I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.

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

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.

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.

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

The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.