1) For people who have not read your books, could you give a run down of
what they are about?

Soitenly. (Well, I can TRY... :) The two that are published so far are BAIT
and HOOK, in hardcover from Scribner as well as in paperback from
Harper/Avon. BAIT is the first of the Meg Gillis crime novel series which
continues with HOOK, and we'll have at least two more episodes, since I've
just re-upped with Scribner for more books in the series. The third story,
yes, will probably be LINE, but no, these AREN'T "fishing" mysteries. I just
like the multiple-meanings of the titles. :)

Meg Gillis is a female ex-cop, who's working now as a partner in a security
business on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. The action in the books
generally takes place in the Los Angeles/Glendale/Burbank/Beverly Hills area,
where she finds herself, for a variety of reasons, putting her old cop skills
to use to solve something that's bugging her. Sometimes she gets involved
because somebody else asked her for help; sometimes she does it because SHE
wants to know. In the process, she's coming to terms with leaving her police
department, with accepting her skills and herself, with being who she is in
today's less-than-perfect world. It's kind of a character-driven line of
mysteries, but, eesh, gack, I also like to think the books are more
interesting and faster-paced than the way I'm describing them here -- HELP!

Okay, there's suspense, right? and danger, and sometimes blood, (but not LOTS
of gory detail, so I don't really qualify as "hard-boiled".) The BEST
description, I think, is one a reader gave me recently: "gritty but not
graphic." That pretty much sums 'em up!

2) So is there any of you in Meg?

Nah, very little. :) Well, okay, some. We share a drive to understand
things -- people, motivations, events.

And we're both a little bit stubborn -- but not so's you'd notice it,
probably.

And we both know something about weapons.

3) I would imagine it is an advantage having worked on a police force
when you write. Do you need to be careful not to let actual events sneak
in?

It's not so much "actual events" that I'm careful about as it is "actual
people." I make up the events I'm writing about, so I don't worry about
that, but I've known a lot of people under circumstances which didn't always
reflect well on them or bring out the best in their behaviors, so I try to be
sure that I'm not inadvertently being unfair to anyone.

One of the MAJOR advantages to being a female working at a police department
(not as a police officer, by the way!) was that I got to experience the
culture first-hand, and I'm therefore able to summon up memories of the
feelings very easily. There's a fair amount of discrimination in police
departments, believe it or not. (Shocking, I know. :) And yet it would be
unfair to imply that EVERY cop behaves in such a fashion most of the time and
I'm trying to present somewhat of a balanced view, without, of course,
forgetting that first and foremost I'm trying to tell a gripping story that
rings true.

4) Why did you decide to write?

Well, I was getting up at 4:30 in the morning and staring at the computer
screen anyway, so... :)

It's just a drive that I have. Some people express themselves by singing.
Others cook. I write.

5) Who do you like to read?

I love science fiction! I cut my eyeteeth on Andre Norton, Assimov, C.J.
Cherryh, Jo Clayton, Frank Herbert and the like. My mystery idols when I was
younger were Lawrence Sanders and John LeCarre, John D. MacDonald and Joseph
Wambaugh (and Dashiell Hammett!), and I've read widely in the "older"
romantic suspense genre -- Helen MacInnes, Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer --
whoosh! Those ladies could write! I'm necessarily not reading much these
days (time's SO limited and I have my own worlds to create) but I have a
number of the more-current mysteries on my To-Be-Read pile (well, there's no
mystery there -- I know all these great mystery authors now, so of COURSE I
have their books!) I also have snuck in, purely for enjoyment, "A Civil
Campaign" by Lois McMaster Bujold.

6) Do you need to do a lot of research when you write?

I don't usually need to do a LOT of research because I have what I'd consider
an on-going voracious interest in arcane things, so I tend to have
experiences or notions in my kit-bag already. It's just a question of adding
a few more details here and there if I'm going to put any of those notions
into something I'm writing, and for that, yes, I do some more-specific
"research." (My husband doesn't really consider it that, but my tax
accountant does! :) I usually take some refresher courses during the year
anyway, in weaponry or tactics, knife-fighting, alternate force, that kind of
thing. I find security issues very interesting and I love the company at the
classes, the give-and-take of new people, the physicality and focus, the
challenge. Those feelings tend to feed back into whatever I'm writing (so if
that's not "research", I don't know what is! :)

7) Any movie or TV offers?

Yes, they're wanting me to star in a new show for series tele-- oh, you meant
for the Meg Gillis books?

No, not yet.

(I'm sure they're just hanging back, worrying about being able to do me
justice.)

8) You do a lot of shooting. And you know guns. Do you think people in
general should have a little better knowledge of guns?

Yes, I do. I'm not particularly gung-ho about guns, myself, because I think
good defense is as much or more the grit of the PERSON as it is the weapon,
and so I really take pains not to train to be "weapon-reliant", but... truly,
how the heck can you understand what the issues are or what you can do about
them until you understand how guns work and how other people think about
them? Even if you never intend to shoot or to own one, shouldn't you know
SOMETHING about their mechanical operation? What if you're the only adult
around when a bad guy comes to threaten the kids? He's standing there
feeling invincible because he KNOWS he's the only one with a weapon. Are you
just going to stand there flapping and screaming, giving those kids no help
or protection because you don't have a clue how to disarm this guy?!

Part of growing up is accepting responsibility for yourself and for others --
and part of that responsibility is knowing what your options are, making sure
that you've got SOME skills, no matter how fragile, so that you can, if you
need to, deal with a real danger, because there ARE real dangers out there.
At least, with some knowledge, you have a chance to fight back. And with a
weapon that you have access to and know how to USE, you have a much better
chance to fight back, so yes, I think people should learn these things. Hey!
I'm a philanthropist!

9) Do you like meeting fans?

Oh, absolutely I do -- that's the best part of this writing thing! (Well,
besides locking myself in my room for hours at a time, that is, wrestling
with demon words... :)

10) What is the one thing always in your refrigerator?

That one's easy. Coca-cola. "I'd like To Teach The world to sing..."