Thank you for subscribing to my new release notifications.

I have created an Insider's Guide accessible only to those who sign up.

Simply choose a title from the drop-down menu to read my thoughts and motivations for each book. I will add more as future books release.

To access the Insider's Guide in the future, you must bookmark this page or save the email with the link.

Lacey Campbell and Jack Harper

HIDDEN was the third manuscript I wrote, but the first manuscript to sell. Originally titled STRONGER THAN BONE, (a tooth reference) the book was rewritten so many times it is unrecognizable from its first incarnation. I knew I had something special with my characters and plot, so I continued to hone and develop the story. I didn't do this with my first two manuscripts, which shall forever remain unpublished. Frankly stated, they sucked. I consider them my practice novels during which I developed my voice.

I spent sixteen years as a dental hygienist. There is another hygienist and two dentists in my family, and I was always fascinated with odontology as a tool to identify human remains. I'd always heard that you should write what you know, so I did. Agents and editors loved the uniqueness of forensic odontologist, Dr. Lacey Campbell, who was loosely based on my sister who is a dentist and former collegiate gymnast. My sister's home was broken into and some jewelry was stolen not long after the book came out. She hadn't read the book, and was stunned when I told her I'd written a similar theft in the book.

The main characters Lacey and Jack are close to my heart, but the unpolished gem from HIDDEN will always be OSP Detective Mason Campbell. I never dreamed that when I decided I needed a cop's point-of- view and created Mason on the spur of the moment, that he would go on to have his own series.

Part of HIDDEN takes place at Oregon State University. My friends were amused that I chose my own university's arch rival for the site of a horrible crime in the book. Now the joke is on me as my oldest daughter chose OSU over my alma mater.

Lacey and Jack are the main characters in the novella, VEILED. Lacey is a secondary character in BURIED and ALONE.

German, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Norwegian.

Brynn Nealey and Alex Kinton

I wrote CHILLED before I wasn't intimidated about writing certain subjects. Looking back, I don't think I'd attempt to write a plane crash story now. The sheer amount of research took an incredible amount of time. I'd written the book before I sold HIDDEN, so my publisher released them within a month of each other. Forensic nurse, Brynn Nealey, was based on a speaker I heard at a writer's conference. She was a forensic nurse, a search and rescue volunteer, and a terrific speaker. I remember turning to the writer sitting next to me and stating, "She'd make a fabulous heroine!" Lucky for me she agreed to be interviewed. I used many of her personal stories in CHILLED. I lost contact with her and have always wondered if she knew the book was published.

Alex Kinton briefly appeared in HIDDEN. Many readers forgot that he is Jack Harper's good but emotionally damaged friend. His character stuck with me after HIDDEN was finished and I decided to use him as the main character in the next book. One of the hardest parts about writing CHILLED was finding a point where the two characters can be intimate. They were stranded in the forest, taking shelter in a small plane, in a blizzard with other men constantly present, and the threat of a murderer close by. It all added up to a romance writer's dilemma, but I figured it out.

Brynn makes a brief appearance in VANISHED and Alex in HIDDEN.

German, Italian, Chinese, and Norwegian.

Jamie Jacobs and Michael Brody

Readers loved Michael Brody and were crushed that he didn't have a happily ever after in HIDDEN. I was too. It was logical to write him as the main character in BURIED and find the perfect woman for him. For a character who believed in breaking all the rules, I thought tight- laced, rule-following, grade school principal Jamie Jacobs would be the perfect woman for him to fall head over heels for.

This book was nominated for an International Thriller Award and a Romantic Times best romantic suspense. I often get emails from readers who loved the big twist in the story. During the writing, I worried about the twist and asked my editor if it was hokey. She emphatically told me it was not and my readers have agreed.

After the freezing cold of the snow in HIDDEN and CHILLED, I wrote a HOT setting for BURIED. I've always believed that setting is another character in books and weather is a fantastic way to make it jump off the page.

I think the killer in BURIED is one of my darkest. He was tough to write. I hated him because of what he did with children, but I kept his crimes "off the page." I left his horrors to the imagination of the readers. Not every crime needs to be actively described and his were best left behind closed doors.

Michael Brody is a secondary character in HIDDEN, KNOWN, VANISHED, and A MERCIFUL SECRET. (Can you tell I love writing about him?)

German, Czech, Chinese, and Norwegian.

