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As voters and taxpayers, we must demand that our local governments properly prioritize libraries. As citizens, we must invest in our library down the street so that the generations served by that library grow up to be adults who contribute not just to their local communities but to the world.
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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'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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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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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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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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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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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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Being a Southerner, I'm interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.
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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.