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My first real writing job was at 'Rolling Stone,' so I wrote about rock-and-roll and politics and the like. At the time, I really didn't know what I wanted to write, and I did a bunch of investigative journalism.

I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.

I write crime novels and thrillers - I'm a big fan of cops. You can never forget that they run towards what everyone else runs away from.

In everything I've written, the crime has always just been an occasion to write about other things. I don't have a picture of myself as writing crime novels. I like fairly strong narratives, but it's a way of getting a plot moving.

I was a newspaper editor in high school, and I truly thought of journalism as a career. I loved it.

I've always enjoyed writing, I graduated with a degree in English; I've done bits of journalism.

I'm unique for a suspense author in that I don't have a specialty background. A lot of suspense writers used to be lawyers or crime beat reporters. I didn't even know a cop when I started out. I finally figured out that I could visit prisons - I just had to be willing to make the phone calls.

I used to enjoy reading true crime, but I've discovered that I don't have the journalism nose for blood.