What would you do if you were faced with a teenager threatening to jump from San Diego’s Coronado Bridge, which would mean almost certain death? What if you knew you were the only one who could stop her? This is the dilemma San Diego Police Officer Shayne Callahan faces in the opening of my new novel, The Quiet After.

Shayne is smart, strong, and competent. She knows how to survive the streets, but when she faces a series of traumas, culminating in a fight that turns deadly, she finds herself fighting a new opponent within herself.

The story follows Shayne on her journey through relationship struggles, coming to terms with the effects of PTSD, and healing coming from an unexpected place - a partnership with a traumatized ex-racehorse she adopts.

It’s a journey of tragedy, triumph, love, loss, and healing after trauma.

On a personal note, this story is a novel, a work of fiction, but it’s highly informed by my own life and my own experience with trauma. Writing it has been both frightening and cathartic. The characters are fictional. The incidents are fictional. The emotions behind the story, though, are very real.

I hope you’ll read Shayne’s story, which will be available next year in paperback and e-book formats.

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