Welcome to the Journal

I spend a lot of time making things up. Characters, towns, murders, secrets, strange things lurking in mountains—and occasionally something a little less sinister. Although, apparently, not very often.

I’m usually working on more than one story at a time. That probably sounds chaotic to some writers, but it has always worked for me. When one story needs room to breathe, another is usually waiting. Sometimes stepping away from a manuscript is exactly what helps me figure out what it needs.

That’s part of why I wanted to add this journal to the website. I wanted somewhere less formal to talk about what I’m writing, what I’m reading, where ideas come from, and what happens between the first idea for a novel and something I’m finally willing to call finished.

Right now, much of my attention is on The Shape Inside, a psychological thriller and supernatural horror novel set in the isolated Vermont town of Atherton. I’m also working on What Walked the Boreen, an Irish mystery rooted in folklore, family history, and the question of what happens when someone decides to turn an old legend into something very real. And those are only two of the stories occupying space on my desk.

Some entries here will probably be about revision. Others might be about characters, research, books I’ve read, places that inspire me, or an idea that showed up unexpectedly and refused to leave. Mostly, though, I want this to be a record of the process.

Writing a novel takes a long time. There are good days, frustrating days, breakthroughs, terrible sentences, unexpectedly good sentences, and those wonderful moments when a character does something you didn’t know they were going to do until you typed it. That’s the part I’d like to share here.

So, welcome. There are quite a few stories underway. Let’s see where they go.