My books are shelved in different places, depending on the bookstore. Sometimes they can be found in the Mystery section, sometimes in the Humor department, and occasionally even in the Literature aisle, which is somewhat astounding.

Nobody with an IQ higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that 'death panels' would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment, it's hard to beat Sarah Palin's ignorant nattering on the subject.

Actually it was the mark of the stupid, which is what you get for sitting under a tree during a thunderstorm.

Unfortunately for novelists, real life is getting way too funny and far-fetched.

A bonus, being a writer, is that the true-life source material is fabulously bizarre. There's so much corruption, violence and free-floating depravity that the well never runs dry, whether you're a novelist, a journalist, or both.

Jimmy Lee Baylis was a wise man, and knew better than to talk back to the man who signed his paycheck.

There is no writer's block in a newsroom. There's only unemployment block.