If you ask her why she writes such dark stuff, she'll stare at you blankly because she still hasn't figured out a clever way to answer that question.

Born and raised in Toronto and a proud Canadian, she spent five years living in Seattle, which is where she wrote her first novel. She currently splits her time between Toronto and Seattle, and is slightly ashamed to admit that she's way more of a Seahawks fan than a Leafs fan . . . which, she suspects, makes her a bad Canadian.

She loves her husband, her cat Kobe, and Stephen King. Not equally, but close. She's the author of the psychological thrillers CREEP (2011), FREAK (2012), and THE BUTCHER (2014), all published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Her agent is Victoria Skurnick of Levine Greenberg Rostan, NYC (www.lgrliterary.com).

She blogs about writing, publishing, and life in general at SerialKillerFiles.com.