One thing that improved my cooking skills was being a poor student in California... If you don't have much money, you have to learn to cook.

In a mystery, the sleuth must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving the crime.

Writing is work and cooking is relaxing.

What one's goal should be is just to become a better writer and to tell different kinds of stories.

After I outlined 'Catering to Nobody,' I went and worked for a caterer. And the other thing I had to do was to talk to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department about how they investigated a crime.

I wanted to be a literary writer, so I wrote story after story and sent them to 'The New Yorker.'

I told the caterer I'd work for nothing if he'd teach me about catering. I lasted one week full-time. It was exhausting.