Inspired by my experience working as a legal researcher for the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, work that often took me inside the Penitentiary of New Mexico, I began writing a novel that I hoped would have series potential. Two major book deals and five books later—all featuring forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange—I wrote the final novel in the series, DARK ALCHEMY.After that, I took a hiatus from the darkest of subjects to focus on family, the challenges of parenting, and the joys of raising our daughter, Pearl. She was just shy of her 6th birthday when I got the call from my agent asking if I would be interested in meeting with Valerie Plame Wilson. The resulting collaboration with Valerie took several years to get fully airborne and now that BLOWBACK is out (Oct 2013/Blue Rider Press) we are at work on the next book in what we hope will be a long-lived series featuring Vanessa Pierson, CIA covert operative.For me, writing novels fulfills two essential needs—my hunger to absorb and process new information about the world, and my curiosity with regard to human nature, especially the volatile interaction of desire and choices made in pursuit of said desire, and the resulting (often astounding) actions and outcomes.