This year, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Bloody Point. In celebration, each month we’ll feature the backstory of one of my twelve novels. Here’s the story of Battered Justice. Sometimes characters are “sticky.” I finish a book, but I can’t stop thinking about them. Such was the way with Cassie and Jake. By the end of Bloody Point, Jake and Cass had survived several traumatic events, culminating in Jake’s dramatic rescue of Cass on a dark, stormy night on the Chesapeake Bay. This near-fatal incident had created a bond in the two FBI…

This year, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Bloody Point. In celebration, each month we’ll feature the backstory of one of my twelve novels. Here’s the story of #3, Words of Conviction. As I began writing novels, I was blessed to have many FBI agents help me learn about law enforcement in general and the Bureau in particular. I always said to them, “Don’t tell me anything secret!” They didn’t—there was plenty for me to learn that was public knowledge. My friend Sharon was a Bureau forensic psycholinguist. She studied language in the context…

This year, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Bloody Point. In celebration, each month we’ll feature the backstory of one of my twelve novels. Here’s the story of #2, Seeds of Evidence. For most writers, the path to publication is a rocky one, full of twists and turns, long dry spells, accelerations, and reversals. My journey has been the same. Elated at the publication of Bloody Point in 2005, I wrote the sequel. Sadly, my original publisher decided not to do fiction anymore. No one else would pick up the sequel. What should I…

This year, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Bloody Point. In celebration, each month we’ll feature the backstory of one of my twelve novels. Here’s the story of Bloody Point. My husband took up sailing when I was past my adventurous stage. Larry loved the challenge of harnessing wind and conquering waves. I fought seasickness and pictured our young children as orphans. Maybe I’d like sailing better if I could write about it, I thought, as my husband’s hobby progressed. He’d begun with an 8-foot Snark sailboat, graduated to a 14-foot Capris, then fell…

I'm glad you are here!Just to introduce myself: I love books, dogs, and Jesus. Thirty years ago I was reading a lot of mystery/suspense: Grisham, Clancy, Cornwell ... that sort of thing. They all included some philosophical basis for life, some worldview. I wondered, why have Christians abandoned the marketplace of ideas? Then I got an idea for a story. What if ... the son of a door-kicking FBI agent was kidnapped by the drug gang he was investigating? Not coincidentally my husband, Larry, worked for the FBI. Not as an agent--he made Hollywood-style video training films. Next thing I…

I spent from September 2020 to February 2021 cleaning out the house our family of five lived in for 37 years. What an exhausting process! Hobbies, sports equipment, school papers, books, and all kinds of things filled the basement. I shredded huge bags of personal documents, threw out thousands of duplicate slides and pictures, and disposed of everything from a boat anchor to 2nd-grade school projects all while making my way slowly down Memory Lane. It was exhausting and emotional, and, when it was all done, I decided to treat myself to a little R&R: a month in Chincoteague. Do…