The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.

Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with.

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

We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments.

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen-whether I'm working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book-it's usually because I'm trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place.

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

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.