I've always been a horse nut, and as a young person, I was a rabid horse-racing fan. So it's no surprise that my first novels were about horses: the Kentucky Derby and the glamour of a Thoroughbred breeding farm-but with a little mystery and mayhem thrown in! For KING OF THE ROSES and BLOOD LIES, I drew on my years of working in the horse world, teaching riding, showing, moonlighting on the racetrack, and for a while, owning and galloping my own racehorse. Since then I've used my doctorate in English to teach writing at a regional campus of a Midwestern university-right across the river from Louisville and the Derby, in fact! My current mystery/suspense novels-in-progress include SURFING THE BONES, in which university professor Sarah Crockett, whose own daughter disappeared five years ago, must determine whether the man she loves is a murderer in order to save his daughter from a deadly cyberstalker. In my free time, I garden, watch birds, and ride Paddy, my sweet sweet horse.