C.J. Carpenter was born during a year and season made famous in a song by Bryan Adams. She grew up in Upstate New York, the same area where Mark Twain reportedly lived, though C.J. never met him. She hasn’t met Bryan Adams either. But there’s still time.

C.J. was raised by her mother, and shared a house (and unwillingly, all of her belongings) with her three older sisters.

She attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY where she studied communications/public relations. For her final thesis in public speaking, she constructed a beer funnel and demonstrated it for the class. C.J. received her first good review: an A-!

In the early 90’s the bottom fell out of the beer funnel making market so C.J. moved to London and later Oslo, Norway where she worked in public relations for a shipping firm.

She eventually returned to the States and settled in Manhattan working in the high-stress/high-reward world of advertising. Being the multi-tasker that she is, C.J. used this time to complete her design degree at New York’s revered School of Interior Design. Ultimately, the rewarding world of advertising wasn’t enough for C.J. She made the transition to the even more rewarding world of television production. She craved the long hours, the low pay and the additional bonus of developing insomnia. This, unbeknownst to C.J., was part of a larger plan. The bouts of insomnia gave her the opportunity to continue her first love; writing. She began writing short stories, long stories that became short, short stories that became long. One day after a morning commercial shoot C.J. walked the talent of the commercial (ten golden retriever puppies) around midtown Manhattan. Now, when she looks back on it C.J.’s not sure which life changing moment propelled her to follow her dream; the realization ten dogs were getting paid better than her or the fact she’d run out of pooper-scooper plastic bags. Probably a little bit of both.

C.J. immediately began attending writing workshops, evening classes, weekend classes on developing her writing. She bought every book she could find on writing (her favorite was Stephen King’s, A Memoir of the Craft On Writing, if you’re interested) Reading work by John Steinbeck, Larry McMurtry, Graham Greene, Michael Connelly, Jan Burke were all major inspirations for C.J. to complete her first novel and fuel her passion for the craft of writing.

Currently, C.J. spends her free time working with the NorthEastern NY Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation—a cause very close to her heart. C.J. divides her time between Manhattan and New Jersey, always with her faithful, Jack Russell Terrier (and proof reader) Mackie. She enjoys listening to music from U2, Keane, Annie Lenox, Coldplay, Van Morrison, The Killers, Dinah Washington --and she is not afraid to admit it....Neil Diamond.

CJ is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.