Meet the Author
I enjoyed a long, successful career in construction management, mostly for power and pharmaceutical plants. To prepare for my second act in life I took writing courses at my local community college, online with Gotham Writers and the Thrillerfest Masterclass. I’ve had short stories published, all in the mystery/crime genre, including Mystery Tribune (Issue 11, Winter 2024), Shotgun Honey, Yellow Mama, Guilty, Pulp Modern and Close to the Bone, so I felt ready to make the leap to writing novels.
I started with a crime novel that I hoped would appeal to fans of Elmore Leonard. I pitched it at Thrillerfest, and queried a lot of agents but found no one was interested.
Next, I wrote a thriller about a secret service agent who saves a presidential candidate from an assassin (long before it happened for real) even though the candidate wants to deport immigrants and the agents’ parents are undocumented. Again, I went to Thrillerfest and queried a lot of agents but nobody liked my premise.
So, I thought, a historical novel set in Philadelphia seemed perfect for the nations 250th anniversary. Having grown up in Philadelphia and having visited all the city’s historic sites, I decided I was perfectly qualified to write it. I pitched it with no luck. I decided that if I queried 100 agents and there were no takers, I would self-publish by Memorial Day 2026.
So here it is. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.