A) My background is, perhaps, a little unusual for a novelist, in that I was born and raised into the Children of God, an apocalyptic religious cult that believed education beyond sixth grade was a waste of time and didn’t allow access to television and books from the outside. In place of schooling, the majority of my adolescence was spent begging on city streets at the behest of cult leaders, or as a worker bee child, caring for the many younger commune children, washing laundry and cooking meals for hundreds at a time.

2] How did you get started in writing? & could you share with us your experience of getting published?

A) The writing experience started something like this: I’m going to write a book. It will be fiction, and it’s going to take place in Africa. A couple of used writing guides became my Bible, and an old laptop that was now seeing its third continent, my everyday companion. So began a journey that started out as nothing more than a way to take back stolen childhood dreams, and which eventually grew into a three-book deal with Crown.

When the manuscript was finished and as good as I could possibly get it, I set out on the next step of finding a literary agent. I scoured blogs from agents, editors and professional writers in order to understand the publishing industry, and quickly realized that, like everything else, I would be forced to go the hard road. I wasn’t in a position to attend writers’ conferences to meet agents in person to pitch a book. Neither was I well read enough to track down the agents or editors of authors whose books I liked. I didn’t know anyone who knew anyone even remotely connected to publishing: I had no referrals, and no foot in the door. My only option, really, was to cold query agents by email, which, if you believe the naysayers, is impossible.

3] What was the spark of inspiration which lead to the genesis of "The Informationist"? How long have you been working on it, and how much has it evolved from its original idea (if any)?

A) My initial desire in developing THE INFORMATIONIST, before there were characters, or plot, or any idea really of what I would write, was to bring to life some of the foreign and exotic worlds I’d lived in, and Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and predator, a woman with her own brand of morality and a take-no-prisoner’s form of justice, gradually came alive as a result of the demanding environments she was thrown into. In all, it took about two years to finish, and it evolved quite a bit along the way, both because I didn’t have a story in mind when I set out, and also because I learned the mechanics of writing fiction as part of the experience of working on THE INFORMATIONIST.

4] On your website you mention that you feel that pacing and structure are two weak points in your writing arsenal, after reading your book frankly I’m surprised you feel so. What makes you think that this might be the case?

A) Because I get to see my first drafts before anyone else does. There are a lot of unsung heroes in the publishing industry who play a role in nurturing a book through its many phases, and I’ve been very fortunate to receive the kind of feedback that improved upon what I feel are my weaker points.

5] What are you aiming for with this book?

A) I consider myself an entertainer, and my ultimate goal is for my readers to feel that the hours spent on THE INFORMATIONIST were worth the time and money. I don’t deliberately set out to create social commentary or convey a message, but if something deeper is drawn from my work, I guess that’s a bonus.

6] Who are your literary idols and what are the types of books which you like to read?

A) Robert Ludlum will probably always be my favorite if only because it was when reading the last of the Bourne Trilogy that I decided to write fiction. I craved to create these things, these people, these worlds and stories in the way that Ludlum could create them, and one thing I knew was that the life I had led up to that point provided me with plenty of material on which to draw. Vanessa "Michael" Munroe, and THE INFORMATIONIST, are the fulfillment of that desire.

7] What are your plans for the future? What are you writing currently and what can you tell us about your next release “The Innocent”?

A) THE INNOCENT, the second installment in the Michael Munroe series, draws heavily on my childhood of having been raised within The Children of God. Although the story is fiction, it’s based on truth and probably the closest I’ll ever get to writing an autobiography.