If you scratch a writer, you will quickly find that lonely kid, the one who was surrounded by books instead of a vast circle of admiring friends. Everybody on earth longs for some sort of influence, however, and I learned very young that even a shy and awkward person could have power if she could tell a story. Even at ten years old, I could see the effect that the just-right word had on other people, even on adults. One of the first stories I wrote was called THE WAITING STRANGER, and it was literally about that… nothing happened except that the same odd old man was always waiting outside a doorway when a girl walked home from school. He never said anything. He never did anything. But gradually, the horror she felt at the prospect of seeing him crept into her school days, and into her dreams at night. Without realizing it, I had begun to understand the allure of psychological suspense and the fact that a terrific tale doesn’t need a dinosaur or a car chase, just increasing pressure on the main character. I wouldn’t write my first novel for another 30 years, but I already knew the essential secret of writing, which is grabbing hold of the reader and never letting go.

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