Coffee with Carol Higgins Clark

Rob Holden: Carol Higgins Clark, welcome back to ReadersRoom.com. It’s a pleasure to have you back with us today.

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: It's great to be back in the ReadersRoom!

Rob Holden: Let's start this off talking about your latest novel, LACED, which I believe was released yesterday. Can you tell our readers a bit about it?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: LACED takes place on my character Regan Reilly's honeymoon trip to Ireland. The first night she and Jack are there she thinks she sees a ghost at 4 in the morning, then the fire alarm goes off.

Rob Holden: After which, the fun begins. So, let's start this off with Ireland, where I believe you set one of your previous novels. Did you travel there to research this book?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: Of course! I stayed in a castle in western Ireland. I always go to the places where I set my books. My friends tease me that I only set my books in fun spots to visit.

Rob Holden: Well, I suppose that is one of the perks of being a best selling author -- you don't have to set your books in Debuke! Carol, you really bring the people and landscape of Ireland alive in this novel. How much time did you spend there researching this novel?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: I was there for about a week but I've been to Ireland many times. I
took notes, bought books about Ireland, started thinking about what LACED would be about, then came home and wrote it.

Rob Holden: One of the things that I really enjoyed about LACED was the fact that it started the DAY that the previous novel in the series, HITCHED, ended. Was LACED already in your mind, as you were writing HITCHED?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: I knew that I wanted to set LACED on Regan's honeymoon so I already had that in mind. Just the other day I realized that HITCHED and LACED both take place in less than two weeks of Regan's life! April 2nd to April 15th!

Rob Holden: While we are on the subject, can you tell our readers a bit about HITCHED which, I believe, is just out in paperback?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: Sure. HITCHED begins when Regan goes to pick up her wedding dress a week before her wedding. She finds the designers tied up -- her gown and three others have been stolen which makes for a lot of unhappy brides!

Rob Holden: Carol, after nine novels with Regan Reilly as a single, reasonably strong, independent female character, did you find it difficult to marry her off in the last novel and then "write her" married in LACED?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: No because Jack is a great guy and they can work together. He is the head of the Major Case Squad of the NYPD and they met when Regan's father was kidnapped in the book my mother and I wrote together, DECK THE HALLS.

Rob Holden: Let's move on to the series that you have been doing with your mother, Mary Higgins Clark. You have, I believe, done four of them – one every Christmas. How did the idea for that project come about, and do you and your mother intend to continue writing them?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: My mother's editor suggested it. Three of the books have had Regan
and my mother's character Alvirah Meehan, a cleaning woman who won forty million dollars in the lottery, solving crimes together. We plan to write more of them.

Rob Holden: Continuing the Christmas theme?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: Yes. It makes them a little different from our regular books and we enjoy using the background of the holidays.

Rob Holden: Carol, you have now done 10 Regan Reilly books. Do you intend to keep the series going for a while, or are you thinking about taking your writing career in other directions?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: I'm going to stick to Regan Reilly for a while! I look at Sue Grafton -- she's making her way through the alphabet which means 26 books!

Rob Holden: Can you give our readers a clue as to what is next for Regan and Jack?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: They'll return from their honeymoon and the next mystery will be in New York City. I'm playing around with some ideas now but nothing is set yet.

Rob Holden: And your readers can keep up with what is happening at your website?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: Yes. I post the schedule of signings and appearances and well as letting the readers know what I'm working on and when it will be released.

Rob Holden: Finally, Carol, is there anything you would like to say to your fans who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: I want to say thank you to everyone who reads my books. It's such a pleasure to chat in ReadersRoom.com -- a great room for Readers and Authors! I'd love to hear from you -- e-mail me through my web site at carolhigginsclark.com

Rob Holden: Carol Higgins Clark, thank you for being with us this evening, and best of luck with LACED, and all your future projects!

CAROL HIGGINS CLARK: Thank you. I enjoyed our visit!

Author David Morrell

Rob Holden: David Morrell, welcome BACK to ReadersRoom.com -- and thanks for the effort it took to get you here!

David Morrell: Glad to be here.

Rob Holden: Let’s get right to your latest novel -- SCAVENGER -- just out
this month. Can you tell our readers a bit about it?

David Morrell: I call it "a desperate high-tech scavenger hunt for a lost
100-year-old time capsule."

Rob Holden: Okay -- let's start there. As you pointed out in your
fascinating afterward to the book, the term "time capsule" was coined in the 1930's -- but they have, in effect, been around for centuries. Can you tell us a bit about them?


David Morrell: Yes, the first object to be called a time capsule was
built by the Westinghouse corporation for the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, NY. A copper alloy torpedo was filled with objects and buried 50 feet underground, not to be opened for 5000 years. Why that long? Because it was theorized that recorded history was 5000 years old. Thus the time capsule was buried mid-way between the past and the future. To me this is very mysterious and evocative. What secret to life to time capsules hold? What is the profound message they want to send to the future?

Rob Holden: In the book, you touch on a number of "lost" time capsules that
were created in the last fifty years or so, all of them authentic. What sort
of reasearch were you able to do into those?


David Morrell: It's fascinating how many time capsules have been lost. One
town lost 17 of them. Another town asked five men to prepare a time capsule. After they did what they were asked, each died in rapid succession. In the process, they forgot to tell other people where the time capsule was buried. I'm fascinated by the
idea that the secret of life is lost in all these time capsules.


Rob Holden: I would like to leave Time Capsules for just a moment, and look into another fascinating aspect of the book, and that is how you have tied
the story into the video game world. Can you tell us a bit about how that
happened?


David Morrell: A thriller can be defined as an obstacle race and a scavenger hunt. For that reason, I called the book SCAVENGER and arranged for the plot to involve that kind of hunt. I then started thinking about other hide-and-hunt games, such as geocaching and letterboxing. This in turn led me into a much broader exploration of games, in terms of video game theory. Video games sometimes get a bad reputation because some of them have violent content. But I'm interested in their
form and structure. Taking a cue from Stephen Johnson's EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU, I wanted to explore the way video games can change how we think. The rapid reflexes they require--and the seemingly instantaneous multiple decisions--arguably program players to be capable of parallel thinking and focused multi-tasking. This new way of perceiving reality is ultimately what the scavenger hunt leads to. Time is different in a video game than in reality. It passes at a different speed. In SCAVENGER, I deal with the nature of virtual reality as opposed to so-called actuality. Video gamers will find a lot of interest in the book.

Rob Holden: I suppose I have to ask, have you become a "gamer" as a result of your research into the games themselves?

David Morrell: Years ago, I was obsessed with video games. I played night after night until I fidgeted and squirmed and worked the control so hard that I literally caused the chair I sat on to disintegrate under me. When I fell, I nearly knocked myself out. Since then, I haven't played as often as I used to. Instead I immersed myself in video game theory. The ideas of Will Wright for example. I think we are headed in a new direction in terms of the way our minds operate.

