R. Michael Phillips's Biography

I'm an artist by trade and the urge to write came quite by surprise. I've dabbled in it a bit before but nothing as monumental as writing a mystery novel. Writing, I found, and very much to my surprise, was just painting with words. Your brush would gently stroke indigo blue or vermilion onto a canvas to shadow a face in remorse. The same can be said of the words you brush across a page to project that same face, slowly drawn down into the collar of a borrowed, wool coat that was shiny from wear, yet retained the strength in its weft and warp to comfort a penitent soul. Having the ability to close my eyes and see how sunlight would dance across a marble floor after a rain, or how the long shadows of dusk transform even the most ordinary of objects into that which we fear most, is inspirational. I enjoy Agatha Christie and Henry Fielding, but I draw inspiration from the stories hanging on the walls of museums.