About Michael

Michael Norman – The man behind the characters

A native of Seattle, Washington, Michael has lived his adult life in Colorado and Utah. Focused on criminal justice, he spent his early career policing in Bellevue, Washington, and later in Lakewood, Colorado. His interests shifted to teaching, and he returned to the university to complete a doctorate in criminal justice.

Michael spent 25 years as a Professor of Criminal Justice at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. During that time, he served on the Utah State Youth Parole Authority followed by a term on the State Board of Pardons and Parole.

After years of academic writing, Michael developed a yearning to try something that would require creativity. As an avid mystery reader, and with his professional background working in criminal justice, a murder mystery seemed like a good fit. Much the way that he likes to read, he wants his readers to be able to escape and to be entertained, so he set out to write the kind of mystery that he personally enjoys reading – entertaining, fast paced, with a romantic interest, and authentic.

Michael Norman… the romantic? He admits that he can’t imagine writing a mystery novel without including a romance component in the story. To him, it makes the read that much more enjoyable. While he may be a romantic at heart, he likes the stories to move at breakneck speed and feels like the pace is really important for a good mystery. Additionally, authenticity is important to Michael. He wants his stories to have an air of realism to them and to be as procedurally correct as he can make them.

How does he do it? Typically Michael thinks about an idea for a while. At first, he doesn’t try to write it down, but instead asks himself a lot of ‘what if’ kinds of questions. He also spends a lot of time in the mornings discussing ideas over coffee with his wife, Diane. At some point, if he thinks the idea has merit, Michael sits down and creates a two or three page synopsis of the story with a working title (if he’s managed to think of one). After that, he starts writing knowing that the synopsis is likely to undergo significant changes along the journey.