Visual storytelling is at once immediate and subversive.

Most of my books begin with a nap on my couch here, when I dream up characters and story lines, and then I write on my laptop in the recliner and handle the business side of email at my desk, which is sagging in the middle - maybe from so many words?

When I was growing up, my stepmother's sister was the chief detective in one of the adjoining towns, so she piqued my interest in crime.

Southerners have this love of embellishment. Even when you read a police report, there's some backstory.

Being a Southerner, I'm interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.