It Doesn't Matter How Big The Body,

You Have To Accept The Critical Reviews If They Treat You With Respect. Actually, It's One Person's Opinion. So, It's A Concern But Not An Overriding One, And I Don't Stay Up Nights Worrying About Reviews. But There Are Certain People I Respect Who I Hope Will Like A Book.

I Read A Lot Of Detective Stories Because They Always Deliver. They Give You A Beginning, A Middle, And An End - A Resolution. The Modern Novels I Read Don't Always Deliver Because I'm Looking Essentially For A Story. As In Shakespeare, "the Play's The Thing." In Particular I Read Detective Stories For Pacing, Plot And Suspense.

A Man I Know Who Writes And Aspires To Be A Novelist Does Very Little Reading, And He's Not That Successful. But I Think It's Because He's Like The Kid Who Wants To Be A Ballplayer And Never Goes To The Ballpark Or Tries To Hit A Ball. So I'd Say Reading Is The Most Important Thing That I Do, Besides The Actual Writing. I'm Always Asking As I Read, "how Did The Writer Do This? Why Do I Suddenly Have Tears In My Eyes? Why Am I Crying?"

I Use A Lot Of Similes And Metaphors When I Work, Simply Because It's My Best Way Of Describing A Building Or A Scene. I'm Terrible At Describing Landscapes - Trees, Buildings. The Inanimate Things Don't Interest Me: I Always Think, "oh, No, Here Comes Another Building I Have To Describe." So I Usually Use A Simile Or Metaphor.

The Earliest Influence On Me Was The Movies Of The Thirties When I Was Growing Up. Those Were Stories. If You Look At Them Now, You See The Development Of Character And The Twists Of Plot; But Essentially They Told Stories. My Mother Didn't Go To The Movies Because Of A Religious Promise She Made Early In Her Life, And I Used To Go To Movies And Come Home And Tell Her The Plots Of Those Old Warner Brothers/james Cagney Movies, The Old Romantic Love Stories. Through These Movies That Had Real Characters, I Absorbed Drama, Sense Of Pacing, And Plot.