Author

After graduating law school in 1994, Roger started toying with the idea of penning his own story. From time to time he would jot down outlines and story ideas, which formed a stack of yellow notepads on the corner of his desk. Ultimately a story never seemed to come together. Then he got married and started a family and the idea of writing a novel slowly receded to the back of his mind.

Then, one day he heard Minnesota author Vince Flynn interviewed by Chad Hartman and Dan Barreiro on KFAN.   Vince was discussing the process of writing and self-publishing his first book Term Limits and doing so while dealing with dyslexia. That night Roger went out and bought Term Limits, read it and in the following weeks and months the idea, and more importantly, the burning desire to write a novel of his own returned.

Over the next several months, a crime thriller began to form in his head, motivated in part by the Enron scandal and the seemingly insatiable greed of corporate executives. He wanted the story based in St. Paul, a city he grew to love while in law school and used the area in and around his apartment between historic Summit and Grand Avenues as a setting for the beginning of his story. Finally, proud of his own partial Irish Catholic heritage, he wanted Michael McKenzie "Mac" McRyan as his main character, an Irish Catholic detective, a fourth-generation cop, a person he could build a series of books around.

The start of The St. Paul Conspiracy...
While on summer vacation in July 2002, he wrote the first chapter in longhand. Over the next 18 months, while practicing law during the day, he spent nights, weekends and any spare fifteen minutes he could find to write.

Finally, in January 2004, the first draft of the story was complete. For the next two years, various drafts of the novel were read by friends, family members and a few local authors. Roger took their thoughts and ideas and spent countless hours editing and refining the story. Finally, in February 2006, The St. Paul Conspiracy was complete. At this point, Roger chose to publish his book with North Star Press of St. Cloud.

The St. Paul Conspiracy was successful for a first time book, particularly one that was self-published. It went through three printings and was nominated for a number of awards, including the 2007 Minnesota Book Awards. There was enough success to encourage Roger to keep going.

Roger was always interested in a story based on revenge and how far someone would be willing to go to get it.   That serves as the motivation for Deadly Stillwater. The novel was started in October 2006 and completed in early 2009.  It will be published in November 2009 by Beaver's Pond Press.

While the first book was self-published, why continue to do so through Beaver's Pond Press?   Its simple really. Roger had offers from small publishers for the rights to this book but it didn't make economic sense. Roger didn't want to give up the rights to his book and his character for a very small return. He'd rather take the economic risk himself and retain the rights to his work so when he is approached by a publishing house, he will have the rights to his books and characters with no strings attached.

In the words of Jed Bartlet, "What's next?"
Roger continues to practice law in Minneapolis, where he is a partner with McGrann Shea. He has started his third novel. While Mac McRyan will be a central character in that story, Roger plans to introduce a new main character with an interesting law enforcement and political background.