Hi. I’m Trish, and I write under the name T.D. Hilderley.
If you’ve found your way here, you’ve probably already met one of my characters. Maybe a heroine who walked into the wrong house. Maybe a detective who doesn’t sleep. Either way, welcome. Pull up a chair. Leave the lights on if you need to.
This is the first post on my new weekly blog, so it felt right to start with a proper introduction.
I don’t write comfort stories
That’s the line I come back to every time someone asks what kind of books I write.
I don’t write comfort stories. I write what happens after the choice is made.
The secret that gets kept. The debt that comes due. The person who says yes when every part of them knows better, and then has to live in the house they built with that yes. That’s the territory I’m drawn to, whatever shelf the book ends up on.
How it started
Before I became a published author, I worked in healthcare. That changed when an injury on the job fractured my spine at L5–S1. The pain, and the disruption to my life, left me trying to find ways to cope with depression and anxiety. The strong pain medication my doctor prescribed also brought vivid dreams, so I began keeping a dream journal and putting my thoughts on paper through brain dumping. Writing gave me somewhere to put what I struggled to express.
It was also a return to something I had loved when I was younger. I had entered writing competitions and placed in the top three, but I never seriously considered where that ability might take me. Years later, I found a binder filled with stories I had started and characters I had developed. Reading those pages reminded me how much of my imagination was still waiting to be explored.
I decided to give those stories a future. I founded Opulent Pages Inc. and began publishing under the name T.D. Hilderley. Today, I write about complicated people, difficult choices, and the emotional consequences that follow. What began as a private coping mechanism became a creative purpose, and a part of my life I chose for myself.
Many shelves, one thread
I’m a Canadian indie author, and Opulent Pages Inc. means my books go out into the world the way I want them to.
I don’t stay in one lane. I write dark psychological romance, romantasy, literary psychological thrillers, and nonfiction on the psychology of relationships. Different shelves, but the same question runs underneath all of them: what do people do with desire, power and guilt once they can’t take them back?
Here’s the shelf so far:
- Elemental Love, a romantasy (and an Amazon Top 100 bestseller)
- Turned
- Torn Into the Darkness, Part One and Part Two
- Darkwater Glenn, a literary psychological thriller, with Book Two, The Glenn, on its way
- The House of Travino, where loyalty isn’t love. It’s ownership.
- The Art of Seduction: Not a Dark Psychological Romance, my nonfiction book on the psychology of attraction and relationships
- Bedrock Murders, my newest, out October 30
If you prefer to listen, my audiobooks are on Audible. And Torn Into the Darkness has been ranked highly by readers on Romance.io.
Where should you start?
Pick the door that suits you:
If you love romantasy, start with Elemental Love.
If you love dark psychological fiction, start with The House of Travino.
If you want the real-life side, read The Art of Seduction. It’s nonfiction, not a novel and not a dark romance.
Every book is on my Books page.
A few honest things
My stories are dark, and some of them are steamy. I write for adults, and I’d rather give you a content note up front than surprise you on page 200. You’ll find one at the front of the books that need it.
My characters usually aren’t fixed by the last chapter. They’re people who keep showing up anyway. To me, that’s the more interesting kind of hope.
I brain dump for an hour every night before bed, and I dream journal for an hour every morning when the dreams are freshest. I will often wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that I just can’t let go of, and I will spend hours writing and planning it out. I also like to people watch while out in public or on vacation, to better understand human behaviour and relationship dynamics.
What’s coming to this blog
Every week I’ll post something new here. Some weeks I’ll take you behind a book: where a story’s dark corners came from, and what I was chasing when I wrote it. Some weeks I’ll share the real side of indie publishing, the parts nobody puts on a book cover. There will be book news, a little psychology of attraction, and eventually your questions.
So if there’s something you’ve always wanted to ask me about a character, a twist, or the writing life, start saving it up.
Before you go: Bedrock Murders
My new psychological thriller, Bedrock Murders, is on pre-order now. It’s set in a small Ontario quarry town where the quarry has always taken men, and a detective four years sober walks into a place that buries its secrets in stone.
Some places don’t forget.
It lands on Kindle on October 30, 2026 ($3.99, and free with Kindle Unlimited), with the paperback and hardcover out the same day.
Pre-order on Amazon.com | Pre-order on Amazon.ca
Can’t wait that long? Read the prologue and chapter one free, right now. Get your free first chapter
Fair warning: it starts dark, and it doesn’t climb out.
Thank you for being here. I’m so glad you came in.
Trish T.D. Hilderley