come in. In the end, we had the excitement of an auction--and better yet, I was able to find a home with a publisher that I truly feel understands both me and this tricky business. My fourth novel came out with Sourcebooks in 2018, and my fifth is due to drop this July. All while my third book is in the works as a (small, independent) movie, currently deep in pre-production, script completed by a writer whose work I love.

I'm so very glad you've come to join me atop the camel. Let's ride.

Love from the Hills of Wedeskyull,