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What had happened was...

Life can change in a second. One minute, you're on top of the world. The next you're at the bottom of a large boulder wondering what's going to happen to you. This is literally what happened to me over 3 years ago, not long after publishing Identity .  It all started one fateful day in September of 2017 when I went hiking with a group of friends on Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. We made it to the top with no issues. It was great. We sat on the top for a while, enjoying the view while trying to hide from the flies. (Swams of flies. It was gross.)  We had just started to descend and I was walking down a very large boulder when my foot slipped and I began sliding down the boulder. Seconds later my foot hit a raised edge on the rock and I heard and felt a snap. I knew I was in trouble but was also a little in denial and promptly jumped to my feet and attempted to hurry back down the mountain. (Ridiculous.) I took about 10 steps before I was forced to accept the reality. A li
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Writing During Covid

 I've started work on a new book. Well ... 2 actually. But I can only focus on one at at time so I decided to focus on "What Can't Be Stolen" because I think I'll finish it faster than the other which is tentatively titled "Betrayed by Avarice" and is a Michael Cailen thriller.  (If you haven't read What Can't Be Bought , I think you're missing out. I really do think it's my best work yet, even though it's not a "thriller". It's filled with plenty of drama and intrigue so you won't be bored and I don't think it's terribly mushy either, but I'll leave that up to you. Ha.) Anyway, I digress. It feels weird to write a story where no one is wearing a mask and socially distancing. I don't know why it feels weird. It wasn't weird up until a few months ago. It was the norm. Yet still, as I write about my characters sitting at a restaurant, chatting without a care in the world, I can't help but feel l
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My Beef With Plot Holes

Part of the reason it takes me so long to write one of the Cailen thrillers is my strong detest of plot holes. I find movies hard to enjoy sometimes because so many of them have such giant plot holes I can't even get past it. Haha. Watch a couple "CinemaSins" or "How It Should Have Ended" (HISHE) videos on YouTube and you'll know what I mean. Just keep in mind, "What has been seen, cannot be unseen." Once your mind is opened up to plot holes, you might just see them everywhere. It's a curse.  Because I am overly aware of them, when I write I agonize over the story and events, endeavoring to make them both plausible and logical, which is not always easy. Sometimes I make a huge mistake and end up having to rewrite small, or sometimes large, portions of the book because the events don't make sense based on one tiny detail that can't be changed or ignored. I'll give you an example of one. **Spoiler Alert!** In Critical Play , Jessica i
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Things You May Have Noticed

You may have noticed that sunsets are a recurring theme in my books, as is hiking, being outdoors, the ocean, etc. This is no coincidence. I must admit that many of the characters (especially the female ones) have similar traits to myself. I love the ocean, hiking, camping, watching the sunset. I try to exercise and eat right but I'm certainly not a fanatic. I love dessert as much as the next person and I love coffee. That is not to say that I mirror all my female characters. I definitely don't cry as much as Jessica ( Black Pawn ), though I have friends who do. Haha. Sometimes I feel rather emotionless by comparison. I do love to drive though and when I was younger, did a lot of crazy things with my car like Jessica. Like her, I love manual transmission cars though now (in my old age) I drive an automatic. I am a major car enthusiast and I would kill to drive a Bugatti. A girl can dream.  Out of all my characters, I think Amanda ( What Can't Be Bought ) comes closest to my
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Why Russia Is In All My Books

If you've read any of my books, you've no doubt noticed there is a connection to Russia in all of them. Perhaps you've wondered, "What's her fascination with Russia?" Well I'll tell you. It's the language. I absolutely LOVE the Russian language. I love how it sounds, I love how they express things. Some people like French, others like Spanish. I think Russian sounds like a perfect blend between the two.  If you've read Identity , then you might have guessed, I speak and read Russian. I wouldn't say I'm fluent, but conversational. I can carry on a decent conversation and if I was stranded alone in the middle of Moscow, I could get by. One of the advantages of speaking a language that so few in the US speak is that you can carry on a private conversation in public with little fear of anyone understanding. Funny story, I went out for a drink with one of my friends a couple nights before I was going to have surgery on my ankle that would put me
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FREE Promotion on Kindle!

In an effort to give my new book some traction, I decided to offer a giveaway on Kindle . Promotion ends May 25, 2020. I was on the fence about whether to offer a Countdown Deal or just give it away. Amazon only lets me choose 1 option during the 90 days I opt to publish exclusively with them. Since I don't have any reviews yet, I opted for the giveaway. Only a small fraction of readers actually leave a review. I'm hoping enough people will download it and read it so that I can get a couple reviews under my belt. I deviated a little from spy thrillers to write What Can't Be Bought but it's packed with suspense and drama. If you liked my other books, I do think you will enjoy this one, even if you're not a "romance" reader. I'm certainly not a romance reader myself. 
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Expanding Distribution

Many years ago, when I first published Black Pawn , ebooks were gaining momentum. But for a first-time, independent author, publishing it felt like a daunting task. Amazon made it super easy. Which was good, and bad. Good because now you could publish your work without being at the mercy of a publishing company and you could do it for FREE! (It was a no-brainer.) Bad because literally anyone could publish anything. With that said, Amazon had some great tools and help for indie authors and I was grateful for the help and initially sold many of my books on Amazon. Black Pawn and Forced Move both spent 4 weeks in the top 100 spy thrillers on Amazon, even making it to the top 10! I couldn't have been happier.  Over the years though, sales dwindled. Mostly my fault. I'm terrible at self-promotion and hate it with a passion. (This blog is an attempt to correct that failing.) At any rate, I think the market has changed and so I've decided to break away from exclusively publishin
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