Crime novels. Memoir. Humor.
Because people are endlessly fascinating, life is wonderfully imperfect, and there's almost always something to laugh about.
Retired FBI Special Agent writing crime novels, memoir, and essays.
Meet Shayne
For more than two decades, I worked as an FBI Special Agent, where I learned that people are endlessly fascinating. The job gave me extraordinary stories. Life gave me the rest.
Today I write crime novels, memoir, and essays because I'm still fascinated by people. Their resilience. Their contradictions. Their unexpected turns. And the wonderfully imperfect business of being human.
Some stories make us think.
Some make us laugh.
My favorites do both.
Molting
Crime Novel • Seeking Representation
A reputation management expert discovers that every carefully constructed public image hides a more complicated truth.
A character-driven crime novel exploring reputation, resilience, and the stories we tell to survive.
Writing Projects
Untitled Memoir
In Progress
I thought this would be a memoir about the FBI.
It turns out it's about second chances, motherhood, resilience, and the wonderfully imperfect business of becoming who we're meant to be.
Fighting Grace
Future Crime Novel
Grace Rosaland has never fit the mold of an elite FBI fugitive agent—and she's stopped trying.
When her trusted partner retires and his skeptical replacement questions everything about the way Grace works, she must rely on the instincts everyone dismisses to hunt an international fugitive and a serial killer whose identity will change everything.
Fragments
Not everything begins as an essay. Sometimes it arrives as a sentence. Sometimes a memory.
Sometimes just enough to remind me I should keep writing.
I Write
Fiction is the hardest—memoir grabs me by the throat. It’s a physical and mental compulsion.
The urge to write comes when something hits me hard— an emotional punch I feel in my gut, rising toward my throat like indigestion. Depending on the memory, it burns like bile until I get it out—on paper or aloud.
It starts messy. Sloppy. Incoherent. All over the place.
But once the emotion settles, the words begin to fall into place. I can finally shape what I’ve been holding in— or more often, what I didn’t even know I was holding onto. What’s been marinating.
It’s not just writing. It’s bleeding in real time.
Where The Light Comes Through
Noticing beauty where I least expect it.
The day was gorgeous, with the sun shining, seventy-three degrees, and a slight breeze. As the breeze pushed my target back and forth, the sunlight’s gleam through the holes caught my eye. I paused to watch the flow of it: back and forth, sunshine, back and forth, sunshine. I took a deep breath and thought, I’m going to write this down as something I noticed and appreciated today. And then, just as quickly, I wondered if noticing beauty in a target might be misunderstood. On the ride home, I debated whether to write about the way the sunlight shone through bullet holes.
Having been in law enforcement for over twenty-three years, I still spend time on the range. Not because I’m chasing drama, but because practice is the job. The rest is just what I notice along the way.
Sunlight. Bullet holes. Poetry? Maybe. Anyway, what strange corner of your life has surprised you with beauty?
Blank Page
Sometimes, I stare at the page—
and nothing comes.
Not a thought to press into ink,
not a clever quip,
not even a wistful spark of prose.
Sometimes, my mind is quiet.
And in that silence,
a flicker of panic: What if there’s no more?
No more stories with weight or wit.
No more reflections that stir or move.
Just my ordinary mind,
taking over.
Latest
August 2026
Launched shaynebuchwaldnickoles.com.
Upcoming
Guest on FedChicks.
Featured on FBI Case File Review.
Contact
I'd love to hear from you.
Whether you're interested in my writing, would like to discuss a podcast, speaking engagement, or other collaboration, just reach out.
shaynebnickoles@gmail.com
You can also find me on:
• LinkedIn: Shayne Buchwald-Nickoles | LinkedIn
• Substack: Shayne Buchwald | Substack
• Medium: Shayne Buchwald – Medium