With my life-long love of reading mysteries and my background in nursing, I thought it would be interesting to create a mystery using a competent, savvy nurse as the protagonist.  Such a story would accomplish several goals of mine: satisfy my desire to write a mystery, tell the world what the real-life world of nursing is, and acknowledge to nurses their immense contribution to health care.

I’d been writing professionally for more than 20 years.  I’ve penned books for nurses, written more than 50 professional articles, and edited a professional journal for 5 years. 

How hard could it be to write a mystery?

Believe me, it’s hard.  Sure, I knew how to put a sentence together, but could I put a plot together?  How about developing intriguing characters, interesting settings, and realistic dialogue?  Several years, numerous revisions, and more than one new story later, Hilliard & Harris accepted Twice Dead for publication, released in 2002, and Deadly Diversion in 2004.

Stay tuned to the continuing story of head nurse Monika Everhardt and her police officer friend, BJ, as they careen through the streets of St. Louis on the trail of what BJ calls the “bad guys.”