That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone.

I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.

Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them.

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.

I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.

Passion lights the fire in every soul.

Turn your weakness into your richness.

The further you get into technology, the further you go into gaming. That's the general rule.

My dad grew up in a working-class Jewish neighbourhood, and I got a scholarship from my dad's union to go to college. I went there to get an education, not as an extension of privilege.

What a man is is an arrow into the future, and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from.

I want to be the poster girl for engineers and computer nerds.

and I try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time.

It's great at this stage in my life to still be in the running, that people appreciate you.

Writers are entirely egocentric. To them, few things in their lives have meaning or importance unless they give promise of serving some creative purpose.

Carra doesn't like me to fist him before the games, so I give him a high-five instead.