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" If you're not in the hands of an expert editor, you really can go wrong in a lot of different ways. "

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" Ignorance is bliss, or so we're told. Personally, I find ignorance is also destiny. "

" If you are writing a thriller with violence in it, the ending must be violent. You are delivering a promise to your reader. "

" Be wary of cutting and pasting research nuggets directly into your manuscript. "

" Sometimes you get what you want not because it's right or fair or even smart, but because you just don't know any better. "

" The villain drives the plot. "

" In 1996, when my first novel, 'Masquerade,' was published, I knew international thrillers - or spy novels, if you prefer - had been the domain of male authors for decades. "

" You don't have to resolve every problem of the book at the end, but you do have to resolve some. "

" The common wisdom is that only about 1 percent of a novelist's research ends up in his or her book. In my experience, it's even less - closer to a tenth of a percent. "

" Pulp paperbacks have always provided a training ground for men, Some of them went on to become respected authors - Dean Koontz, Nelson DeMille and Martin Cruz Smith, for example. Why couldn't a woman? "

" For a decade, I was a stay-at-home mom. I sent my husband to his law office, sat on PTA boards and baked cookies - great cookies. All of a sudden, I had no husband, no job, few prospects, and two small children who had grown accustomed to eating. "

" Look realistically at espionage thrillers again. They're not only alive, readers are excited about them. "

" Writers sometimes ruin a book by adding a lighthearted mood at the wrong moment. "

" Use plot to buttress a story. "

" I've seen unpublished manuscripts where the writer doesn't know they are making fun of the villain - but they are. If you aren't afraid of your villain, how can your hero be afraid? "

" I've always loved spy stories. Who can resist? "

" Do you love this story? If you love it, then you've got to write it. "

" Our only solace as writers is in the work itself, and perhaps also in a penchant for blissful ignorance that allows us to gamble, to risk, to keep going where others would tote up the odds and stop. "

" Get in the habit of vetting your research as you go - particularly research conducted online. Verify facts from multiple reputable sources before you record them. "

" You don't want to become guilty of plagiarism by letting someone else's words get inadvertently mixed in with your own. If you do feel the need to paste in a block of research while you're writing, be sure to highlight the copied text in a different color so you can go back and remove or rewrite it entirely later. "

" 'Mosaic' is about what we see and what we don't see. I learned how people can develop other senses to compensate for a missing one when I was a child. My best friend, Carol, who is profoundly deaf, saved me from an approaching car that she 'heard' when I didn't. "