My sister Mary and I were small children the day we first ran away from home. I was the older, about six. Our house lay on the slopes of a flowery hill in Los Angeles, and a crooked path wound upward. Anything might be up there – Santa, or fairies, or something that would fill us with the same wonder. The path seemed infinite, but we were determined to find out. I believe we had company, Mary’s doll dragging along as usual.

Below us in the hot sun spread the LA Basin, though to us it looked like an unknown kingdom. Alone, we struggled upward. The farther we roamed from home, the more frightened we became, but our house had disappeared; the way down had gone murky and we no longer had a choice. Something amazing awaited us up there, worth the fear.

Dark arrived, and we were hungry. We had come to a foreign country now, a new land of homes and driveways. We did not expect to be able to talk to these denizens, but we missed our mother.  We looked at each other, and Mary whispered to her doll. We had come as far as we could, though the solution to everything still seemed just above. For a while we sat in what had become a quiet mountain road, but nothing happened except that a cold wind blew. What would happen if we kept on in the dark? Where would we arrive?

We were too small, too tired, to find out. I marched up to a house and rang the bell. The alarmed resident put us in her car and drove us to the police station, and we returned to our quiet lives.

Then we read, and wonder turned to a love of mysteries and adventure. We read all through childhood. Mary says Rebecca was the book that returned her to the great day of our determined foray into the unknown. I would say that the Tarzan books were the first to take me up the hill again. 

As adults, we chose to write about the mystery as well as the adventure. I became a lawyer, and we chose to write legal thrillers for that reason. We’re still sure there is wonder ahead. We have had incredible company – Erle Stanley Gardner, Ross MacDonald, Daphne du Maurier, Edgar Allen Poe, and so many more adventurers of the mind. Now we hope we are also company for our readers running away from – no, toward something unknown, carrying our torches together, pinpoints of fire in the gloom.

~Pam O'Shaughnessy

Editor's Note: Pam O'Shaughnessy -- along with her sister Mary -- writes the Nina Reilly books.