Mystery Writing-The John Keegan Mystery Series

  What happens when a marriage comes apart—but both partners keep investigating? That question is at the heart of Ghosts and To The Bone , two new novels written to unfold on parallel tracks. Each book tells a complete story. Each stands on its own. But read them together— in any order —and you’ll experience something rare: a dual perspective on a fractured relationship, told through two cases that echo far beyond their crimes. In Ghosts , veteran detective John Keegan finds himself at the center of a high-profile homicide while navigating the unwanted spotlight of a true-crime TV show based on his past. In To The Bone , Pauline McCrory Keegan steps away from the life they built together—and right into a missing person case that hits far closer to home than she expected. They’re not working together. In fact, they’re barely speaking. But the choices each of them makes ripple through the other’s story. 💔 Writing Through the Wreckage of a Relationship These aren’t just crime storie...

  The Lies That Bind Us All Lies are the cartilage of relationships. They bend, cushion, and hold everything together—until they don’t. I spend a lot of time talking about lies—mostly because I write about people who kill and the people who investigate them. In fiction, like in life, the truth is often inconvenient, and lies keep everything moving forward. Not grand deceptions—just the small, habitual falsehoods that make it easier to stay in relationships, keep a job, or go one more day without imploding. It's the truths that stop things cold. Lies come up in my teaching, too. According to my students, people lie about 40% of the time. We're not talking about deception so much as conveying falsehoods. And there's no way to discern intent; the best liars beat detectors all the time. This is why the engine running in the background of the latest Keegan book runs on lies. Heck, it's in the title. As a fan of House,  I've adopted a little bit of the 'everybody lie...

  How We Shape the Age of AI—And Why It's Up to the Ones Caught in the Middle I’ve always been a nerd—but I’d like to think, an ethical one. Bedazzled by technology at an early age, I noticed its impact on everyday life. My first experiences with an Apple IIe, handheld PDAs, and clunky game consoles showed me how technology could both enhance our lives and quietly reshape them. Like any young person, I lived wholeheartedly in a world that progressed. Over the years, I noticed a pattern: every step forward quietly asks us to leave something behind. I couldn’t just add a PlayStation 2 to my setup without removing the Nintendo 64 that had given me hours of joy. I reviewed video games for almost two decades and saw the rapid progression of technology firsthand at trade shows. But it always came with a cost: the quiet, bittersweet goodbye to what had just become familiar. Now, with AI advancing faster than we can track, the pattern of gain and loss accelerates. The Polarization of ...

How I Use AI to Spark Productivity, Not Just Do My Work You've likely heard that AI is about to take over. Much like every other major tech advancement, the news leads with fear. Still, there's truth to it. But the takeover can only happen if we let it. Using AI to do our work is the first part of the invasion, one we enable. So, let's not do that. Let's use AI ethically and appropriately. There’s a revolution happening in creative and professional spaces, and it’s not just about automation or efficiency. It’s about collaboration. If you’ve read my last post on writing eight novels in a year ( and why you probably shouldn’t try it), you know I owe a big part of that output to the structured, gamified system I built for myself. But what’s equally important—and less discussed—is how I used AI as a creative collaborator, not a replacement. I didn’t let ChatGPT or any other tool do the heavy lifting. I let it spot me when I faltered. Like a writing partner who doesn’t get...

  How I Wrote Eight Novels in a Year: And Why I Suggest You Shouldn't Try Writing eight novels in a year sounds like an impossible feat—and honestly, it probably should be. What started as a challenge fueled by curiosity and AI-assisted brainstorming turned into an all-consuming obsession. I found ways to optimize my writing speed, eliminate writer’s block, and make creativity feel automatic. But I also pushed myself to the edge of burnout. Here’s what I learned along the way: Find your system and optimize it. A structured routine, a reliable keyboard, and tracking word counts kept me on pace. Use AI as a tool, not a crutch. ChatGPT helped with plotting and logistics, but it couldn’t replace my voice. Turn writing into a game. Treating my novels like puzzles and tracking my progress kept me engaged. Burnout is real—pace yourself. Chasing high word counts at all costs led to months of mental exhaustion. Work on multiple projects to stay unstuck. When one book stalled, an...

 Tricks of the Trade: When to Buck Convention (And When Not To) As a reader, writer, and teacher of detective fiction, the concept of convention comes up often. Students need to learn the 'rules' as do writers. Readers come to understand them the more they read. When I'm reading during a semester, I often project what students might experience, new to the genre. Their often blissful ignorance of the conventions can make reading even more enjoyable, I think. Still, the budding writer doesn't benefit from this. They need to learn where the guardrails are and when they've crossed over them in a way that makes the novel unsalvageable.  First, let me say that sticking to rules seems ill-advised. No beginning writer wants to just follow the formula. Yet there's no other way without accounting for luck or immense genius. Both exist. Neither should be counted on. Our first novel attempts should crash into the guardrails, scraping and denting them. The result is usually ...