Rob Holden: Without giving too much of the story away -- in essence SCAVENGER seems to be a story about a video style game being played with living, breathing human beings. All of the standard elements are present -- the starting point, specific rules, obstacles, end goal ... did you "see" what this game would look like in your head on a computer screen as you were constructing the story? (God, I hope that made sense.)

David Morrell: It made sense. I didn't want to create the feel of a video screen. I wanted to narrative to feel like reality but to also involve virtual thinking. For example, the average video game takes 40 hours to finish. That's how long the hunt in the novel takes, and if the players don't find the time capsule, they die. But in a video game, a player can use cheat codes to avoid lethal obstacles, or a player might die and then hit "save" and begin the game anew (reborn), able to survive that part of the game the next time because the player learned how to survive. It's possible to be reborn in a video game. But what if you were forced to play a game in which someone believed you would be reborn if you died? Just as you'd be reborn in a video game? To me, this is terrifying. How could you reason with someone like that? And what if the only way to survive the game was to begin to think in that
fashion?

Rob Holden: Which is a perfect segue to my next question. SCAVENGER – like your last novel CREEPERS -- takes place in a very limited, very structured period of time -- in this case basically 40 hours. Do you find the kind of tension created by these limited time frames to be a critical component of modern thrillers in general, and your work in particular?

David Morrell: It's not a technique that's normally used in thrillers. Usually, the action is a combination of dramatization and summary, as in "Five minutes later, he reached the second floor." The "five minutes" summarizes part of the action, but in CREEPERS and SCAVENGER, I didn't allow that technique to enter the narrative. In each scene, I dramatized every moment of every breath. Every step. It's a challenging method, and it doesn’t allow for people to sit around, ruminating in interior monologues about their motives. That would have impeded the second-by-second technique of the story. I could only characterize people by their dialogue and their actions. I couldn't use interior methods. That's very challenging. On a slightly different subject, the structure of the book is game like, involving 9 levels.

Rob Holden: We discussed how challenging writing in that sort of moment-by-moment style was when you were here last year discussing CREEPERS. In SCAVENGER, however, you run not one but two separate story lines in different locations. Did that essentially double the difficulty for you as an author?

David Morrell: It's the same technique, regardless if I use one character or two as viewpoint characters. Basically I just cut back and forth between Balenger (who is trying to find Amanda) and Amanda (who is doing her best to survive).

Rob Holden: Speaking of Frank Balanger, I was delighted to see him making a return appearance in SCAVENGER (even a little part of me said "oh why doesn't he leave this poor guy alone"! Is there something about the "damaged" quality Balanger has to him that attracts you to him -- or was he simply the right character for the story you wanted to tell here?

David Morrell: Both. SCAVENGER's plot requires that the people who are selected for the game have proven themselves to be world class survivors. Two mountain climbers who survived an ordeal on Mt. Everest. A woman who floated for 2 weeks in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean. A Marine aviator who was shot down over Iraq and hunted for 10 days. What Balenger and Amanda endured in the Paragon Hotel in CREEPERS put them in that class of survivor. But I'm also fascinated by Balenger's character. He was in the First and Second Gulf Wars. He has post-traumatic-stress disorder that wasn't helped by the Paragon Hotel. His psychiatrist recommended a form of therapy in which he tries to retreat into the past by reading only those books that evoke the past, by listening to music from former eras, by fixating on the History Channel. The irony is that every time he gets seriously involved with the past, he learns that sometimes the past is buried for a reason.

Rob Holden: As do the other characters in this novel. David, when we announced that we would be chatting with you this month, one of our readers wrote to ask if there were any plans to make CREEPERS into a movie (both she, and I, think it would be a good one!) So -- are there?

David Morrell: CREEPERS is currently under option to a film company. What that means is they have limited time to develop a script and secure financing for a movie. After that, the rights come back to me. So far they extended the option 3 times. MY fingers are crossed that they'll make the film, but over the years I learned that nothing is certain when it comes to Hollywood.

Rob Holden: If only Stanley Kubrick were alive today to do for the Paragon what he did for the Overlook!

David Morrell: I'm fond of a lot of things he did in THE SHINING, but I think he ignored too much great things in the novel--the topiary hedge for example.

Rob Holden: I know that you are touring extensively, and I don’t want to keep you much longer, but I do want to ask you about the video game that has been designed specially for SCAVENGER. Can you tell our readers a bit about that -- and where they can find it?

David Morrell: It's not exactly a video game. Strictly speaking it's an Internet game. It was designed by Deena Warner with some input from Nanci Kalanta at horrorworld.org. It's an ambitious 9 level game that requires problem solving and involves clues. Each level dramatizes a different topic in SCAVENGER: time capsules, geocaching, letterboxing, etc. It's great fun and allows players to win prizes. It can be played at www.SCAVENGERthegame.com. There's also a short game at the end of the book's 1-minute animated trailer (like a movie trailer). That can be found at www.SCAVENGERthebook.com.

Rob Holden: Well, as a pushing -50 fan of internet/video games I thought it was amazingly well done, and a lot of fun. So what is next, writing wise, for David Morrell?

David Morrell: In September, the first issue of my 6-part CAPTAIN AMERICA comic book series begin. Eventually all 6 issues will be collected in a book. Next year, there will also be a new novel, a spy novel, a genre I haven't gone into in almost 10 years. It's called THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS.

Rob Holden: And I am assuming that your fans can keep up with both of those projects at www.davidmorrell.net.

David Morrell: Absolutely. Each month, I update the WHAT'S NEW page of my website. Lots of exciting things are happening.

Rob Holden: David, you jumped through a whole lot more hoops to get here today than I think any author we have ever had, and I would like to sincerely thank you for the effort. In closing, is there anything you would like to say to your fans who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

David Morrell: I've been traveling a lot. That's for sure. Basically I just want to thank everyone for their interest in my work. I've been doing this for 35 years, and I wouldn't be able to keep doing it without the support of a lot of readers. I am much obliged.

Rob Holden: As are we. David Morrell, thank you for being with us here today, and best of luck with SCAVENGER, and all your upcoming projects!

David Morrell: Thanks to you as well. I'm glad to have been a part of this.

Rob Holden: Natalie R. Collins, welcome to ReadersRoom.com! It's a pleasure to ... hey! Haven't we met before?

Natalie R. Collins: Why, yes, it seems that we have. Usually, I am not the interviewee here.

Rob Holden: Well, you are NOT here because you are my partner at ReadersRoom.com -- you ARE here because you have a new book out – Behind Closed Doors! So -- tell us a bit about it!

Natalie R. Collins: Behind Closed Doors is the story of Jannie Fox, a twenty-something Mormon woman who is tilting at windmills so to speak. She is fighting for other women--their very lives--and yet is not living hers. Trauma in her past has caused her to close off and become less than real. But all this changes when her childhood friend, Melissa, goes missing. In looking for her, Jannie is forced to face demons from her past and deal with them, even though she'd rather wrestle with rattlesnakes. And she learns that the life she thought was ideal, Melissa's life, was not what she'd thought. Hence, no one knows what goes on Behind Closed Doors.

