Behind the Scenes of SAY GOODBYE
Available in Hardcover, July 2008 from Bantam

One of the hardest questions any writer faces is the ubiquitous, where do you get your ideas? Truthfully, very few of us know. Furthermore, if we actually said the first answer that came to mind—the voices told it to me while I was folding laundry—we might not be free of padded rooms long enough to complete novels.

For a change, however, I know exactly how I got the idea for my latest release, SAY GOODBYE. My child gave it to me. It’s all her fault.

Other little girls probably read about ponies. Or maybe bunnies, or even butterflies. My child spent a year obsessed with spiders. My neighbors started the mess by gifting her with brightly-colored tarantula lights to decorate the house at Halloween. Not to be outdone, our other neighbors gave her a giant rubber tarantula roughly the size of a terrier, with an enormous fake web that stretched across the entire front porch and hundreds of little baby spiders.

I figured, it’s Halloween, what’s the harm? Except then it was November and December, and next thing you know, Rudolph was competing with Tarantula T. Rex for square footage on the patio. Eventually, my daughter compromised by moving the gigantic tarantula indoors and setting her up on our formal sofa as the “mommy spider.” Yes, you guessed it, the hundreds of baby spiders moved indoors with her. I’m pretty sure nothing says suspense author quite like a living room covered in tarantulas.

But apparently having a house filled with spiders wasn’t quite enough—we needed to read about them, too. So my daughter brought home books from the library, then found owners manuals in the bookstore. As more and more friends homed in on her keen interest in all things creepy crawly, they sent yet more books our way. Giggling a little maniacally, I might add.

So night time became spider time. I learned that tarantulas are very beautiful and very shy. They are also rather fragile and prone to dying, except for certain species that grow to astonishing sizes and are as vicious as they are big. I believe the phrase, this spider has been known to tear off a grown man’s finger, was used more than once.

I gotta be honest. I’m not into creepy crawlies. Like any civilized person, I believe spiders belong outside, in the garden, and not cradled in the palm of my hand so my inquisitive child can look closer. Being a mom, I became pretty good at controlling biting back screams. Being a writer, I also realized that anything this scary, belonged in a novel.

Then I ran into fellow author Sheila Connolly. We were discussing research topics and I mentioned I’d been thinking that I should use more insect information in my novels, maybe blow flies, maggots, something suitably gross, except I didn’t know any entomologists. Being a kind woman, she immediately offered me her own husband, David Williams. Turns out he’s an entomologist of note, the kind of guy that flies all around the world to investigate new invasive species and discover ways to stop them from invading. So I gave Dave a call. We started out talking the usual suspects—establishing time of death based on insect activity, etc., etc. But, both he and I agreed we hadn’t stumbled across anything that hadn’t already been used on a dozen episodes of CSI. Then we got to talking about spiders and it turned out he used to have a pet spider—a black widow to be exact. Found her when he was in bug school and turned her into a pet. Dave, I tried to tell him, normal people don’t find black widows and turn them into pets.

Then, in that lovely sort of way the writer’s mind works, everything clicked for me, and I knew I had a book idea. About the kind of guy who would keep a black widow for a pet. As well as a tarantula named Henrietta, who, once upon a time, saved his life. Unfortunately, Henrietta is now old and dying. Trust me, you don’t want Henrietta to die. Bad things are going to happen if Henrietta dies.

Naturally, we need a brave and fearless investigator to chase down a man who collects venomous spiders for a living. Say, one who’s taken on rattle snakes and bat-filled caverns and alligator-infested swamps. Yep, I brought back FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy from THE KILLING HOUR and GONE. She’s still married to Mac, settled in Atlanta and they’re now expecting their first child.

Here’s a woman who has it all: great job, gorgeous husband, and adorable baby bump. In other words, she has everything to lose. Of course, she also has a famous former FBI profiler father, Pierce Quincy, and his wife, crack investigator Rainie Conner. All in all, it’s a rather formidable team. Which is good, because spidey man has been getting away with murder for a very long time, and he now has Kimberly in his sights.

SAY GOODBYE, available July 15 from Bantam Books. Good luck to you.