Thirty Years of Stories: Celebrating 30 Years as a Novelist
In 2027, I'll celebrate thirty years since the publication of my first novel - and three decades of mysteries, characters, readers, and stories I never could have imagined when it all began.
Thirty years.
It's difficult for me to comprehend.
In 1997, my first novel was published. I knew I wanted to tell stories. I knew I loved crime fiction. I knew that books had shaped my life and that I wanted, more than almost anything, to write books of my own.
What I couldn't have known was where those stories would take me.
Over the next three decades, I would write nearly fifty crime novels. My books would become New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, receive Florida Book Awards, reach millions of readers around the world, and introduce me to people who would become some of my closest friends.
But the numbers and accolades tell only a small part of the story.
For me, these thirty years are really about people.
They're about the readers who took a chance on a book by an author they didn't know. The ones who came back for the next book - and the next. The readers who have followed John Jordan through more than thirty mysteries, traveled into World War II with Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, ventured into the darkness with Burke and Blade, and discovered the other damaged, searching, hopeful people who populate my novels.
Some readers have been with me for decades. Some discovered the books last week.
I'm grateful for every one of them.
Looking Back - and Beginning Again
What makes this anniversary especially meaningful is that I'm not approaching it as an ending.
Quite the opposite.
My thirtieth anniversary year will also mark the beginning of one of the most ambitious chapters of my writing life.
On March 2, 2027, The Dume of Night introduces Mason "Mase" McKnight, a former North Florida seminarian turned Hollywood private investigator and fixer, in a new mystery series set in 1945 Los Angeles.
Mase's story will eventually connect across generations with another new series featuring his grandson, Michael McKnight, a present-day crime novelist whose research into murder has an unfortunate habit of becoming the real thing. That series begins with Crime Writer.
Two generations. Two very different Los Angeleses. One family shadowed by crime, secrets, and the past.
There's something fitting about beginning these new stories during my thirtieth year as a novelist.
After thirty years, I'm returning to the thing that started all of this in the first place: the excitement of meeting a character for the first time and wondering where he might take me.
Celebrating Throughout 2027
I don't want the thirtieth anniversary to be about simply looking backward. I want it to be a year-long celebration of the books, the readers, the people who helped make them possible - and everything still ahead.
Throughout 2027, I'll be revisiting books and characters from across my career, sharing stories from behind the scenes, releasing special anniversary editions, introducing new books and characters, and celebrating with readers through events and conversations.
We'll also continue one of the traditions closest to my heart: the Annual Holiday Book Giveaway.
And there will be a special 30th Anniversary celebration, bringing together books, stories, friends, readers, and live music to mark three decades of doing something I still feel extraordinarily fortunate to get to do.
The Next Chapter
Thirty years ago, I couldn't have imagined this journey.
I certainly couldn't have imagined that three decades later I would still be sitting down in front of a blank page, inventing crimes, chasing mysteries, discovering characters - and feeling the same anticipation about the next story.
There are old characters I'm not finished with.
There are new characters I'm just beginning to know.
There are mysteries I haven't solved yet, places I haven't explored, and stories I haven't told.
So this anniversary isn't a finish line.
It's the beginning of the next thirty years.