• Maple Creek Fire & Rescue

    Mila – Maple Creek Fire & Rescue – Chapter 1

    The phone buzzed against Mila Garcia’s thigh, a brief jolt against the roar of sirens and the acrid tang of smoke already curling in the air. She didn’t need to check it. When the call came, she moved. Her focus sharp as she shrugged into her turnout gear, the jacket’s weight settling like a second skin. Her crew moved around her—Elliot hauling hose, Jamie checking the rig’s pressure, Nate, the EMT on staff was grumbling about the rookie’s sluggish pace. “Jamie’s fine!” Mila shot back without looking. She caught sight of the rookie’s hands, steady as they snapped the couplings into place, her movements practiced, even graceful. Quiet didn’t men…

  • CORE Sector

    Marked – CORE Sector – Chapter 1

    Sara Brodie hung limp against the restraints, her head bobbing to the left as the helicopter sliced through the clouds. The world outside was nothing but white and gray, a purgatory of mist and distance. The drug kept her quiet for now, but silence was a temporary mercy. Once it wore off, everything buried inside her would wake, too— the voices, the memories, the ghosts of what she’d done. Marcus’s eyes locked on the horizon, his senses honed, barely acknowledging the tense figures seated behind him. The chopper cut through the dense clouds with relentless precision, skimming dangerously close to the turbulent waves below and the high cliffs where the…

  • Writer's Life

    The Journey to Here

    I think I published my first book in 2016, although I had wanted to be a writer my entire life I got a bit of a late start in pursuing fiction writing. I followed a lot of advice from those who had gone before me. Maybe the advice wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t work for me nor did it fit me very well. So, in 2025 I did a lot of soul searching to find my true genre (after having written in several genres) and I have pretty much settled that Gothic Romantic Suspense is my main genre. It just fits me. I will write other stuff when the…

Copyright Ann Stafford