Personal

Allison was born and raised in San Carlos, California (on the San Francisco Peninsula). She attended public schools until she earned a scholarship to Menlo School, a small college prep high school in nearby Atherton. She attended the University of Santa Cruz for the beauty of the campus and to be near the beach.

Allison began her college education as a Literature major because she wanted to be an English teacher, and eventually write books. After becoming editor-in-chief of one of the independent campus papers, she switched majors to Business Economics and Politics. Two years later she dropped out of college to take a campaign job in Sacramento.

As she worked her way into politics, Allison worked in a variety of positions from bartender to country club hostess to administrative assistant for a software company long before the dotcom boom. At one point she held down three jobs, which served as preparation for her eventual career as a mother/legislative consultant/writer.

In the early 1990s, she moved cross-country to the Washington DC area for a job with a public policy think tank, but became homesick and drove back to California four months later.

Fortunately, it only took a short time to land a job, though she had to move to Southern California. She worked for an elected official in Glendale and ended up meeting her future husband, Dan Brennan, who at the time was an account executive for a medical company. They married a year later and moved to Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, and rode out the Northridge earthquake five days after the birth of their first daughter.

A year later, Allison and Dan decided to move to Sacramento to pursue their public policy career goals. They've been there ever since -- adding four children, a dog and two cats to their family.

In January of 2005, Allison quit her thirteen-year career in the California State Legislature and settled down to commit herself fully to her family and writing.

Allison is a member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. Her romantic suspense debut trilogy, THE PREY, THE HUNT and THE KILL, are early 2006 releases from Ballantine.


Focus on Writing

Ever since I was young, writing was for fun. A hobby. Sure, I wanted to write a book and be published, but I never finished anything so didn't feel the pressure to try and get published.

Shortly after the birth of my third child, I tried to figure out a way to stay home with my kids. Since I loved to write stories, I committed myself to finish one of the many books I'd started, then seek publication. I thought finishing the book would be the hard part, but I managed to finish five books in less than two years. Learning the ins and outs of the publishing business is an on-going experience!

The two years between my commitment to writing and selling my first book was a crucial learning experience. When I completed my fifth book, I sensed this was it, and queried a handful of top agents. I landed my dream agent, Kimberly Whalen with Trident Media Group, who went on to sell my romantic suspense, now known as THE PREY, a week after sending it out.

While quitting my "day job" was a risk, I took a leap of faith. With five children, day care expenses were higher than our mortgage! It also helped that my husband Dan has a good career with medical benefits.

One thing I learned fast: being a stay-at-home mom/full-time writer is physically more tiring than working full-time outside of the house.


Why Romantic Suspense

Like most writers, I am an avid reader. I started light – Encyclopedia Brown, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew – but by the time I was eleven, I'd discovered my mom’s vast Agatha Christie and Ed McBain collections.

But two things happened on my way to becoming a mystery writer.

First, I discovered Stephen King.

As a thirteen-year-old book fanatic, I learned early what a page-turner was.

During high school, I immersed myself in classics because I thought I wanted to be an English teacher. I read a lot of Poe and Hawthorne and Twain and Steinbeck, among others. I wanted to write the next Great American Novel.

But Stephen King continued to appeal to me, and I became fascinated with true crime like Vincent Bugliosi. I read Capote's In Cold Blood, completely absorbed by the awful truth behind the story. I also read a lot of science fiction as well, and to this day, Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder and Heinlein's And He Built a Crooked House haunt me.

Moving back home after college for a few months (the time between jobs is common territory with idealistic college drop-outs who think they can change the world,) I started reading my mom's romance books, which hadn't appealed to me as a teen-ager but now as a "mature" twenty-one year old, I found enthralling.

Nora Roberts, among others, introduced me to contemporary novels that didn’t involve murder, dismemberment, or deranged clowns living in the sewer.

I began to read everything.

Over the next decade, I built my career in the California State Legislature, married, had five kids, but never stopped reading. I discovered a wonderful blend of suspense and romance with the romantic suspense novels of Linda Howard, Tami Hoag and Iris Johansen; the forensic mysteries of Patricia Cornwell and medical thrillers of Tess Gerritsen; the dark depth of Dean Koontz; and the fun of Jennifer Crusie and Janet Evanovich.

And then the second important thing happened.

I fell in love with romance . . . in danger. Romantic suspense. The best of both worlds. Two people destined to be together, torn apart by evil, evil that not only wants to destroy their relationship, but their lives.


Stephen King meets Nora Roberts

I love romance because I want a happy ending. True love should win over adversity. If the hero and heroine are worthy. They need to earn it, because nothing achieved easily is truly appreciated.

But I also love horror and suspense because they are physical--fear causes the entire body to react, heart pounding, head thumping, hands shaking.

Together romance plus suspense is a natural. It gives the satisfaction of seeing two worthy people triumph over a very real evil in order to live happily ever after, with themselves and with each other.

In a romantic suspense there will be a happily ever after–that is the story promise–but the danger must be real. There should be doubt. There should be the belief that maybe–just maybe–evil will win. Until the very end, fear that the hero or heroine will fail. Die. That the villain will succeed.

If it’s not real, it’s not suspense. If you don’t doubt, cringe, worry, fear, it’s not suspense. Suspense is personal. It could happen. It could happen to you. Even in paranormal suspense, in the world built by the author the threat is very real.

When you’re in love, everything matters more. When the life of your loved one is in jeopardy, you will do things you never thought yourself capable of. Because the stakes are higher, the happily-ever-after is all the more sweet.