Rob Holden: There are a few things going on in the novel that I would like to talk about, but let's start with Jannie herself. She really is a rather complex character who seems to have spent her life mostly living for others while losing herself. Can you tell us a bit about where she came from?

Natalie R. Collins: Well, Jannie is one of those characters who told me her story, and I had to listen. She is a rape victim and that scars her terribly. She has also been born into a society that praises virtue above all, and a former Mormon prophet even claimed it would be better to have died than to have lost your virtue. In the face of that, it's just easier for Jannie to hide, and yet she wants to make sure that what happened to her won't happen to anyone else. Hence, she fights for others, but has forgotten how to live herself.

Rob Holden: The character that I think I found most fascinating in the novel was Brian Williams. Could you tell us a bit about his evolution?

Natalie R. Collins: Brian is Jannie's former fiancee, and his life has always been a little complicated, because he feels like an outsider. While Jannie's family, and Mike and Melissa's families, all have long legacies of being "born in the church" Mormons, he is a convert. And that has always bothered him. He has spent a lot of his life trying to make up for it, and wanted to do that by having the perfect wife, the perfect job, the perfect Mormon life. He's not happy that Jannie
walked away from him, and did not become his eternal companion. And he can't let that go.

Rob Holden: As with your previous novel, Wives and Sisters, this novel takes a very close look at some of the less savory aspects of Mormonism. With your background, do you find this difficult to write about?

Natalie R. Collins: Actually, I find it endlessly fascinating, and of course the clichéd cathartic. But it really is. There is so much going on in the history of this patriarchal religion, with it's very violent past, that I just never run out of things to write about. And the deeper I delve, the more fascinating it seems. Most of all, I think it's interesting that I get hate-mail, when all one has to do is pick up the newspaper to see that there are good Mormons, and bad Mormons, just like every other group of human beings.

Rob Holden: Which brings me (perfectly I might add), to my next question. While you write about some of the bad things people do as a result of their flawed interpretation of LDS doctrine you never actually attack the Church itself, in effect walking a fine line. Do you find this difficult, and is it something you need to be constantly aware of while writing?

Natalie R. Collins: Not really. I never set out to write about the Mormon Church itself, although certainly doctrines are discussed. This is about the people LIVING in this very interesting culture. It always has been. So it's not hard to keep it about the people, and I think that's what I'm doing. Of course, certain doctrines and the way they affect lives are going to come out in doing this. Like the teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, which had great impact on rape victims. You think once you've lost your virtue, that's it. And if you didn't die trying to protect it, or at least fight, there is so much guilt. Jannie is dealing with that, and she suffers from a phobia as a result of all that happened to her. She can no longer go into a Mormon Church without having a severe panic attack. She has hidden this from her parents for years, and it all comes out with Melissa's disappearance. But Jannie's phobia is a result of the teachings. And I think sometimes people, even people who are "talking to God," don't realize the impact they are going to have.

Rob Holden: Let's skip back a book, to Wives and Sisters -- currently out in paperback. Can you tell us a bit about that novel?


Natalie R. Collins: Wives and Sisters is the story of Allison Jensen. A traumatic childhood comes back to haunt her when she discovers a conspiracy that goes to the very core of her life. A conspiracy that protects an abuser and leaves many victims in its wake. Alli is determined to fight for justice, and against her tyrannical fanatical father, so that she and her brothers and sisters can have a normal life. Unfortunately, after the trauma they suffer, it's questionable if that will ever be possible.

Rob Holden: In both novels, you feature young women who find a kind of inner strength when they need it -- based on terrible circumstances. Is this theme drawn from personal experience?

Natalie R. Collins: Well, of course I am drawing on personal experience to a certain extent. Wives and Sisters, in particular, is loosely based on my life, but let me say very loosely. The things that happen there represent various things that happened to me as a child. And growing up, too. In many ways, Allison is me. But it's very, very fictionalized. I'm no James Frey, although I did have a few agents suggest that I write a memoir, when I was marketing W&S. I wouldn't do it, though. It's fiction.

Rob Holden: Now Behind Closed Doors came out directly in paperback with a much larger print run than the hardcover of Wives and Sisters. This seems to be a growing trend in the publishing industry these days. How did you feel about it?

Natalie R. Collins: Well, while I am happy to have had a book in hardback, Wives and Sisters, it's very hard to sell, especially as an unknown author. I was lucky enough to get the support of my publisher and a big distributor, and when W&S went to the paperback printing, it was a substantial print run. At this time, my publisher realized that I had more potential in paperback, then in hardback. If I ever hit the New York Times list, maybe we'll talk about hardback again but who knows. It doesn't bother me at all, because I am getting to readers where I never could have before, at least not as well as I am now.

Rob Holden: It is now time time to discuss your split personality – and discuss Natalie M. Roberts, who ALSO has a book due out! Can you tell us a bit about her -- and it?

Natalie R. Collins: Ah, yes, let me put on that other hat....


Natalie R. Collins: My first book with Berkley Prime Crime, Tutu Deadly, comes out in April. Jenny T. Partridge is a dance teacher in Ogden, Utah, who is barely scraping by every day as she teaches young prima -- and not-so-prima--ballerinas to dance. Jenny is a fun, eccentric, crazy character, and this series is a cozy mystery. Very different from my books for St. Martin's--er, Natalie R. Collins's books. I have a lot of fuel for the fire, so to speak, because my youngest is a dancer, and she takes ballet three days a week, dances on a jazz/hip hop/lyrical competitive team twice a week, and does solos. She also performed in Ballet West's The Nutcracker this year. So I see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. I also work for the dance teacher, and run the dance store. So this is a world that I am familiar with. And some pretty wacky stuff happens in it. I love writing this series. It's very fun.

Rob Holden: The world of deep deadly secrets that Ms. Collins writes about and the world of phycho dance moms that Ms. Roberts writes about are extremely different. Is it tough for you to make the switch?

Natalie R. Collins: Actually, yes, it was at first. And it still takes me a bit of time in between to the make the switch. Because they are so very, very different. And yet it is so refreshing, too. So even though it's sometimes hard, it's also very energizing.


Rob Holden: So -- two books out inside of three months ... dare I ask what's coming next?

Natalie R. Collins: In October I have two books coming out as well. The second Jenny T. Partridge book, Tapped Out, comes out from Berkley. And Twisted Sister, a sequel to my very, very first book, SisterWife, comes out from Five Star.

Rob Holden: So basically, that is four books out in one year! Tired yet?


Natalie R. Collins: Yes. Actually, I am. But loving every minute of it. I'm currently working on revisions for my next St. Martin's book, A Wife's Secret, and the proposal for the next Jenny book. And of course working to promote Behind Closed Doors.

Rob Holden: How is that going -- the promotion, I mean? Are you doing interviews, booksignings, etc?

Natalie R. Collins: I actually was interviewed for Romantic Times. That was cool. I have an in-studio radio interview on Thursday. 97.1 zht in Utah, if you are in Utah--www.971zht.com if you
want to listen on the Internet. And I am currently setting up booksignings. And a friend just called me to tell me she bought my book today at Costco.

