When you're given a newspaper column, you're not being paid to sit on a fence and scratch your chin and say 'On the one hand this' and 'On the other hand that.' You're getting paid for your opinion.

Mickey Cray had been out of work ever since a dead iguana fell from a palm tree and hit him on the head.

I've never before had the same main character appear in consecutive novels, but I liked Yancy and his attitude, and I was curious to see what would happen to him after Bad Monkey. And I liked the idea of him still trying to get his detective job back while he's stuck on roach patrol.

When I'm working on a novel of my own, I try to read mostly nonfiction, although sometimes I break down and peek at something else.

My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water.

If you write satire, the guilty pleasure these days is that there's just so much material about. On the other hand, if you have a family it can be depressing.

I still do a weekly opinion column for the Miami Herald, and it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Rotten fish.