Award Winner
2018 Writer's Digest Writing Competition
Blackbird Writers Member
Founder and member of Blackbird Writers, a group of authors who write under the umbrella of Mystery

Best friends tell each other everything.
Even their deepest, darkest secrets.
Morgan Jewell and Fay Ramsey are enjoying their last summer together before college. Fay is shy, with a controlling mother, and Morgan is the perfect, wild, loud-mouthed yang to Fay’s yin. But when Fay is found dead, Morgan’s entire world crumbles.
Best Kept Secrets
Reviews



Best Kept Secrets
Reviews




May, 2022 release, Taking Flight is a compilation of short stories written by ten mystery authors. The anthology includes Forbiddance, an award winning story by Tracey S. Phillips. Other authors include, Laurie Buchanan, Timothy Chapman and Joy Ribar.
Boy's mean trouble. Melanie Ann Matula hears her mother's voice as she breaks curfew to meet Larry, a boy she hardly knows. On the way, Larry's friend joins her. Melanie didn't know he invited someone else to their secret meeting. What else is up his sleeve? It's dusk and getting darker. Her mother's voice plays on auto repeat. Only killers and criminals stay out after dark. Will Melanie prove her mother wrong?
Find out in this FREE anthology. To get your edition, sign up for Blackbird Writers' newsletter here:
Tracey S. Phillips writing as Karissa Knight
When Chicago’s hottest legal star defends a powerful young billionaire, she must decide whether he’s a killer, or the one to unlock her most private fantasies.
“He gave me more freedom, if that’s possible, to be myself. Yes the world is a crazy place, but I’d finally found a way to fit into it.”
Wilhelmina Green is the lawyer of choice for Chicago’s wealthy offenders. Mina’s latest victory, the acquittal of a U.S. senator, has made her a media sensation. To the outside world she appears to have it all, but she’s still searching for a man with the strength to bring her dark fantasies to life.

The Client
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The Client
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Author Interviews
Tracey often interviews other mystery authors for Blackbird Writers. Here’s her latest interview:
May 10 2022
USA Today bestselling cozy mystery author, Lois Winston talk about her crafting mystery series with protagonist, Anastasia Pollack. With fourteen books in the series, Winston should be considered an expert crafter. Find out the truth in this candid interview. A New Jersey native, Winston also talks about setting her series in New Jersey, Manhattan and Barcelona.
For more author interviews, visit the Blackbird Writers YouTube Page.
Articles by
Tracey S. Phillips
Blackbird Writers
How Do You Face Failure?
I’m proud to tell you that I’m a failure. Because on the other side of failure, is success. I wasn’t always proud to say it because I didn’t set out to fail. Read More . . .
Writescast Network
How Do You Face Failure?
Hear Tracey S. Phillips in a podcast interview with Writescast Network founder R. R. Campbell. She discusses getting a traditional book publishing deal in a non-traditional way.
Isthmus Madison, WI
Madison Wisconsin Isthmus writer Michael Popke reviews Best Kept Secrets and discusses our interview. Here’s a link to the article.
Articles by
Karissa Knight
Karissa Knight is Tracey S. Phillips’ pseudonym. In June 2021, Tracey published Elements of Submission, the first book in a romantic suspense series. In October, 2021, she re-released the book with a new title, THE CLIENT. These articles refer to that book title, but the content of the book, is the same.
Romance Junkies
A Chemical Romance by Karissa Knight
Have you ever experienced that rushing waterfall of emotions when you first meet your true love? It happened to me when I met my husband. Read more. . .
Washington Review of Books
Why genre-spanning author Tracey S. Phillips embraced a pseudonym.
It’s clear that author Tracey S. Phillips is an expert in flexibility. Yes, she practices yoga, and yes, she’s a piano teacher. But she also writes novels across multiple genres and publishing platforms. Read more . .
About Tracey
Tracey S. Phillips’ unagented debut, BEST KEPT SECRETS, was released in 2019, published by Crooked Lane Books. The manuscript won a Hugh Holton award in 2018.
Tracey majored in music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music. A serial artist, she still teaches piano lessons and loves to draw. In the summer she grows vegetables and cooks from scratch. At her first Bouchercon she realized her dream of being a panelist and discussed Unusual Ways to Kill (in fiction, of course) with other debut authors. She is also the founder of Blackbird Writers, a group of authors who fly under the mystery umbrella.
