Story comes first in my books. I include description and backstory only when they are necessary to understanding what the main character is doing. Otherwise, I stick to what happens next. That's why my books are about the same length as Agatha Christie's. I write the series of murder mysteries featuring Nicole Tang Noonan, an art historian from San Francisco, who gets her first teaching job at a small college in rural Ohio. My own life has gone in the opposite direction: I grew up in Ohio and wound up in San Francisco, where I am a member of the writing community at The Mechanics Institute Library. I also belong to the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime and am a Guppy. Prior to taking up the craft of crime fiction, I performed as an actor and guitarist. In San Francisco, I worked with several companies that produce new plays. In Philadelphia, I performed with the Hedgerow Theater, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and the Arden Theater. I spent most of my thirty-year academic career at Rider University, teaching classes in acting and theater history, directing plays, and publishing scholarly articles. I also taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara; The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee; and Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. I earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame and MA and PhD degrees in theater arts from the University of Minnesota. While a graduate student, I reviewed plays for the Minnesota Daily. With my wife, Ann, I enjoy walking everywhere in San Francisco, visiting art museums, and eating from food trucks.