Rob Holden: And to keep up with everything that is going, your readers can find you where on the internet?


Natalie R. Collins: Of course, my Web site, www.nataliercollins.com.


Rob Holden: And on top of ALL this, you are rapidly becoming the Queen of the Blogs! Aside from ReadersRoom, where can people find them?


Natalie R. Collins: www.murdershewrites.com, my group blog with four other suspense authors. And my personal blog, www.nataliercollins.com/weblog, which is called Trapped by the Mormons.

Rob Holden: Anything ELSE we need to know about? I am exhausted just reading about all you are doing!

Natalie R. Collins: No, I think that's probably enough.

Rob Holden: Okay then -- before we wrap up, is there anything you would like to say to your fans who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

Natalie R. Collins: The only reason I have a chance to do this, is because of you. I am very, very grateful for your support, I love hearing from you, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy my writing.

Rob Holden: Natalie and ... er ... Natalie, thanks for being with us here today, and all the best with all your books! See you in a few hours when we get ReadersRoom out!

Natalie R. Collins: Thanks for having me! And see you soon.

Rob Holden: Robert Liparulo, welcome to ReadersRoom.com. It is a pleasure to have you with us here today.

Robert Liparulo: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rob Holden: I would like to start this chat off talking about your latest book, GERM. Could you tell our readers a bit about it?

Robert Liparulo: GERM is about a designer virus. Its creator encodes a virus with a bit of human DNA. The virus then travels from person to person until it finds the DNA that matches the code within it then it turns into Ebola and kills that person. It’s sort of like an assassin-germ. A few years ago, I read about someone who claimed that the government was trying to create a virus or chemical that attacked only specific races. I thought, well, why stop at a specific race, why not a specific person? With gene splicing and manipulating viruses to attack cancer cells the technology is there for a malicious, assassin-germ.

Rob Holden: The obvious first question that comes to mind is what kind of research did you have to do on "germs" – and where did you do it?

Robert Liparulo: I spoke to a lot of geneticists and biologists, primarily at universities; several by phone and several in person. I went to three blood labs--two state and one federal. For the non-virus related stuff, I spoke to physicians (there's a hospital scene) and Lawrence Livermore Labs (re a new weapon).

Rob Holden: GERM is a fairly substantial book -- almost 500 pages – and yet, with the exception of flashback scenes, takes place in just about a week of "real" time. Did you find it difficult to write in such a compressed fashion?

Robert Liparulo: I tend to like compressed timelines. My previous book, COMES A HORSEMAN, takes place in about a week's time, and the one I'm just finishing takes place in a few days. There's something about "real time" that I find appealing in fiction. Makes it feel more real, perhaps.

Rob Holden: As I know a good segue when I see one, let's talk a little about your previous book, COMES A HORSEMAN. Can you tell our readers a bit about that novel -- currently, I believe, out in paperback?

Robert Liparulo: Yes, it's out in mass market paperback now. COMES A HORSEMAN follows two FBI agents who are investigating a grisly series of murders. Before they realize it, the killer comes after them. That leads to their uncovering the man behind the murder, a powerful leader who thinks he-s the Antichrist. I had read an article about delusions of grandeur-people thinking their God or Napoleon. I thought, What about the Antichrist? If their delusions stem from wanting to be powerful, wouldn’t he fit the bill?

Rob Holden: Indeed he would. I am wondering where you got the vision of the Antichrist that you put into the novel's character?

Robert Liparulo: I did some research into what people think the Antichrist would be like, if he were to come, and consistently, he's supposed to be charming, charismatic, good-looking; after all, he charms the world into believe he would be a great world leader. Then I modeled the character on George Clooney. Of course, he'd be a liar and deceptive and generally a bad guy, as well. George Clooney with horns.

Rob Holden: Speaking of bad guys, I would like to return to GERM for a moment, and talk a bit about Karl Litt. Of all the characters in the novel, I found him to be both the most complex, and the most fascinating. Can you tell us a bit about how you created him, and where he came from?

Robert Liparulo: Now he's someone I made up out of whole cloth. At first, I pictured him sort of cartoony--a James Bond villain. Then I really started to think about his motivations and he became more human, less cartoony. To make him a little less evil, I gave his friend and "head of security," Gregor, some of his badness. Together, they make the one villain I had in mind at the start.

Rob Holden: That was one of the things that fascinated me about him – the fact that he was, looked at in a certain light, almost a sympathetic character -- and yet also a REAL son-of-a-bitch! How difficult was it for you to keep that balance with that character throughout the novel?

Robert Liparulo: Not too difficult, really. I just kept thinking about the family he lost. It's hard to be cold-minded about somebody when you understand their pain -- even if you don't agree with how he's handling it (revenge). Olaf from COMES A HORSEMAN is sort of like that as well: a lot of people said he was the meanest bad guy they ever liked. It all came down to seeing his motivations.

Rob Holden: Literally dozens of the authors we have interviewed have told us that it is both easier and more fun to write bad guys as opposed to good guys. Do you find this to be the case, and if so, why?

Robert Liparulo: I don't think evil characters are more fun to write or to read, but there is an element of exploring a mysterious part of the world. It is fascinating to wonder what is going on in someone's mind when they commit crimes. Most of us understand why laws are in place and we don't have any trouble abiding by those laws. When we see crime, especially violent crime, we think, "Was that person crazy? What drove him to do that? How does he justify it?" I don't know if it's a voyeuristic thing, simple curiosity or something else, but outlaws fascinate us, even if we have no desire to follow their lead. Then again, there is something about shucking off all rules and going wild. Writers get to do that when they're writing bad guys. But most writers I know relate to their characters deeply, so it's not always fun to put your protagonists through hell. It's a two-way
street.

Rob Holden: Bob, I know that GERM was bid on by the New York houses, and yet you chose to go with a smaller independent publisher, WestBow Press. Can you tell us why you made this decision?

Robert Liparulo: WestBow was very passionate about me. I spoke to David Morrell about it and he suggested going with the smallest house that still had enough money to promote me. He said I'd get lost at one of the big houses.No matter how big I was, there would always be someone bigger. WestBow is part of the seventh largest publishing house in the world, so they have the money to promote me and do right by my books. They are always very receptive to ideas I throw at them--marketing, tours, etc. I don't think I'd get that kind of attention at a bigger house.

Rob Holden: So it sounds as though you feel that you have made the right decision as far as your career is concerned.

Robert Liparulo: Oh, yeah. I've been very pleased with everything in the process--the editors, the publisher, the packaging, the promotion. WestBow is very much like published used to be decades ago, when people like Maxwell Perkins were doing their thing. They are book lovers, fiction lovers, and their enthusiasm and excitement is evident and contagious.

Rob Holden: You recently contributed a short story to the excellent anthology THRILLER called Kill Zone. Did you find it difficult take a break from novels and work in the short format?

Robert Liparulo: I wrote a lot of short fiction years and years ago. I love the form. As a magazine writer (my job before switching to novels), I learned how to write tightly. I love short stories. I'd like to do more of them.

