Award Winner
2018 Writer's Digest Writing Competition
Blackbird Writers
Founding member of Blackbird Writers, a group of authors who fly under the umbrella of Mystery
Member
Sisters in Crime

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



Litbop is an annual literary journal containing short fiction, poetry, art, and photography. This is the second issue, which touches on the theme of loss. Tracey S. Phillips is a contributor to this issue.


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.
Boys 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
The Mina’s Choice Series


Visit KarissaKnight.com to learn more
Articles by
Tracey S. Phillips
Blackbird Writers
Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?
The winding narrow road that led to Nana’s cottage was tree-lined on the lake side, farmland on the other. Lush greenery and sprouting corn grew beneath cloud-specked Indiana sky. Read More . . .
103.5 Sun Prairie, Wisconsin Public Radio
Interview with Rex Owens
The interview aired on Monday, August 1st, 2022. Click here to listen!
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 . . .
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 has played the piano since age three and attended Berklee College of Music. She considers herself a serial artist who gardens, teaches piano lessons, loves to draw, and writes in two genres. In 2020 she founded Blackbird Writers, authors flying under the mystery umbrella.
BEST KEPT SECRETS won a Hugh Holton Award in 2018. Tracey’s manuscript, Mother of Secrets, was a finalist for the Clayton Award in 2022. Her short story, On Angel Wings, is published in LitBop Vol. 1, issue #2. She also writes romantic thriller under a pen-name.
