Q. When did you begin writing? Did you always want to be a writer?
A. I've always loved writing, in one form or another. One of my oldest girlfriends told me that she remembers me writing stories when we played together as little girls at my house. I still have some of the notebooks I wrote in back then, but I don't have any memory of writing when others were around. Even when I wasn't writing, I remember lying in bed at night and making up stories in my head. It was my way of entertaining myself until I fell asleep! To this day, I work out many of my plot problems when I'm in bed, just before falling asleep. It helps to keep a small notebook on the nightstand.

Q. How did you come up with the idea for Tell No Lies?
A. When I sat down to begin the story, I had two characters in my head – Jack and Jenny. I knew they were friends and colleagues; I knew they were attracted to each other but weren't supposed to be; I knew they disagreed about the death penalty. But other than that, I had no idea what would happen to them, or why. At some point I came across two news stories – I can't even remember if this was before or after I'd started the scene described above (which, ironically, got cut along the way) – and the stories got me thinking. The first was about a politician who'd done something wrong, and really stupid (I don't remember what, but we hear these stories all the time, don't we?). The other was about a young man who'd committed some crime, and when the reporter interviewed his mom, she kept proclaiming his innocence despite all evidence to the contrary. These stories helped me to develop Jack's story. I wanted to explore how and why a basically good person ends up doing something so out of character, and show how he's able to rationalize it to himself along the way.

There's a point in the novel where Jack asks Jenny, in reference to another character they believe has embezzled from a client, "Why would he do that? Why would he risk everything like that?" Those questions speak to the heart of the novel, in my opinion. I'm a firm believer that man is basically good, and whenever I hear about someone doing something we consider bad – immoral, unethical, or sometimes just plain nonsensical, I want to know the "story behind the story" – because I believe there is always a larger story than just what appears on the surface. Not a justification, necessarily, but an explanation.

Q. Are any characters in the novel based upon real people?
A. There's only one character that comes straight from someone I know, and he's a very, very minor character. He's really there as an inside joke. As for other characters, they all have personality traits that I've seen in exhibited in attorneys I've worked with, for better or worse, but they're all fictional. The seed for a few characters might have originated from real people (one that immediately comes to mind is Jenny's nemesis, Maxine Shepard), but once I began to write, they took on a life of their own. Indeed, that's the hardest part about finishing a novel. You spend so much time with your characters and become so attached to them, it's hard to let them go.

Having said that, I think certain details from my practice of law (as opposed to the people) found their way into the story. For example, there's mention of Jack touring the remains of an exploded farmhouse early in his career. I actually did that, and what I saw found its way into my writing. One of the earliest drafts of the novel had quite a lengthy description of the destroyed house. I edited most of it out at some point, though, long before the publisher ever saw the manuscript. Even though I liked what I had written, it was irrelevant to the plot.

Q. If Tell No Lies was made into a movie, who would you like to see play Jack? Jenny? Claire? Earl?
A. I am asked this question so often, yet I never have a good answer. As the author who created the characters, I have a very distinct image of them in my mind, but because they're fictional, I could never imagine any well-known actors stepping into their shoes. Well, I was finally forced to make some choices. Here's what I came up with.

Q. What's your typical writing day like?
A. Depends on whether it's the school year or summer! During the school year, my daughters leave for school really, really early, so most days I start writing as soon as they're gone (we're talking 6:15 a.m.) and I have made my coffee. I'll take a break for a quick lunch, and then I'll return to my desk for another few hours until they get home. It's heaven, having so much uninterrupted writing time. I know how lucky I am, and I'm impressed by writers who have full-time jobs outside of writing and still manage to sneak in enough time every day to finish novels.

As for summer, all bets are off. The house is much more chaotic with my girls and their friends around, so I just try to write whenever I can find a quiet moment.

Q. What do you do when you're not working on your next novel?
A. I sometimes write short stories, poems, and essays, and when the mood strikes me I'll post an entry in my blog or hang out over on Inked-In (I'm an Inked-In junkie). I also write a column and other articles for a local lifestyle magazine, Lake Mary Life Magazine. When I'm not writing, I read. A lot. So many books, so little time . . . I like to run, though my hip and my knees keep trying to talk me out of it, and I love to spend time at the beach. I have no musical talent of my own, but I love listening to music, and I'm a HUGE Dave Matthews Band fan, so I try to catch a show whenever and wherever I can. My newest hobby is riding my new motorcycle (for the genesis of this particular hobby, see the answer to the next question!) I also volunteer as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. And, of course, I'm a mom, so I spend a lot of time doing the typical "mom" things. (Did someone say chauffeur?)

Q. What's your next novel about?
A. Rescuing Olivia has another male protagonist, and there's plenty of suspense, but he's not a lawyer and the novel is not a legal thriller. It's the story of Anders Erickson, a Florida biker who sets out on a journey to find his girlfriend when she mysteriously disappears from the hospital after a suspicious motorcycle accident. In his search for answers, he uncovers her traumatic past only to find it shares similarities to his own that he's spent years trying to forget. His search becomes a race against time when he learns her very life is at stake, and it takes him from his Florida home to New England and eventually to Africa, where he's forced to confront his own past if he is to have any chance of rescuing Olivia from hers.

I had a lot of fun writing my second novel (and not only because it piqued my interest in motorcycles). I like Anders and I think readers will, too. He's not as ethically challenged as Jack (from Tell No Lies), but he suffers from a lack of confidence (among other issues) because of his dysfunctional past, and this makes his journey to solve the mysteries of Olivia's disappearance and save her more difficult.

I also enjoyed writing about new places. Anders is a native Floridian, sort of a nature boy. My friends know that it took a while for me to adjust to living in Florida, but now I'd be hard-pressed to leave. I wanted to create a character whose love of the state was based upon the same things I've grown to love about it. I also got a chance in this novel to revisit the charms of New England (where I lived for about two and a half years). But the biggest challenge was writing about Africa. I don't remember exactly when I knew part of Anders' story would take place there, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it with any authenticity unless I visited. In the middle of writing the novel, my husband and I traveled to Africa for our 20th wedding anniversary, and I actually wrote some of the Africa scenes while we were there.