Inventing Shadow Riders

I clearly recall the day I came up with the idea for my Shadow Riders. I have two Black Russian Terriers who are somewhere between 130 – 140 pounds each. People often comment that they look a lot like big, black bears. So, you can imagine my surprise when one day, they became very difficult to locate in the yard.

I stood up on the porch looking down into the dog yard. It’s large with lots of trees that line the fence. My dogs, Drago and Vladimir, were playing in the late afternoon sun, chasing each other and enjoying the day. It’s a joy to watch them when they play and I was in no hurry to call them back in.



As they ran around the yard they drifted over to the line of trees near the fence. Each tree threw a shadow across the yard, nearly leaning into one another on the ground. The shadows seemed to be stretching out toward each other. The dogs entered the first line of shadows and for a moment I lost sight of them. I was shielding my eyes with my hand, squinting against the dying sun and suddenly, they just weren’t there anymore.

Then Drago rushed in between the shadows, closely followed by Vladimir. They entered the next line of shadows and again, I could hardly see them at all. In my mind it was as though the shadows stretched to accommodate a path for them and they entered one, jumped to the next, disappearing along the way, but still moving forward.

My vivid imagination wondered what it might be like to travel from one shadow to the next. Why would someone do it? What would be the purpose? What if…an assassin had this ability? What would the assassin do and why? The thought took hold in a way that I had to do something about it. So, I began to imagine a family of assassins who looked to bring justice where it had not previously been served. Not a mob family, not really, but they might disguise themselves that way to hide what they really are; Shadow Riders.



My Shadow Riders series was born and today, June 4, 2019 my fourth book in the series, Shadow Warrior, will be released. I have so many ideas for the Shadow Riders and hope to keep writing about them for as long as readers enjoy their stories.