Q&A

Question 1

Where do your ideas come from?

Accepted Answer

Mostly from paying attention to things other people have decided to ignore. The corporate satire comes from years of sitting in meetings that had no reason to exist. The mysteries come from small towns, long memories, and the particular silence of people who know something they're not saying.

Question 2

Are your characters based on real people?

Accepted Answer

No. Legally, no. The characters are composites — fragments of people I've known, behaviors I've observed, and personality types that recur with depressing regularity. If you think you recognize yourself in one of my books, that says more about you than it does about my research methods.

Question 3

Why do you write in two such different genres?

Accepted Answer

I don't think they're that different. Both dark mystery and satirical workplace fiction are fundamentally about what people hide and why. The thriller version has a body. The satire version has a performance review. The stakes feel different but the psychology is the same.

Question 4

How long does it take you to write a book?

Accepted Answer

Longer than I tell my publisher and shorter than I tell my family. The actual writing is fast. The thinking — the part where I figure out what the book is actually about — takes most of the time. I've started novels I didn't finish because I never answered that question.

Question 5

Do you outline or write by the seat of your pants?

Accepted Answer

Both, at different stages, with varying degrees of regret. I outline enough to know where I'm going, then ignore the outline when something better comes up, then spend two weeks trying to reconcile what I planned with what I wrote. It's a system.

Question 6

Which of your books should I read first?

Accepted Answer

If you like dark, slow-burn mysteries: start with Below the Surface. If you prefer something with more dark humor and a faster pace: Performance Review. If you want to understand what I'm doing and why: The Quiet Before. The Exit Interview is the shortest and a good test of whether my sense of humor matches yours.

Question 7

Will there be a sequel to any of your books?

Accepted Answer

I'm not opposed to revisiting characters, but I don't write series in the traditional sense. Each book is meant to stand alone. That said, I've been thinking about Mara Voss from The Quiet Before for a while now. She has more to say.

Question 8

What are you working on now?

Accepted Answer

Something I'm not ready to describe yet. It involves a funeral, a disputed will, and a town that has been lying to itself for forty years. That's all I'm prepared to say.

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