I wanted to be a writer, and get paid for it, so I took journalism (eventually) and got a degree in that. Then, I did a brief stint in post-graduate history studies, but ended up going to law school.I hadn't planned to practice law, but I decided to go that route, encouraged by at least one faculty member who said I had a "good voice" for litigation. Ironically, on the few occasions I had to make an actual court appearance, I was invariably told to "speak up."I held attorney positions in both private practice and as a federal government worker. My last full-time attorney job was with the U.S. EPA, and I was there for three years before tiring of the commute to DC and later Rosslyn, VA.In 1991, I opened my own law office--a general practice. And after three years of that, I realized that I still hadn't written that novel I kept hoping to write. In fact, I wasn't writing for money, which was my original goal. So I had to pivot even then. In the mid-1990s, before social media and all that.That's when I shut down the office and became a freelance writer. I enjoyed the work. I once had an all-too-brief gig covering the U.S. Supreme Court for Federal Filings, a Dow Jones newswire. Legal writing seemed like a natural fit for me. That and research. In handling one of my assignments, I did a lot of phone research with corporate librarians. Ended up going to library school.Somewhere in the mid-1990s, I started writing a mystery. Then, I wrote another. Countless rejections and one small press (which went under 9 months after signing with them) later, I self-published the first Sam McRae mystery novel. It made the New York Times bestseller list in 2011. I now have four books published in the Sam McRae mystery series and other books and short stories. As well as a new mystery series featuring a female Marine veteran, Erica Jensen. In 2012, I became interested in screenwriting. I met a local producer and adapted my first book IDENTITY CRISIS for the screen as part of an option agreement.I host and produce the Crime Cafe podcast, where I interview other crime writers. I also co-host a film noir podcast with author F.R. Jameson.My original feature film screenplay "The Enemy Within" was a finalist in the action-adventure category of two screenwriting contests, made the semi-finals in Scriptapalooza 2016, and received other accolades. I've written other screenplays, some of which have received accolades.I once wrote book reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine and currently vlog/blog book and film reviews.My website is http://debbimack.com
Listed skills include Publishing, Blogging, Freelance Writing, Publications, and 26 others.
