J.R. Wirth

Time and a desire. I had left a job or 21 years (along with a teaching job and one as a DV group counselor), which turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me. I then had time and wanted to do a thriller, screenplay based on my domestic violence experience. I had a thousand stories to tell and just needed to pull it together. I finished it and actually had an agent who was interested in it, with only a few tweaks. While that was happening, I was encouraged by a friend to write the book with all the stories first. The 15th draft is still waiting to be completed ;) I then started writing for number of online outfits and have numerous stories floating around - including a couple of poems. Then, I answered a call to add a story to a Halloween collection that would be published. And that was that. I started writing holiday themed paranormal/supernatural short stories staring my family. The collection is in the Twisted Family Holiday Collection, published by Books To Go Now publishers.

The latest published novel (2025) is a thriller about an adolescent who is sent to an institute for behavioral change. The institute, however, is doing nefarious, secret experiments that involve brain chips (first draft written long before the current Neuralink et al. experiments). A volunteer at the institute, 17-year-old Melissa Jenkins, begins to see the evil within the facility. Soon after, she meets and takes a liking to Noah (admit) and vows to rescue him. Meanwhile, Noah's stepbrother senses something is wrong and enlists the help of a couple of lifelong friends to drive the 500 miles to breakout Noah out. The friends (twin brothers) are dragged in naturally as the do some research and find that their father has ties to the institute. It becomes a race for time, you might say.