The following interview may be freely reprinted, all or in part

I wanted to explore what might motivate someone to try out for a reality show and what could happen after that normal person becomes a celebrity. Although reality show fans should enjoy reading the novel and learning about the inner workings of my fictitious program Sink or Swim, the book actually begins when the show's season has ended. My character, Cassidy, goes through the worst possible scenario as she has attracted a stalker who may be killing off her former competitors. The book explores how she reacts to the scary events happening around her and how her life changes, both positively and negatively, as a result of her stint on the reality show.

I know a lot about game shows in general because of my husband. He would love to appear on one of the more traditional game shows and has auditioned for a few. When we were visiting LA, he dragged me to an audition for The Price is Right. I was almost chosen as the producer interviewing our group spent the most time with me and one other woman in my age bracket. She was the one selected, though, probably because she jumped up and down and I didn't. She wound up winning a car. My husband and I also tried out for Jeopardy during a local contestant search. He passed the test and made it to the next level, but I didn't. He also passed the test and made it to the interviews for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and plans to audition for that show again. Come on, Millionaire - if you guys are reading this, he'd be the perfect contestant for your show!

I began my writing career as an editorial assistant at a daily newspaper in New England. Like my protagonist Kris Langley, I was responsible for answering the newsroom phone, writing obits and society announcements, and gathering “25 Years Ago Today” and “50 Years Ago Today” items from the microfilm. I never knew what I’d find when poring over the microfilm and that sparked the idea for a mystery novel.

That sums it up. I’d spend a couple hours flipping through the microfilm to get two or three weeks ahead, and by the end I was exhausted and had eyestrain. Sometimes, it was difficult to find enough noteworthy items and I’d comb through an issue multiple times. But, in other instances, the old news reports were fascinating to linger over. For example, I was a reporter when the movie Titanic came out and I used the microfilm to write an article about how the newspaper covered the ship’s sinking in 1912.

I was assigned a town beat, which meant covering the schools and town boards, as well as breaking police and fire news in that community. I also wrote feature stories and loved weaving in description to make the piece come alive. In addition, I wrote several entertainment articles and served as the health page writer. As a freelance journalist, I’ve continued feature writing with a specialty in parenting, health and wellness, and have also done some in-depth investigative reporting.

I always wanted to be a fiction author. My eighth grade creative writing teacher recommended me for a journalism class and I said “No, thanks.” I was painfully quiet growing up, so extreme that nowadays they have a name for it – selective mutism. I couldn’t imagine going out and interviewing people. My college major was exercise science/health fitness, but too late, I realized it didn’t “feel right.” After graduation, my mother encouraged me to apply for a part-time editorial assistant job at the local newspaper. That job changed my life.

I learned a great deal as a journalist, such as interviewing, writing tight and conveying complex information in a readable way. You’ll find lots of dialogue in my novels as I’m used to breaking up text with quotes. I’ve also called upon my journalistic skills to research the facts and descriptive details that will make a fiction story ring true. To research my books, I’ve ridden in a police cruiser on patrol, fired guns at the range and visited a state prison. My article “A Field Trip May Be Just What A Novel Needs” describes how authors research their novels.

I grew up reading Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. My very dedicated fifth grade teacher encouraged my writing talent, which inspired me to start a “series” about a detective named Cathy Summers and her loyal sidekick Katie. I won my first writing contest in fifth grade, penning a book review of a Nancy Drew novel in a competition sponsored by a local bookstore. Since childhood, most of my stories have been mysteries or suspense, perhaps because I like the idea of justice prevailing in the end. My first book Face-Off, written in my high school study halls and published by Avon when I was 18, was one of the rare exceptions to those genres as it reflected my passion at that time for ice hockey.

A little of both. When I was in middle school, I came across a Greek mythology book in a used bookstore. I was intrigued by the stories of the gods and goddesses who lived on Mount Olympus, with all of their quarreling and imperfections. While I was working on Twenty-Five Years Ago Today as an adult, I had the idea to make mythology the subject of the victim Diana Ferguson’s paintings. I did research to find just the right myths to highlight, but the process was easy as I pretty much knew what I was looking for and just needed to refresh my memory. Ironically, I used my childhood mythology book as one of my reference tools.

I used to do a loose outline, planning out four or five chapters ahead. I liked surprising myself, but the drawback was that by the time I finished, I often needed to go back and rewrite the earlier chapters, adding clues and laying groundwork so the ending didn’t come out of left field. Now I outline the entire book beforehand and I do detailed character sketches of the protagonist, villain and important supporting characters. It takes pressure off knowing where the book is going and that appropriately-positioned plot points will take the story in unexpected directions, however the outline isn’t written in stone. I do make changes as I write, and if I’m not sure about something, I leave that part of the outline blank for awhile and jump right in, or else I’d never start chapter one.

I grew up in New England and know the region well so it was a natural choice. I usually create a fictional small town as the main setting of a book, and intersperse it with scenes set in real-life places such as Cape Cod, Boston or the Green Mountains of Vermont. I also find that describing the New England seasons, and the ever-changing weather, is a helpful way to set the mood. For example, Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, which takes place in the harsh New England winter, has a darker, more introspective mood than my lighter mystery/suspense manuscript Sink or Swim, which is set in the summer and is the perfect beach read.

Also, the seasons represent times of transition. In each of my novels, the heroine is in a transitional period where she needs to grow and find herself to get on the right path. Unfortunately for my protagonists, I use that opportunity to plunge them into conflict and jeopardy. New England works well as a backdrop for my books, and I couldn’t imagine setting them anywhere else. Though personally, I wish we could skip the snow of January and February and jump right to spring….

I’m working on Sign of the Messenger, the first in a mystery series featuring Deirdre Sheridan, a psychic healer and the co-owner of a quirky New Age shop. This manuscript was a recipient of the William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant. I also have completed a young adult mystery novel manuscript which I'm currently submitting. My supernatural thriller Dark Before Dawn follows a teenage psychic who predicts a bizarre murder in a deserted Maine beach town.

In addition, I’m hoping to update and bring back my popular, out-of-print young adult novel Face-Off and release a special edition of its previously unpublished sequel. Stay tuned to my web site, or sign up for my mailing list to receive periodic announcements and hot-off-the-press news.