Thomas Perry is the name of:
Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.
Once you have invented a character with three dimensions and a voice, you begin to realize that some of the things you'd like him to do to further your plot are things that such a person wouldn't, or couldn't, do.
There are days when I intentionally don't write. For instance, I never write when I'm traveling, because travel is a situation where I can learn more by looking and listening than by working.
When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.
I do have to earn a living, so I'm conscious of probable reactions from readers, but the most important one is still the awareness that if I'm not enjoying a story, the reader won't either.
Tod Goldberg has long been one of the most interesting writers around, and Gangsterland is his biggest and best book so far.
But at the same time, the commonplace statement about them is true: every character is the hero of his own story. Each has a justification for his actions that is convincing to him. It's fun to give these people voices.
I do like to explore evil characters in my books.
I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.
Yes, in my books I do edit myself to keep from becoming the Village Explainer.
I do want to write about Jane Whitefield again, but only when I have a good enough idea - something I've figured out about her that's news and that's worth a reader's time.
It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.
Being comfortable isn't the way to learn to expand your abilities.
I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.
If you'll think about various series you've read, can you think of any instance in which, say, the tenth volume of the series is notably better than the first nine? I can't.
The characters you refer to as predatory and unsavory are useful. They're the ones who make a novel into a thriller. They're active, and most of the common virtues, the signs of a good person, are not.
All writers are mimics, and I'm not interested in picking up somebody else's style or voice.
I don't think the problem is that people don't read enough mystery books, but that people don't read.
I don't have dry seasons, because I don't allow them.