Rob Holden: Bob, you mentioned earlier that you are already at work on your next novel. Can you give our readers a sneak peek at what that is all about, or would you prefer not to?

Robert Liparulo: There's already a production house in Hollywood looking at it, and they asked that I don't go too far into it, but I can say that it involves a group of guys who head up into the Canadian wilderness to get away from it all for a while, and they run into some very bad dudes. It becomes a battle between very low-tech and extremely high-tech weapons; between decent guys and amoral thugs. It'll be a lot of fun. All the suspense and action of GERM and COMES A HORSEMAN, but all set in one very remote locale. By not going "too far into it" I meant that they didn't want me spilling all the story yet.

Rob Holden: And do you have a home on the web where readers can keep up with what's going on with both you and the new book?

Robert Liparulo: www.Robert Liparulo.com ... I try to update it about once a month. I'm also doing regular drawings for IPod Nanos. Anyone on my e-mailing list is eligible.

Rob Holden: Our readers who are also writers like to know about how our guests actually do their writing. Do you have a set schedule? Goals you set for yourself -- that kind of thing?

Robert Liparulo: I usually schedule my work way ahead of time: a week for outlining, a month for research, four months for writing. I divvy up the expected word count over the time I have allotted and see how many words I have to average per week. Day by day, I either go way over or way under, but usually hit the per-week count. I usually get up really early--4AM and work all morning. If I'm behind, I'll work as late as 4:00 PM, when my kids get home from school.

Rob Holden: And you make your deadlines RIGHT on time, every time, right?

Robert Liparulo: HA, no, but I'm working on it. There's a big learning curve, figuring out how to balance writing with all the other things authors have to do (PR stuff, etc.). It's like building a house. It's hard to get such a huge project finished exactly when you thought you would. I'm getting better.

Rob Holden: If you had answered yes to that question, you would have been the only author we've ever interviewed to do so, and I doubt I would have believed you anyway! Bob, before we wrap this up, is there anything you would like to say to your fans who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

Robert Liparulo: Is it too quaint to simply say thank you to my readers? I know that there are so many books vying for their attention and I'm truly appreciative when they pick up one of my books.Many have written and I always respond in person. As a reader, I've always appreciated attentive authors--Lee Child, David Morrell. I want to follow their lead. To the writers who read this, let me just say KEEP WRITING. I think success has more to do with persistence than talent. I started my first novel when I was thirteen. It took almost 25 years to get one published (but a lot of that had to do with distractions). Once I buckled down and FINISHED something, things started happening.

Rob Holden: Robert Liparulo, thanks for joining us today -- it was something of a scheduling struggle, but well worth the effort! Best of luck with all your current and future projects!

Robert Liparulo: Thank you, Rob. I really appreciate your support! Bye.

Author Deborah LeBlanc

Rob Holden: Deborah LeBlanc, welcome back to Readersroom.com -- it's a pleasure to have you with us here today!

Deborah LeBlanc: It's great being back here with all of you.

Natalie R. Collins: Thanks for coming, Deb. We wanted to start off talking about your latest book, A HOUSE DIVIDED. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Deborah LeBlanc: AHD is about a mentally challenged young woman with psychic abilities. She can only communicate those abilities, however, through drawings. When she moves into part of a house with her cousin and a friend, something in that house challenges those psychic abilities...nearly destroying her, her family, and even the town they're living in. The story idea came from a true haunted house event, so most people, when they first see the book, think it's about a haunted house... but the story really revolves around issues from our past that tend to haunt us.


Natalie R. Collins: It's a fascinating story, and you manage to weave all the elements together so well. Can you tell us about the haunted house event that inspired this book?

Deborah LeBlanc: A friend of mine told me he'd been raised in a haunted house. Being the curious George that I am, I wanted to visit his old stomping grounds and check it out for myself. His childhood home was a small clapboard that had recently been used as a funeral viewing parlor. I didn't notice or 'feel' anything unusual in the house and was about to chalk it up to another haunting dud, when a general contractor happened by to see what we were doing in the house. It was vacant at the time. It was then that I discovered the house was only half of its original structure. Many years ago, the contractor had moved the house into that particular town but it was too big to fit on the lots he had available. So he cut the house in half, remodeled both, and rented each half. I found out the other half of the house was across town, so I went to check it out. It was there all right, along with a single mom and her two children. When I told her what I was doing there, she was more than willing to set me straight on a few facts. Her half, she claimed, WAS haunted. Her children, who were there at the time, attested to that fact to, all of them claiming the usual door slamming, cabinet doors opening by themselves, lights flickering, etc.I didn't witness any of those events while there, but I thought the story was so unique it couldn't NOT become a book.

Natalie R. Collins: I agree, totally, and the whole concept in the book was fascinating, especially the tie in between the residents of both parts of the house. You did a great job blending "supernatural" and realism. That is becoming your specialty. What is it about this topic that fascinates you? Has it been a life long interest?

Deborah LeBlanc: The supernatural you mean?

Natalie R. Collins: Yes.

Deborah LeBlanc: It has been a life long interest. It started when I was a little girl and I'd listen to my grandmother tell stories about ghostly encounters. To her, they weren't stories, but real events that occurred that no one could explain. (Which isn't unusual in south Louisiana!) As I grew older the interest held, so much so that I began ghost hunting. Although I've never witnessed a full fledged apparition, I've had enough experiences to know SOMETHING exists beyond our realm of reality. To me, it's this gray zone, just beyond a curtain we can't see. It exists right along with us, only we're often oblivious to it. My job, when telling a story, is to show just how closely the two are, and can be, related.

Natalie R. Collins: And we are lucky enough to have you share some of your adventures with us, regularly, in the feature, The Dark Side! Now, Deb, the setting of your books is Louisiana, which is your home state. And your background is Cajun. Can you tell us how that influences your writing?

Deborah LeBlanc: I think it has a significant influence on my writing. The culture, the folklore, the ambience, if you will, are all fertile ground for wonderful stories.

Rob Holden: Deb, let me congratulate you on being elected President of the HWA! Could you tell our readers a bit about the HWA -- and what it does?

Deborah LeBlanc: Thank you very much! I'm extremely honored to be serving the members of the association in that capacity. HWA is the Horror Writers of America. It was conceived back in the '80s by a handful of authors, the two most influential being Dean Koontz and Stephen King. IHWA's purpose is two-fold...to educate the general public about the horror genre, for most people typically view it as blood and gore, which it's not... and the second is to be a networking, educational, and promotional avenue for writers of that particular genre.

Rob Holden: Can you tell our readers a bit about what your duties as President are?

Deborah LeBlanc: The most important part of my duties is to be an active, vocal, creative member of a team who is willing work to make HWA the premier writing organization it's meant to be. Aside from that, I make sure priorities are set and maintained and help strengthen the team by consistent communications. Many people see being a President or head-honcho of anything as
a big deal. In truth, being upfront only means you're more visible if things screw up. It also means you take the bullets before the troops behind you. In essence, you're a servant to the people who voted you into office.

