And when I say there’s a twist, I’m not kidding.

Twohorse, an American Indian of mysterious origins, has the ability to perceive truth from lies, guilt from innocence. He can experience every nuance of a violent crime through the eyes, mind, and heart of the victim, even if that person is a woman too traumatized to speak, a small child without words for what was done to her, or a murdered teen whose body has been long buried.

And he doesn’t need to rely on the justice system to punish the guilty. With Twohorse as their messenger, the victims do that themselves.

Not unlike his totem animal, the great horned owl, he hunts at night.

According to American Indian lore, the owl can be protector or destroyer. Owls are said to have prophetic powers, can see behind masks to the true good and evil in a person. And although owls never trust anyone, they have the courage to follow their own instincts. 

The owl is also said to embrace its shadow-self, the dark side of its nature humans try so hard to deny and control.

This was the first contest in which I entered it and wasn’t holding out any hope of a final. I have always written futuristic romance. My one erotic romance, Heart For Hire, however, did pretty well in contests in 2008.

I had never even dabbled in RS before, until… I had this dream one night. It was one of those full-length, Technicolor movie-dreams with Surround Sound. I watched all the characters move through this fully-formed rich plot about a mysterious Native American who, with the help of his vigilante group, the Horsemen, travels around the country catching serial killers.

Prior to my dream, and now some research, what I knew about mystery/suspense/crime drama could have been written on the head of a pin. I don’t even watch CSI or Law & Order. I’ve never read James Patterson, for heaven’s sake! But there it was, a complete novel ripe for the picking–and the second I woke up, at 4am, I jumped out of bed and wrote it all down.

It was so completely different from anything else I’d ever written, I was sure it was crap. But after a few positive crits from my RWI chapters sisters, I got up the nerve to enter it in the WTMB. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I’d won a free entry into that contest in a drawing. What did I have to lose?

Exile is about 1/3 complete and I’m already getting ideas for the second novel in the series. I’m hoping to finish it, as well as my sensual contemporary, Bad Influence, this year. I’ll also be working on a regency historical as part of a partnership effort.

And she just loves playing with my min-pin, Penny.

I’m heading to the pool again this afternoon. Speaking as a life-long Michigander, I love OK.

Speaking as a writer, I’ve found the pool is a great place to contemplate my WIP!