Posts on Criminal Justice and Prison Reform

7 Days to Launch: What Critics Are Saying About The Jacklighter With one week to go until The Jacklighter launches on Oct. 27, I’ve gathered this whole season of reviews in one place, because it’s been a lot to take in, in the best way 🥹 Six professional reviewers have now read the book. Each brought a ...

Greetings, true crime fans. I’m updating this post with more book launch events—I hope to see you later this month if you’re in Philadelphia or Northeast PA. 🎉 And my update starts with some surprise book news: if you’d like a signed copy of The Jacklighter before its official publication on Oct. 27, 2026, join me at the new Barnes ...

This weekend, my local writer’s group, the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime, had the great pleasure of welcoming award-winning author, CNN journalist, and master storyteller John DeDakis as our guest speaker. John’s presentation, “From Journalist to Novelist (Or How I Learned to Start Making it Up),” was thoroughly entertaining, and some of us ...

How I became a #1 Amazon Bestseller in Three Categories 11/16/2025 Update, Two Weeks later … Since I wrote my original post on Nov. 2, 2025, Chained Birds added a third #1 Best Seller Amazon badge in True Crime: Organized Crime, giving me a trifecta of orange badges. For a few days, I even held that #1 ...

I want to thank my friend and podcaster Cameron Santana for having me on his show, Santana True Crime, this week to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Chained Birds—now an Amazon Best Seller—and to talk about my next book, The Jacklighter! You can watch our hour-plus interview on Spotify, catch some outtake shorts on YouTube, or ...

This past year, I’ve had the pleasure of being a guest speaker at three local-to-me book clubs that assigned Chained Birds: A Crimemoir to their members. I can’t adequately convey what it meant to me, as a debut author, to be welcomed by these groups and treated as a guest of honor. I have finally compiled ...

This summer has been a whirlwind for me. After reclaiming the rights to my award-winning book Chained Birds, I took the leap into indie publishing. It’s been a liberating experience—one that’s pushed me to explore new platforms and opportunities, like making my audiobook available on Spotify. Yes, Chained Birds is now streaming on the same platform where Taylor Swift’s chart-topping ...

📚 October is right around the corner, and so is one of my favorite book festival events! I’m thrilled to announce that on Saturday, October 4, 2025, I’ll be joining the Delaware Valley Chapter of Sisters in Crime at the 23rd Annual Collingswood Book Festival in downtown Collingswood, NJ. This vibrant, six-block celebration of books, authors, ...

🎥 I’m overjoyed to announce that Chained Birds: A Crimemoir has been named a finalist in the 2025 Page Turner Awards’ Book Adaptation Needed category! 🏆 This recognition is particularly meaningful because the Page Turner Awards celebrate books with cinematic potential—an exciting prospect for any author dreaming of seeing their work adapted for the screen. ...

Better late than never! Seven months after receiving this one and only editorial review for my author-narrated audiobook of Chained Birds, I am finally posting it in its entirety. I’m extremely pleased to immortalize this review by AudioBookReviewer.com, even though the reviewer wasn’t so fond of the book’s political aspect. That is the reason, I suspect, ...