Sometimes a story haunts you for a long time before you turn it into a novel. My mother, an English teacher, had a colleague who, shortly after retiring and while on a short trip, simply disappeared. She was never found, although some incriminating evidence did turn up -- but not enough to arrest or convict anyone. After years of thinking about her, I began putting ideas on paper, and they turned into my latest mystery, "Finding J. Hubbard." While its characters are purely fictional, the situation of the story resembles what happened to my mother's friend. I wold be interested in our thoughts as readers and writers. Do "real live" events inspire you? Is fact sometimes stranger than fiction, as we have been told? In any event, I hope you enjoy "FJH" -- it is truly a work of love and remembrance.