Robert Rotenberg does for Toronto what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh.

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

I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.

I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.

And life changes. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And at some point, it just isn't worth the fight to fix it.

Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.

She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.