About Eric Lodin

My Story

I decided I wanted to be a writer in the third grade after our teacher challenged us to write a story using all the week’s spelling words. Encouraged later by several writing awards in high school and college, I spent a brief time as a journalist for newspapers and magazines. I got married, ran a small business, worked for a college, and raised a family, still fidgeting with fiction and screenwriting along the way. In my late 40s, having written two literary novels but still feeling a million miles from publication, I ran into an old friend at my 25th college reunion who had developed a successful career self-publishing cozy mysteries. Because I’ve always enjoyed left-brain activities such as card games, logic puzzles, and crosswords, it made sense to attempt a mystery novel. It took me a while to get it just how I wanted it, but first came Soft Hearts (2021) followed by Slumbering Beasts (2022). These are the first two installments in what I hope will be a long series of mysteries featuring Rett Swinson, a plucky “hippie at heart” from Eastern North Carolina who is reinventing her life after a series of setbacks. I can relate to her—and I think a lot of readers can, too.