Also By Michael Lister

Also by Michael Lister

A Sawyer Payne and Kace Mason Mystery

A Dark Radiant Rain

Jimmy "Soldier" Riley Noir Mysteries

The Big Goodbye

John Jordan Mysteries

Power in the Blood

Beneath A Blood-Red Sky

Out for Blood (Coming Soon)

The Wedding

The Meaning Series

Finding the Way Again

Meaning Every Moment

The Meaning of Life in Movies

Watch for more at Michael Lister’s site.

Introduction by the Author

I became a writer in the summer of 1994.

Three years and three months later, in the fall of 1997, I became a published author.

During this time, two true crime cases dominated our culture, the public national trial that was the O. J. Simpson case and the horrific, tragic death of JonBenét Ramsey—both of which are experiencing renewed interest as I write this, because they too are marking their twentieth anniversary.

Power in the Blood was my very first attempt at writing a novel—not just my first novel to be published, but the first I ever wrote.

Writing is like anything else—you learn by doing, by practice. I’ve been practicing the craft of writing for nearly twenty-three years now. In that time I’ve gotten better at it, grown and evolved, discovered my voice, honed my style.

After twenty-plus years of writing, the Power in the Blood I would write today is not the Power in the Blood that was published twenty years ago. Of course, if I hadn’t written that Power in the Blood back then, I wouldn’t be able to write Cold Blood, the novel I’m working on as I write this. Way leads to way. Book leads to book. Everything builds on that which comes before.

The writer I am today is only because of the writers I was before.

How did I become that first fledgling writer?

I was probably born with a love of story. I can certainly remember craving story as a child. Being moved by story are among my earliest memories.

As a teenager who was reading mostly nonfiction, I was led to detective fiction by, of all things, a TV show. Spenser for Hire led me to the books by Robert B. Parker the show was based on, and I fell in love with character, prose, and dialog.

After high school, I moved from my small Florida Panhandle town of Wewahitchka to Atlanta—not unlike John Jordan—and though I was there for theological training, it was a lit class taught by Tricia Weeks that was to be among the most inspirational and influential of my undergraduate degree program.