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

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.

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

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

I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.

In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers.