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The conference room carried the scent of burnt coffee and carpet cleaner. One of the fluorescent tubes overhead flickered, the light dipping every so often before it caught itself again. Sheriff David Mercer had tuned it out by his second cup. Evidence bags ran down the far end of the table in a straight line. A bike helmet with a cracked visor clip. A water bottle plastered with band stickers. A handlebar light, its switch still pushed to on, its battery long dead. A GoPro i

I can feel the chilled air’s harsh embrace on my skin as the port door closes. Four levels underground, Cold Room 6 doesn’t disappoint. My body reacts instantly upon entering the temperature-controlled environment set at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, moisture beading along the concrete walls. I check off each observation in my head, the same way I once catalogued gunshot wounds and blunt trauma, while the massive refrigeration system hums softly in the corner. A sturdy metal examina

It was raining thinly and spitefully. The kind of rain that doesn’t really soak you, just threatens to. Water streamed down the windowpane in thick silver slashes, reflecting whatever pale light was being thrown on them from above. Outside, dusk had already conceded defeat, and something uglier had replaced it—fluorescent, buzzing, hospital lighting that didn’t shame itself with hues of purple or pink. Somewhere nearby machines were running. There was the low thrum of mechani

A few months ago, I wrote my first blog post called So… Apparently I’m an Author Now. At the time, Stoneveil: Shadows Under Ice was finished and sitting in the inboxes of agents and publishers. I had no idea what was going to happen with it. Maybe someone would take a chance on it. Maybe I’d spend the next year collecting rejection emails. Maybe it would just sit on my computer while I moved on to the next idea. Well… I published the thing and Stoneveil: Shadows Under Ice is

There are moments you've imagined for so long that they almost don't feel real when they finally happen. Today is one of those moments. After more than a year of writing, rewriting, editing, and refining, I'm incredibly excited to finally share Shadows Under Ice, the first novel in the Stoneveil Mystery series. This story has been with me for a long time. What began as an idea gradually grew into a world filled with unforgettable characters, hidden secrets, and a mystery that

Hello all! I'm looking for a few beta readers to help with my debut crime novel, which is the first in a planned series. This will eventually be self-published. I've been writing and polishing this one for close to a year now, and I'm excited to finally start sharing it. The story for Book 1: When a body surfaces from beneath the ice in the small mountain town of Stoneveil, Colorado, former Detective turned reluctant consultant Galen Voss is pulled back into the world he tri

So how did I come up for the premise for this idea? In the case of Stoneveil: Shadows Under Ice, it started with a conversation with my mother-in-law. At the time, I was working on another story and asked her to read it. She told me it was fine, but it really wasn’t the type of story she normally enjoyed. She mentioned that she preferred murder mysteries and crime stories. That got me thinking. I’ve always enjoyed small mountain towns in books, movies, and television. There’s

Apparently, this frozen mountain town murder mystery did something right, because this prologue made the top 1% in ProWritingAid's Novel Beginnings competition. Prologue Morning fog draped across the Lower Mountain Loop, thick enough to settle on his jacket and chill the back of his neck, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the mountain was watching him. His radio whispered static at his hip. Today it set his teeth on edge. He’d been clearing Stoneveil trails for three

Quick writing update. A couple of weeks ago I submitted the prologue of Stoneveil: Shadows Under Ice to ProWritingAid's Novel Beginnings contest for 2026. To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Honestly, what I really craved then was some external perspective, or perhaps reassurance that I wasn't entirely off my rocker dedicating so much time to tales of frigid mountain villages, unearthed secrets, shady characters, and enough misdirection to stock a bait shop

I’m still getting used to saying that out loud. If I’m being honest, I didn’t grow up dreaming about becoming a novelist. I wasn’t the kid filling notebooks with stories or telling people I was going to write books someday. Most of this happened within the last few years after I started playing around with story ideas that refused to leave my head. One of those ideas eventually became The Timeless Ronin. I’ve always been fascinated by immortality stories, Japanese culture, an