Natalie R. Collins: And how is this going to fit into your busy schedule?

Deborah LeBlanc: Ummm... I just make sure it does.

Natalie R. Collins: So, what book are you working on now? Can you tell us anything about it?

Deborah LeBlanc: My fourth book, MORBID CURIOSITY, comes out in July '07. It's about two fourteen-year-old girls (twins) whose lives are turned upside down after their father dies and their mother is committed to a hospital after she attempts suicide. Without parents the girls are eventually shipped off to Mississippi to live with their paternal grandparents, and it's there they decide to take control of their lives by way of Chaos magic and sigils. The one thing they never counted on conjuring up, however, was their own death sentence. The fifth novel slated for that publisher is WATER WITCH, which should be out the summer of '08.

Natalie R. Collins: Fascinating titles! Now you say, "that" publisher. Is there another publisher? And what type of books?

Deborah LeBlanc: I have a cozy series planned with another publisher, a straight mystery series we're trying to bed down with another publisher, and yet another publisher who will be doing another psychological thriller I have written called, Soul Identity.

Natalie R. Collins: Well, congratulations! You also have my sympathy, as I know how hard it can be to write for more than one publisher. You won't even have time to brush your teeth!

Deborah LeBlanc: You've got that right!

Natalie R. Collins: Well, Deb, we've taken up enough of your busy time, so before we go, is there anything you want to say to your many fans?

Deborah LeBlanc: Yes, I do. To anyone reading this interview that has ever purchased one of my books... I realize you had thousands of books to choose from before you dropped your hard-earned money on that counter or sent it whisking off into cyberspace. Thank you for choosing one of mine.

Natalie R. Collins: And fans can keep up with you and your many appearances on your website, www.deborahleblanc.com.

Deborah LeBlanc: Absolutely.

Natalie R. Collins: Well, thanks again Deb, for visiting us, and best of luck in all your many pursuits. We look forward to catching up with you again!

Deborah LeBlanc: Thanks for having me! I hope we do get a chance to catch up again soon.

Rob Holden: Thanks Deb, and best of luck with all your projects!

Deborah LeBlanc: Thanks, Rob!

Author Tess Gerritsen

Rob Holden: Tess Gerritsen, welcome BACK to ReadersRoom.com. It’s a pleasure to have you with us again this evening.

Tess Gerritsen: It's a pleasure to be here!

Rob Holden: Let's start this off talking about your latest novel, THE MEPHISTO CLUB. Can you tell our readers a bit about it?

Tess Gerritsen: It's the sixth in the Jane Rizzoli/ Maura Isles series. It opens with a horrifying murder on Christmas Eve, with Satanic symbols drawn on the victim's walls. Maura and Jane begin to suspect there is indeed some sort of Satanic element involved, and the trail leads them to a group called THE MEPHISTO CLUB, made up of scholars who've been studying evil for centuries. And
they believe that demons truly exist. Soon Jane begins to wonder if the killer might be one of the Nephilim, who are demons that were first described
in ancient Biblical texts.

Rob Holden: The novel is interesting on a number of levels, but I would like to start with the supernatural elements first -- as these are certainly a
departure from your other novels. What was it that inspired you to move in such a different direction?

Tess Gerritsen: I'm not a big believer in supernatural things. I'm pretty much a scientist at heart. But something I read in an old religious text dating back to around 200 BC, about the Nephilim, got me thinking about the possibility that they were actually correct -- that there IS a sub-group of humans who carry the genes for evil. Or for sociopathic behavior. It would actually verify what the ancient Israelites believed -- but it would give it a scientific basis.
I've always been fascinated by mythology and by biblical lore, and this was my chance to explore stories from the Old Testament, and from religious texts that pre-date it.

Rob Holden: Could you talk about those other texts a bit? I personally found your Afterward to the novel to be absolutely fascinating. Did you spend much time doing research in the ancient Apocryphal texts?

Tess Gerritsen: The texts I'm referring to are The Book of Enoch (around 200 BCE) and The Book of Jubilees (around 150 BCE). Fragments of both were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. But the entire texts survived, translated from the Greek, in Ethiopia. In the 1700's, they were discovered by a Scotsman and brought back to Europe, where they were later translated. They give us a
window into what the ancient Israelites believed, about the world around them, and about the myths of their own origins. In the Book of Enoch, there's a great deal about the Nephilim, who were the offspring of fallen angels and human women. These hybrids were described as evil, as worshipers of Satan, and 9/10 of them were said to be destroyed during Noah's time. But God -- for some reason -- chose to allow 1/10 of them to survive as Satan's worshipers. And they supposedly remain with us till this day, causing violence and grief to humanity. There's also a belief, among those who believe in Armageddon, that the anti-Christ will be a Nephilim. And since they are described as quite tall and charismatic, they are destined to become our leaders. A scary thought, given the turmoil in today's world!

Natalie R. Collins: Wow, that is REALLY fascinating!

Tess Gerritsen: It also gives one a rather paranoid view of the world! I've talked to people who believe they've spotted evil in a stranger's eyes --
that they've recognized something "different' about them. It's not hard to
postulate that some of us are able to recognize the Nephilim!

Rob Holden: Tess, did you find it hard to blend your particular brand of scientific thriller with the -- for lack of a better term -- more mystical
elements of this novel?

Tess Gerritsen: Yes, I found it incredibly difficult, because I did not want to write a paranormal story. I wanted to write a thriller where you, the reader (as well as Jane) isn't quite certain WHICH reality is correct. And by the end of THE MEPHISTO CLUB, I myself was not quite sure which reality was
really operating in the story.

Rob Holden: To be honest, that is one of the reasons I liked it so much.

Tess Gerritsen: I think it may disturb some readers, though, because the ending isn't so neatly wrapped up. But it leaves an opening for many of the new characters to return.

Rob Holden: The book has been out a short time now, and the early returns should be starting to come in. How are your fans reacting to it?

Tess Gerritsen: It's actually been out only three days! So I haven't heard much yet -- only a few readers have emailed me to tell me how much they like it.

Natalie R. Collins: As soon as I get past this latest deadline, it's first on my TBR pile, Tess!

Tess Gerritsen: Ah yes, that TBR pile! Mine just keeps getting taller too! What's interesting is how many people I've been talking to who really feel they've seen "them" or spotted "them", by which I mean, people who are frightening to them.

Rob Holden: As you brought up the sort of "open ended" ending, do you see yourself carrying on any of the metaphysical themes you started in THE MEPHISTO CLUB?

Tess Gerritsen: I would really love to do a book starring the members of THE MEPHISTO CLUB -- Anthony Sansone, and Lily Saul, for instance. Whether they're insane or right on the money about the existence of demons, they will certainly continue their hunt for them.

Rob Holden: Okay -- we never do "spoilers" here at ReadersRoom, but I did want to ask about Lily! Where did SHE come from -- I mean as a character, for
you, the writer.

