The Inspiration

In a half lit room in a sparse flat in SoHo, lines of code, video feed, and still photographs flashed on a bank of large computer screens.  The Fallen Angel kept a watchful eye on all of them and waited.  At quarter to six in the morning, one monitor raised an alarm.
  “Finally,” Fallen Angel said with a smirk.  “Let the games begin.”
-Excerpt from Angel's Code





Angel’s Code is an exciting romp through the seedy world of cyber crime.  Based in London, the story revolves around Danny Murray and his introduction into the hacker lifestyle.
Danny is a young, bored web design student at Birkbeck College, who dreams of becoming more than just an IT guy.  He wants to make a mark on the world, and releases a prank virus, attracting the attention of internationally renown hacker, “The Fallen Angel.”
Angel agrees to teach the young Danny the ways of the hacker, but his online skills are not the ones in need of refining.
        The only setback Danny has is his older brother, Oliver Murray, who has just been promoted head inspector of the cyber crime division for London’s Metropolitan Police.  Oliver feels it is his main duty to keep Danny away from the mysterious, and dangerous Angel.
However, when the tables are turned and Oliver is the one in need of rescuing, will the skills Danny learned from Angel be enough to save his brother from Cyber Terrorist Ahmed Eid?

In my real job, I am afforded a massive amount of time out during winter and summer breaks. I wrote Angel’s Code last winter after being disappointed with television shows I like to watch and thriller novels that I like to read.  They just always came up short, or I figured out the mystery within the first five minutes.  (I’m looking at you Elementary!)  Fortunately, two shows engaged me, Sherlock and The Adventures of Merlin.  Both have great action, dialog, and humor.  Everything a snowbound Montana girl could ask for.  Most of all I was impressed by now-everywhere-actor Benedict Cumberbatch and probably-soon-to-break-actor Colin Morgan.  Their acting and timing were superb.  And they looked enough alike, I thought they could be related.
I began to stay up nights thinking about what I would like to watch with these two actors in it.  That is when I came up with the story of Angel’s Code.  A hacker, hacker wannabe, and his overprotective police brother.
Every night I would go to bed and make up the story, relishing in their similarities and differences.  Then I thought, no one is going to write this, it may as well be you.  So I started writing.  I had just recently finished a course with the Long Ridge Writer’s Group on short stories, could I really write a whole book? Things started falling in place for me.  I met Danica Winters, who taught me about character development and the hero’s journey.  She put me in contact with a critique group and a publisher.
It still doesn’t seem real.  I am still surprised when people come up to me and tell me how much they liked my book.  It’s all so surreal.
I have the second in the series, Angel’s Betrayal, done and am currently working on the third, Angel’s Fall.
I feel truly blessed that I was able to put out a good story, maybe one day my dreams will make it to the big screen.
If you are interested in knowing more about the characters of Angel's Code, look for the description of Danny on Janette Harjo's blog.  And on November 18th, you can find out more about Oliver on Amber Dalton's blog.