Q. Why did you decide to do this interview just prior to your first book taking off and when you are so busy arranging your first book tour?

A. Because I am overwhelmed and grateful that people are even interested in me as the storyteller. I only expected the emphasis to be on Refraction itself. I sort of thought I was invisible as the writer. Your request for this first interview honors me, almost as much as it scares me. And I guess the fact that the publisher told me I had to, had something to do with it too.
Q. First of all, a lot of your new readers from the focus group have asked questions about your writing intentions for the future. What are they?

A. My publishers have asked me to write two books a year, instead of one, so there will be two new books in 2008, beginning on March 15, with Refraction, followed by the December publication of a new legal thriller, Raw Justice. In April 2009, a new concept general main-stream novel, Writers write will follow. Of course all of those are promised contingent upon my surviving the book tours and interviews for Refraction!
Q. Mallory, from Topeka, and a great many other readers want to know where you get your ideas and then how you begin; knowing that you have to fill 300 or 400 blank pages?

A. I've never really had any trouble coming up with ideas; they just grow, like weeds, wild and uncontrollably. The weeding is the hard part. My book wound up 479 pages. If I wrote in every direction that my mind strayed, my book would be as thick as a dictionary, so I drink my chamomile tea and trim out any excessive characters and plot lines. I have a fevered imagination and a rich fantasy life, which helps with the sex, action and adventure scenes. I am always surprised by what my characters choose to do all on their own, without consulting me, and particularly frightened by where my evil characters come from, because they usually pounce unexpectedly on me. But all good stories stem from the first question I ask myself before I begin writing…."What if?" Those two words set every good plot in motion.
Q. Steve, from San Jose, wants to know: "Did you base Diane, Joan, Damon, Mark, or Chase on real people, or are they entirely out of your imagination?"

A. They are all fictional characters. Although there are a few similarities to actual people I've known or met, in bits and parts. I have also drawn on some events within my own experiences and then stretched and woven in lots of make-believe until it was fiction. Some names were of those I love, just because I like the names, but after that the similarity ended. It is hard to write anything, without mixing your personality and experiences into the mix. The true bits and pieces that each reader can identify with are what make the whole project ring true. I think a good writer invites you the reader, in to the story too. Your; "what ifs" also mold the outcome as you read. When I'm writing I'm also listening for your thoughts, as the reader too. And I'm trying to preempt your questions and expose the answers that you are looking for. I work hard to make everything come together at some point and don't leave you too many frustrating dark alleys. Our relationship as reader and author must be symbiotic. I want you to love the outcome. So both myself as the writer and you as the reader, must be satisfied and even hopefully thrilled with the final product.
Q. What are any similarities between you and your characters?

A. I have two eyes, a nose and a mouth and a huge spirit of adventure. Sometimes my characters act out of my motivations; sometimes they have shared an experience with me; with which I take a lot of creative license and turn into fiction. But all writers are woven in strands and with some of their own fabric into their stories and characters. It's imposible not to influence them based on my own heart.
Q. You live in South Carolina, is that your birth place?

A. Heavens no. I am a gypsy. I was born in Hialeah, Fl., I attended OU in Norman, Okla, was in London for a time, Chicago, Colorado, Alaska and Utah. I've traveled Europe extensively. I've lived nearly everywhere I ever wanted to live. I moved to Colorado just because I had a great skiing experience there and Alaska because I fell in love with it on a cruise. I made Alaska my home for the next eight years, on a whim. I learned to mush and experienced a native whaling experience in Point Hope. Then as a distinct juxtaposition to the cold and white landscape; I moved to Utah to experience the red desert because it both frightened me and fascinated me. Next I decided to sail around the world, so I bought a 41 foot Morgan and set out to do that. Maybe I didn't make it; but I did go 3700 miles and 6 months. I guess one would have to say I live spontaneously. I seem to be missing the "lets stop and think this through" gene. Instead I was born believing that, to think it is to achieve it, or at least make the effort. Even if your experience doesn't bear it out, you should go for it. Experience so often comes after the leap in to the fray... I wouldn't undo a single adventure, they made me who I am.
Q. Can you elaborate on that last little tidbit?

A. I could but I'd have you laughing at me. It is hopefully part of my charm that I can laugh at myself. I am probably a bit over the top at living life spontaneously. I just seem to be missing the part that tempers each of us from just doing, whatever they can imagine. I always leap before I look, never think, before I act, and wind up with a back story that should have me committed. I also tear the tags off of pillows and mattresses, and run with scissors, so I guess I am a bit of a daredevil!