ANN MAXWELL

The West Coast is so different from the common perceptions of it.

I think that I had read so much fiction that the craft itself sort of sank into me. I didn't read any 'how to' books or attend any popular-fiction-writing classes or have a critique group. For many years into my writing, I didn't even know another author. For me, a lot of reading was the best teacher.

As science-fiction was what I read in college, it was natural that I should be tempted to write it. So I did, and continued to do so, even while I was co-authoring mysteries with my husband Evan.

You love each book. They're your children.

I have always loved the wild places between the Sierra Nevada range and the Rocky Mountains. The east face of the Sierra Nevada is steep and largely unknown, a wonderful setting.

Traditionally in crime fiction, women exist as a bedroom convenience or to screw up in order that the plot may progress. I wanted no part of that.

I've always been one of those people who wondered 'What if...'

Fiddler is keenly aware that justice and law don't necessarily equate.

The wonderful thing about romance is that there are so many flavors of it!

My daughter loves romances. She's a Ph.D student at George Washington University, and when my first book without a clinch cover came out, she said to me: 'Finally, a book I can read on the Metro.'

I'm a great believer in possibilities.

I am far more pragmatic than the stereotype of the sex permits.

You can only write your own vision.

Having a Weim means never having to work alone again. I have two Weims. When they think I've been working too long, they stage an intercession.

If Nora Roberts were a man, she'd be on the cover of big business magazines as the next Charles Dickens.

Love is itself an expression of strength.

The writing partnership is a good collaboration for the same reason the marriage works, which is two people who can stand alone choosing to stand together.

Not only is it OK for a woman to write about a tough guy, but it might even help sell him.

The good news, when you write with another, is that you never have an empty page in front of you. The bad news is... you never have an empty page in front of you.

Some people are born for the city. I'm not one of them.

When we moved to Laguna Niguel, there was one four-way stop sign between the freeway and PCH.

Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.

Show me your dreams. Let me make them come true.

Understanding someone, and loving him despite that understanding, is a trait more often found in angels than in mankind.

I'm not perfect. Remember that, and try to forgive me when I fail you.