I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she's telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn't easy.

I have to warn you. I promised my mother, a long time ago. She said I had to give folks a chance to walk away.

The first day of the rest of my life.

LA has a fantastic car scene and because the climate is so gentle, cars can last forever.

You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.

You do not mess with the special investigators.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.