A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT AND OTHER STORIES, by Norman Maclean. I read this collection many years before the Robert Redford made his film, which I’ve never seen – I’m afraid it will spoil these three gorgeous, funny and sad stories about growing up in Montana in the...
ICE STATION ZEBRA by Alistair MacLean. This is the book that marked my growing-up as a reader, and the one that's more responsible than any other for me wanting to become a thriller writer myself. One of my most prized possessions is a first edition that my wife...
FIVE THINGS I ONLY KNOW BECAUSE MY HUSBAND FORCES ME TO LIVE HALF MY LIFE IN LOS ANGELES. 1) Someone needs to publish a euphemism dictionary, to help English people when they move here. Words that don’t exist in LA include right (appropriate); wrong...
Five Books/Music/Movies that Influence My Writing by Susan McBride 1. Def Leppard. I don’t listen to music while I write, or I end up jamming and not working. But if you read my books, you’ll find musical references peppered throughout, often involving Def Leppard....
Five Things I’ll Miss after the Trumpocalypse I am, for all intents and purposes, a bona fide country girl: I live on the edge of a cornfield, stroll down a long swath of gravel to fetch my mail, and am often seen rooted to the spot as I watch a family of wild...
THE CANTERVILLE GHOST. Although Oscar Wilde wrote the original short story, this updated and VERY reinvented movie version (made in 1944) and starring Robert Young, was my favorite movie as a kid. I felt SO BAD for the cowardly ghost played by Charles Laughton,...
