Following an artist’s series or collections is to accompany the artist on their journey from those tentative first steps through their working years of evolution and changing perspectives. You get to engage with the ongoing characters, appreciate the writer’s style, and, with each book, “befriend” the artist through their work. It’s akin to meeting with a friend you haven’t seen in years and feeling like no time has passed. It’s a comfortable space that fulfills expectations.

As an artist creating a body of work such as novels, essays, and short stories, I’m focused on my current project—figuring out what I want to share with you, my reader–although I don’t start writing until the idea takes form. Once that happens, the words flow. The past is gone, and I’m immersed in the present.

I’ve just finished the manuscript for my 6^th book, TRANSITION: Love. Loss. Leverage. Murder. It’s off for final edits, cover, formatting, book, ebook, and audio production. When I come up with a few things I could change, I realize it is not a one-off idea and I’d never finish the book. One of the hardest things for an artist to do is STOP.

Back to the TRANSITION manuscript. One of the nefarious schemes is selling “found” stolen works of art. To accurately reference these works, I had to do research. One of the missing paintings is Picasso’s Harlequin Head (Tête d’Arlequin, 1971). I could not find the actual painting to determine the original size, only reproductions. With nowhere else to turn, I remembered I had gone to a Picasso Retrospect at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art back in the day when I could walk the whole exhibit without sitting down, taking myriad restroom breaks, and, sadly, not having the wisdom to appreciate Picasso’s journey.

However, I was smart enough to buy the mammoth catalog, which still sits on one of my bookshelves. Excited, I flipped the pages, hoping the image would magically appear. It didn’t. I had to look. Once I had the information, I sat with the book in my hands and flipped through it again, slower than the last time. Then, one more time. I felt like someone had just given me the keys to the kingdom.

I’ve never been a fan of Picasso’s abstract cubism until that minute when I realized he was pursuing a goal. He went from traditional portraiture to exploring ways to give humans weight, mass, dimensionality, and complete exposure. As I watched his style change over time, I became aware of his ultimate goal — to present his subject so we could see not only form and mass but also all sides of the subject at once — collapsing time by suggesting a 4th dimension. Awesome, right? I now see his work, especially cubism, with new understanding and appreciation.

When the whole research and enlightenment moment passed, I began to think of my first book, SEDUCTION, which I began in 2010. I wrote the first draft in four months. It took me five years to edit, rewrite, and publish as I believed it would be my only book. I was wrong.

So, if you’ve not embarked on the whole journey with me, you may miss that my grammar, structure, dialogue, character, and story development have improved over time. In TRANSITION, I’ve expanded the use of description and explored a new story structure. I wasn’t sure it would work. I did it anyway, trusting my knowledge and experience gained from the first five books. Intent is important–one has to know the rules to break them.

You, the reader, is why I continue to hone my craft. My mission, starting with SEDUCTION, is to entertain you with relevant story content that gets mixed into the exciting world of thrillers and suspense.

Although every book stands on its own, I hope you’ll decide to read The Seduction Series in order and take this memorable journey with me. Enjoy!