I grew up in a rural Missouri town in the far west suburbs of St. Louis. As early as kindergarten, I began my adventure as a storyteller. It wasn’t long before others caught on that my talented storytelling was actually a disguise for her tendency to be a just a very good liar. Luckily, by the time high school rolled around she got her act together and began to channel her bad girl tendencies into something constructive.
By the age of 16, she had written her first novel, Silent Witness – a John Grisham- like tale about the treachery and brutality of the Colombian cartel. Before ever hitting the book shelves, Silent Witness was adapted into a screenplay and, miraculously, picked up by a major Hollywood studio. It was at this time that I learned the harsh lessons of Hollywood and the literary world.
- NEVER pay an agent one measly dollar until you have a contract in your hands and listen to your parents when they advise you against blindly sending $500 to have your dreams come true overnight.
- Sometimes parents actually know what they are talking about when they warn you of scammers trying to steal your money and dreams.
For the next several years (okay, about 20 years), I held onto my dream of becoming a published novelist, but decided to take up procrastination instead. It didn’t pay well, but it sure felt great to get nothing accomplished and pursue other random dreams.
Finally, in 2012, after an eight-year period as a social worker and a seven-year stint as a business owner, I decided it was time to get back into the habit of storytelling . . . err, writing. I began freelancing and ghostwriting for several popular websites while continuing to postpone writing my own work.
My mother told me during my teenage years that writers write what they know. Of course, I didn’t take her mother’s advice back then and continued to write about drug cartels (because didn’t you know that every 16-year-old living in rural Missouri knows about drug cartels? Meth – maybe. Colombia drug runners – no). However – because it always takes me years to take good advice – after 20 years, I finally took that parental advice.
In late fall of 2013, I debuted my first novel as a bona fide adult. The Waiting Room is an Amazon bestselling, women’s fiction novel that started as the title of a short story collection, but quickly proved it could be so much more. It evolved into a story about the complexities of family, the invisible bonds that connect people, and pain that reverberates through the choices we make.
Since debuting The Waiting Room, I have released a short novella, Missing Girl, that has drawn critical acclaim from all over the world (Eek!) and was part of a project titled, Legacy, an Anthology, published by Velvet Morning Press.
I followed up Missing Girl with 60 Days, a psychological drama that continues where Missing Girl ends. My newest novel is The Murder Lawyer, a fast-paced, episodic novel about a young criminal defense attorney who gets in over her head defending murders.
Even though I live in a rural town 45 minutes from downtown St. Louis and grew up in the stix, I still consider myself a worldly girl. I like to say I am a Midwest girl with a NYC wardrobe and a SoCal attitude. I love to travel and people watch, and I continue to procrastinate . . . err write on a daily basis.
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