Jordan McCollum longs to write the next Great American Novel—but I keep getting sidetracked by these fantastic stories that happen to be genre fiction. I love writing, and at this point, thrillers, romantic suspense and mystery are my favorite genres. How can you beat a story where good defeats evil (and true love conquers all)?

My debut novel, tentatively titled Saints and Spies, will be published by Covenant Communications in 2013. That manuscript also won first place in the 2010 LDStorymakers Conference First chapter contest, mystery/suspense category. You can read an excerpt from Saints and Spies here on my website.

Another manuscript, Façade, won first place in the 2011 LDStorymakers First Chapter Contest, mystery/suspense category, and was named a finalist in the first round of the 2011 Sandy Contest from Crested Butte Writers, mystery/suspense/thriller category. Feel free to read an excerpt from Façade, or read about some of my other projects.

In addition to writing and maintaining my personal website, I write about fulfillment in motherhood at MamaBlogga, my personal blog, and knitting and crafts at Wayward Girls’ Crafts (with my mother & sisters) . I’ve worked in Internet marketing since I graduated college and most recently spent three years as editor of an Internet marketing news site, Marketing Pilgrim.

I was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. A graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, I earned a Bachelor’s in American Studies and Linguistics with minors in Spanish and English. (It’s not as hard as it sounds. ) When I catch a spare minute amidst being a wife and mother, my hobbies include reading, blogging, knitting, and watching almost every murder mystery and spy show on television today (my faves are Law & Order and Burn Notice). I have three kids, play three instruments and know three languages, and hope to add more to all of those counts—eventually.