Where I live, there is a group of fans who take me out to tea every year to pick my brains about what's coming up.

You won't have a story unless you have conflict, which means if there's no conflict in a situation, people look for a way to make some.

The only thing I knew about novels from a technical point of view was that they should have conflict.

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.

Something is wrong that we have to feed so many. Why should there be poverty with all of our science and technology? There is no deficit in human resources - it is a deficit in human will.

A big reason why I started writing is I felt that fiction had stopped evolving. All other entertainments were getting better, constantly, as technology allowed. Movies. Video games. Music.

We'll continue to invest in new technology because we think every woman should have the ability to be connected through her beauty knowledge, opinions, products, and routine.

Television, radio, social media. The 24/7 news cycle plows forward mercilessly on our desks, in our cars and in our pockets. Thousands and thousands of messages and voices bombard us from the moment we wake, fighting for our attention. All we see and hear, all day long, is news. And most of it is bad.