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The most important lesson I have learned from spending years talking to law enforcement officers is that the vast majority of them really want to do a good job. They have a physical need to do a good job. And yet, we don't give them the resources that would help them.
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I love reading almost as much as I love writing.
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Crafting a piece of gripping, narrative true crime that engages the world is not that different from crafting a piece of crime fiction.
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I always try to block out an hour or so a day to read. Being a writer is a job, and reading helps train my brain in the right direction.
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What I know is the characters in a Southern town. I know the cadence of the language and the voice of Atlanta because I've lived here for so long. And I know the neighborhoods, and I hopefully know the people, and I feel a connection to them. And I also feel like I'm honoring them when I talk about them.
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It sounds pretentious to say I 'divide' my time, but when I am home, that usually means my house in Atlanta or my cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. The latter is where I do the majority of my writing.
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I can clearly trace my passion for reading back to the Jonesboro, Georgia, library, where for the first time in my life I had access to what seemed like an unlimited supply of books. This was where I discovered 'Encyclopedia Brown' and 'Nancy Drew,' 'Gone With the Wind' and 'Rebecca.' This was where I became inspired to be a writer.
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I've never purposefully based a character on any one person I know, but I'm certain there are amalgamations that exist.
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People forget that writers start off being readers. We all love it when we find a terrific read, and we want to let people know about it.
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A book I would take with me to a desert island is 'Paradise Lost,' which I studied in college and hated so much by the end of the class that I never wanted to see it again.
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I think being a woman and writing frankly about violence has gotten me some attention, and as someone who wants people to read my books, I can't complain about that attention, but it does puzzle me that this is something reviewers focus on.
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I could type in a closet and be fine. It's just a matter of cocooning myself. Just me and the story.
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Women know how to scare other women.
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I grew up reading thrillers. Honestly, I was always drawn to the very detailed ones like Patricia Cornwell. I love details.
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Denise Mina is probably one of the most gifted writers out there, whether it's mystery or literary or whatever label you want to give it.
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I've always been drawn to historical fiction.
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If you're going to write thrillers, you have to make a decision if you are going to be realistic or go off and over.
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Men are more particular, and they're not going to grab something with a bodice-ripper cover on it.
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When I became a published writer, I said, 'Whatever I can do to help the libraries I want to do,' so all of my book tours since then have involved me coming to a library and talking about how important libraries are for a community.
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I grew up in a small town in Georgia where nothing bad happened - it was like Mayberry.
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I taped the autopsy photos from Marilyn Monroe's death to my lunch box in fifth grade, and I would write stories in which someone inevitably died.
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The book that first made me want to be a writer is Flannery O'Connor's short story collection 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find.'
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No crime lab in the world looks like the 'CSI' ones because there's simply not the money for all those fancy machines.
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I think some people are good at being alone, and some people aren't, and as a child, I really liked it.