What is something unique/quirky about you?
My first job after college was a belly dancer at The Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas where I also learned to walk and dance on stilts.
Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I didn’t grow up knowing that I wanted to be a writer, it happened by accident. I was always obsessed with stories, movies first and then as I got older, I became a reader.
When I was getting my Master’s Degree in Media and Journalism Studies, we had to take a graduate course outside of our degree focus. I thought I wanted to be a film critic so I took screenwriting as my outside course.
The only assignment for screenwriting was to pitch and write a full-length screenplay. So, I pitched and wrote a screenplay about my dad’s life story. He had been an investigator for the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the 1970’s and uncovered the skim portrayed in the movie casino.
The class loved the story. The pitch was supposed to be around twenty minutes, but I ended up talking for the entire class period which was about an hour and a half. I ended up turning that screenplay into a treatment, getting an agent, and writing my first book—Hit Me! Fighting the Las Vegas Mob by the Numbers. In that process, I found that I loved writing and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Who is your hero and why?
My parents are my heroes. They both had incredible careers and raised my siblings and me with so much love and support. My dad was a law enforcement agent and then went into the casino business and became one of the most successful casino executives in the industry.
He passed away about ten years ago, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. His motto in life was “Love is the most powerful force in the Universe.” He truly believed that. He helped so many people.
My mom was a professional dancer and ballerina. She’s the epitome of grace and beauty. Now in her 70s, she recently launched her second career. She invented and patented a new nail care tool. She’s incredible and so filled with love.
What inspired you to write Roll Them Bones?
I grew up in the casino business. When I was about twelve, we even lived in a casino for almost a year. When my family moved from Las Vegas to Atlantic City and our house was being built we lived at the Taj Mahal (now Hard Rock) Casino.
Then later in my dad’s career, he worked at Resorts Casino Hotel. While he was there, I learned about the history of the building, I toured the basements, saw the twelve-and-a-half floor, and heard all of the ghost stories.
The building has such an incredible history and trust me when I tell you, the basement is creepy! I thought it would make the perfect setting for a horror.
Convince us why you feel your story is a must read.
Roll Them Bones is inspired by a real place with an incredible history. The Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel, which is now Resorts Casino Hotel, was built in the 1920s.
During World War II, the hotel was converted to the Thomas England General Hospital which was the largest surgical hospital during that time. Roll Them Bones takes the history of the building and infuses it with the true history of the occult, some conspiracies from that era, and merges it with a modern spin.
Roll Them Bones is a spine-tingling read with a unique setting. At its heart it’s the origin story of a new female anti-hero, Lillith, that will leave you craving more of her.
What is your advice to new authors?
I will give new writers the same advice that I received and led me to write Roll Them Bones—write what you know.
I know the casino business and as a trained researcher and journalist I know how to do research. With Roll Them Bones, I started with a strong foundation built on what I know.
This foundation allowed my imagination to run wild and create a completely off-the-wall, fun, terrifying story that’s grounded in fact.
