​I took a year and a half hiatus on the Peyton Brooks series to write The Year of Discovery. I had this vision of twelve women confronting different issues in society and I wanted to try writing one novella per month. I accomplished that goal, but it was time to return to my favorite crime fighting duo.
 
It felt so right to get back to my friends. It was like slipping on a really comfortable pair of jeans. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to recreate Peyton’s world with all of her complicated relationships and the crimes that demand an extra level of research and preparation.
 
For this book, I got to return to Hamburg, Germany. I visited Hamburg in 2015 with my son, Jared. We didn’t have long to stay in Hamburg, but it made a lasting impression on me and it became the perfect foil for Peyton’s latest adventure.
 
This book marks the seventh year since I began the series and sixteen books later, Peyton remains a fan favorite. I hope to keep writing about Peyton’s life and her motley crew of friends and family for many more years to come.
 
Once again, thank you to my readers for their patience. I hope Frankenstein in Hamburg lives up to your expectations.

In January 2019, I embarked on this journey to bring readers the story of twelve women connect by the death of another.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to write twelve novellas, one a month, but it was an important endeavor and I’m delighted to say that I have now released the twelfth and final book in the series. With Mika’s journey now complete, I can look back and reflect on the dynamic lives of these twelve women.

I hope that my readers will see themselves or someone they know in these books. I hope they will know that whatever their struggle, there are others out there facing it too. And just so, there are women willing to celebrate their triumphs!

​The Year of Discovery is a celebration of women of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. From Maddie, Destiny, Lexie, Rosie, Lizzie, Mel, Margot, Angela, Roxanne, Moira, Mariko and of course, Mika, may the Roaring Twenties be a decade of advancement for women everywhere. Keep fighting, sisters.

​Last year, 2018, became the year of the woman with the #metoo movement and record numbers of women being elected to Congress. Women have fought hard to find their place as equals in society, and this change has been inspirational.
 
I thought of this series as I watched women across the country march and I wanted to tell the stories of twelve women joined by the death of another woman. This is a series about these women’s triumphs and tragedies, and the way women band together to make things better.
 
Ultimately, though, these are stories about women living their everyday lives, fighting their everyday battles, and sometimes…sometimes…getting to fulfill their dreams.

As 2017 comes to a close, I wanted to stop and reflect on the last year and thank my readers for their continued support. Without the cards, emails, and Facebook posts I receive from you, I probably wouldn't keep writing. Whenever I feel down or overwhelmed or just plain defeated, one of you will send me a message that buoys my spirits again.

Caffe Macchiato is the final book for 2017, but I have much more planned for 2018. Peyton has more adventures coming her way and Zion will certainly get dragged into another case. The World of Samar will have a new installment and I will be launching a trilogy in the next few months, a new contemporary fantasy.

So, as we finish out 2017, I want to wish my readers a beautiful holiday season, a wonderful new year, and I look forward to continuing to hear from you as we launch into a whole new world of escape.

So, I decided to do a holiday book, and I decided to do it a little late. I've been on a mad dash to get Espresso out before Halloween and here it is. Join Sequoia in celebrating their first ever Fangtastic Howl-o-ween Monster Bash. Of course, Deimos would be the one to coin that title.

I really love third books in a series – both the ones I write and the ones I read. By the third book, you know the characters, you get to explore their lives in a little more detail, and you are firmly rooted in their world. By the third book, I know how my characters are going to react in a situation. Their personalities have become like old friends and I don't have to work to recapture the feelings they give me.

This installment gives the reader a lot more background on Tate's life. I hope you enjoy reading about his journey to escape his past and find refuge in Sequoia as much as I enjoyed telling it. Oh, and of course, happy Halloween!

With the eleventh installment of the World of Samar series, The Fugitive of Eldon, I have continued my fascination with epic fantasies.

I love playing with the politics and history of this world, creating more lore with each new installment. I also like returning to my roots. I began this exciting life of an author with my first epic fantasy, Emerald. It only seems fitting to return to it once in a while.

This book is particularly special to me. Alana Eldralin is a pampered young woman who learns that true strength comes not from the power she wields, but from the strength of her love. I hope you enjoy Alana's adventure.

Coming back after more than a year and writing Peyton's next adventure should be difficult, but Peyton and company have become real people to me. I can instantly pull up my mental image of them. I can hear Abe making the latest inappropriate comment, or Jake blundering through something with his usual good natured silliness. I can hear Radar scolding, giving his life lessons to a recalcitrant Peyton, or Maria criticizing her hair.

The fun thing about writing this one was Marco. He's grown so much over the years and become a three-dimensional person. With Peyton off adventuring around the world now, it's up to Marco to hold their little misfit family together and this isn't a natural fit for him. I'm not going to lie. I get great enjoyment putting him in situations that I know make him uncomfortable. Even I'm never sure of his reaction.

As always, I'm grateful to my readers for their patience and I hope Haunts in Bodie will gain a special place in your heart as it did in mine.

The character of Jaguar fascinated me in Cafe Au Lait, His story of a man facing great change unveiled itself in my mind as soon as I wrote the last words on Zion's latest adventure. I knew he had to have his own book, but as soon as I finished it, I wasn't sure what genre of book I had written.

I'm apparently not the only one. A few early reviewers have sent me emails telling me Jaguar isn't like their usual read. Talking with my father about it, we both couldn't decide what category it best fits under. That probably has a lot to do with the character himself. Jaguar just doesn't want to be labeled.

I teach my high school students about static and dynamic characters every year. A static character is a character that stays pretty much the same over the course of a novel. Think Rip Van Winkle. Old Rip has pretty much the same outlook at the start of the novel as he does when he wakes from his long slumber at the end of the novel. He winds up telling and retelling his story to keep alive his past, and this rehashing of events doesn't allow him to grow.

A dynamic character changes over the course of a novel. It can be a good change. For instance, Scrooge from A Christmas Carol is the most dramatic example of this. He undergoes a vast transformation that turns him from a miserable, old curmudgeon into a loving, charitable benefactor. However, dynamic characters can also change in the opposite direction. They can become so damaged by their experiences that they are not able to function in society any longer. I think of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, who commits murder at the beginning of the book, then falls into psychological turmoil as a result of his actions. He constantly battles with his own conscience throughout the novel – on one hand, wanting to get away with the "perfect crime" and on the other, to receive redemption.

Jaguar fascinated me because I could feel he was a dynamic character. He had the potential to grow, but at the same time, I could still envision him snapping his fingers at his underlings, expecting absolute obedience and servitude. I'll leave it to my readers to decide if he's more Scrooge than Raskolnikov.

Ultimately, what did I decide to do about the genre designation? I picked family drama because when all is said and done, aren't we all a product of our family drama?
 
I hope you enjoy this latest entry into my catalogue of characters. I know I enjoyed writing about him.