Click on, Forensics and Dragon Fire at the bottom of the page to get a FREE COPY!!!!
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
I’ve been writing short stories since I was in fourth grade! Later in life, I decided to enter the field writing non-fiction books. I wrote four of the For Dummies books, which put me on the map. Then I moved over into fiction writing after studying under the great Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch and haven’t looked back.
Describe your desk / writing space.
LOL, it’s a standard computer desk, laid out without too much clutter. The big issues for any writer are ergonomics – if you compromise your wrist posture or seating, you’ll pay for it down the line! About the one luxury I’ll admit to is a mesh-seat and backed chair that lets air circulate around you so you don’t get overheated.
Do you have a writing routine or do you write when inspired?
I wish I had a more consistent writing routine, but sometimes life interferes. However, I put in some good hours in front of the screen every day. You need to practice writing at speed for long stretches to get things done.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? Which scene was your favorite to write?
I literally cried when I had to write the death scene of one of the major characters. It’s one of those oddities of this profession…that you grieve over the death of a person who’ll never exist outside of your own head.
It’s even more amazing when you make other people cry over this, too.
On the other hand, you can feel the exhilaration of whenever the main character pulls themselves out of a hopeless scrape. When they come out a little ahead of where they started.
What inspired your book/series?
I have the exact moment on audio tape! I was listening to a lecture by Kris Rusch about how you can come up with new ideas by smashing together unlikely combinations. One example she gave was ‘How about writing like C.S. Lewis on speed?’
I thought: “Hm, how about C.S. Lewis meets C.S.I.?”
And that’s how the 10-book Fantasy & Forensics series was born!
What authors or books have influenced your writing?
Aside from Kris Rusch and Dean Smith, there’s a bunch: Roger Zelazny, Jack Chalker, JRR Tolkien, David Eddings, Clive Cussler, David Preston, and Michael Critchton. How’s that for a start?
How do you come up with the title to your books?
Ideally, a title should instantly tell the reader the book’s genre, and maybe give a clue as to what the book’s about. For the first book in my Fantasy & Forensics series, you have centaurs, and a crime they’re supposed to have committed: Centaur of the Crime. Or the free novella featured here, which involves a dragon and the use of forensics to solve a crime: Forensics and Dragon Fire.
What are you working on next?
I’m finishing up another book in the Plague Walker Medical Thriller series, and then I’ll be swinging back to fantasy again!
If you could live anywhere, in this world or fantasy, where would you live?
I love Texas Hill Country, which is close to where I already live. Perhaps in a hilltop villa surrounded by gnarled valley oaks, with views overlooking the vineyards of a local winery.
On the other hand, I believe one of the perks of living in Tolkien’s land of Númenor was immortality, along with a nice Mediterranean climate. So…yeah, I’d at least rent a condo there.
What is your favorite meal?
Good lord, I’m a total foodie…you’d make me choose ONE meal?
All right…prime grade ribeye steak, sous vide’d and grilled medium rare.
Coffee or tea? Wine or beer?
Diet Cola with a lot of ice, please. I like my caffeine cold.
Describe yourself in three words.
Ignores instructions to a fault. 😊
