Violence Is Inevitable In CRIME Novels, But There Are Many Different Ways To TELL A Story. I USE My Characters' Reactions To Illustrate The Worst Moments Rather Than Let READERS WITNESS Them At First Hand.

I Felt That, In Some Ways, My Novels Lacked Heart Because Of The DISTANCE Between Me And The SUBJECT Matter. But No One Wants To Read A Book Based On GOOD Health, A Happy Upbringing, A LONG Marriage.

I Have Been INCREDIBLY Lucky With My Novels But I Had Absolutely No Idea If ANYONE Would Be INTERESTED In A Cookbook. So I Started To THINK About Self-publishing.

I Had Left The Music Industry At The End Of 2001, After 10 Years, And Had SPENT THREE Years Writing EVERY Single DAY - Producing Two Unpublished NOVELS, One Abandoned Novel, And Three Unproduced Screenplays. The Word 'no' And I Were On More Than Nodding Terms. The Word 'no' And I Were Talking About Going On Holiday Together.

I Remember When I Was Writing 'The Tin Drum,' I Had The Totally Misguided Idea Of Giving Oskar Matzerath A SISTER, And He Just Wouldn't Have It. There Was No Space For A Sister, Yet I Had The Character Of The Sister In My Head. In Fact I USED Her In Later Novels, In 'Cat And MOUSE' And 'Dog Years,' Tulla Pokriski.

For MANY Years, I Read MYSTERY Novels For Relaxation. But My Tastes Were Too Narrow - And, Having Read All Of Agatha Christie And John Dickson Carr, I Discovered That The Implausibility And The Thinness Of The People Distracted Me Unduly From The PLOT.

When I Meet Children At Book Signings, They'll BRING Me Photos Of When I First Met Them Many YEARS Ago When They Were READING My Picture Books, And Now They're Telling Me How MUCH They Enjoy My Novels.

I Read Novels But I ALSO Read The BIBLE. And Study It, You KNOW? And The More I Learn, The More Excited I GET.

You Don't Want To Dwell On Your ENEMIES, You KNOW. I Basically Feel So Superior To My Critics For The Simple Reason That They Haven't DONE What I Do. Most Book Reviewers Haven't Written 11 Novels. Many Of Them Haven't Written One.