I am working on BETRAYAL OF A CHILD, which tells the true story of a terrible crime and a broken criminal justice system. Convicted violent pedophile Mark Schwab was released from prison on March 4, 1991, after serving 3 1/2 years.  Forty-five days later, he raped, tortured, and asphyxiated 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez. Schwab began stalking Junny after seeing his picture in the newspaper holding his Puerto Rican flag-themed kite.

Schwab used con-man skills and a Ted Bundy-like charm to ingratiate himself with Junny’s family. After learning Junny’s routine, he called the child’s school, impersonated Junny’s father, and arranged for the boy to meet him in a deserted park.

By the time Mark Schwab met Junny, he had already violently raped three boys, served 3 1/2 years in prison, and been declared a mentally disordered sex offender. An assistant state attorney and the arresting detective had predicted that Schwab would kill his next victim. The institutions built to protect Junny and other children failed. After 17 years of appeals, Schwab was executed on July 1st 2008.

I was defense co-counsel for Schwab during his non-jury trial, and I recount the facts as they happened, with no agenda except to be as precise a historian as possible. I am currently conducting recorded interviews, editing the book, and doing additional research. The book is approximately 90,000 words and is projected to reach 100,000 when finished.

Jagged Evolution is a 98,000-word action/ adventure novel I am currently shopping to literary agents. It touches on many complex issues, such as how people can make good decisions and whether evil should be exterminated. This was not a book I intended to write. It just sort of happened. For a few years, I have thought that archeology and anthropology give far too little credit to early humans, extending up through the beginning of written history. It irritated me that humans were depicted as grunting and filthy. I read article after article in which discoveries shocked scientists, as the unearthing of an object proved the sophistication of early humans. I made notes on the articles and, early one morning, wrote twenty pages without intending to. That was just the start, the kernel, that got me started.

With zero intent on my part, Jagged Evolution turned out to be dominated by strong and unique female characters. I am particularly fond of Olexa, a former Olympic-level shot putter with in-your-face physicality, personality, and sexuality.

In the back of my mind is a book about four boys who have a very tough life and end up becoming bank robbers. The places where the book takes place are real, and the events could have happened.