The Fine Art of Deception is my first novel and it took about a year to write.

The
day I decided to write fiction, I knew the main character would be
about a psychic who was caught with one foot in the psychic world, and
the other in the earth plane realm. I wanted to explore the challenges
that someone like that has, such as the struggle to find their place in
the world, and the difficulty in connecting with others — particularly
with those who may feel exposed by being around someone who sees so
much.

Too, there is the challenge of having such immediate
intimacy with strangers, you know everyone, but no one really knows you.

Addie Montgomery, the main character in The Fine Art of
Deception is just this character. I love her because she’s so flawed and
vulnerable and honest about how her life just isn’t working. What you
see is what you get with Addie, and it’s hard not to love that. When
the story begins, she’s standing at the epicenter of the smithereens of
her former life, trying to find a toehold to move forward in way where
she doesn’t repeat past mistakes. She thinks she has her plan under
control when in walks Mr Tall, Dark & Dangerous and nothing goes as
planned. She’s the kind of character you root for.

Writing the
backstory to the Isabella Gardner Museum heist — which is still the
nation’s largest unsolved art crime — was my next focus. I’ve long been
fascinated with art, art history and museums. I would move in to a
museum if they would let me! I did quite a bit of research on this art
crime. It’s a mystery that seems like it ought to have been solved long
before now, but it stumps everyone.

I think the theft was
most likely done by the mob – not a very well planned out heist on a
soft target. When you look at how the thieves navigated the museum and
what they took, it’s easy to think that they didn’t plan it out ahead of
time and just took what looked interesting to them.

The Gardner
Museum, was not unlike many others, in that they did not maintain solid
security systems in an effort to cut costs. Terribly short sighted
decision at an extraordinary cost.

Book 2 in The Fine Art of Deception series is due out in September!