1984 by George Orwell I read this early in high school – one of those assignments I waited until the last possible moment to complete, which resulted in my reading the entire book in one sitting. At this point in my life, I’d been reading a lot of horror and...
FIVE THINGS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE DETECTIVE COMICS #402 - The downside of wearing hand-me-downs as a kid can be summed up in a photo of me in front of the school bus wearing red plaid pants and an aquamarine shirt with an iron-on of an owl on it. The upside was that...
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....
