Kim McMahill

I finally went to my first haunted house. It was awesome. I’m not saying I was overly scared, but I couldn’t help but be impressed by the staging. The sets were authentic, the sound and special effects were excellent, and the actors did a believable job. Hopefully my writer’s critical eye even learned something about how the tiniest detail can make any scene feel more realistic.

St. Peter's Square Part of a well-crafted, believable story is the author’s ability to create a sense of place so strong the reader feels they are there or is left with an overwhelming desire to explore even if the setting is fictional. No one does this more successfully than Dan Brown. On a recent visit to Rome I timed reading Angels and Demons to correspond with my sight-seeing. The book made my visit more exciting and gazing directly at the monuments described in the novel added a tangible dimension to the story. I always strive to create settings in my stories that take the reader on a journey of discovery and I gauge the success of a story by how deeply I can immerse the reader in an interesting culture or place. I hope Deadly Ruins has encouraged readers to explore Cobá on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. And, while there I hope they follow the heroine’s path through the ruins to find the spot where she venture’s further into the unknown and take a moment to ponder what lay b