I had the pleasure of interviewing Author Lee Clark. Her hot off the press new release, Forbidden Relics, is the sixth installment in the Matthew Paine Mysteries series.

An intense search for Ukrainian missionaries amidst a dense Russian-born population. What could possibly go wrong? That was the last sarcastic thought of young physician Matthew Paine before he agreed to go find them.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Probably nearly from birth! My mom just recently gave me a collection of little books that I “wrote and illustrated” as a child. One had the spine stitched (yes, with needle and thread!) I vaguely remember borrowing a thimble from my mom’s sewing box to get the needle pushed through the paper. I was resourceful in my illustrations, apparently using whatever I could find. One had faces painted in a “nude” color of fingernail polish!

How long does it take you to write a book?
When I first began writing the series in 2020, I was doing far less promotion and I could get them out every 6 months. With the addition of promotion and a few other life events that interfered with my writing, it took me a year to get the most recent one, Forbidden Relics, out.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Spending time with my family, reading, traveling, and gardening.

What does your family think of your writing?
They’re all very supportive, and proud of the books! I’m incredibly blessed to have the family I have!

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
My website is probably the best place to find all things “Lee Clark” and “Matthew Paine mysteries.” It gets updated fairly regularly: https://cypressrivermedia.com/

Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?
The big push right now is on getting the word out about Forbidden Relics, the sixth book in the Matthew Paine mysteries series that is just releasing (April 23rd)! After that, I’m working on the seventh and final book in the series, Killer Convergence, in which readers will finally get one of the other main characters’ back stories. I think you quickly come to love Detective Warren Danbury, but he’s a very private person so you don’t know much about his past until this final book in the series. Some of the things that’ll come out in this book are things I’ve always known about him, things that drive his character to respond as he does. Now readers will better understand that too!