I've just published Too Far Under, the second in my Cleo & Tyler mystery series set in Boulder Colorado. The series features female sleuth Cleo Sims, a Boulder-based grief therapist whose ability to contact dead people gets her involved in solving murders, and Tyler, a dead surfer dude who gives Cleo cryptic and often inscrutable advice. Both Books are character-driven mysteries with a paranormal twist and a humorous tone.  The first novel in the series, Too Near the Edge,  won a Silver Medal in the 2007 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards which honor the year’s best independently published books. Too Near the Edge ranked second in the Best Regional Fiction—West-Mountain category. As far back as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with the possibility of contacting the dead. My father got me interested when I was a teenager, and after that I read everything I could find. One of those books was Reunions by Raymond Moody, in which he talks about his research on visionary encounters with departed loved ones. I also love mysteries, and I’ve had some experience as a grief therapist for hospice, so I put all that together for this Cleo & Tyler series.  

Somehow my curiosity has led me back to school many times. I have four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in communication, and I’ve spent time as a university researcher and instructor. I’m also a social worker and have worked in hospitals, hospice, and as a long-term-care ombudsman. My husband, Allan Press, and I have studied and taught stress-management techniques for over 25 years. We created a computerized stress assessment, the PREVENTIVE MEASURES COMPUTERIZED STRESS INVENTORY, which has been used nationally and internationally by hospitals, wellness centers, physicians, military installations, employee assistance programs, universities, psychologists and consultants since 1984 to help people examine their sources and symptoms of stress.