I'm lucky in having found the perfect partner to spend my life with.
I went to college at the University of Kansas, where I got a degree in political science.
I have a friend who lives in the South Side of Chicago. I helped out at a church charity there where they try to give a bit of cohesion to a desperate area. Everyone was very welcoming.
I'm a daydreamer.
I'm very honoured that there is a loyal following and I hope it continues.
In 1986 we were trying to help women get in print, stay in print, and come to the attention of booksellers and libraries. At that time, books by men mystery writers were reviewed seven times as often as books by women.
Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.
I spent 10 years as a marketing manager. I've found my experience in the financial world invaluable background for writing about white-collar crimes.
Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.
I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.
I'm a grandmother, and a mighty proud one.
White-collar crime gets more outrageous by the second in America.
Reviewers said Ghost Country was rich, astonishing and affecting in the way it blended comedy, magic, and a gritty urban realism in a breathtaking ride along Chicago's mean streets.
It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating.
I love to sing. I'm a soprano.
People have less privacy and are crammed together in cities, but in the wide open spaces they secretly keep tabs on each other a lot more.
Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel.
My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.
Capo, my first golden retriever, so loved to swim she once jumped off a cliff to get into Lake Superior.
I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11.
