Research, Reality, and the Stories That Stick

Good thrillers feel real because they are rooted in reality.

Before I write a single chapter, I research. Deeply. Obsessively. Not just the mechanics of a world, but the consequences of living in it. How decisions ripple. How systems break. How people react when pressure is applied and there’s no clean way out.

Research is the backbone of my novels.

I study places, procedures, technologies, and power structures. I read firsthand accounts, watch interviews, track timelines, and verify details most readers will never consciously notice—but would immediately feel if they were wrong. Authenticity isn’t about showing off knowledge; it’s about removing distractions so the story can do its job.

But research alone isn’t enough.

What truly shapes my writing is experience.

My career has taken me into high-stakes environments—corporate boardrooms, medical crises, conservation frontlines, remote landscapes, and rooms where decisions carried real consequences. I’ve seen how people behave when plans collapse, when authority is questioned, and when survival—physical or moral—is on the line.

Those moments can’t be Googled.

They inform how my characters speak, hesitate, calculate, and break. They influence how conflict unfolds and why characters make imperfect choices under pressure. Real life is rarely clean, rarely heroic, and almost never predictable—and that messiness is essential to believable fiction.

When I write, research gives me accuracy.

Experience gives me truth.

The two work together.

Research tells me what can happen.

Experience tells me what willhappen when fear, pride, loyalty, and desperation collide.

In HAMMER, that blend is intentional. The action is grounded. The stakes are personal. The violence has consequences. The emotional weight matters as much as the physical danger. Nothing happens just because it’s exciting—it happens because it makes sense in the world these characters inhabit.

That’s my promise to readers.

You won’t just read a story that moves fast.

You’ll read one that feels real—because it’s built from both the facts and the life behind them.