What are some day jobs you have held, and how have they influenced your writing? I move around a lot as an adult, which means picking up whatever jobs I find in each new community. Although I’m a trained wildlife biologist who has spent time doing field research, I have also been a substitute teacher, First Aid instructor, assistant to the Crown Prosecutor (similar to a District Attorney), tour guide operator, and hotel guest services agent, to name a few. This vast assortment of jobs allows me to draw on a variety of experiences when crafting a story or bringing a character to life.

What inspires you to write? I think the moment I first considered myself a writer wasn’t when I published a book, or when someone called me an author — it happened long before that. It was quiet, almost sacred, like a realization that sneaks into your heart before your mind is willing to accept it. I became a writer the day a blank page stopped frightening me and started calling me. I remember sitting alone one evening after another draining day of my Bar Vocational Course, my desk buried under case files and responsibilities.

Can you share a little bit about your latest book? My latest story Off is about a woman who puts her partner through harsh rituals to prove his love for her. It is a story that explores love, madness, and needing someone too much. Because of their enmeshment, Peter feels like there’s nothing he can do to show his woman that he loves her and isn’t going anywhere. Tell us more about your main character. What inspired you to develop this character? The main character, who is unnamed, is very insecure in her relationship.

What is the most important thing that people don’t know about your genre but that you would like for them to know? Dystopian fiction isn’t about the end of the world—it’s about the parts of ourselves we can’t outrun. People often assume the genre is all ruin and spectacle, but what I’m really writing about are the quiet, human fractures underneath. My work leans into land-memory, generational trauma, and the way a place can inherit a wound just as easily as a person can. The world isn’t destroyed in The Outlands…

A powerful sorceress wants the Queen of Ends dead – revenge for the king's refusal to hand over his crown. Believing the Land of Ends to be rightfully hers, the sorceress conjures creatures of darkness to hunt the queen. She is not expected to survive the night. Only the wizard Lashlor Leaflin can protect Queen Narraki Dragonsbane. Except Lashlor believes that anyone who abuses magic will not see the goddess in the afterlife, so he avoids using it – at almost any cost. Torn between his beliefs and loyalty to the throne, Lashlor faces an impossible choice: risk the goddess' wrath or risk the kingdom and all in it.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer, and how does that affect your writing? Part-time. It definitely slows it, and I have to spend a fair amount of time reading the last few paragraphs I wrote to refresh my memory before I can start writing each time, especially if a few days have passed. I could probably publish four to six books a year if I wrote full time – to me, writing full-time means writing (or doing something related to your writing career) at least eight hours a day, just like we generally work eight hours a day.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer, and how does that affect your writing? I am a part-time writer. I feel it has both positive and negative effects on my writing. Sometimes stopping writing for other responsibilities seems to impede creativity. But I find having a life beyond writing is important for keeping me grounded in the real world and the challenges of life. What have you written so far? I wrote a weekly newspaper column for more than a dozen years. It began after my retirement. To date, I have written three novels.

What inspires you to write? What inspires me to write are the people who need it. I believe that stories can reach people in ways that ordinary words sometimes cannot. There are readers who look for comfort, hope, or even just the feeling that they are not alone, and that is what pushes me to keep writing. Whenever someone tells me that they saw themselves in my characters or that my story helped them through something, it reminds me why I started in the first place. Writing is not only for me, it is also for the people who are waiting for words that can touch their hearts.

Why did you choose to write in your genre? I’ve always loved mysteries. I devoured Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a child. Then Victoria Holt and Daphne du Maurier as a pre-teen. Then my romance phase took over and I read quite a lot of bodice rippers as well as classic Jane Austin. So the mystery romance or romantic suspense sub-genres let me indulge in two of my favorite things at once: a twisty puzzle and a love story with emotional stakes. I love that I can keep readers turning pages for “just one more clue” while also making them root for characters to find love, even if they have to dodge bullets or untangle family secrets along the way.

Can you share a little bit about your latest book? My latest book is Shot: A Dictionary of the Lost, a collection of short stories about the epidemic of gun violence. It is organized like a dictionary, with one chapter for each letter of the alphabet. So, A for Anna, B for Benjamin, C for Chester, etc. The stories are all fictional, and characters represent all ages and regions and political persuasions. The common denominator is their tragic involvement in a moment of violence. You might think this sounds like a violent book, but I would say it’s less violent than your average TV drama.

What inspires you to write? I write because silence hurts louder than any scream. Growing up in a culture where emotions are often buried beneath duty, expectations, and fear of judgment, I realized that many people carry entire oceans in their hearts, but are never taught how to swim. What inspires me to write is the unspoken: the words we choke back, the tears we hide, the love we’re afraid to confess, the pain we pretend doesn’t exist. I write not to be heard, but so that someone, somewhere, can feel less alone when they read my truth.

Why did you choose to write in your genre? I’ve always loved monsters and mythology and have used it to fuel my writing. In my high school freshman year creative writing class, we practiced writing horror for Halloween, and I just fell in love with the genre. The love became an obsession in 2020. I liked scary movies before, but there was something about the pandemic and lockdown that made me take refuge in our darkest genre. Maybe there’s a bit of optimism in it. If these people can survive the worst case scenarios put to screen, then I can survive the horror all around me.

Years ago, a reader shared with me how much she appreciated the focus on motherhood in my stories. This caught me by surprise because I'm not a mother and hadn't intentionally made motherhood a theme in my writing. But this reader's comment made me think about the role of mothers in my novels, and I found myself doing a deep analysis of my own work! It turns out my fiction often examines the relationship between mothers and daughters in particular, and nowhere is this more important than in my debut novel, …

What inspires you to write? That’s such a good question! I am usually inspired by anything and everything. I may be inspired by a really good song, people and even random moments. Often times, I go through a little ritual of reflecting on all the interesting things that I experienced throughout the month, then I will simply allow my imagination to do the rest! When did you first consider yourself a writer? I considered myself a writer when I published my first novel, Gideon & The Crimson, way back around 2016.

Why did you choose to write in your genre? I am fortunate that I can write multiple genres, but the one I return to most often is mystery/thriller. I love them, both as a writer and reader. I have been fond of mysteries since I was a kid, inspired by Encyclopedia Brown and Scooby Doo. As I got older, the thriller aspect of mysteries appealed to me. I love the danger, the suspense, and the action as much as the mystery. Of course, all of these stories begin and end with the characters.

In 2015, Joy Lanzendorfer wrote an article for The Atlantic on submission fees where she warned, “If all publications did this, there’d be no professional writers, only people with other jobs who w…

Why did you choose to write in your genre? Women's fiction (which some call Book Club Fiction) often explores themes that move readers, such as relationships, personal growth, and the challenges of balancing the roles of our lives. This genre has allowed me to address subjects, such as the opioid epidemic, catastrophic hurricanes caused by climate change and the spectrum of  gender variation. Character development is my favorite part. It allows me to delve into emotions, struggles, and triumphs. And I think this makes for compelling novels. I also love the idea that my stories can spark conversations, whether about the characters' decisions, societal issues, or personal experiences we can share together in discussions.

The shuttering of the encampment located downtown comes months after Cornelius Taylor’s death.

Donald Trump is thought of as a terrible president who doesn’t care about humanity. While that assertion is true, he had lots of help from his like-minded predecessors in developing plans for war and ...