I believe the most intricate plot won’t matter much to readers if they don’t care about the characters, especially in a series. So I try to focus hard on making each character, whether villain or...

[It’s a model that Alfred Hitchcock drew on for many of his movies.] If there was a film that inspired me in writing ‘Panic,’ it was ‘North by Northwest,’ … Those are my favorite Hitchcock...

I do think Austin is a great town for writers; we have a lot of them here. But I grew up in Austin, and so I didn’t move here because it was a creative mecca;...

I outline in some detail, but even after the outline is done I often get a new idea that is an improvement, so the outline is a living, breathing thing as well. I also re-outline...

No one forces me, or any other writer, to sell a film option on the books. If you don’t want to run the risk that the filmmakers may adapt your work in a way you...

The nicest notes I’ve received from readers are those that tell me I’ve gotten them back into reading for entertainment. For me, there is no greater compliment.

It’s not at all uncommon for a writer to get a ton of publicity for one book and then not get as much for the next one. I don’t worry about that because I try...

He is singularly unequipped to beat these people.

It’s your call. You want to go back home, go ahead. But if I were you, I wouldn’t. Home is death.

[And now that he’s graduated to hardcover and 11-city book tour status, he’s found there’s a real advantage to the standalone novels that Dutton suggested he write.] You can explore broader themes in a standalone...

I’d spent five minutes looking at Twitter once and felt I’d wandered into a poker game where everyone immediately displayed their hands against the cool green of the felt.

I had started writing the fourth Whit Mosley book, … I was 40 pages into it, and then Dutton asked me if I would consider writing a standalone. The series novel can do a lot...

Pôs um sorriso que uma faca poderia exibir se por acaso ganhasse vida.

We do something like this every year. Then this catastrophe hit, and it seemed like the obvious choice to help.

I want to be a writer you can always depend on for a good read during your vacation, during your flight, during a time in your life when you want to forget the world around...

You can’t be a professor and talk out of a textbook to teach locomotive operations. You can’t create the end product without hands-on training.