Victoria Peres and Seth Rutledge

I originally planned ALONE to have Victoria Peres as an important secondary character with Lacey Campbell as the primary. I'd pictured a Rizzoli and Isles type book, with the two women equally sharing the story. By the second chapter, that plan was in the garbage. Even though she'd intimidated the hell out of me in HIDDEN, I dared to allow Victoria take over the spotlight in ALONE. It was my first time writing a reunion story, the trope where old lovers are reunited, and I gave her another medical examiner for her to fall in love with. To balance out Victoria's ice queen reputation, I gave Seth Rutledge a big heart and plenty of emotional baggage.

In ALONE, I discovered I loved to write teenage characters. I'd written some children before, but introducing Victoria's neighbor, Trinity, was incredible fun, and I continued to write teenagers in several other books. With teens, an author can explore all the emotions and stupid, headstrong actions that adult characters shouldn't do and can't get away with. I find teenager's scenes less restrictive and they flow easily from my fingertips.

Victoria is a secondary character in HIDDEN, BURIED, and VANISHED.

German, Chinese, and Norwegian.

Gianna Trask and Chris Jacobs

"When will you write Chris's story?"

This was the question I received for nearly two years after BURIED was published. Again my readers were crushed that I'd left a man with out his happily ever after. As I say in the acknowledgements at the end of KNOWN, this was the hardest book I ever wrote because of the pressure to get Chris's story perfect. I don't have many memories of writing this book—this happens to authors all the time. Just ask a few. I know I wouldn't have finished it on time if my husband hadn't dragged me to a coffee shop every day and sat next to me as I typed, making certain I hit my daily word count.

I knew it would be hard to find a love interest for Chris. He keeps to himself, preferring to avoid people. I had to create a situation where his sense of honor would keep him at Gianna's side. I thought a blizzard, a fire, and a dead body were effective tools to trigger his protective instincts.

Gianna's name was stolen from the granddaughter of an author friend. I thought the name was beautiful. Gianna's backstory where as a child she traipsed alone for miles in the dark after a deadly accident was inspired by a news story. I altered it a bit and gave her a guardian angel. Elements of my stories are often inspired by things I read in the paper or hear on the news.

Chris is a VERY important secondary character in BURIED.

Czech.

Jack Harper and Lacey Campbell

I was on vacation when I received an email from my publisher. They were starting a new short story imprint and wanted to know if I had something to submit. I ignored the email at first because I'd never written a short story. Later that day I mentioned it to my husband and he suggested I give it a try. I lay in the sun and mulled over plot ideas. I messaged my street team and asked what characters they'd like to see return. The answer was overwhelmingly Jack and Lacey from HIDDEN. I had only written long, intricate plots and the guidelines for this new imprint specified a limit of twenty thousand words. (About 100 pages) My usual books are around ninety thousand words. I decided to plot out the entire story to avoid being distracted by tangents and other fascinating threads. I had never plotted a novel, so this was also a new experience for me.

I set the story in a remote location, gave Lacey and Jack a reason to be there, and threw in a dead body. A plot was born. I enjoyed writing my first novella and I especially liked that I knew where the story was going. I've tried to replicate that process with my regular novels, but it is impossible for me. My brain insists on making up the story as I go.

Both Jack and Lacey are in HIDDEN.

Mason Callahan and Ava McLane

VANISHED was originally planned to be the fifth Bone Secrets book. I was about halfway finished when my editor asked me to consider starting a new series with the following book. I told her I had just discovered that I needed more than one book to tell Mason's story and would they like that as a new series? They did and I was delighted to know I could fully flesh out Mason and Ava's growing relationship.

In VANISHED, I wanted to make Mason's life miserable. My goal was to take away everything that was important to him and see how he handled it. His job was my first victim. I knew how vital it was to him; it'd cost him his marriage and he had built his self-worth around his job performance. Then I targeted his son.

I adore Ava. I knew I needed someone tough enough for Mason to butt heads with. I threw in the age difference to harass Mason and make him self-conscious. For Ava's character, I interviewed four female FBI agents. One of them had lived in a family's home for weeks when their son was kidnapped. I found her insight fascinating and integrated it into the story.

Jayne. Either you love her or hate her. Ava's twin is her opposite in every way. She has been a fantastic tool to create conflict in the plot and Ava's life. Some readers would like me to kill her off because she is such a horrible person and they want Ava to relax. What would be the fun in that?

Mason Callahan and Ava McLane

Portland is a city dependent on bridges. The Willamette River divides the city in half, both literally and figuratively. Personally, I think Portland needs a dozen more bridges to help with the traffic, but they're a little expensive.

