The First Body I Never Forgot (and Why Some Stay With You)
April in Michigan carries a particular kind of memory. The snow recedes. The soil turns to mud. New life pushes through and what’s been buried through winter begins to surface. In many ways, memory behaves the same way. Certain experiences fade. Others remain intact, preserved beneath the surface, waiting for the right season to rise […]
What Growing Up Around Death Investigation Taught Me About Humanity
How a childhood shaped by the Medical Examiner’s office revealed what people value most, long before I became a writer. Death was never a spectacle in my life. It was ordinary. Present. Instructive. Growing up around death investigation did not make me morbid. It taught me how people love, how they grieve, and what matters […]
Where Fact Ends and Fiction Begins: What Lines I Will & Won’t Cross
One of the questions I get often at signings, in book clubs, and from readers who linger after events is deceptively simple: How much of your books are based on real life stuff? The answer always varies… and it can’t be measured in a percentage. I’m a coroner’s daughter. I grew up around death investigation […]
Emily Hartford’s Field Approach: What She Really Brings to a Scene
Every forensic examiner has their own field kit they bring to an investigation. But having a well stocked kit doesn’t guarantee a thorough result. Dr. Emily Hartford knows this better than most and brings more than swabs and a camera to a homicide scene.. She has hidden skills… training, instinct, discipline, and habits learned […]
What My Characters Showed Me This Year
I believe stories reveal to us truths about our humanity. Every scene, every line of dialogue, every silence between characters carries something back our souls and spirits that we need as we do our daily walk on this planet. My characters have strong perspectives. Often they delight me. Sometimes they surprise me. Always, they […]
Giving Thanks: Reflections from a Season of Expansion and Grace
Gratitude in the Writing Life At the beginning of 2025, I was given a word. Expansion. With that one word, I knew this year was going to be where I would see growth and enlargement, creatively and professionally. It happened. And I am deeply grateful for it. I expanded my Coroner’s […]
The One Question I Wish People Asked
No one ever asks how my faith influences my work. It’s the quiet truth behind everything I write, everything I teach, everything I create. I think most people assume faith and crime writing are at odds. Like they can’t possibly live in the same space. Maybe they imagine faith as tidy, clean, and […]
Home Again: Celebrating the Launch of What Darkness Does in the Town That Started It All
There’s something deeply full-circle about launching a new book in the place where it all began. On October 7th, I’ll be returning to my hometown of Fremont, Michigan, to celebrate the upcoming release of my latest thriller, What Darkness Does, with a special pre-release author event at the Fremont Library. And let me tell you, […]
Behind The Scenes: A Surprisingly Quiet Summer (And Why I Loved It)
A quiet summer, a balanced schedule, and a very grateful crime writer. Readers often ask me what inspires my stories. What fills my creative well? Being a full-time writer doesn’t mean I spent every waking work hour behind my laptop. What happens on the page is born through everyday experiences in real places, with […]
Why I Wrote Hole in the Woods
Some stories choose you. That was the case with my true crime thriller, Hole in the Woods. It wasn’t a story I set out to write. It wasn’t one I brainstormed over coffee or outlined neatly on a whiteboard. It was a story that lived in me for decades. A story I carried long […]
