Murder. Mystery. Metamorphic.
About the Author
B. Baird was born and raised in Maryland. A twenty-year Air Force veteran, her career took her around the globe and afforded her more fun than an engineer should have—from intelligence collection, to flying in jet planes, to a dicey time spent in Yemen. Her writing reflects the spirit, exhilaration, sorrow, and occasional implausibility of those experiences. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Western Colorado University. As for the inspiration behind her serial killers, that remains a mystery.
Works in Progress
B Baird currently has four novels on submission to agents.
INHERITED EVIL follows a single mom, Joanna Price, struggling to raise her hot-tempered teenage son with the help of her father. When Joanna finds in her son’s room evidence linking him to two recent murders, she sets out to prove that her son couldn’t possibly be responsible. She’ll soon learn the killing goes far beyond just the two and it’s not long before Joanna suspects that her abusive ex-husband is not only back in town, but is teaching her son how to kill. In the story’s dramatic ending, Joanna comes face to face with the killer, revealing the biggest family secret of all. It’s a moment of cognitive dissonance—both for Joanna and the killer—with life or death consequences.
In DREAM LIFE, Sandra Reed—a Denver attorney and former foster child—has constructed the best life she could for herself. Though not ideal in the traditional sense, it’s idyllic-adjacent and she counts it a win. That all changes when an accident paralyzes her husband, Tanner, and claims the life of their son. As Tanner turns inward, seeking refuge with their beloved child in the dream world, Sandra attempts to forge on in the real world by entering the race for District Attorney. But when she witnesses the murder of the current DA, she’s got nowhere to turn. She’s the only one who thinks the DA is dead and what scant evidence exists implicates her in the crime. As the DA’s many enemies shift focus to Sandra, she and her dream guy must stop a killer no one saw coming before the plug is pulled—for real. In the process they’ll discover that dreams sometimes come true in ways that transcend tragedy and loss.
LETHAL ASCENT follows Kit Buchanan, a Louisiana psychiatrist thrust into filling her late father’s Senate seat when he dies unexpectedly. Both her reputation and short-lived career in DC quickly unravel however when her former patients start turning up dead and all signs point to her as the one responsible. With her family’s dynasty on the brink of collapse, she must race to identify the true killer as the murders move closer to home.
In BOOKBINDER, Ryan Franklin has dedicated his life to finding the fix to his sister’s paralysis, something for which he feels responsible. Now one of Boston’s brightest young surgeons, he’s been recruited by the Bookbinder Institute of Experimental Neuroscience. Its legendary founder, Dr. Richard Bookbinder, has developed a technique that would permit the paralyzed to walk again, among other miraculous things. But instead of helping those who could benefit the most (Ryan’s sister!), he’s instead using his medical triumph for morally-questionable purposes, where a life deemed unworthy is erased in favor of another. It’s a crime. And not a crime limited to the nation’s underbelly, but one actually condoned by its leaders. It’s a story of good overcoming evil, selfless loyalty, and unimagined fulfillment . . . all made possible by the very evil they’re trying to stop.
Bibliography
B Baird has had several short stories published.
Dirty Secrets
I love the idea of events that have the power to flip your mindset 180 degrees almost instantaneously. A grieving mother, for example, who has left her deceased child’s bedroom in exactly the same state that it was, not wanting to change one tiny thing—until a broken pipe one floor above has her rushing to clear out the very same room for fear any item might be damaged. In the case of “Dirty Secrets,” I wanted to explore how three presumably moral, law-abiding people could within the length of an elevator ride flip their mindset 180 degrees and not only choose the killer’s next victim but be adamant in doing so.
The Inheritance
Up until this point I was writing stories with the sole goal of entertaining family members or co-workers or MFA classmates. When the submission call for the ABANDONED PLACES anthology came my way and I sat down to write “The Inheritance,” I literally thought to myself, “Okay, I have to write for real now.”
B.H.S.
This was a fun, I’ve-got-a-secret sort of exercise during my MFA program that later made it into this anthology. Also be sure to check out “The Pea and the Princess,” written by my MFA classmate and author of Across the Aisle, Stephanie Vance.