I'm the author of the "Rift" epic fantasy series and am also a freelance medical editor. People usually get a vague, puzzled look in their eyes when I tell them what I do for a living, so for those who really, really want to know, this is it in a nutshell: I edit articles written by physicians for medical journals. I graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor of science degree and, being a lover of language and not laboratories, promptly transitioned from lab wretch to editor. In 2001 I took a medical editing course taught by the Journal of the American Medical Association's director of manuscript editing, who as a result recruited me as a medical editor (and that was pretty cool!). (I'd use italics properly throughout this bio, but I can't get them to work.) In 1992 I created the rudiments of the "Rift" series, which I began writing in 2008 (still going...) after dabbling with several other books. I write fantasy because it gives me the freedom to make implausible things happen. I love suspense and intrigue, but a thriller is constraining to me as a writer and often the worlds are not as interesting as those in fantasy (but let's face it: some of those places can be downright inhospitable). With fantasy, I can take any elements I choose, such as the suspense and intrigue I mentioned, and blend them with my story--which I do! I give the nod to Stephen R. Donaldson as the writer who has had the most influence on me because I used his "Mordant's Need" series to create my writing style, dissecting the books and then emulating what made me love them. Pat Conroy is another author who uses rich prose, so he also makes the list. Thomas Harris has the ability to draw readers right into the story, and his characters are well rounded. There are many others worthy of mention, of course, but too little time to talk about them because my taste runs the gamut from horror to poetry.

I was thrilled to have been headhunted by the director of manuscript editing at JAMA, one of the top three medical journals in the world. My relationship with them has been rewarding and has contributed to the realism of scenes of murder and mayhem in my books.

"This Darkling Magic," the third book in the "Rift" series, recently made Indie Author Land's list of Top 10 books.