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Questions most often asked on tour:

1. Is Richard ever going to be happy again? (This was a more polite version of the question. It depended on who was asking how it was phrased.)

Answer: I have no idea. That’s the honest answer. I want Richard to be happy, whatever that means for him, but he needs to embrace what and who he really is not some idealized version. He is getting better therapy and seems to be trying to reconcile what he thought his life would be to what it has turned out to be. Only time will tell.

2. Is there an end for Anita, or a certain number of books planned?

Ans: No. If I’m still having this good a time writing the books and you guys are still having this good a time reading them we’ll just keep going.

3. Do I have a favorite male character in the Anita series?

Ans: Obviously not, or I think Anita would have chosen by now. No one asked me for favorites; plural.

4. Do I have a favorite male character?

Ans: Apparently not, see above answer.

5. Is there going to be more girl on girl action in the books?

Ans: I don’t know. Anita has had some encounters with Belle Morte, but nothing outside of "dream". I’m hoping some of the men might get girlfriends, but Anita has so many boyfriends that I’d vote not to add any new sweetie’s of either sex. Merry would be okay with it, but pregnant with twins and moving in with her new men, well, there just isn’t a lot of room to add new girlfriends.

6. Spoilers about SKIN TRADE.

Ans: But so many people had not finished the book at the signings that there would have been an outcry if we’d let spoiler questions be answered, or even all the way asked. The questions themselves were spoilers in some cases, so I had to just not answer questions about the current book. Ironically by the time I can answer spoiler questions we’ll be on to the next book.

7. Is the next Merry book; DIVINE MISDEMONORS going to be out in December?

Ans: That’s still the plan.

8. What do I base characters on, or how do I develop characters?

Ans: First, I do not now, nor have I ever based characters on real people. At best I take mannerisms, or hair, or eye color, and mix it up with totally imaginary characteristics and come up with someone new. I really don’t know how to answer this question so that it will be useful for all you writers out there. I know that I have taken a couple of characters through the personality tests in the back of the book, THE RIGHT DOG FOR YOU by Dr. David Tattoria. It’s designed to have you answer personality tests so you can pick the dog that truly is the best fit for you. But you have to know yourself well enough to answer a series of questions. I have, in desperation, taken a few characters through these tests, because if I knew them well enough to answer all these questions then I knew them well enough to write them on paper.

9. What am I reading?

Ans: I just finished, "The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag" by Jim Corbett. It is a true life account of Corbett’s attempts to hunt and kill the man-eater. I count this as recreational reading, though I have made notes in the margins because I find some of these older accounts of hunting have some good insights into the real animals. Though, the adventure was first set in the early 1900s so some of the information would be dated. Reading these accounts always make me very grateful for current technology, like reliable flashlights. His accounts of being in the dark with the man-eater close by and the new fangled light not working are understated, but still chilling.