What I'm reading, what I'm writing, and my interview with Rayka Mennen (In other words, random thoughts tossed together in one post )

I just finished For Love or Honor by Melissa Schroeder. Short, but a very enjoyable read. Now it's on to Blind Alley by Iris Johansen. I always like her work. She has a tight, clean writing style I'm in awe of. Suspense is one of my favorite genres to read. I'm looking for a few new suspense books. Any suggestions? What are some of your favorites? Writing-wise, I'm putting the finishing touches on DI before moving on to the finishing touches of DBM. After that...well, I haven't decided yet. I have a few different things that are begging to be written, so I guess it depends on which characters scream the loudest. Here's a small sample of my interview with Rayka: EA: Where do your story ideas come from? RM: Everywhere! I travel quite a bit and I listen to snippets of conversations at the airport and start spinning a story from it. Or I may see a book or a movie and it triggers an idea for a story. And of course since I became published, any number of friends are constantly offering what they call “literary ideas”. EA: Every author has favorite characters, ones that won't let them go even after the book is written. What are some of yours and why? RM: That’s easy – Paul from Operation Playboy. I think at the time I was going through a rough time personally and invested him with some of the characteristics I really wanted in my own companion. I keep thinking of ways to give Paul a cameo in the other Operation books even though he isn’t a secret agent. EA: What's your writing process like? What steps do you go through when completing a story? RM: I start by writing the synopsis. Of course it changes about 20 times before the book is done, but I find that without that basic structure I digress a lot from the primary plot. Once the synopsis is done, I make a big ceremony of typing up the cover page with the title, my name and address. From there, it’s how much I can get written in a day given the constraints of my other job or how inspired I am to write. To read the rest, check out the Featured Author page on my website. Lis:)