Espionage Thriller

Hiding secret messages in music

June 15, 2016 | Code Breakers Series, Espionage Thriller, Fun Stuff, Historical Romance, Regency Mystery | Leave A Comment

Do you know how to read music? If so, take a look at this and tell me if you notice anything unusual about it.

This is known as the BACH motif, which is an example of musical cryptography, a coded system used to create musical note sequences for names or other messages in musical compositions.

I have been intrigued by the idea of using musical scores and passages to encrypt messages for some time and thought it was a great concept for my Code Breakers Regency romantic suspense series. It provided inspiration for my current project, book 4 in the Code Breakers series, CANTATA OF LOVE.

Part of my fascination with this method of ciphering stems from my love of music. I’ve studied both voice and piano–mainly jazz– and I appreciate the mathematical complexity of music. Coding a message into a song’s musical score or the song lyrics requires a great deal of creativity and presented a tremendous challenge as I plotted the story. While researching period opera singers, such as Mrs. Elizabeth Billington, I discovered that operas were written for singers to show off their voices and allowed for improvisation. That would certainly have made it easy for musicians and performers to send coded messages to specific individuals!

Early examples of musical cryptography include Baroque composers who wove their names or the names of significant individuals into musical selections. The application found popularity with those engaging in espionage, due to the difficulty in breaking musical codes. Other examples of musical coding can be found in the songs of American slaves. Negro spirituals provided a means of communication for those who wanted to escape slavery; references to “going home” or “bound for Canaan” didn’t signify death and heaven but heading north to Canada and freedom.

In 2013, International Science Times featured a story that suggested a musical score written by composer Gottfried Federlein contained annotations that secretly documented the location of buried Nazi treasure.

One online website reports a number of “creepy spy radio transmissions” that feature suspected musical clues and/or codes broadcast over shortwave radios. This practice began around the time of WWI and continues today.

A special thank you to my friend and music composer Greg Bartholomew, who shared his expertise with me on this topic. Here is one of his compositions, Baby Blue Roses. When Daisies Pied is an example of a piece of music ladies would have sung during the Regency period.

Are there any songs you believe contain a hidden message?

A Cantata of Love, Book 4 in The Code Breakers Regency Romantic Suspense series, releases June 28^th. You can pre-order on iBooks.

Napoleonic France is no place for an Englishman, especially Michael Harcourt, the Earl of Kendal, who is on a clandestine assignment for the Crown. Already injured and facing imminent discovery by Napoleon and Fouche’s men, Michael finds his escape made even more perilous when he is charged with the safety of a young boy who must be spirited out of Paris.

Desperate to escape the terrible fate that awaits her if she remains in France, Lady Gabrielle De Valmont must disguise herself as a boy and rely on the cunning of a virtual stranger—an Englishman, no less—to smuggle her out of the country. When the Earl’s injury becomes severely infected, rendering him gravely ill, Gabrielle realizes it is now up to her to save them both.

Christmas...and criminals?!

November 5, 2015 | Espionage Thriller, Grayce Walters Series, Romance in Seattle, Seattle | Leave A Comment

Well, it’s official. Now that Halloween is over, retailers and advertisers have launched their winter holiday promotional push. For the next 60 days, expect to be bombarded with red and green, silver and gold, Santa and elves, gilt and gift wrap.

There are many cliches associated with the holiday season. Like every other writer, however, I have been taught from Day One to avoid cliches. Fortunately that was easy to do with the upcoming box featuring my recent release, MARRIAGE UNDER FIRE, with more than four chapters of new and exclusive content.

Criminal Christmas, a collection of 8 holiday suspense stories is now available for pre-order for just $0.99 and will be available November 9.

Order your copy of Criminal Christmas today for a break from the holiday cliches and chaos. You won’t want to miss Maddy and Hunter’s romantic holiday wedding, exclusively available with this box set. Merry Criminal Christmas to one and all!

Christmas, criminals and a wedding

September 22, 2015 | Espionage Thriller, Grayce Walters Series, Mystery Novels, Romance in Seattle | Leave A Comment

Join Maddy and Hunter for a very special holiday wedding!

Marriage Under Fire, featuring an exclusive wedding scene never before released, is part of Criminal Christmas, a collection of 8 holiday suspense stories. The box set is now available for pre-order for just $0.99 and be the first to read these thrilling romantic suspense stories on November 9.

Share in the anticipation as Grayce, Davis, Hollie, James and the entire Grayce Walters crew plan a ceremony overflowing with all the love, romance and fellowship of the season.

Christmas isn’t all Peace on Earth this Holiday Season in 8 Outstanding Suspense Stories of Murderers, Stalkers, Terrorists, Thieves, and Kidnappers. Criminal Christmas puts the Danger in the season of Mistletoe, Christmas Trees & Goodwill. Snuggle up by the fire with our books and enjoy Christmas like never before. This fabulous set is comprised of 6 Novellas (including never before published!), 1 Short Story and 1 Full Novel!

Deadly Holiday – Novella

It’s four days before Christmas and the characters you grew to love in The Deadly Series are struggling with life-threatening problems. When a five-year old boy testifies against his father, then disappears without a trace, the town struggles to find him. But an impending blizzard threatens to halts the search just before Christmas.

Deadly Holiday is an action-packed thriller you don’t want to miss.

The Old Man’s Back in Town – Short Story

A sizzling, suspenseful SHORT STORY wrapped in a puzzling mystery that will leave you hungry for more.
**It’s “Groundhog Day” meets the modern day Old West!**

Holiday Justice – Novella

A Justice Team Holiday Novella!
When his Justice Team partners, Mitch Monroe and Caroline Foster, discover a Santa sneaking around behind the restaurant, Grey and Mitch uncover a theft ring that’s leaving kids without toys and families without a reason to celebrate.

Christmas Interrupted – Novella

Christmas in snowy Carnation, Washington seems like the idyllic get away until Jamey Dunn has a prophetic dream of his father’s house burning to the ground on Christmas Eve. Jamey and his wife Tina race to Carnation to prevent the tragedy that will take Pops’ life and discovers something is strange about the new neighbors.

Marriage Under Fire – Novella

Marine veteran Maddy Jeffers never expected her most demanding and daunting mission would come off the battlefield. Ordered to infiltrate a Seattle terrorist cell, Maddy must pose as a loving wife to Major Hunter Hines. The undercover role begins to feel all too real when Maddy falls hard for the rugged, macho Marine.

The Twelfth Day – Novella

Years ago, Sabrina Spencer was the lone survivor of a serial killer’s attack on her family, her testimony putting the killer behind bars. When she begins receiving daily packages containing bizarre gifts related to the Twelve Days of Christmas, Sabrina suspects her new love is behind the twisted countdown to the twelfth day.

Christmas 911 – Novella

When mother-to-be Corrine Landry stops off to purchase a gift for her niece on Christmas Eve, she finds herself in the middle of a crisis situation. Luke Oliver is about to end his final twelve-hour shift as a 911 dispatcher. After answering a desperate plea from a frantic pregnant woman, he suspects this particular call could change his life–maybe forever.

The Way Evil Does – Novel

When novelist Rebecca Reis interviews convicted serial killer, Thomas Eisenbrey in the Washington State Penitentiary she finds herself having strange feelings for the psychopath. Nicknamed the Hunter, Eisenbrey is crafty, aloof, and has somehow wheedled his way into her mind. When he escapes, Rebecca is terrified–who will he hunt next?