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My first love has always been books. I started reading everything I could get my hands on as far back as grade school and wanted to rewrite stories my own way, either changing the endings or creating new adventures for the characters. However, I didn't actually start writing until high school. My first attempt was a serial story about a cowboy who was a cross between Cat Balou and Jesse James - the fictional character not the real outlaw. I'd write a chapter and pass it around to my friends, then write another. I never finished that story, which is probably a good thing. It was pretty bad.

By college I'd graduated from writing westerns to science fiction short stories that bore a strong resemblance to Star Trek. Are you seeing a pattern here? LOL! I like to think that all those "takeoff" stories were just practice for the real thing.

Funny thing though, during all that time, it never occurred to me that I could write for a living. In college, I didn't even consider majoring in Journalism or English. In my mind, I needed a technical degree to be self-sufficient. So, it wasn't until I'd been working for IBM about seven years that the writing bug bit again. I attended a writer's conference in Orlando and met dozens of people writing all different types of fiction and nonfiction. That weekend changed my life.

After that, it took me five years and writing three complete manuscripts before I sold my first book, Keeping Katie, to Harlequin. That was over seven years ago--June 9, 1993 to be exact--and the book came out in April of the following year. I left IBM on March 30th of the same year, and as they say, the rest is history. I've been writing full time ever since.

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Twist Phelan is the critically-acclaimed author of the legal-themed Pinnacle Peak mystery series, published by Poisoned Pen Press. A different sport figures in each of Twist’s legal-themed mysteries, which are set in the fictional town of Pinnacle Peak, Arizona and feature the “winningly brassy” (Publishers Weekly) attorney Hannah Dain.

Twist received her bachelor and law degrees from Stanford University. Success as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer suing corporate scoundrels allowed her to retire in her early thirties. In addition to writing crime fiction, Twist is a world traveler and adventure sports enthusiast. She has competed in Ironman triathlons, skate-skied in Scandinavia, team-roped in the American West, paddled surf ski and outrigger canoe in Australia, rock-climbed in South America, and bicycled from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast in less than four weeks.

The Pinnacle Peak Mystery Series

• Heir Apparent (1^st ed. 2002, 2^nd ed. 2007) features the sport of team-roping. “Phelan creates appealing characters and paints a vivid portrait of the Arizona desert.” (Booklist)
• Family Claims (2004) introduces the “winningly brassy” (Publishers Weekly) lawyer-cyclist Hannah Dain. The book won Best Mystery, Colorado Gold Writing Contest, and was a Finalist for the Calavera Award. “Phelan thrills with convincing legal detail.” (Publishers Weekly)
  
• Spurred Ambition (2006), in which Hannah takes up rock climbing, was named a “Notable Pick” by Book Sense. “Hannah Dain could probably whip any wimpy lawyer hero created by the likes of John Grisham or Lisa Scottoline with one arm tied behind her back. Phelan keeps us a few breaths short of hyperventilation once again.” (Chicago Tribune)
• False Fortune (2007) finds Hannah kayaking. “A lively, swiftly-moving tale of corporate corruption and tangled, touching family relationships.” (Publishers Weekly) “A worthy heroine, harrowing adventures, and a satisfying mystery.” (Kirkus Reviews) “Suspenseful and twisty.” (Library Journal)

Twist has published short stories and contributed essays to anthologies, journals, and magazines, including:

• “A Trader’s Lot” (WALL STREET NOIR anthology) tracks a commodity futures trader’s dizzy ride on Fortune’s roller coaster. (“A standout” – Publishers Weekly, starred review)
• “Crime Wave” (CrimeSpree Magazine) takes an ironic look at the idea of crime being in the eye of the beholder.
• “Floored” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) is set in the natural gas pit of the New York Mercantile Exchange, and follows a female broker's introduction to the realities of the male-dominated trading floor, where morality and economics collide. The story looks at the choice faced by every trader: Where to draw the line?
• “Strange Bedfellows” (POLITICS NOIR anthology) is an ironic/darkly funny tale in which every character’s actions circle back so s/he gets what s/he deserves.
• “The Peahen” (AMERICA PAST, AMERICA PRESENT anthology) is a homage to newspaperman Pete Dexter.
• “A Stab in the Heart” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) A holocaust survivor’s fatal plunge down a New York tenement stairway evokes a detective’s memories of his brutal African past, and forces him to choose between vengeance and justice.
• “Time Will Tell” (MWA PRESENTS THE PROSECUTION RESTS anthology) explores a certain kind of relationship.
• “For the Good of the Game” (Red Herring Mystery Magazine; The Mystery Review) An athlete takes team loyalty to the extreme.
• “Twist Phelan on Bootlegger’s Daughter by Margaret Maron” (MYSTERY MUSES: 100 CLASSICS THAT INSPIRE TODAY’S MYSTERY WRITERS) An essay on one of the mystery novels that influenced Twist as a writer.

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