The Author

Born October 23, 1969 in Pasadena, California, Eric Lee had always dreamed of caring for dogs and becoming a veterinarian. To achieve this, his parents instilled in him the importance of a good education, including reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.

In junior high school, Eric developed a strong interest in reading. He enjoyed how a book could transplant him into a new place and time. Although he read many adventure and fantasy novels, his favorite stories were a series called Choose Your Own Adventure. These innovative books had a variety of possible endings, each dependent on the choices made by the reader. For example, if you chose to fight the monster, you’d turn to page 27, but if you chose to flee, you'd continue to page 32. This ability to determine how a story would develop sparked Eric’s initial interest in writing.

In high school, Eric began to write “for fun”. This included rhyming poetry on subjects ranging from nature to current events. Eric began to further branch out to short fiction stories while taking two creative writing classes. When his creative writing teacher challenged him to write “something that would really grab the reader’s attention”, Eric wrote the story I Will Live Before I Die, which was about a high school student who planned to murder fellow classmates. Eric received an A on the project and his love for the mystery and suspense genre was born.

After college, Eric worked at a large accounting firm. Later, he became a CPA and earned a Masters Degree in Taxation. In addition to serving large corporate tax clients, Eric developed a strong interest in and ability to teach others. He did a rotation at his firm’s national training center and later oversaw Deloitte’s learning and development department as a regional learning director. While working full time as a CPA, Eric first taught accounting as an adjunct instructor at San Jose City College and then as an adjunct professor for over twenty semesters in Golden Gate University’s Masters program. Despite the heavy workload, Eric has always made time for writing. Whether it be while riding on the subway to work or upon awakening on an early Saturday morning, Eric wrote whenever a plot idea inspired him.

When he is not working or writing, Eric enjoys sharing his experiences to mentor others. He has served as a Big Brother in the Big Brother Big Sisters program and has taught several times in Junior Achievement, a program where adults come into elementary schools to teach students about the business world. Eric lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He loves tennis, river rafting, hiking, and a well-told story. He also still has a huge soft spot for dogs, even though he never fulfilled his boyhood dream of becoming a veterinarian.

All told, Eric has written over thirty mystery stories, which include poems, flash fiction, short stories, and novellas. His short stories have been published in multiple locations, including Ascent Aspiration Magazine, Burst Literary E-zine, and Conceit Magazine. He has published three books, each made up of collections of his favorite short stories. They are Murder in a Country Town and other stories, Murder in a Coastal Town and other stories, and Murder in a Snow Covered Town and other stories.