In 1986 we were trying to help women get in print, stay in print, and come to the attention of booksellers and libraries. At that time, books by men mystery writers were reviewed seven times as often as books by women.

Capo, my first golden retriever, so loved to swim she once jumped off a cliff to get into Lake Superior.

I have a friend who lives in the South Side of Chicago. I helped out at a church charity there where they try to give a bit of cohesion to a desperate area. Everyone was very welcoming.

I live and die with the Chicago Cubs.

No agent wants to see a book until he or she has decided whether to pursue the relationship.

I love to sing. I'm a soprano.

The best source for finding an agent is called Literary Agents of North America. It's a complete list of agents, not only by name and address, but by type of book they represent and by what their submission criteria are.

I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likable female private investigator, and that's how VI came to life.

Reviewers said Ghost Country was rich, astonishing and affecting in the way it blended comedy, magic, and a gritty urban realism in a breathtaking ride along Chicago's mean streets.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book.

Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel.

Write what you care about.

I'm a daydreamer.

The crime novel has always been my favourite genre.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.

I grew up in conservative rural Kansas in the 1950s when it was expected that girls would not have a life outside the home, so educating them was a waste of time.

I spent 10 years as a marketing manager. I've found my experience in the financial world invaluable background for writing about white-collar crimes.

It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating.

I went to college at the University of Kansas, where I got a degree in political science.

Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.

I'm a grandmother, and a mighty proud one.

Sisters in Crime now has more than 4,000 members worldwide.

I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11.

Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.

I'm very honoured that there is a loyal following and I hope it continues.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

White-collar crime gets more outrageous by the second in America.

I'm lucky in having found the perfect partner to spend my life with.

I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.

The possibility of bringing white-collar criminals to justice is ever receding over the horizon.

People have less privacy and are crammed together in cities, but in the wide open spaces they secretly keep tabs on each other a lot more.

I wish I could remember where I put things. I spend half my life looking for my keys. With the other half I look for my glasses.

You get weird and unsettling behaviour in the country.

In 1986 we were trying to help women get in print, stay in print, and come to the attention of booksellers and libraries. At that time, books by men mystery writers were reviewed seven times as often as books by women.

Live disasters are wonderful attractions when youre safe on the other side of them.

When you feel lousy, puppy therapy is indicated.

The bronze powder business, however, no longer required my personal attention, and was well managed by those I had chosen as the guardians of a secret, which was long and honourably kept.

The kinds of shows that seem to work now, the comedy shows, are those which require very little attention. They're superficial and I like articulate comedy.

The constant attention is what is so difficult.

As a scientist, my attention became totally focused on global warming some 15 years ago by the elegant and powerful measurements of carbon dioxide trapped in ice cores taken as much as 2 miles deep from the great East Antarctica ice sheet.

Anytime you have a difficult encounter with your child, there is a good chance that at least one of these factors is bringing out the worst in him or her: transitions, time pressure, competition for your attention, conflicting objectives.

I think it would have been a lot better for him to say, I did it and I'm sorry, McGwire was never one to show a lot of emotion on the field, not a player who sought attention and craved to be thought of as a nice guy.

I wanted to write a story that demanded the viewer's attention.

After some minor pieces of theoretical study that I worked on, a student in my statistical mechanics class brought to my attention a problem in polyelectrolytes.

I don't want to come off like the jealous brother who wasn't getting the attention, but it was like no one was really into me anyway. I wasn't really a priority.

If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.

There's a lot of other movies I like, but I don't even pay attention to directors to tell you the truth.

The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers.

The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.