I have to say that I am quite thrilled to be a new author to Authors’ Billboard and posting a regular blog on the 27th of each month. For those who don’t know me, I’m a retired police officer/detective, a mother of two, grandmother to one, happily married to an incredible man, a total Disney Freak, and so much more!

I’m also a firm believer in writing what I know, and as I’m nearing the age of fifty I realize that I know quite a lot. Which is quite funny because I don’t think of myself as a very intelligent person. However, I do know there is a difference between being book smart and street-smart, and I can honestly say that I am 100% street-smart.

Because I spent sixteen years as a police officer, I tend to set a lot of my books into the law enforcement world (See-writing what I know!). Some of my books are romantic suspense, some contemporary romance, I even have a few paranormal romance books in the cop world, too. I am sure you can imagine the kinds of things I witnessed in my career. I have stories that would make you laugh till you cried, and stories that would make you sob for hours with emotional pain. I spent thirteen years working primarily patrol, and small investigations. Around my fourteenth year, I started getting involved in more in-depth investigations and moved on to be promoted to detective. I became a certified Crime Scene Investigator and thrived on those kinds of investigation.

The only reason I retired was that I sustained a second major concussion in ten years and had a lot of issues afterward with headaches and memory. I tried to go back, but it just didn’t work and I realized it was safer for all involved if I hung up my handcuffs.

One of the major cases that I worked on was a domestic violence homicide. I will never forget the day I stood over her body and my own past flashed in front of me. Words spoken to me so many years ago about how if I didn’t do something, I’d be killed. My entire life shifted that day-like it was a major adjustment to the way I saw life and I decided that I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.

And that’s why I write about domestic violence. I know it. I have felt it. I lived with the hand of control holding my throat, and cutting off the oxygen from my lungs. It’s why my books on the subject are so real, they come from experience, and sadly, from what I know.

But my books are not all doom and gloom. Most of my books are romance and I write that because people want to feel alive-feel loved. After being a victim of domestic violence, I know what it is to want to feel loved, in a healthy way. I’m so lucky that I am now married to a man who loves me for me, and has never tried to change me, threaten me, or hurt me with his words. Its possible for everyone to find that, they just have to believe.

I look foward to sharing with you more about books, life, kids, Disney, everything! Thanks for stopping by to say hello!