Tess Gerritsen: Lily, for these who haven't read the book, is a woman on the run. She believes that a truly evil being is chasing her, and she has been living in hiding in Italy. When I pictured her, I imagined a feral creature who'd do anything to survive. She's smart, she's fast, and she's desperate. And she's also very educated in the classics, in ancient history, and in
demonology. I loved this character, and I think she's got many battles ahead
of her.

Natalie R. Collins: So is that in your plans, Tess, or just a wish? (Using Lily again?)

Tess Gerritsen: It's a wish! I'll see how THE MEPHISTO CLUB does. Right now I'm working on something a little different, out of the series.

Natalie R. Collins: Oh, can you tell us anything about it?

Tess Gerritsen: It's an historical thriller set in 1830's Boston, during a really horrifying time in the history of medicine, before anesthesia, when people died of really awful things. Add a serial killer to that setting, and it
becomes quite a scary time!

Natalie R. Collins: Wow, it sounds like something that needed a lot of research. How did you do that? What methods did you use. EN

Tess Gerritsen: I've always been interested in the history of medicine, and in particular, in childbed fever, which is something I've researched before. I use the setting of a maternity ward, and medical students as characters, to flesh out the story. Since I'm a doctor, much of the medicine is already under
my belt. The difficult thing is to understand exactly what doctors knew -- and didn't know -- back then. And believe me, there was a great deal of ignorance. To the detriment of many, many patients.

Rob Holden: I would like to talk about Boston for a moment -- and the love affair you carry on with it in your novels. Aside from proximity, what allows you to givethe city the almost physical presence you mange to give it in your
books?

Tess Gerritsen: I go to Boston all the time. It's the closest "big" city to me, and it still intimidates me every time I get down there! But its history is just fascinating. Not just its colonial role in America's birth, but also its role in the intellectual history of this nation. It feels "old" to me, and I
love that sense of walking in the footsteps of great men -- and women.

Rob Holden: I know how you feel -- I think my earliest childhood memory was a "pilgrimage" to the Old North Church one Christmas eve. I was about 5.

Tess Gerritsen: And now that I'm reading so much about the early 1800's and the transcendentalist movement, I feel in absolute awe of the intellectuals of that time.

Rob Holden: Tess, THE MEPHISTO CLUB is, I think, the 6th novel in that series -- and you have mentioned that you are writing your next book outside the series. Do you find writing a highly popular series to be confining -- or is it something that you simply need to take a break from every now and then?

Tess Gerritsen: It can be very confining, and perhaps that's why I feel the need to veer away from it for at least one book. I've put my characters through so much, and I almost feel that Jane and Maura need a bit of a rest! Also, I
really want to explore other topics, and history has always been one of my fascinations.

Natalie R. Collins: Tess, can you talk a minute about some of the backlash you received when you owned up to feeling fearful about your books, and where they land on the New York Times list?

Tess Gerritsen: It's probably something I shouldn't have confessed to in public! But the truth is, I never stop feeling as if I'm on the verge of failure. I don't think there's any level of success I could achieve where I wouldn't feel this way. But it astonishes other writers to hear this -- they suppose that
a NYT-bestselling author has it made in the shade, when really, we're just as
insecure as when we started off in the biz. I've seen it from the bottom,
and I know how hard it is to advance in the book business. I guess people just
didn't think I had the right to express my anxieties!

Natalie R. Collins: This was a pivotal moment for me, and I think it's so important for other writers to realize that the pressures and anxiety and
insecurities do not end. To see you be open and honest about it was so
refreshing. And it was something that OTHER people, especially the
unpublished needed to hear.

Tess Gerritsen: Yeah. That we're all, every one of us, screaming bundles of nerves. And if you aren't, maybe you don't have the anxiety to really succeed. As my husband often tells me, "If you were more Zen about this, you wouldn't be where you are."

Natalie R. Collins: Exactly.

Rob Holden: I guess I have to be the bad guy -- well, at least the mean interviewer -- here and ask how you dealt with it?

Tess Gerritsen: How I deal with the anxiety? I just live with it. No other choice. And my poor husband has to deal with it, too!

Natalie R. Collins: Are you implying I'm not mean? I can be mean! Just ask my kids.

Tess Gerritsen: You do need fire in the belly to make it as a writer. Not the writing part, but the marketing and the promotion, etc. Just look at Joe Konrath. That man has fire in the belly, and he is promoting the heck out of his books. He's going to succeed.

Natalie R. Collins: Yes, Joe is dauntless. I don't know how he does it. And marketing and promotion is the hardest part of all of it. I hate it. SO, Tess, what is your favorite part of the business?

Tess Gerritsen: My favorite part of the business is definitely not the marketing! Although I do like meeting readers, I often feel like a traveling saleswoman, and for someone who prefers to sit alone in an office, it can be a real ordeal. My favorite part of the business is the daydreaming, the
plot-spinning. That's why I got into this -- to write! Not to run around
the country begging people to buy my books. But it's what you have to do
these days.

Rob Holden: And speaking of the traveling saleswoman, you are touring heavily for THE MEPHISTO CLUB. Where are some of the places you will be, and how can our readers find out the others?

Tess Gerritsen: You can always check out my tour schedule by looking at my website, www.tessgerritsen.com. Among the places I'll be visiting are New York, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Lexington, and Dayton. Plus many places in New England.

Natalie R. Collins: I thought you were going to try to come see me here in Utah, Tess!

Tess Gerritsen: If you visit the website, you'll also find a reader's guide to THE MEPHISTO CLUB, with a lot of interesting information about the historical background to the story, including lore about the Nephilim, and about Adam's first wife, Lilith.

I have yet to go to Utah! I hope I make it one of these days!
But I don't know how my biblical themes would go over there!

Natalie R. Collins: You and me could hang together.

Rob Holden: Who knows how anything would go over in Utah!

Tess Gerritsen: As long as I can find somewhere to get my martini!

Natalie R. Collins: I know ALL the right spots for that!

Rob Holden: But we LOVE our Utah readers!

Natalie R. Collins: Do we have Utah readers? Hi Mom!

Tess Gerritsen: I will promise to behave.

Rob Holden: Okay -- before the cocktails hit the fan, I think its getting to be time to wrap this up.

Tess Gerritsen: I've had a great time -- many thanks for the great questions!

Rob Holden: Tess, I would like to thank you for being our VERY first chat four years ago, and coming back to see us today. Is there anything you would like to say to your fans who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

Tess Gerritsen: I'd encourage them to look deeper into the ancient religious texts such as Enoch and Jubilees -- they'll no doubt be as fascinated as I am. Oh, and read THE MEPHISTO CLUB!

Rob Holden: Tess Gerritsen, thanks for joining us here today, and all the best with all your future projects!

Natalie R. Collins: Thanks for coming, Tess!

Author Mariah Stewart

Rob Holden: Mariah Stewart, welcome to Readersroom.com. It’s a pleasure to have you with us here today!

Mariah Stewart: Thanks so much for having me.

Rob Holden: Let's start this off by talking about your latest novel, Final Truth. Can you tell our readers a bit about that?

