No One With A Happy Childhood Ever

A Is For Alibi, My First Book, Was Published In 1982. As It Happened The Next Couple Of Books Took Place In June And August Of That Year. Without Meaning To I Painted Myself Into A Corner. The Other Issue Was The Aging Process. I Did Not Want My Main Character To Age One Year For Every Book So I Slowed The Whole Process Down. This Way I Could Get Through All 26 Letters Of The Alphabet Without Making Her 109 Years Old In 2015. I Might End The Series In Either 1990 Or On New Years Eve 1989.

Perhaps When We're Forced To Forfeit What We Own, We Lose Any Sentimental Associations. Perhaps Pawning Our Valuables Frees Us In The Same Way A House Fire Destroys Not Only Our Worldly Goods, But Our Attachment To What's Gone.

Happiness Is Seasonal, Like Anything Else

Sometimes The Hardest Part Of My Job Is The Incessant Reminder Of The Fact We're All Trying So Assiduously To Ignore: We Are Here Temporarily. Life Is Only Ours On Loan.

It's Been My Observation, After Years In The [insurance] Business, That A Certain Percent Of The Population Simply Can't Resist The Urge To Cheat.