Are you a plotter or a pantser? Did you know that the phrase “flies by the seat of his pants” originated in the 1930s with Douglas Corrigan’s flight from the United States to Ireland? An airplane mechanic described Corrigan this way, meaning that he flew without instruments, a radio, or other technology to guide him. […]
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As you may already know, I’ve been hard at work on a brand new book–an adult psychological thriller, Daddy Darkest. Like most of my writing, Daddy Darkest was inspired by my day job as a forensic psychologist, and I am thrilled to announce that it is coming very soon! Today, I’m sharing a sneak peek at the […]
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“It was something in his eyes … there was this remorse, sadness. I was attracted. I’m a woman, and I knew he was the one.” –Dagmar Polzin, on her love for death row inmate Bobby Lee Harris “I’m completely with him, and he’s completely with me. It’s what I was born for, you know. I don’t know […]
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“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” –Andy Warhol The arrival of a new year usually signals a fresh start, a new beginning, and we meet it with optimism, with hopeful thoughts of change. With a blank slate of 365 days stretched out before us, it’s easy to imagine […]
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I recently finished the first draft of my soon-to-be released thriller, Daddy Darkest. The novel takes place inside San Quentin State Prison, one of many prisons in California, and follows the lives of inmate, Clive “Cutthroat” Cullen, and his treating psychologist, Dr. Clare Keely. When I received my editor’s notes, I was particularly struck by […]
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Behind every murder is a murderer. Behind every murderer is a story. And inevitably the beginning of that story starts well before I meet them in prison in my capacity as a forensic psychologist. When I ask an inmate to tell me the story of the crime he committed, starting wherever he would like to […]
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For the past few months, I’ve been knee deep (or fingers deep, perhaps) in my newest endeavor, an adult thriller tentatively titled, Daddy Darkest. As I shared in my April blog post, the idea behind Daddy Darkest garnered a semifinalist honor in the MasterClass: James Patterson Teaches Writing course. About three fourths of the way […]
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“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” -George Orwell, 1984 Since George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949, readers have become understandably obsessed with the dystopian genre. To me, what draws most readers into a dystopian world is actually the sense that it is not so different than our own, that […]
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Writing the book is the easy part. The challenge lies in everything that comes after. When I completed Legacy’s manuscript in May 2014, it was the most pages, the first book, I’d ever written. I had never taken a course on creative writing, and most of what I knew about writing came from my own […]
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With the Legacy series finally complete, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s next for Ellery Kane. In the last two months, I completed the MasterClass: James Patterson Teaches Writing. I’ve always been a fan of Patterson’s work and have read many of his books, including most of the Alex Cross series. His short, snappy […]
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Are you a good guy or a bad guy? A hero or a villain? If you’re like most, you look in the mirror and see a pretty good guy or gal staring back at you. After all, everyone is the hero of their own story. But, I recently discovered a fascinating article by Caroline Kaufman, Psy.D. […]
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“Since I stopped taking Emovere, it’s the same dream every night. But it’s not just a dream. It’s also a memory. I’m six years old again, and everything is red. His voice is razor wire. Hers is a bleating lamb. Together, they make the music of my own private hell.” Just when you thought the […]
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