Journalism became a passion at age 14. She indulged in all types of writing – short stories, novellas, poems – throughout school and after. She published several poems during college at Florida State University while pursuing a creative writing degree. A notepad or scrap papers of story ideas and shorts were a constant and was where she captured themes and ideas to write about one day.

The debut release, Between the Shades of Light and Dark, actually started as a freshman English class homework assignment. That initial assignment became the premise of future college assignments and was work-shopped through several classes during college in the creative writing program. The story became a side project to work on, but as life got in the way, it was stored away for some time. Upon completing a Ph.D. in Project Management, a shift back to writing came into focus, with a goal to be a published author. That homework assignment, once flushed out and published, became the catalyst for a thriving indie author career. She always intended that a murder mystery would be the first published book of many. The intrigue of the genre always had an undeniable draw.

Whether it’s her Murder Mystery Shuller Series, following Sheriff Martin Shuller’s life, or her Psychological Thrillers in The Crawford Chronicles, involving the ever increasingly bizarre cases of Detective John Crawford, Kathleen Lopez writes suspenseful stories of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, with a touch Romance.

As Sydney Shaw, writing in the Out of Left Field and Riverbend Ranch series, she tells stories of Slow Burn and Steamy Small-Town Romances sure to get your heart racing.

With all her work, the goal is always that the story, specifically the characters, need to be real enough for the reader to care; without that believability, the story does not work. Each story should be a journey for the reader to enjoy. She writes as if she is recounting her character’s imagined lives, and brings readers along for the journey.