Oh, sure: it sounds like a fantastic place to live. Clean streets and neighborhoods. Good schools to educate your children. And who wouldn’t want to be part of an HOA? That watches your every move? Every…single…move?

I came up with the idea behind my latest book in 2020, and I started working on the draft in 2021. I have set this book aside off and on since then, and I finally finished it this past month. I didn’t realize how old the draft really was until I went back to reread it, and I realized I needed to change a few things. For instance, Skype was still a thing when I started writing this book. Skype is gone, now. So, I had to give two of my characters a different platform to communicate through, because it couldn’t be Skype. We pulled out of Afghanistan, so it didn’t make sense for one of my characters to be stationed there. I needed to make a few updates.

I wanted this to be one of those stories you didn’t want to put down. I wanted readers to keep asking, “What’s going to happen next? What is Lena going to do? What are they going to do to her?” My mother recently read my author’s proof copy and she thinks its one of the best things I written (but she is my mother so she might be a bit biased, but you’re welcome to grab a copy and see if you agree with her).

“What kind of Stepford Wives bullshit is this?“

One of my favorite attributes of this story is that it is completely unrelated to anything else I’ve published so far. It’s not part of the Valentine series or the Fortune’s Wing series, and its not part of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage universe. It felt good to step away from everything else I’ve ever worked on and create a brand new set of characters in a brand new setting. While I’m sorry it took so long to complete, everything happens when its supposed to, and I think this book turned out very well.

Barrin Heights is available on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover form, and I hope you’ll get a copy.