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.

Sex Is. There Is Nothing More To Be Done About It. Sex Builds No ROADS, Writes No Novels And Sex CERTAINLY GIVES No Meaning To Anything In Life But Itself.

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Music Industry At The End Of 2001, After 10 Years, And Had SPENT THREE Years Writing EVERY Single DAY - Producing Two Unpublished NOVELS, One Abandoned Novel, And Three Unproduced Screenplays.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 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 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.