Terry Odell

One thing I knew when I started writing—which didn’t happen until I had a well-worn AARP card—was that I would write the kinds of books I wanted to read. At the time, those were series mysteries. Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, John Sandford, and more. I hadn’t studied writing, had no desire to be a writer. I had stories in my head, but the one time I sat down to write one, the simple mechanics of typing—punctuating dialogue, for example—made it a chore. Eventually, I got over that hurdle and found that I enjoyed the writing process. I set out to write a mystery.