Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.

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

Generally my typical books have lots of twists and turns a big surprise ending and then usually another surprise at the end and ideally, as in Garden of Beasts, we get to the very end and we find at the last few pages that there's yet another surprise.

Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with.

It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes.

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.

The recent fascination, I think, reflects the shift in approach by law enforcement officials to embrace technology as wholeheartedly as the rest of the world.

To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.

When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type.

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

But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.

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

I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.

I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.

I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book.

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