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...

The second of the Kidnap Capers is Pharma Con. This one took a great deal of research, and I learned a lot about the medicine we are offered in this country. Since I wrote the book, it's become a bigger and bigger issue, and our current HHS secretary has some interesting ideas that seem to come from nowhere. I don't even want to be a health care expert, but if I had to fix things I'd be every bit as qualified to do so as RFK is, and I would not take the path he's taking.

That said, medicine is...