I write about everyday people living everyday lives when they suddenly encounter an unexpected mystery, whether it be a murder, scam, sabotage, missing person, etc. etc. The characters must then react to the development while continuing to deal with daily pressures, including each other.  Most of my characters are not detectives, investigators, or law enforcement, and as a result, they face the mysteries not as professionals, but as amateur sleuths with little or no experience.  The characters vary widely, but I tend to write about strong, independent people with insatiable curiosities and pasts that affect every decision they make.

As far as sub-genres go, my writing falls mostly within the “Amateur Investigator” category, although, depending upon how you define the sub-genres, most could also be considered “Cozies.”  I do not spend time recording unnecessarily gory details of murder scenes, although I do have a fascination with surgery and veterinary procedures that some may consider a bit graphic.  I also seek to keep my language clean and my message positive.  My work tends to be humorous, addressing subjects, both serious and trivial, in a light-hearted way.

I am currently unpublished, and am seeking representation for the following novels:

Under Examination:

Under Examination is written as the first novel in a series of the same name, but is a complete story and can also stand alone.  It stars Maki Guinn, a recent college graduate, and the five veterinarians in the lab where she is hired to work: Erika “Lucky” Stanton, Kali Hanna, Evan Golden, Vince Bursick, and Anthony Daerdi.

Maki has dreamed of becoming a veterinarian since she was a little girl, but student loans and burnout leave her looking for laboratory work instead.  She scores her dream job as a lab manager at the John C. Cutter Veterinary Research Center, but the new job takes off with a rocky start when Maki is thrust in front of the five veterinarians she will be supervising and discovers that they knew nothing of her or the position she will soon accept.

It doesn’t take Maki long to get a feel for the job, but the office politics are another matter.  The veterinarians already have an unofficial leader, there appears to be a love triangle in the mix, and Maki feels unqualified to make any decisions that might upset the older and more educated vets.  When the lab takes on a new project involving twenty cats, Maki is put in charge and things go from complicated to chaotic.  Doors are being sealed, lab equipment is being stolen, and weird things are happening all around the animal hospital.  After the research cats’ lives are threatened, Maki must team up with the vets and all must put their differences aside in order to find the perpetrator before it’s too late.

Under Fire:

When Maki decided to give up her lifelong dream of attending veterinary school, she never imagined that she would end up managing a lab, working alongside five veterinarians, and conducting her own research project, but that’s exactly where she has found herself. Although the saboteur of Maki’s Twenty Cat Project has been caught and is in police custody, the damage has already been done to the hospital’s budget and to Maki’s boss’s reputation.

Now, Maki must lead the veterinarians, who still may not be willing to follow someone with her lack of credentials, through a series of challenges both veterinary and personal.  After several cats are independently brought into the clinic with symptoms of poisoning caused by exposure to acetaminophen, the vets are on the lookout for a connection between the cases.  They develop a number of theories, all of which are shattered when one of their own research cats tests positive for the same substance.  Then, when the veterinarians don’t think things could get any more hectic,  the patients start piling up after several forest fires leave pets and shelter rescues alike injured and without homes.

As this is all happening at the research center, Lucky and Vince are caring for the canine victim of a hit-and-run accident at home, and as the dog’s condition continues to change, Lucky must face a painful memory from her past.  The veterinarians and their lab manager come together to support Lucky and unravel the ugly truth behind the cat poisonings, but will it be enough to save the lab and their jobs?

Under Grace:

Maki and the veterinarians that she formerly supervised at the John C. Cutter Veterinary Research Center have moved into their own clinic and are ready to go into business on their own.  They soon find that starting up a veterinary clinic isn’t as easy as it sounds, and face problems ranging from over-stuffed dumpsters and crazy neighbors to missing deliveries and an over-stretched budget.  When a Halloween skull painted with a vague threat turns up in front of the clinic, they brush it off as a harmless prank and focus on their more pressing problems.

Just as it seems that all their hard work has paid off and the grand opening party will be a smashing success, Lucky’s parents show up unexpectedly, and the message on the skull develops new meaning.  Everyone at the clinic must work together, along with Lucky’s parents, in order to find out who has been threatening the Stantons.  To complicate matters, Lucky’s parents have brought along Lucky’s ex-boyfriend from high school to serve as their “bodyguard.”  Despite their personal conflicts, Maki and the vets close in on the truth, and the culprit raises the stakes, threatening to bring down the new clinic along with the Stantons.  The veterinarians find themselves in a race against the clock to save one of their own from a would-be killer and put a stop to the threats before anyone else gets hurt.

Under Water:

Kali has left Grace Point Veterinary Clinic to take an internship at a sea turtle research station off the coast of Australia, and she’s soaking up the sun, learning more about sea turtles and reptile medicine, and making friends with the other interns working on the island.  Kali is loving everything about Australia, at least until one of her fellow veterinarians is found murdered in the sea turtle room.  Kali recruits her friends from back home to help her investigate the crime, and together they uncover a startling secret that makes every intern a suspect.

