Frequently Asked Questions
When Eva is given mysterious ancient relics, she is driven to the past and uncovers startling facts about her family. We write much about her ancestors as we have searched our own genealogy. David has just learned some amazing things, which may appear in another one of our thrillers in the future. After Diane began researching her ancestor’s emigration from Europe, she was moved to write a historical fiction based in Europe. We reveal much of what she learned in Embers of Courage. And we hope readers will also enjoy how we intertwine what happened in history with the agents’ mission to rescue a new character, NCIS Special Agent Raj Pentu who is captured in Egypt.
David likes to tell readers that our system is foolproof. Diane starts at the beginning, while David starts at the end. He writes backwards and when we reach the middle, we are finished! Truthfully, we each write scenes and then have the freedom to edit each other’s work. Diane edits the manuscript one last time before it goes to the publisher’s editor. It is a joy for us as husband and wife to research, outline, and then start a suspenseful story that can inspire people.
The law is fascinating. It can make a difference in one person’s life, which can change a neighborhood, a town, a country. Both of us have written extensively in our careers. In Diane’s legal briefs, she strove to make case law come alive to the facts of a case. David’s reports of investigations, the basis for his testimony before the judge and jury, had to be precise. When we helped develop policy for communities to handle youth gangs or memoranda on how our government should encourage enemies to defect, we were creative. Of course, we could be eloquent when seeking a pay raise, award, or promotion!
With David’s experiences as an agent, friends encouraged him to write down his interesting stories. Through the years, we’ve read many books in the genre, including John Grisham, Robert Whitlow, David Baldacci and others. After Diane began genealogy research of her ancestor’s emigration from Europe, she was moved to write a historical fiction based in Europe. Publishers encouraged her write a novel related to her and David’s careers, which birthed our collaboration on Facing Justice.
As we divide our time between writing and promoting our writing, we do try to make time for such events. We’ve had the privilege to do so over the past months and will consider any requests for same. If is not always practicable to meet with book clubs in person, we are available to meet by phone conference. Use this link to connect with us. Modern technology is wonderful!
Many things in our books have happened to either of us, while some have happened to our associates or others. Remember that facts, names, and situations have been fictionalized to protect everyone’s privacy.
Suffice it to say, our careers provide us with much fodder for fiction.
In our novel Facing Justice, Emile Jubayl was suspected of raising support for Hezbollah and traveled to his birthplace in Bint Jubayl, Lebanon. Soon after, Israel was fighting Hezbollah in Bint Jubayl. Also, we wrote Stolen Legacy highlighting The Monuments Men before we ever knew there would be a new movie about these brave troops who saved much of the world’s masterpieces. There have been other situations coming true after we wrote of them.
Remember, we write fiction. So we travel for research, watch and listen, and have knowledge and intuition about how things work. Let’s just say, we hope we are at the top of our game.
Although Federal Agents Eva Montanna, Griff Topping, and Bo Rider appear in multiple books, the novels can be read in any order. Every storyline concludes in each book. The initial publisher referred to our first three novels, Facing Justice, Confirming Justice, and The Camelot Conspiracy as a series; however, these too can be read in any order. A romantic interest unfolds in Confirming Justice, which picks up again in Redeeming Liberty. We wrote the books in this order: Facing Justice, Confirming Justice, The Camelot Conspiracy, Hero’s Ransom, Redeeming Liberty, The Joshua Covenant, Night Flight, Stolen Legacy, and Embers of Courage.
Diane studied the JFK assassination in college, reading the Warren Commission report, and always believing there were unanswered questions and flawed conclusions about Lee Harvey Oswald being the lone shooter. David worked as an investigative aid at the Chicago FBI office while in college. During his time there he learned Oswald purchased the murder weapon at Kleins’ Sporting Goods in Chicago. This fueled his interest in the unsolved mystery. Because Americans remain fascinated with what happened to John F. Kennedy, we felt it was time to revisit the facts, and write The Camelot Conspiracy.
David’s Uncle Chuck served in that war, as did Diane’s father. Diane’s ancestors are from the Netherlands. As we heard stories from our parents, we determined to write about WWII someday. Over the past few years, we visited De Zwaan, the working windmill moved to Holland, MI in 1963 after it survived Germany’s invasion of the Netherlands. Also, a friend worked in the Dutch Resistance. We dedicate Stolen Legacy to her and those heroes who stand up against tyranny. After you’ve read Stolen Legacy, ask for our digital Epilogue by sending an email request