“That was where the stories were,” he says, “out there in the ether.” And it was the lure of those stories which led him out of public school teaching and into freelance writing: short fiction, plus nonfiction articles about the Colorado outdoors, including skiing, backpacking, and technical climbing. After a few sales to regional publications, he was hired by a Colorado newspaper, where a features writing job morphed into a weekly humor column-also frequently outdoor-related-all the while working on his first love: long form writing.

Kris’s first novel, Silvercat, was described by one critic as “an edge of the seat thriller by an exciting new talent.” It was followed by The High San Juan, said by a reviewer at Denver’s Rocky Mountain News to be “a terrific suspense novel.” Relentless, which was optioned for film rights and described by best-selling author Stephen Coonts as “…a damn good novel. Franklin can write suspense.”

His newest novel, Gravedigger, a mystery/suspense story set against the backdrop of a mountain climbing expedition, introduces Sionna Magee, a young climbing guide turned deputy sheriff who was intended to be the lead character in a series of novels set in the Colorado high country.