I don't remember how I came up with the death scene ideas for BRIDGED, but hanging corpses off the bridges was a lot of twisted fun. I pulled from my own experiences at outdoor school and the many overnight camps of my youth to set up the flashback scenes.

I love to visit the secondary characters that add life to this series. Ray, Mason's partner, was designed to be Mason's loveable opposite. Zander grows through out the series as a quiet man with a painful past. I often bring in Michael Brody because he annoys the heck out of Mason, but he can't help but admire Michael too.

Each book in the series gives Mason and Ava an opportunity for their relationship to grow. I can't have them living on easy street with rainbows and unicorns…that would be an extremely dull book, no matter how much my readers believe that's what they want. I choose relatable speed bumps that many relationships experience. By getting through these trials, Ava and Mason emerge stronger than before.

Mason Callahan and Ava McLane

Mass shootings were difficult to write about. While planning this book, I read dozens of accounts on the shootings around the country, questioning if I really wanted to take this direction in the book. I moved forward with it. I believe in taking risks while writing and pushing myself to address sensitive issues. What worked well in this story was to give multiple perspectives of the crimes. Not everyone sees each crime in the same way. Which one was right?

The black moment finds Ava hiding in a big box home supply store. I'd visited my local Home Depot and asked a female clerk what she would do if she had to defend herself in the store. I wasn't surprised when she told me she'd often thought about it. She gave me a small tour, pointing out places she'd hide and items she'd grab as weapons.

My husband had watched the shows where they staged intricate pranks on unsuspecting victims. Usually the victim would laugh about it later, but often the victims were absolutely terrified. I would imagine the moments where the pranks could go completely off script and someone could be hurt. I ordered my husband to never set one up for me. I hated the shows, but they gave me a good plot idea for SPIRALED.

Mason Callahan and Ava McLane

Again I took on a hot topic making headlines in our country. I know several people in law enforcement, and I saw their reactions when one of their own died in the line of duty. I jumped into the story with both feet, determined to address the issue in a balanced way.

In this book, I eased up on Ava a little bit and put Jayne in a place that would allow Ava to relax—but not too much. This also gave my readers (and me) a break from the emotional tornado of Jayne. I leave Jayne's story up in the air at the end of the book. Even I am uncertain what will happen with her next. She definitely will be back. The series wouldn't be the same without her.

I set the story in the week before Halloween to amuse myself. (This may sound odd, but writing can get a bit dull at times and authors will include quirky things to entertain themselves as well as the reader.) My husband is a horror movie fan (not me) and I pulled ideas from the movies he watches. I was usually in the room while the movies were on but never paid much attention. I preferred to read a book, but some of their influence must have rubbed off on me.

Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly

I knew I wanted to write another female FBI agent. One of the keys to creating memorable characters is to set them up for conflict. Giving her an anti-government family and a law enforcing government job gave me a lot of possibilities to surround her with conflict. Research was interesting. I talked with a domestic terrorism FBI agent who daily dealt with anti- government groups. I'd never heard of sovereign citizens before, but they gave him headaches nearly every day.

I had written a quarter of this book when the Bundys took over the wildlife refuge in Eastern Oregon. I read the updates daily, gleaning bits and pieces for my story. The little gems that demonstrate how these people walk and talk. I call these pieces flavor.

I loved the idea of thrusting Mercy back into a town and life she'd abandoned. Or did she? Obviously, she carried a lot of her past with her, driving her to prep nonstop: one of her deep, dark secrets. I knew from the beginning that the scene where Truman discovers her secret had to be important. The idea for the wood chopping scene stuck in my head and I had to set it aside until I reached that point in the book. I write linearly. I can't jump ahead. If I come up with a great idea for a scene whose time hasn't come yet, I write it down in my notebook. I constantly carry a medium sized spiral notebook, ready to write down dialog or ideas. It's very satisfying to rip out a page once I've used every idea on it.

My books don't have titles until they are finished, but I knew the title of this one as soon as I had the character's name. Seriously, every title but BURIED took hours of back and forth with my editor and searching Thesaurus.com until my eyes crossed.

I loved Rose as soon as she stepped on the page. I don't know when or how I decided to write a blind character, but I adore the softness and strength she adds to the story. She will prevail.

Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly

I hate fire. I don't like to read books about fire, but for some reason this book started off with a big one and soon it became a theme in the story. I've had fires in past books, but they were only one scene in length. Truman has trauma from being burned in the past. The fact that he faces fire head on in this book shows his character growth.

