Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.
— William Landay
I'm a bit of a tech geek myself.
Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.
I can't say that I ever actually decided to become a writer. It kind of snuck up on me.
Well, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.
You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.
I don't ever write with a particular audience in mind. I just write books that please me.
I am interested in computers and technology, and art, photography, and design.
Genes are not simple triggers. No one is hardwired to commit murder or any other crime. Our actions are always the result of stupendously complex gene-environment interactions, and environment is likely to remain the more important influence by far.
Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.
When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try to write a novel. To be clear: I did not decide to become a novelist. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that I could actually earn a living as a professional novelist.
I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.
