Lori Armstrong left the firearms industry in 2000. She is the author of the Julie Collins mystery series. Her novel Snow Blind was awarded the 2009 Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original by the Private Eye Writers of America. Her books have won the Willa Cather Literary Award and have been nominated for the High Plains Book Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award. Lori is a fourth-generation South Dakotan and lives with her family in Rapid City.