It is difficult to get men to pick up a female author. Women will read men, but men won't read women.

Expect nothing and life will be velvet.

All I've really ever done is write since I was 17, so I don't know anything about anything. For me to do a novel, I have to talk to people who know things. And what keeps me in suspense is that I am a crime aficionado.

If you choose to do something, do it with your utmost. And remember, expect nothing and life will be velvet.

It's kind of the yin and yang that fascinate me. That for all the evil men do, there are also people who work obnoxiously long hours and sacrifice their personal lives because it is a calling - if they don't keep our streets safe, if they aren't there to advocate for and save beaten women and children and murder victims, who will?

Post-apocalyptic novels tell you that in the future there is some great war. I would tell you that most cops say that it's going on right now.

My mother would like me to start all interviews by stating that she and my father are perfectly normal. They are proud of me, and as perplexed as anyone by my novels.