Aunt Marge is women's fiction and suspense, with touches of Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne, Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel, and other classic tales that are close to gothic in mood.

Grumpy people abound in literature, from Ove in A Man Called Ove to Minnie Jackson in The Help to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Why they are grumpy and how/if they overcome that is a gold mine of storytelling possibilities. Aunt Marge is a woman we often don't like. Putting Gwen, a vulnerable...

The Trouble with Dad again demonstrates my conviction that a series has an arc that rises and comes to a logical conclusion. The story that began with KIDNAP.org and continued in Pharma Con has come to a point where two things can happen: I can keep making up capers for Robin and her amateur hoods, or I can end the series. As you can probably guess, I chose the latter.

Our parents define us in many ways. Some serve as examples, and we strive to be like them. (I was lucky enough to have two...

Friendship is an important theme in women's fiction, and Deceiving Elvera focuses on one of those pairings that's accidental and unlikely but nevertheless firm and long-lasting. I've been lucky enough to have several of those in my lifetime, the kind that take up even after long stretches without contact. Whenever you meet, you're back to where you were at twelve or twenty or forty, sharing stories and enjoying the feeling of being with someone who "gets" you.

Writing a book requires different...