I was the kid who watched The X-Files every week, hunted down Nancy Drew books at secondhand stores, and watched horror movies at wildly inappropriate ages. To this day, I still love escape rooms because I want to solve the puzzle before everybody else in the room. I came to ThrillerFest last year because John Grisham was speaking, and I grew up reading every one of his books and watching every adaptation. Last year, I came purely as a fan. This year, I came celebrating the c

Today, I finished my thesis defense for my Masters in English Literature degree. To celebrate, let's play with a little metaphor. I'm looking back at my life and ahead into my future, and I see it as a great symphony. A large scale work with multiple movements, emotional arcs, crescendos, and climaxes. There's a loosely cohesive collection of sweet little lullabies, love songs, elegies and requiems, heartbreak ballads, endless dance beats, awkward karaoke, full on orchestras.