Welcome! Glad to have you visit my site.
While I wish I could sit down and have a cup of coffee with you (or tea or hot chocolate if you prefer!), I’ll have to settle for sharing a bit more about myself here…
I’ve been writing for over fifteen years now, and if you pick up any of my novels, you’ll see that I’m drawn to writing strong female lead characters. I’ve been married for twenty-eight years to my red-headed husband, and I’m thankful every day for how he constantly supports my writing career. I have three adult children, one eleven-year-old, and a grandbaby, so I do keep busy even when I’m not writing.
I was born and brought up in the southeastern area of wild and wonderful West Virginia, and that’s where I live now. I’m thankful for my mountain state, and I love writing about it in A Murder in the Mountains mystery series, the Hemlock Creek Suspense series, and the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series–you can find all of those on my books page.
I’ve also written Viking historical fiction because my maiden name would have been Thorvaldssen if my great-grandpa hadn’t changed it when he came to the U.S.A., and my family is allegedly related to Eirik the Red, which is what got me interested in the Icelandic Sagas I used to base God’s Daughter and Forest Child on.
I also have a 3-book cozy mystery series set in Greenwich, CT, NYC, and Upstate NY–three places I’ve lived myself (the Exotic Pet-Sitter series)! The series features amateur sleuth Belinda Blake, who is an exotic pet-sitter and video game reviewer. Click here to read more about this series reviewer Carrie Booth Schmidt (Reading is my SuperPower blog) says is “well-written with wit and heart, as well as more layers and depth than we usually see in cozies.”
I’ve been honored to win a 2023 RWA Daphne Award for Mystery/Suspense for COLD DRIP, Book 6 in the Barks & Beans Cafe series, and I’m also a 2-time ECPA Christy Award finalist (GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, 2018, and FALSE PRETENSE, 2022).
To unwind, I play video games, do some gardening in my perennial flowerbeds, and I enjoy watching classic suspense movies, like Hitchcock. My favorite Agatha Christie mystery is Ordeal by Innocence and my favorite classic is Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
I hope you can sign up for my newsletter here to keep up with the latest–I frequently share book deals, giveaways, and cover art sneak peeks with my newsletter friends first.
I’m so pleased you stopped by to get to know a little more about me. I’m happy to answer your questions via email through the Contact Me page here. My literary agent is Rachelle Gardner at Gardner Literary.
-Heather