Right before I started this book, I attended the Writer's Police Academy. Google it; it's amazing. It was my third time attending and I went to a presentation by an arson investigator. He was a fantastic speaker and a lot of his anecdotes pop up in this book. I mentioned flavor earlier. The Writer's Police Academy is a goldmine for me to find flavor. I write down the jargon and body language the cops used when interacting with each other, I copy down their bad jokes, and study how they stand and move.

This story takes place two months after A MERCIFUL DEATH. One of my big decisions to make before I could write was the issue of Rose. Is she pregnant? A large part of me wanted her not pregnant, for her to lose the baby or simply have it never happen. That would have been easy. On my monitor, I have a note that says "take more risks," so I chose the hard path. The complicated, emotionally burdened, possibly heartbreaking path. A decision that makes for a good story.

Mercy Kilpatrik and Truman Daly

When I started to plan this book, I couldn't get an image out of my mind of a small child running into the road in front of Mercy's vehicle. It is dark, it is remote, and the child has blood on his hands. I wrote the scene, eventually changing the boy to a girl, and I had my opening. The next step was to answer why...once I figured out the answer. I plunged on, creating the answer as I went.

While developing the character of Salome, I heard her speaking very clearly in my head. As I started to write the first scene in her point of view, I knew something wasn't right. I've never written anything in first person before but I knew it needed to be done to reflect her voice. It was a new process for me and I feel it gives the reader a deeper sense of her character. Why did I give her that name? I don't know. I've always had a fascination with her historical reference and once I started to write her, I knew the name fit.

For kicks--and because I miss them--I added two characters from past books. I hadn't written Michael Brody in a long time and I always like writing Ava McLane. I thought Michael would be a good thorn in Mercy's side...just he is for most people. I love to have older characters pop up in books, and judging by my email, my readers agree.

Mercy Kilpatrik and Truman Daly

I had three different plotlines for A MERCIFUL SILENCE. I laid them out, expanded each one, and then tried desperately for a week to make them tie together in one book. It didn't happen. I used two of them and set the third aside to consider for the fifth Mercy book. Truman runs into trouble in this book. I'd briefly toyed with Mercy having his problem, but I knew it had to be Truman. I wanted to tear him down and put him back together, knowing he'd never be quite the same.

What I've discovered in writing multiple books about the same characters, is that I love creating colorful secondary characters to shine in each story. In this book, I could see Britta immediately in my mind. Her unique tattoo was inspired by a friend who has a LARGE tattoo in the same place--I couldn't imagine the pain it must have caused. Ollie is reminiscent of a character I loved in another author's book. Not only is his character special, but the relationship he forms with Truman takes his appeal to a new level.

Dr. Victoria Peres and Dr. Lacey Harper (Campbell) from my Bone Secrets series are secondary characters. I hope no one is disappointed that I haven't officially written Jack and Lacey's wedding. When I added Lacey to this book, I knew it'd been a long time since her story and she SHOULD be married by now. Maybe I'll include the wedding when I return to the Bone Secret series.

Yes! I need to finish at least four Mercy Kilpatrick books and then I will write another Bone Secrets and another Callahan book. The idea I have simmering in the back of my brain is to write a Bone Secrets book with Special Agent Zander Wells from the Callahan books as the main character and give him a happily ever after. He can never be the main character in Callahan & McLane because those books are for Mason and Ava. But I can do him justice with a Bone Secrets book all his own.

My publisher. HIDDEN was an instant slam dunk. I liked the first concept they showed me and suggested they change the color from gold to its suspenseful red. They carried the concept to CHILLED, but surprisingly it was difficult to find the right face and icy background. It took several attempts to get it right. I think they've done an excellent job branding each of my series. I like intense colors and they always try to accommodate my wishes.

As of this moment in summer of 2017, I've sold over 3.5 million. That includes digital, hardback, paperback, audio, and foreign editions.

I've written the last several books in a nearby coffee shop. I go five days a week from nine to noon when I'm in the writing stage of a book. I've found while at the coffee shop, I can accomplish in three hours what takes me eight hours in my office. At home, I'm distracted by kids, laundry, mail, dishes, and pets. There are downfalls to writing in a coffee shop too. I learned the hard way to order only black coffee and avoid the pastries. It's very easy to devour too much sugar and fat while trying to produce words.

I have six months to write a book, but only four is spent writing. Two months are spent editing the previous book and doing research for the next. I also find time to squeeze in one novella a year somewhere. To some authors, this is fast; to others, this is slow. Everyone has their own normal.