Claire LaZebnik Hosts a Q and A discussion

but I'd love to know a little something about how you birth books? Do the characters introduce themselves to you? Do you develop a narrative line first then fill in with characters....?
Rickie's voice is so clear-I would think she forced her way out first!

I usually start with the germ of an idea--or, ideally, two or three ideas that become more interesting when they're combined--and then gradually flesh out the characters and the plot. I leave a lot to be discovered as I'm working on the manuscript. I often find a character takes on a life of his or her own and some relationships become more important than I realized in the early stages. And after I have one draft, I usually edit it in a direction, emphasizing the parts that work well and reducing or cutting the ones that don't. I do like writing in the first person: I find the narrator takes over my job at some point and leads the way.

i always love hearing about the process-
it's 'idea' first for you---so in this story, you had the idea-guessing it had to do with 'when too much is too much'-- and then your characters appeared to develop it in this story-
cool-