Mariah Stewart: Final Truth is about a true crime writer who comes across the story of a young man on death row who, as it turns out, was convicted solely on bad evidence. The lab tech lied about the DNA match because he'd lost the victim's sample, and the only witness had been coerced to testify by the cops. The young man is freed, then disappears, and our heroine suspects she may have made a terrible mistake in helping to publicize his plight, after several women are killed, same MO as the victim for whom he'd been convicted.

Rob Holden: There are a few things about Final Truth that interested me greatly -- and I would like to start with the main character, Regan. Can you fill our readers in on where she came from?

Mariah Stewart: Sure. Regan Landry's father was an internationally known true crime writer. He was murdered in one of my DEAD books (the series I wrote before this current series) – Dead Even was the title. Regan had worked with him on several of the last books he'd written, and after his death, she completed the last book on her own, found she had a knack for it, and has been following in her dad's footsteps.

Rob Holden: Regan has been a part of all of the books in the Truth series, but this is really the first of them that she has "carried" by herself. Can you give us some insight into why you chose to go in this direction with the last book in the series?

Mariah Stewart: I felt after having been a secondary character in three or four books, she deserved her own story. I wanted her to have to establish herself as a major writer of true crime, and the only way to do that was to give her a tough case, which I felt this was. Also, there's a secondary plot thread that involves her on a personal level, and I wanted to resolve that. Plus, Regan has a lot of fans among readers, who really wanted to see her and Mitch take center stage I wanted to do a somewhat grittier story for her, because I thought she deserved it. And I've been fascinated by the number of stories coming from all over the country about the mishandling of DNA and the number of inmates who were involved.

Rob Holden: Let's talk about Mitch for a moment. Tell us a bit about him, and the special unit inside the FBI that he works for.

Mariah Stewart: Mitch works for a special unit within the FBI that's run by John Mancini, who'd started out as a very, very minor character in Brown-eyed Girl, which was the first true romantic suspense book I wrote. Mitch has great computer skills (I live vicariously through him - I have no such talents) and he's a really good investigator. He's from a large family in Maine and he adores Regan.

Rob Holden: And the special unit he works for?

Mariah Stewart: John hand-picks the agents - it's invitation only (I don't know if there is such a unit, but you can get away with this in fiction). His team members are all talented - there's a terrific profiler named Anne Marie McCall and a compositor named Kendra Smith and a cast of other characters. They all sort of float from book to book - whenever a profiler is needed, for example, Annie is called in. I like the continuity of the characters – I think it makes the books seem more like real life.

Rob Holden: While the unit is essentially your invention, it is very believably presented both in its construction and its methods. Can you tell our readers a bit about what sort of research you did to create it?

Mariah Stewart: I did a lot of online research on profiling and facial compositing and spoke with several members of different law enforcement agencies to get a feel for how things were done. I mostly made up everything else, though, as it suited the needs of my plots. I have a good friend who is a forensic psychologist and has worked as a profiler, and I run things past her all the time. For the scene in Final Truth where Regan and the killer are going one on one, I wrote the scene and then sent it to my friend and asked her if she felt the way Regan was dealing with the killer - the way she spoke to him, for example, rang true. Fortunately, she felt I'd done well with the interaction, but she did suggest a few details which I gladly accepted.

Rob Holden: Let's move back a book to your previous novel in the series, Dark Truth, which is just out in paperback. Can you tell our readers a bit about that novel?

Mariah Stewart: Dark Truth is the story of a young woman whose professor father had been convicted of raping and murdering several of his students. After her step-mother dies, she comes into possession of a box of his belongings, and in it, finds a letter he'd written to her that shakes her belief that he'd been guilty. To find out the truth, she enlists the aid of the local police department. The hero of the book is actually one of the police officers who had arrested her father. I should add that Nina, the heroine, is Regan Landry's editor, which is how Regan comes into the story.

Rob Holden: Yet again, the same characters appear in that book, as well as the rest of the series. Tell me, do you have any trouble with continuity, or do you find it easier to use the same people, since you already know them?

Mariah Stewart: I do find it easier on the one hand, because, yes, I know them. On the other, if you are going to keep using the same characters from book to book, even as secondary characters, they have to grow. The readers have to learn more about them with each book, or they won't seem like real people.

Rob Holden: And you use the "subplots" to keep them growing?

Mariah Stewart: Yes, to an extent. More often than not, it's through using the characters in their roles as investigators or whatever. If there's a big case and I feel several agents are needed, I will usually bring in one or two from past books, and another one or so who are totally new.

Rob Holden: Now the Truth series has been a VERY successful one for you, and yet Final Truth is just that -- the final book in the series. Can you tell us why you have chosen to end the series at the height of its popularity?

Mariah Stewart: That was really a decision that my publisher made - to have four books connected through the protagonists' relationships with one other character (Regan). But you know, my series never really end! I might focus on one aspect for a new series, but since so many characters recur, I don't feel they ever really end. They'll end when I stop writing about John Mancini's special unit - hopefully not for a while. There are more stories to be told.

Rob Holden: Which brings me to the new series I know you are currently starting. Can you tell our readers a bit about that?

Mariah Stewart: There are three books planned - Second Guess, Second Skin, Second Nature. Each will feature a member of the Shields family - which is a family that had many members in the Bureau. Second Guess is about an agent named Dorsey Collins - a minor character first introduced in Final Truth – whose father had, years ago, had been instrumental in catching the killer of a 14 year old girl. The killer was executed. Now, in 2006, the body of a woman is found in GA, and it's determined that she is in fact the girl who supposed died years ago (her body had not been found at the time but there was lots of blood and circumstantial evidence). Andrew Shields is investigating this new case, and Dorsey takes a leave to try to work unofficially with him to find the truth.

Rob Holden: Is there an approximate date when this novel is due out?

Mariah Stewart: This one will be out in - I think - May 2007. I should add that this is a darker book than I've done in the past, because Dorsey is carrying a lot of baggage, as is Andy, who is under a cloud since his brother was responsible for the murder of their cousin in the DEAD series.

Rob Holden: And is there someplace on the Internet where our readers can keep up with all the latest news about you?

Mariah Stewart: www.MariahStewart.com

Rob Holden: Mariah, can you tell our readers who are also writers a bit about your writing schedule and work habits?

Mariah Stewart: Should I leave out the part about how much I procrastinate? I'm in my office by 8 every morning and try to get through email by 9:30. Work until I'm hungry. Which could be 9:45 or 4 pm. I try to put in 6 hours/day.

Rob Holden: Before we wrap this up, I would like to thank Gilly Hailparn at Ballantine Books for her help in making this happen. Finally, Mariah, is there anything you would like to say to your fans who may read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

Mariah Stewart: Yes, many thanks to Gilly, who is just the best. To my readers - yes, I'd like to thank them as well, for taking to my books and being so loyal to the series, from the beginning with Brown-Eyed Girl and Voices Carry at Pocket Books, through the present. I'm very grateful.

Rob Holden: Mariah Stewart, thank you for joining us to day, and all the best in the future!

Mariah Stewart: Rob, it's been my pleasure - thanks so much for inviting me today!