What Do We Know?

Hi and welcome to the Scraps and Snippets blog. Jess and Matt are siblings who grew up in Virginia but now both live in the Bay Area. Matt is a reporter for the Athletic who covers the San Francisco 49ers football team. Yes, he does know Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey. No, ever-professional, he has not introduced them to his older sister. In fact, he has kept her out of the 49ers locker room completely. Such a bummer.

Jessica has three kids, one college-age son and twin daughters entering college in 2025. She also has a dog, a four-year-old Cavachon (Cavalier-Bichon Frise mix) who still looks like a puppy and loves his post-bath zoomies. Jessica’s husband, Andrew, works in San Francisco and encourages her to join him traveling, fly fishing and relaxing with a glass of Italian wine.

Like Matt, Jessica worked in journalism. When we decided to collaborate on a novel, we adopted the old adage, “write what you know.” As a result, parts of Muddy the Water take place in a newsroom and use experiences (the good, the bad and the ugly) from our pasts.

We also used our journalism backgrounds for the research behind our thriller. From coroners to entomologists to shrimp-boat captains, we talked to experts so that we could inject actual facts into our fiction. We hope it makes a difference to you.

All that said, MTW is a work of fiction and the bulk of the action in our book is a product of our imaginations. The best part of co-writing a book? You can spitball back and forth until you’ve come up with a plot that’s better than anything either person could have written on their own. We hope you love the plot and the characters – and that you’ll recommend Muddy the Water to your friends and family.