Lloyd Devereux Richards

K - S

Dec 21

Lloyd Devereux Richards wrote his first novel Stone Maidens during after-work hours and on weekends when he was a full-time attorney in Montpelier, Vermont who had three school-aged children. He knew nothing about writing a novel, but drew inspiration from his own experiences. When he was in law school, there were several unsolved murders of coeds in southern Indiana’s hardwood forests near where he first worked as a law clerk for an appellate judge. He happened to know one of the female victims, a survivor of a vicious assault, and Iater he met with the Indiana police detectives investigating the case. Motivated by the vicious attack on his friend, he set out to write a crime novel ten years after the occurrence.

Even though he had a full time job he was fanatical about pursuing his creative writing, he made every mistake that a person can while learning how to develop the story threads to keep the reader’s attention. Writing Stone Maidens took him fourteen years. He wrote the book in a ‘cold attic’ in Vermont, so-called because the second story ceiling of the house was heavily insulated, leaving the attic space itself to bare rafters below the roofline. Richards wore fingerless mitts and a heavy sweater, sitting hunched over the keyboard, typing while exhaling frosted breaths. In summer he typed with three fans aimed squarely on him, and one fan directly on the computer so the hard drive wouldn’t fry.

Stone Maidens finally published in 2012. Richards was so pleased to have successfully published a novel, he began writing thye sequel, Maidens of the Cave, which took six years, fully enjoying the writing process again. Around that time, his daughter Marguerite, who also lives in Montpelier, Vermont, said she’d like to make a TikTok video. Richards didn’t know what she meant, but agreed to let her record while he was taking notes and writing correspondence in his attic lair. Several days later she phoned him to come to her condominium. On her computer Marguerite showed him hundreds upon hundreds of praiseworthy comments of his novel from people on TikTok who loved reading Stone Maidens. Sales of Stone Maidens skyrocketed. Richards was absolutely stunned. Within a matter of days, the TikTok video was viewed by more than forty-seven million people and made Stone Maidens the #1 bestseller of all books on Amazon in less than a week. In a month’s time, Stone Maidens sold over 100,000 copies. He remains grateful to his fans and readers for this notoriety.

Richards' sequel Maidens of the Cave, was published by HarperCollins on August 1, 2023 under the William Morrow imprint. A third standalone novel, The Runner, was published in May 2025 by HarperCollins. Love on the Perimeter is his fourth novel.

A father of three, he lives with his wife, Cameron O’Connor, and their three dogs in Montpelier, Vermont.