Many people ask about my “writing routine.” I think they expect to hear stories about a cone of silence—about me shutting the door on sounds or emails or any one of the million distractions that conspire to make authors unproductive. Well, the truth is I like a little noise. I listen to classic blues while working. And sometimes writing is anything but routine…
The truth is I start writing at 8:00 every morning and flog myself until there are 1,000 new words on the page. Authors wouldn’t be authors without the pain, right? But I really detest regimens. And I develop my best ideas during research, the times when I’m out and about, talking to the FBI or doing any of the other things that find their way into a novel.
While writing The Gods of Greenwich, I spent hours talking to bartenders at Connecticut watering holes. You wouldn’t believe the stories that surface around eleven pm on Wednesdays, a time when most everybody else has gone home. That’s when I learned about the “divorce suite,” a $1,700/night hotel room in Greenwich where the gods check in on their way out. You’ll learn more in Chapter Twenty-Seven.
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The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.