I write mystery fiction. In The Dismal Swamp is my first published novel. I chose the mystery genre because I enjoy solving riddles, and I'm lousy at literary fiction, since I have no meaningful life experience whatsoever!

I also read a lot of mystery fiction, and I like to discover new authors and review their work. You can read some of my reviews by going to my blog page.

A Writer's FAQ

1. Where do you get your ideas?

Answer: The idea for In the Dismal Swamp came from my personal experience in exploring the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge. Some of the characters are loosely modeled on real people, such as a childhood friend who became a law enforcement officer.

2. How long did it take you to write your novel?

Answer: The first draft took about six months to get down on paper, but I had been thinking about the details and allowing them to incubate in my head for over two years before I decided on my approach.

3. How do you find time to write?

Answer: I take the bus to work, so I spend about fourty-five minutes a day scribbling into a legal pad. I then have a typist type it up in MS Word. For my first novel, I got lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view). I got laid off from my job, and had six months to do nothing but write.

4. How long did it take to get published?

Answer: I sent a query letter with three chapters to Avalon Books and they requested the entire manuscript about three weeks later. Avalon contacted me about 18 months after I send them the full manuscript with a letter saying they wanted to buy the book. It can take a long time to get published, but part of the reason it took this long was because I moved from Virginia to Missouri after I submitted my manuscript. They could have been looking for me for months.

5. Are you working on another novel?

Answer: Actually, I'm writing another novel based on the same characters. It takes place on Assateague Island, which is also part of the Federal Wildlife Refuge system in Virginia. It's located about 75 miles north of the Dismal Swamp.