Tremor in the Hills follows a teenage girl struggling with trauma after surviving a devastating quake, whose best friend is accused of murder, and she has to help discover the truth. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration: In 2007, I was with my husband and 2 young children visiting his family in Ica, Peru, when an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck. 90% of the town we were in was destroyed, and we had a difficult time getting home, although we were VERY lucky and grateful that we survived, and everyone in his family did also. 500 people died in the same town we were in. When I got home, everyone wanted to hear my story, but I did not want to talk about it, so I wrote it down and sent it to everyone I knew. The writing got a very good reception, and I have always loved mysteries, so I decided to continue processing my trauma through writing a story based loosely on my experience.

It seemed like you took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?

Tremor in the Hills has been through countless edits and 3 different editors, so I think it was mainly practice, editing, and just getting to be a better writer over the years.

How do you balance story development with shocking plot twists? Or can they be the same thing?

I hate to say it, but I think it’s a mixture of real-life experience and twisted imagination… I do believe that story development and shocking plot twists are melded together.

When will Book Two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

Book two, with any luck, will be out in late 2026. It will feature many of the same characters. The setting is Caral, an archaeological site in the north of Peru, and answers part of the question of where K’antu went at the end of Tremor in the Hills. There will be 3 books total in the trilogy.

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