Everyone knows that small towns hide secrets from outsiders. Whether you left and returned, came from elsewhere to attend college at the small liberal arts and technical university, or are just passing through on your way across the country, there are palpable stories hidden in the spaces between street lights. In IN THE SHADOWS OF MY MIND (Savant 2017), the town of Hazelwood has its share of secrets, even from the man it claims as its small-town hero, FBI Agent Stephen Lanford.


Stephen, a man with an atypical mind under incredible stress when his mother dies, returns to Hazelwood to find old friends as well as enemies waiting to see him again. But these days, Stephen Lanford has a secret of his own, unbeknownst even to himself. There's someone else hidden inside his mind, growing smarter and more in control every day. When Hazelwood's outside shadows collide with his inner shadow, the town and Stephen are changed forever.


When, six years ago, I began writing this novel, I couldn't have anticipated it would be released at the same time as a big budget horror film about a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder. But given the sudden abundance of horror movies featuring men and women with Dissociative Identity Disorder, I can't say I'm surprised, either. IN THE SHADOWS OF MY MIND is not a scary story, but a drama about prejudice, survival, death and rebirth, in both the past and the future. In the end, Stephen Lanford is not the monster one might anticipate. He's still Hero of Hazelwood.