Meanwhile, the Grace Point clinic is facing financial trouble, and some all-around strange things have been happening there.  First, merchandise begins to disappear, and then Maki notices strange noises.  Lucky and Vince can’t seem to agree on anything, Evan fights depression, and Anthony has been acting almost as strange as the noises Maki hears in the clinic.

Kali is counting on everyone to put aside all the distractions and help her unmask a killer, but she knows that with her friends half the world away, the real work is up to her.  She’s grown a lot since she left over a month ago, but this will be her biggest challenge yet.  She’s about to find out if she has what it takes to save the turtles and put the culprit behind bars.

Under Cultivation:

Millie has been with Grace Point Veterinary Clinic since almost the beginning, but as the only hourly employee and the only non-owner, she still feels like an outsider sometimes. Still, she knows that she can count on her coworkers to support her through anything, and this Thanksgiving she’s more grateful for that than ever.

Grieving for her recently deceased grandfather, Millie takes over his research and his greenhouse, assuming her biggest challenge will be to figure out what he was working on and how to proceed with it. She has barely begun when new plants begin to mysteriously appear overnight.  Evan, Maki, Lucky, and the others agree to help her get to the bottom of it, but as they all get sucked in deeper, the mysterious happenings escalate until a friend of Millie’s grandpa ends up murdered.

The timing couldn’t be worse. With Thanksgiving approaching, everyone has plans with family and friends, not to mention their usual crazy lives.  Kali and Anthony help out with a wedding at a supposedly haunted lodge and end up hunting a ghost, Vince reconnects with an old friend, Lucky breaks an old promise, Evan tries to balance trust with concern, and Maki considers her future while keeping everything running smoothly at the clinic and trying to figure out why the shelter cats keep developing strange injuries.

As they get closer to the truth, two of the veterinarians find themselves in a dangerous situation, and Millie finally has a chance to prove that she has what it takes to be a member of their investigative team as well as their office staff.

Under Investigation:

Snow is falling, stockings are hung, and pumpkin spice everything is available everywhere. As Maki and the veterinarians at Grace Point Veterinary Clinic join in the holiday celebration with decorations and volunteer activities, they have no idea that the coming Christmas season will hold challenges so much greater than what to buy for that special someone.  But then a close friend is murdered, a priceless antique disappears from a display case in the next room, and one of their own becomes the investigating detectives’ top suspect.

The clinic crew has done some unofficial crime-solving in the past, but never before have the stakes been so high. With limited access to the people involved and even less access to the evidence, they must develop new and creative methods of sleuthing while they continue to stay below the radar of the officials.  When the clinic itself comes under investigation, each person must decide whether to set aside his or her own interests to pursue a killer or allow hurt feelings and mistrust to deepen the divisions already forming in the group.  If they don’t find the answers soon, this Christmas could mark the end of the clinic for good.

The Night the Lights Went Out at Law-Mart:

Retail is murder! Between the rude, bossy customers, the temper tantrums, the long hours, and the long lines, it seems to never end.  But at Cassie Kroeger’s Law-Mart Store #4140, the murder takes a more literal twist when a loss prevention officer is found dead in the ladies’ apparel department.

As if that’s not enough, someone cuts the power to the store, plunging the crime scene, and everything else, into complete darkness. The police investigate, the Law-Mart managers strategize, and Law-Mart Home Office sends in a representative from a nearby training store to oversee the process, but the bodies keep piling up, and it looks like the killer is different each time.

Cassie knows that Law-Mart isn’t just the latest and greatest place to commit murder, so there must be some connection. Armed with only her brain and her sarcasm, she joins forces with a mismatched renegade team, including a brand new cashier with an interest in loss prevention, an attractively annoying Home Office representative with a cupcake obsession, and a rogue cop with doubts about her fellow detectives.  Together, they develop a plan to break the case wide open, but can they do it without destroying their careers, and Law-Mart 4140, in the process?

Layne to Rest: The Mystery Behind the Disappearance of Layne Carter:

Layne Carter was a bit of a legend in Blackwater, even back in 2005, and that was before she vanished without a trace on October 31st.  That was before the police began an investigation into her private life that uncovered secrets and mysteries that no one could ever have guessed.  That was before the police marked the case “unsolved” and gave up hope of ever finding her.  It was before her remains finally turned up a decade and a half later, buried under a pile of rubble in the bottom of a mine shaft alongside a penny minted five years after the date of her disappearance, and it was certainly before a ghost became the primary suspect in her murder.

As the citizens of Blackwater search for answers, they begin to wonder whether they will ever learn the truth.  And if they do uncover the events of that long-ago Halloween, will what they learn bring them comfort, or only more distress?