Despite quite a few lovely reviews that say otherwise, I would say yes. Without spoiling anything, there are references to the first book in the second and third installments.

Great question, and there are two parts.

I graduated high school and like many people, I had no idea what occupation I wanted to commit to for the rest of my life. It’s a scary time for a lot of us. I was up in the air between the military and going to college. I chose community college. I found myself in an English course with a tough professor, was moved into an advanced course the following semester, and my writing was acknowledged. Then I transferred and I received my BA at Albertus Magnus College, where I also played four years of college tennis.

The other part of the story is that I found books that I really enjoyed. I read The Client by John Grisham, which made me want to read more. And then I found The Poet by Michael Connelly, which is the book that made me try writing my own story. I was told endlessly by different people: You should have a backup plan, writing won’t amount to anything, it’s a pipedream, etc. Thankfully, I was far too stubborn to listen to any of them (and now you see where Rooker gets it from.)

I stopped telling people that I was working on a book and lived by one of my favorite J. Cole lines: “If they don’t know your dreams, then they can’t shoot ‘em down.”

Absolutely not. I probably received twenty or thirty rejection letters before receiving a partial manuscript request and I was turned down. I took all the feedback, made revisions, and sent my manuscript off again. Then I was lucky enough to get rejected some more. But I did receive some full manuscript requests, and landed the best agent. She had the manuscript in the hands of some important people immediately, and she went to bat for me.

Yes and no. At the end of the day, I’ll never publish something that wouldn’t hold my attention as a reader, so if I release a novel, I know I’m proud of it and don’t worry so much about the reviews. Though I do check sometimes . . . the nicer ones are always a good read!

The Poet by Michael Connelly. If you haven’t read it, it’s incredible.

Other notable books for me:

The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø.

Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.

Joona Linna series by Lars Kepler.

And the Harry Potter series . . . obviously.

Despite being told by the women in my family that I need to write the next Fifty Shades of Grey, that is not happening.

I do intend to stay mostly in the thriller genre whether that be psychological, crime, police procedural, you name it. I have a novel I’ve been writing that I’m very happy with, and hopeful to have some news soon.

I also have a book I’ve been working on that’s more of a new-aged espionage thriller. I’ve always loved characters like Jason Bourne, James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Mitch Rapp, James Reece, Carrie Mathison, etc. The list goes on. But I’ve always wanted to throw my own character into that ring, and I think my concept would be pretty damn cool.