I am a writer seeking representation for my novel, DIARY OF BEDLAM, complete at 80,000 words.

Synopsis:

“Lady Isabel Wilde, a former English spy and occasional favorite in the royal bedchamber, has a secret: she makes her living disguised as Mistress Ruby, a fortune teller who caters to London’s elite. Charlatans, rogues, villains and swindlers lurk in every dark corner of 1678 England, and Isabel concedes she is one of them. But hard experience has taught her that women have few advantages in this world, and her conscience does not often bother her.

Everything changes when Sir Edmund Godfrey, a popular London magistrate, seeks Mistress Ruby’s counsel and reveals his accidental involvement in a covert Jesuit plot to murder the protestant King. Despite their estrangement, Isabel’s first concern is for her royal lover’s safety, but soon after Sir Edmund’s visit, her diary is stolen. It’s the sole record of her activities as a soothsayer and Isabel must locate it before anyone connects her to Mistress Ruby.

When Sir Edmund’s corpse is discovered a week later in a remote area north of London, Isabel suspects whoever committed the murder also has her diary. Unwilling to trust the investigation to a court infamous for its schemes and intrigues, she begins her own inquiry, re-entering the cutthroat world of London politics and reluctantly resuming her turbulent romance with the King in the process. After a series of increasingly violent threats against her and her loved ones, Isabel learns that Sir Edmund’s murder is only a small part of a conspiracy that leads all the way to the throne and promises to alter the future of the British monarchy forever. With everything she holds dear at stake, Isabel knows she must find Sir Edmund Godfrey’s killer before she becomes the next victim.”

My short story, Once a Loser, appears in the Fall 2011 issue of Needle: A Magazine of Noir. My short fiction has been featured online on Shotgun Honey and is forthcoming on Dirty Noir. I am an associate member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. I also write a blog geared toward aspiring authors called Adventures in Bedlam.I am a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

I live with my husband Mick and two dogs named Stuart and Stella in Southern California. In my spare time I like to read, knit, run, pet dogs, and decorate my house.